Track 17

We took the streetcar to the end of Berlin, to Grunewald, right next to a very large forest and park. This was the place where freight trains coming in to Berlin could stop overnight and there were 17 tracks here. Track 17 had a special purpose. This is the place from where the trains with deported people left for concentration camps. 55,000 Jews were deported from here. Having it be away from the center of town meant that there would be no "fuss or muss" with residents not having to witness anything unsavory.

This is the entrance to the station. It's much the same as it was in those days though obviously has been spruced up in recent times. Above the arch tells you everything you need to know. The eagle and wheel are the signs of the Third Reich and the holes underneath had the swatika which has been removed. Notice the eagles' wings are up. In the next two slides you'll see how that symbol has changed over time. The railroad company kept meticulous records and knew exactly what "freight" they were carrying. They disbanded the company after the war so they would not be sued by family members of those items of "freight" they had been in charge of.

Here is the eagle atop Humboldt University, wings spread wide.

The current incarnation of the German eagle with wings down, appears on all German iconography post WWII.

End of the line...

There are four monuments at this location documenting what happened here. This is the first one, erected by group of Lutheran women. Railroad ties from the original platform of deportation. It's right in front of the entrance to the station.

Date acknowledges the first transport from platform 17.

Second monument has erected stones with birch trees intermingled. The forests around the concentration camps were where the ashes of Jewish bodies were dumped and created fertile soil for birch trees. Birch tree saplings were brought from there back to Grunewald and planted, again right in front of the station.

The third monument is on the way up to the platform and is the size of one of the train cars with life-size silhouettes depressed into it.

Sign points to direction to Platform 17.

The track and platforms on either side.

Looking across to the other side of the platform you can see sections that indicate every transport that went from here, date, and how many people were in the deportation. 55,000 Jews were deported from Berlin.

This is the transport and date of the workers discovered at Otto Weidt's broom workshop (see previous post Good and Evil).

One of the largest transports, close to Hitler's birthday was supposed to be a gift to him that Berlin was Judenrein (free of Jews). It wasn't true but unfortunately was a very large number that date.

Trees grow in the tracks as this is a site that will never be used again for such a horrible purpose.