Berlin

Moabit's memorial to the murdered

It was once the site of Berlin's largest synagogue, an enormous building in Moabit's Levetzowstraße that could accommodate over 2,000 people.

But in a cruel twist of fate, from 1941 it served as a collection point from which Berlin's Jewish community were systematically transported to ghettos and concentration camps.

The remains of the synagogue, which was heavily damaged in a 1944 air raid, were torn down in the mid-1950s, and since the late 1980s a sobering memorial has stood in its place.

A looming steel wall inscribed with the departure dates of all Berlin's deportations overlooks a stylised representation of bound marble figures and a railway carriage loaded with human 'freight'.

Additionally, metal plaques embedded into the pavement depict the dozens of synagogues which once stood in the city.

A poignant, hard-hitting reminder of a terrible chapter in Berlin's history, this sombre site of commemoration may not be one of the city's best known memorials, but certainly ranks among its most profoundly moving.

See also:
A little-known memorial
Historic riverside views
Berlin's funkiest laundromat

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