Deportation Memorial Duisburg Central Station
The Duisburg Central Station deportation memorial is a project initiated by the youth welfare committee of the city of Duisburg . It commemorates the fate of more than 130 Jewish children who were abducted from Duisburg Central Station during the Nazi tyranny in Germany to concentration and death camps and killed there. It is a hollow three-meter-high corten steel cube, inside of which there are stainless steel plates with the names and life dates of the children who were killed. The sculpture, designed by Duisburg artist Gerhard Losemann , is temporarily located at the intersection of Saarstrasse / Königstrasse opposite Harry-Epstein-Platz in downtown Duisburg until its final installation on the station forecourt, which is currently under construction.
Project
The project was launched by the youth welfare committee of the city of Duisburg . After the Duisburg historian Ludger Heid had compiled the relevant facts about the kidnapped and murdered children and the text was fixed, the city of Duisburg issued an invitation to tender to find a suitable draft of the memorial. The renowned Duisburg artist Gerhard Losemann, who also realized the memorial for the victims of the Duisburg Love Parade , won the competition. The realization of the project was made possible by the Duisburg-based steel manufacturer ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe , who not only provided the material, transport and installation, but also whose trainees took months to build the memorial. The memorial was given to the city of Duisburg on November 9, 2012 during a ceremony by Duisburg's Lord Mayor Sören Link .
intention
The memorial is intended to commemorate the deportation and murder of over 130 Jewish children from Duisburg between 1938 and 1945 and to encourage tolerance and respect among people. The stainless steel plaques hung inside the memorial are intended to help bring the murdered children out of oblivion and to give the victims of past crimes their identity back.
Design and manufacture
The artist Gerhard Losemann explains his creative approaches as follows: “Through conversations with people who had personally experienced the time of National Socialism , I got the impression that many only had partial knowledge of the terrible events. I tried to clarify this 'knowing something' by distributing the text of the memorial around the four sides of the stele. You can only grasp the entire text by circling the memorial. ”He continues:“ The design aspects were based on two considerations: on the one hand, the part of the information described, which only comes together to form a whole on the outer surface, making the horrific events clear on the other hand, there are 66 stainless steel plates attached to chains inside with the names and dates of the deported children. With this visualization, I mean, the children are torn from oblivion. "
production
The pure manufacturing and planning process of the memorial, made of ten millimeter thick Corten steel sheet manufactured in Duisburg-Hüttenheim , took place at the technical training locations of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe with final assembly in Duisburg and lasted from March to November 2012. The cube is three meters high, 75 cm × 75 cm wide and weighs a good 820 kilograms without a foundation. The production of the memorial (planning, drawings, material procurement, welding work, application of the letters, transport, attachment of the stainless steel plates, installation) was the responsibility of a core team of around ten trainees - supported by artist Gerhard Losemann and trainers from the steel company.