Track 13/14 - The memory of the tracks

“ Gleis 13/14 - The memory of the tracks ” is a memorial and a work of art in Kassel's main train station . The memorial was designed by the artist Horst Hoheisel and is intended to commemorate the deportation of the Jews from Kassel during National Socialism . The 1007 names of Kassel Jews were milled into the 120 meters of newly laid tracks on platform 13 and a memorial plaque was set up. The memorial was inaugurated on December 9, 2015, the 74th anniversary of the start of the deportations.

background

In 1941 and 1942, Jewish women, men and children from the entire administrative district of Kassel were deported to ghettos and concentration camps from today's platforms 13 and 14. Jews were deported in three deportation trains from Kassel as the central deportation point for an area that extended as far as Hanau . The first train went to the Riga Ghetto on December 9, 1941, where the deportees had to do forced labor and those unable to work were murdered. The total of 1024 deportees were 475 Jews from Kassel and a further 549 from 42 cities and towns in the administrative district. On June 1, 1942, a second train with 509 Jews drove to the Lublin-Majdanek concentration and extermination camp and the Sobibor extermination camp . There were 87 Jews from Kassel on this train. In Chemnitz another 500 Jews were also deported on this train. 98 men fit for work were selected in Majdanek and the remaining deportees were driven directly to the Sobibor extermination camp and murdered on June 3rd. The third train with 753 mostly older Jews was directed to Theresienstadt , which also served as a transit camp for other extermination camps. There were 323 Jews from Kassel on this train. Many of the older deportees died of malnutrition and exhaustion while they were being transported. One of the few survivors of this transport was Sara Nussbaum , who later became an honorary citizen of Kassel . Of the Jews who were transported to the Riga ghetto, a total of 137 survived and 54 of those deported to Theresienstadt. Of the Jews deported to Majdanek and Sobibor, only one survived.

Web links

• Gunnar Richter: The inauguration of the by the artist Dr. Horst Hoheisel designed memorial place and memorial with the title "Track 13/14 - The memory of the tracks". In: Circular 35/2016. Breitenau Memorial , March 2016, pp. 52–59 . PDF online 
• Track 13/14 - The memory of the tracks on kassel.de; accessed on November 4, 2018

Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 8.6 ″  N , 9 ° 29 ′ 20.3 ″  E