Shoah memorial (Herne)

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Shoah Memorial, January 2019

The Shoah memorial in Herne is a central memorial for the Jews from Herne and Wanne-Eickel who were persecuted, deported and murdered during the National Socialist era .

History of origin

Names and dates on the plaque for the memorial

In a resolution of July 13, 2004, the city council of Herne spoke out "in favor of creating places of remembrance at which the victims of the Shoah from Herne and Wanne-Eickel are commemorated". As a result, ten decentralized memorial plaques on the history of Jewish life in Herne and Wanne-Eickel were set up between 2004 and 2008. In January 2008, the city of Herne announced a nationwide ideas competition for the memorial. The only requirement was to include the names of the more than 400 victims from Herne and Wanne-Eickel. A seven-member jury selected three of the 29 designs submitted.

On September 23, 2008, the city council of Herne elected the design by industrial designers Gabriele Graffunder and Winfried Venne (G&V Design) in a secret ballot. The realization costs of around € 90,000 were taken over by the Herner Sparkasse Art and Culture Foundation . The memorial was inaugurated on January 29, 2010 on Willi-Pohlmann-Platz in Herne. At the invitation of the city of Herne, former Jewish fellow citizens took part in the ceremony. Charlotte Knobloch , then President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , gave the greeting.

The memorial

The 6.5 m long, 3.25 m wide and 3.5 m high memorial with custom-made glass eyepieces in a concrete panel is located on Willi-Pohlmann-Platz between the Herner Sparkasse building and the Herne cultural center . A dark, anthracite-colored, ramp-like, ascending concrete slab leads to an upright 9 cm thin, light memorial plaque made of yellowish-colored fiber concrete with stainless steel reinforcement, with a gold star of David embedded on the head .

Eyepieces

Embedded in the plate underneath are 401 glass eyepieces made in a factory in Bohemia with the names, dates of birth and death and places of death of the victims from Herne and Wanne-Eickel known by name. There are also eyepieces for nine nameless victims. In the documentation, written by Ralf Piorr on behalf of the city of Herne , it says: “From a distance, only the lost rows of letters in the typeface shine through the glass. In order to recognize it, one has to step closer and examine the individual inscriptions. The focus is on the human being. ”“ This lifts the victims out of anonymity and brings them into the focus of the viewer. At the same time, the new memorial creates a connecting element to the decentralized memorial plaques in the city area. ”Underneath, there is an inscription in Hebrew script as found on numerous Jewish gravestones:“ Let your souls be part of the bundle of life! ”(תהיה נפשו / נפשה צרורה בצרור החיים, abbreviated ת׳נ׳צ׳ב׳ה׳).

Writing on the ramp of the memorial
Memorial, January 2019

At the beginning of the five meter long ramp, which refers to the selection ramps in the concentration camps , “Gedenke 1933-1945” is inset in Hebrew and German, on the long sides the names of ghettos and various labor, concentration, internment and extermination camps , at deported Herner and pan-Eickeler or where they were murdered: ghetto Riga , Riga Jungfernhof , Kaiserwald concentration camp , labor education camp Nordmark in Kiel Hassee , Stutthof concentration camp , Belzec extermination camp , Minsk ghetto , Lodz ghetto in Lodz , forced labor Trawniki , Buchenwald , Ravensbrück , Sachsenhausen concentration camp , Warsaw concentration camp , concentration and extermination camp Lublin-Majdanek , Sobibor extermination camp , ghetto Zamosc , Theresienstadt concentration camp , ghetto Tarnów , Lemberg ghetto , Dachau concentration camp , camp de Gurs , Bergen-Belsen , a concentration camp Auschwitz . In the concept of the designer for the memorial it says: “The viewer must consciously tread the path to the memorial plaque. The observer should walk up this dark path, dark like this part of our history. Just by stepping on the ramp, he will deal with the monument. The deliberately inclined ramp is intended to make the arduous path of our coming to terms with history clear, but also to underline the path to bow to the victims ”.

In order to protect it from vandalism, the memorial was supplemented at the beginning of 2020 by a portal system made of architectural bronze that opens on rails on two sides. The total of four gates protect both the front and rear of the memorial. The creators of the monument were also involved in the plans. The metal plates of the gates, on which places of Jewish life are engraved in the Herne city map, extend the memorial artistically and in terms of content.

Places of remembrance

Text accompanying the memorial on the plaque

The memorial is part of the urban concept for the culture of remembrance and, unlike in some neighboring cities, by laying stumbling blocks , together with the memorial plaques on the history of Jewish life in Herne and Wanne-Eickel, the central point of the “places of remembrance to the victims of the Shoah from Herne and Wanne-Eickel ”. Next to the memorial, a memorial plaque with an explanatory text and the names of the victims of persecution by National Socialism was set up. The board bears bronze fittings as the “logo” and the lines “Seams, palpable, here” (from a poem by Paul Celan ), which connects all boards in terms of content and graphics.

Between 2004 and 2008, ten decentralized memorial plaques designed by groups of students from Herne, which deal with exemplary individual fates, were set up with the project of the same name "Seams, felt, here ...":

  • Commemorative plaque at Robert-Brauner-Platz 1 for the merchant and chairman of the Jewish community, Moritz Gans, designed by pupils in class 13 of the Otto Hahn grammar school
  • Commemorative plaque at Bahnhofstrasse 27–29 for Martha and Oskar Schiffmann and Sally and Frieda Neugarten, owners of the Rindskopf brothers' department store, designed by students from the Haranni grammar school
  • Commemorative plaque in Schulstrasse to the former Jewish elementary school, designed by students of the history course in grade 13 of the Pestalozzi-Gymnasium
  • Reminder plaque at the Herne train station for the Kindertransporten , designed by students from the Erich Fried Comprehensive School
  • Memorial plaque in Schaeferstraße to the Herne synagogue , designed by the AG of the Christian Association of Young People (CVJM) Herne
  • Memorial plaque on Hauptstrasse 234 for the Nussbaum family, designed by pupils from the comprehensive school in Wanne
  • Memorial plaque at Langekampstraße 48 to the Wanne-Eickel synagogue , designed by high school students from the Wanne comprehensive school
  • Memorial plaque on the main street about the history of Jewish businessmen, designed by students in grade 13 of the Wanne high school
  • Commemorative plaque at Eickeler Markt 6 for the merchant and chairman of the Eickel Jewish community, Sally Baum, designed by students from the Eickel grammar school
  • Commemorative plaque at Edmund-Weber-Straße 173 for the Kaufmann family, designed by students from the Erich Fried Comprehensive School

  • Edmund-Weber-Strasse

  • Bahnhofstrasse

  • Langekampstrasse

  • Main road

  • Robert-Brauner-Platz

  • Eickeler Market

In 2019, the places of remembrance were supplemented by two more boards designed by pupils from the Mont-Cenis Comprehensive School and the Eickel High School on Heinrichstrasse and on the Mont-Cenis-Strasse / corner of Kantstrasse for the Frank family and the Wertheim family.

Vandalism and protective measures

Vandalism damage, August 2014
Wrapped and fenced in, November 2018
Memorial with closed portal, January 5, 2020

The memorial was damaged several times. On June 27, 2011, some of the glass eyepieces were destroyed, along with other damage on Willi-Pohlmann-Platz. The perpetrators could not be identified. From February to July 2014 the memorial was damaged several times: two of the eyepieces were destroyed in mid-February 2014, on February 23, 2014 the ramp was scrawled and the ramp, stone slab and eyepieces were smeared with brown and white paint and in March 2014 strangers smeared the stone slab and the ramp of the monument with a thick black color. The administration then had the memorial site fenced in with a site fence. The preliminary investigation initiated by the city was discontinued without result. On the night of July 23rd to 24th, 2014, strangers threw one of the concrete feet of the site fence onto the monument and destroyed twelve of the eyepieces.

On October 27, 2014, the administration had the memorial completely covered for reasons of protection. The restored memorial was only temporarily unveiled for events on the day of commemoration of the victims of National Socialism and commemorative events on the occasion of the November pogroms in 1938 . A decision made by the council in March 2015 to secure part of the memorial by building a walk-in protective cover made of glass was rejected in June 2016.

In February 2017, the city administration spoke out in favor of a € 235,000 protective device in the form of a bronze gate that is opened in the morning and closed in the evening. The realization was delayed several times. The double-leaf gates were installed in January 2020.

Fonts

Web links

Commons : Shoah-Mahnmal (Herne)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Ralf Piorr: Places of Remembrance - Shoah Memorial. In memory of the victims of the Shoah from Herne and Wanne-Eickel - A documentation by Ralf Piorr on behalf of the city of Herne . Ed. City of Herne, The Lord Mayor, Herne 2010.
  2. ↑ a b c Herne prefers its own form of remembrance . In: DerWesten from August 14, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  3. ^ Shoah memorial and stumbling blocks . In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung of January 14, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  4. ↑ George Huneck: The favorite prevails . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 23, 2008. Accessed November 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ Julia Hildebrandt: Herne sets a monument against oblivion . In: DerWesten from January 28, 2010. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  6. ↑ Horst Martens, press office of the city of Herne: Inauguration of the memorial in Herne: A confession for the victims , 2016. Accessed on November 15, 2018.
  7. ↑ InformationsZentrum Beton GmbH: Against forgetting. Shoah memorial in Herne . Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  8. ^ City of Herne: The Shoah memorial . Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ a b Protection for the Shoah memorial is to be installed in May 2019 . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of November 8, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  10. ↑ Michael Muscheid: Start of construction: Shoah memorial in Herne receives protective structure . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of March 20, 2019. Accessed April 21, 2019.
  11. ↑ Michael Muscheid: Protection works: Herner Shoah memorial passes the endurance test . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of November 11, 2019. Accessed January 6, 2020.
  12. ↑ Lars-Oliver Christoph: 200 people commemorate the Nazi victims at the Herner Shoah memorial . In Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of January 28, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
  13. ↑ City of Herne: Memorial hour at the Shoah memorial on January 28, 2019. Retrieved on January 29, 2019.
  14. ↑ Herne history workshop: rear-view mirror . In workshop report , No. 1 of March 4, 2020, p. 1. Retrieved on April 3, 2020.
  15. ↑ Gabriele Heimeier: Unknown damage the Shoah memorial in Herne . In: Westfalenpost from February 24, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  16. ^ Herner Shoah memorial was desecrated again . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of March 10, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  17. ↑ Herner Shoah memorial remains fenced in for the time being after attacks of paint . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung from June 18, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  18. ↑ Gabriele Heimeier: Herner Shoah memorial desecrated - police increase controls . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of July 24, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
  19. ^ Restored Shoah memorial in Herne is unveiled . In: DerWesten from January 19, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  20. ↑ Construction of the protective cover around Herner Shoah memorial causes irritation . In: DerWesten from June 8, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  21. ↑ Michael Muscheid: The bronze gate is supposed to protect the Shoah memorial in Herne . In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung. February 28, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  22. ^ : Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung : Reopening of the Shoah memorial in Herne is delayed . dated August 6, 2019. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  23. ↑ Michael Muscheid: Herner Shoah memorial: Reopening is further delayed . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of October 1, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2019.

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 '10.3 "  N , 7 ° 13' 22.3"  E