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The children of Bullenhuser Damm

The former school on Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg, satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, after it was cleared in May 1945. The damage caused by a bombing raid on 27/28 July 1943 and the subsequent fire can be seen.

Mediathek Sorted

Media library
  • Fig. 1: Sergio De Simone - Sergio De Simone from Naples, around 1943. Yad Vashem Photo Collections, No. 14142831
  • Fig. 2: Alexander Hornemann - Alexander Hornemann from Eindhoven, around 1942. Yad Vashem Photo Collections, No. 14262100
  • Fig. 3: Eduard Hornemann - Eduard Hornemann from Eindhoven, around 1942. Yad Vashem Photo Collections, No. 14262099
  • Fig. 4: Marek and Adam James - Marek James from Radom with his father Adam, around 1943. Yad Vashem Photo Collections, No. 14265681
  • Fig. 5: Walter Jungleib - Walter Jungleib from Hlohovec, around 1942
  • Fig. 6: Georges André Kohn - Georges André Kohn from Paris, around 1944
  • Fig. 7: Jacqueline Morgenstern - Jacqueline Morgenstern from Paris at her first communion, 1944
  • Fig. 8: The defendants - The defendants in the main Neuengamme trial in the Curiohaus in Hamburg, 1946
  • Fig. 9: Entrance to the rose garden - Entrance to the rose garden, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 10: Memorial to the murdered Soviet prisoners - Anatoli Mossitschuk: Memorial to the murdered Soviet prisoners, 1985. At the entrance to the rose garden, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 11: Rose garden - Rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg, June 2022. View onto the fence with the memorial panels dedicated to the murdered children, doctors and caretakers
  • Fig. 12: Memorial plaque - Memorial plaque and fence with the granite panels for the murdered children. Rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 13: Memorial panel for Surcis Goldinger - Memorial panel for Surcis Goldinger from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 14: Memorial panel for Lea Klygerman - Memorial panel for Lea Klygerman from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 15: Memorial panel for H. Wasserman - Memorial panel for H. Wasserman from Poland, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 16: Memorial panel for Marek James - Memorial panel for Marek James from Radom, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 17: Memorial panel for Roman and Eleonora Witoński - Memorial panel for Eleonora and Roman Witoński from Radom, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 18: Memorial panel for R. Zeller - Memorial panel for R. Zeller from Poland, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 19: Memorial panel for Eduard and Alexander Hornemann - Memorial panel for Eduard and Alexander Hornemann from Eindhoven, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 20: Memorial panel for Riwka Herszberg - Memorial panel for Riwka Herszberg from Zduńska Wola, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 21: Memorial panel for Georges André Kohn - Memorial panel for Georges André Kohn from Paris, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 22: Memorial panel for Jacqueline Morgenstern - Memorial panel for Jacqueline Morgenstern from Paris, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 23: Memorial panel for Ruchla Zylberberg - Memorial panel for Ruchla Zylberberg from Zawichost, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 24: Memorial panel for Eduard Reichenbaum - Memorial panel for Eduard Reichenbaum from Kattowitz/Katowice, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 25: Memorial panel for Mania Altman - Memorial panel for Mania Altman from Radom, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 26: Memorial panel for Sergio De Simone - Memorial panel for Sergio De Simone from Naples, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 27: Memorial panel for Lelka Birnbaum - Memorial panel for Lelka Birnbaum from Poland, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 28: Memorial panel for Walter Jungleib - Memorial panel for Walter Jungleib from Hlohovec, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 29: Memorial panel for Bluma Mekler - Memorial panel for Bluma Mekler from Sandomierz, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 30: Memorial panel for Marek Steinbaum - Memorial panel for Marek Steinbaum from Radom, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 31: Memorial panel for the doctor Gabriel Florence - Memorial panel for the doctor Professor Gabriel Florence from Lyon, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 32: Memorial panel for the doctor René Quenouille - Memorial panel for the doctor René Quenouille from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 33: Memorial panel for the caretaker Dirk Deutekom - Memorial panel for the caretaker Dirk Deutekom from Amsterdam, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 34: Memorial panel for the caretaker Anton Hölzel - Memorial panel for the caretaker Anton Hölzel from Deventer, rose garden at the Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 35: Painting by Jürgen Waller, 1987 - Jürgen Waller: 21. April 1945, 5 Uhr morgens, 1987. Oil on canvas, montage, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 36: Memorial stele by Leon Mogilevski, 2000 - Leonid Mogilevski: Memorial stele for the children of Bullenhuser Damm. Roman-Zeller-Platz, Hamburg
  • Fig. 37: Former Janusz-Korczak school, Hamburg - Former Janusz-Korczak school on Bullenhuser Damm 92, Hamburg-Rothenburgsort
  • Fig. 38: Memorial panels for the former Janusz-Korczak school - Memorial panels for the Janusz-Korczak school on Bullenhuser Damm, Hamburg
  • Fig. 39: Memorial panel at the former Janusz-Korczak school - Memorial panel of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg for the former Janusz-Korczak school, Bullenhuser Damm 92, Hamburg-Rothenburgsort
  • Fig. 40: Exhibition room 1 - Exhibition room 1 with symbolic suitcases with biographies of the children, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 41: Exhibition room 1 - Exhibition room 1 with symbolic suitcases with biographies of the children, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 42: Suitcase for Riwka Herszberg - Symbolic suitcase with the biography of Riwka Herszberg from Zduńska Wola, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 43: Suitcase for Ruchla Zylberberg - Symbolic suitcase with the biography of Ruchla Zylberberg from Zawichost, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 44: Suitcase for Mania Altman - Symbolic suitcase with the biography of Mania Altman from Radom, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 45: Suitcase for Eleonora Witońska - Symbolic suitcase with the biography of Eleonora Witońska from Radom, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 46: Suitcase for Roman Witoński - Symbolic suitcase with the biography of Roman Witoński from Radom, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 47: Suitcase for Professor Gabriel Florence - Suitcase for the doctor Professor Gabriel Florence from Lyon, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 48: Exhibition room 2 - Exhibition room 2 with more in-depth materials on the biographies of the children and all aspects related to the crime, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 49: The room where the murder took place - The room where the murder took place, with a partition in which the bodies of the children lay, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
  • Fig. 50: Memorial room for the murdered victims - Inscription of 1979, Bullenhuser Damm memorial site, Hamburg
The former school on Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg, satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, after it was cleared in May 1945.
The former school on Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg, satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, after it was cleared in May 1945. The damage caused by a bombing raid on 27/28 July 1943 and the subsequent fire can be seen.

Although Pauly had ordered that the bodies be left at Bullenhuser Damm, Jauch later sent a car from Neuengamme, which Strippel brought back to Neuengamme with the corpses. The head of the crematorium in Neuengamme, SS junior squad leader (Unterscharführer) Wilhelm Brake, gave the following statement for the record on 14 May 1946 in Recklinghausen to a sergeant of the British Army of the Rhine: “I remember that about 14 days before the collapse [of the German Reich], a vehicle containing corpses arrived from Hamburg, probably from Bullenhuser Damm. There were around 40–50 bodies, and I was told by senior storm leader (Obersturmführer) Thumann that the bodies should not be cremated for the time being. I travelled by bicycle to the crematorium, where I discovered that work had already begun on the cremation of the bodies. I rode back and reported this to Thumann. Thumann then spoke to Dr. Trzebinski and it was decided that the bodies should be cremated after all. I then returned to the crematorium and told the prisoners that they could continue with their work. The prisoners then told me that among the bodies were the corpses of around 20 children”.[29]

 

The end of the war and the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators
 

When the first British soldiers entered the former concentration camp at Neuengamme on the evening of 2 May 1945, no evidence remained of the crimes that had been committed there. After the camp had been cleared, the camp commander Pauly had ordered around 400 kilogrammes of files to be burned by 2 May. The barracks were cleaned and lime washed, the gallows were sawn up and burned, and a sign was hung up in front of the crematorium with the word Desinfektionsraum ("room"). As the Neuengamme camp community (Lagergemeinschaft Neuengamme) later noted: “No-one was there”[30]. Directly on arrival, the British began to use the camp to house displaced persons and prisoners of war. Hamburg was now under British administrative control. On 1 May, Grand Admiral (Grossadmiral) Karl Dönitz, who became head of the German state after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, ordered the commander of Hamburg, Brigadier (Generalmajor) Alwin Wolz, to withdraw from the city without a fight. On 3 May, Wolz transferred the city to the command of the British brigadier-general Douglas Spurling.

At the same time, the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine set up War Crimes Investigation Team (WCIT) No. 1, which was assigned the task of investigating the crimes that took place in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was liberated on 15 April. WCIT No. 2 began its investigations into Neuengamme concentration camp a short time later. The team included four officers, among them Capt. Anton Walter Freud, grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who had emigrated to Britain in 1938. As early as May, a committee of former political prisoners from the Neuengamme camp made contact with the British Secret Service. At first, the report by the committee on the crimes committed in the camp was met with incredulity in the WCIT. The committee and the WCIT made a joint visit to the camp and discovered documents there, specifically the final quarterly report by the doctor on site and the register of the dead, which had been hidden by the prisoner Emil Zuleger. Only then did a relationship of trust develop between the two bodies, which led to collaboration in preparing for the trials of the perpetrators.[31]

On 6 May 1945, in a “Report for the Danish Red Cross”, the Danish doctor, Dr. Henry Meyer, who himself had been a prisoner at Neuengamme for a year-and-a-half, and who had been liberated following the rescue mission by the Swedish Red Cross, described the medical experiments conducted on prisoners and the tuberculosis tests on the children, and gave a list of the children’s names.[32] The Swedish doctor Gerhard Rundberg, who published the list together with Meyer in the book “Rapport fra Neuengamme” had led Count Folke Bernadotte’s rescue mission. Other survivors also gave reports about the children who had suddenly disappeared on 20 April. A systematic search then began for all those responsible for the crimes committed at Neuengamme. Among them were those who had ordered the murder of the children, those who had implemented this order, who had known of the murders, and who had been involved in them: camp commander Max Pauly, protective custody camp leader Anton Thumann, the medic Dr. Kurt Heißmeyer, the doctor on site Dr. Alfred Trzebinski, report leader Wilhelm Dreimann, SS junior squad leader Johann Frahm, SS senior squad leader and camp leader Ewald Jauch, junior squad leader Hans Friedrich Petersen, block and labour squad leader Adolf Speck, SS senior storm leader Arnold Strippel, and junior squad leader Heinrich Wiehagen.

 

[29] Deposition of Wilhelm Gustav Brake, Recklinghausen, 14/5/1946, transcript of the photograph of the original document at http://media.offenes-archiv.de/ss2_1_3_bio_2089.pdf

[30] So ging es zu Ende … Neuengamme. Dokumente und Berichte, published by the Lagergemeinschaft Neuengamme, Hamburg 1960, page 68

[31] Alyn Bessmann / Marc Buggeln: Befehlsgeber und Direkttäter vor dem Militärgericht. Die britische Strafverfolgung der Verbrechen im KZ Neuengamme und seinen Außenlagern, in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Volume 53, Book 6, 2005, page 526, online resource: https://www.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/de/bereiche-und-lehrstuehle/dtge-20jhd/dokumente/publikationen/publikationen-buggeln/Befehlsgeber%20und%20Direkttaeter%20vor%20Militaergericht-%20Zfg%202005.pdf 

[32] Schwarberg: SS-Arzt 1997 (see Bibliography), page 139