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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.
©
Frihedsmuseets fotoarkiv, Nationalmuseet/Freedom Museum photo archive, Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/fhm/asset/235288

On 20 April 1945, twenty Jewish children and four concentration camp inmates who were responsible for their care were murdered by SS men in the school building on Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg, which had previously been used as a satellite concentration camp. The ten girls and ten boys had previously been subjected to medical experiments with tuberculosis pathogens in the Neuengamme concentration camp. The children came from Poland, France, the Netherlands, and Slovakia. Their murder, three weeks before the end of the Second World War, was intended as a cover-up for the criminal human experiments that had been conducted. Most of the perpetrators later faced criminal charges and were found guilty, although one of them succeeded in evading trial for his part in the murders. The Bullenhauser Damm memorial site (Gedenkstätte Bullenhuser Damm) in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort marks the site where the murders took place.

“Before the abominations of Treblinka, of Sobibor and Belzec, of Dachau, Birkenau, Chelmno and all the rest, one can feel anger, sorrow, pity, rage, nausea, anxiety for the human race, but in the rose garden behind the Bullenhuser Damm School one can only weep”. (Erich Hartmann: In the Camps, 1995)

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 children of Bullenhuser Damm
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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.
©
Frihedsmuseets fotoarkiv, Nationalmuseet/Freedom Museum photo archive, Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/fhm/asset/235288

Bibliography
 

Iris Groschek: Das Verfahren gegen den Magdeburger Arzt Dr. Kurt Heißmeyer wegen Verbrechens gegen die Menschlichkeit, in: Erinnern! Aufgabe, Chance, Herausforderung, herausgegeben von der Stiftung Gedenkstätten Sachsen-Anhalt, Magdeburg, No. 1/2020, online resource: https://stgs.sachsen-anhalt.de/fileadmin/Bibliothek/STGS/02_Angebote/Erinnern/Innenteil_1_2020_web.pdf

Natalia Budzyńska: Dzieci nie płakały. Historia mojego wuja Alfreda Trzebinskiego, lekarza SS, Wołowiec 2019

Anna von Villiez: Heißmeyer’s forgotten victims. Tuberculosis experiments on adults in Neuengamme 1944-45, in: From clinic to concentration camp. Reassessing Nazi medical and racial research 1933-1945, published by Paul Weindling, London / New York 2017, p. 272–289

Iris Groschek / Kristina Vagt: „… dass du weißt, was hier passiert ist“. Medizinische Experimente im KZ Neuengamme und die Morde am Bullenhuser Damm, Bremen 2012

Serge Klarsfeld: Mémorial de la déportation des juifs de France, Paris 2012

Die Gedenkstätte Bullenhuser Damm. Geschichte des Ortes, der Opfer und der Erinnerung, herausgegeben von der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Editors: Karin Schawe, Texts: Iris Groschek, Kristina Vagt, Hamburg [2011, Short Guide], Online-Ressource: http://media.offenes-archiv.de/NG_KurzBullenhuserDamm%20RZ_110406.pdf

Ahlrich Meyer: Täter im Verhör. Die „Endlösung der Judenfrage“ in Frankreich 1940–1944, Darmstadt 2005

Susan Zuccotti: The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews, Lincoln, London 1999

Günther Schwarberg: Der SS-Arzt und die Kinder vom Bullenhuser Damm (1988), Göttingen 1997; 2016

Hermann Kaienburg: Das Konzentrationslager Neuengamme 1938–1945, published by KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Bonn 1997

Hermann Kaienburg: Die britischen Militärgerichtsprozesse zu den Verbrechen im Konzentrationslager Neuengamme, in: Die frühen Nachkriegsprozesse (Beiträge zur Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung in Norddeutschland, 3), Hamburg 1997

Günther Schwarberg: Meine zwanzig Kinder, Göttingen 1996

Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Gedenkbuch, published by Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburg 1995

Erich Hartmann: Stumme Zeugen. Photographien aus Konzentrationslagern, Gerlingen 1995; In the Camps, New York 1995; online resource: https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/conflict/in-the-camps-auschwitz-concentration-camp-holocaust-erich-hartmann/ 

Günther Schwarberg: Der SS-Arzt und die Kinder, 1. Auflage, Hamburg: Gruner & Jahr 1979

Fritz Bringmann: Kindermord am Bullenhuser Damm. SS-Verbrechen in Hamburg 1945. Menschenversuche an Kindern, published by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Neuengamme für die BRD e.V., Hamburg / Frankfurt am Main 1978

Stanisław Sterkowicz: Pseudomedyczne eksperymenty w obozie w Neuengamme, in: Przegląd Lekarski. Organ krakowskiego oddziału polskiego towarzystwa lekarskiego, Volume XXXIV, No. 1, 1977, Seite 130-137; Online-Ressource: https://www.mp.pl/auschwitz/journal/polish/171127,volume-1977

Otto Prokop / Ehrenfried Stelzer: Die Menschenexperimente des Dr. med. Heißmeyer, in: Kriminalistik und forensische Wissenschaft (Beiträge zur Theorie und Praxis der sozialistischen Kriminalistik und der forensischen Wissenschaft, 3), Berlin (Ost) 1970, p. 67–104

Curiohaus-Prozess. Verhandelt vor dem britischen Militärgericht in der Zeit vom 18. März bis zum 3. Mai 1946 gegen die Hauptverantwortlichen des KZ Neuengamme, herausgegeben vom Freundeskreis e.V., 3 Vol., 1 Index Vol., Hamburg 1969

Gerhard Rundberg / Henry Meyer: Rapport fra Neuengamme, Kopenhagen 1945

 

Online
 

KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme. Ausstellungen, Begegnungen, Studienzentrum, https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/

Gedenkstätte Bullenhuser Damm, at: Offenes Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, http://offenes-archiv.de/de/WeitereAusstellungen/ausstellung-bdamm.xml

Vereinigung Kinder vom Bullenhuser Damm e.V. (Die Geschichte, Die 20 Kinder, Die Täter …), http://kinder-vom-bullenhuser-damm.de/index.php

Die Morde am Bullenhuser Damm am 20. April 1945, at: Mediathek Ausstellungen Neuengamme, http://www.neuengamme-ausstellungen.info/content/documents/thm/ha7_2_3_3_2_thm_2506.pdf

The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, Yad Vashem, https://yvng.yadvashem.org/

Stanisław Sterkowicz: Pseudo-medical experiments in Neuengamme concentration camp, auf: Medical Review Auschwitz (8 March 2021, originally published in 1977, see Bibliography), https://www.mp.pl/auschwitz/journal/english/262078,pseudo-medical-experiments-in-neuengamme-concentration-camp

Lech M. Nijakowski: Mój wujek zbrodniarz. Recenzja reportażu „Dzieci nie płakały” Natalii Budzyńskiej, at: Kultura liberalna, https://kulturaliberalna.pl/2019/05/07/lech-nijakowski-recenzja-dzieci-nie-plakaly-natalia-budzynska/

(All online references mentioned here and in the notes were last accessed in June 2022.)

 

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.
©
Frihedsmuseets fotoarkiv, Nationalmuseet/Freedom Museum photo archive, Danish National Museum, Copenhagen, https://samlinger.natmus.dk/fhm/asset/235288
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