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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.

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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.

Eduard Reichenbaum was born in Katowice, Poland, on 15 November 1934. He was the son of Sabina and Ernst Reichenbaum, who had another son, Jerzy, who was two years older. His father worked as an accountant in a German-language publishing house. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the family moved to Piotrków, the home of his grandparents. In 1943, they were interned by the German occupiers in the Bliżyn forced labour camp to the south-west of Radom, where Eduard and Jerzy were put to work producing socks for the German Wehrmacht. In September 1944, the family was deported to Auschwitz. Jerzy and his father were taken to the men’s camp, where Ernst Reichenbaum died in November 1944. Eduard and his mother were first brought to the women’s camp. However, like the mothers of Riwka Herszberg and Walter Jungleib, Sabina Reichenbaum was taken to the Lippstadt satellite camp in November 1944. Eduard was transferred to the children’s barracks, and moved to Neuengamme on 28 November 1944. He had turned ten two weeks previously. When Auschwitz was cleared, Jerzy was first taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and then to Mauthausen. He survived, and succeeded in emigrating to Israel after liberation. His mother followed him there in 1947. In Israel, Jerzy renamed himself Ytzhak, and got married. He died in Haifa in 2020.

Marek Steinbaum (Szteinbaum, Sztajnbaum) was born in Radom on 26 May 1937. His parents were Mania, née Tauber, and Rachmiel Steinbaum. The family owned a small leather factory there. In March 1941, they were sent from the ghetto established by the German occupiers to the Pionki forced labour camp. From there, they were deported to Auschwitz, probably in early October 1944. From Auschwitz, his father was taken to the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Gross-Rosen, and to a satellite camp of the Natzweiler-Struthof camp near Stuttgart, where he survived the war. In November 1944, his mother was transported to the women’s satellite camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where the mothers of Marek James and of Eleonora and Roman Witoński were also incarcerated. She also survived. Marek was seven years old when he was taken to Neuengamme on 28 November 1944. After the end of the war, Rachmil and Mania Steinbaum lived in Memmingen. In 1947, they had a daughter. In 1949, the family emigrated to the US.

H. Wasserman, an eight-year-old girl from Poland, was probably born in 1937. Her surname, age, gender, and place of origin are only known from the list published by Dr. Henry Meyer in Copenhagen in 1945 in the book “Rapport fra Neuengamme”. The initials H.W. are also noted in a record by the camp doctor, Kurt Heißmeyer, who conducted medical experiments on the children. 

Eleonora and Roman Witoński came from Radom in Poland. Roman was born on 8 June 1938, Eleonora on 16 September 1939. Together with their mother Rucza and their father Seweryn Witoński, a paediatrician, they were forced to live in the ghetto established by the German occupiers in the spring of 1941. Over the course of several days on around 21 March 1943, the German police in Radom and the surrounding localities organised the “Purim campaign”, during which around 150 Jews were murdered. Over a hundred people who had previously reported to the ‘Jewish Council’ (Judenrat) requesting permission to travel abroad, including the Witoński family, were taken to the Jewish cemetery in Szydłowiec, twenty kilometres south-west of Radom. On the way there, they were joined by two lorries with volunteers, who began shooting them when they reached the cemetery.[5] Seweryn Witoński was among those who were murdered. After some time, the shooting stopped for reasons that are not known. Seweryn’s wife and two children were found hiding behind a gravestone and were returned to the ghetto together with the other survivors. In late July of 1944, they were taken to Pionki forced labour camp, and from there to Auschwitz. Rucza Witoński survived the war, emigrated to France, married, and had another son. Under her new name, Rose Grumelin, she searched for her children for over 30 years. Finally, in 1981, she discovered what had happened to them in Hamburg. She saw them for the last time in November 1944, in Auschwitz: she was separated from them and sent to the women’s camp, while they were taken to the children’s barracks. When Roman and Eleonora were deported to Neuengamme a short time later, they were six and five years old respectively. Rose Grumelin died in 2012 in Paris, aged 99.[6]

 

[5] Wolfgang Curilla: Der Judenmord in Polen und die deutsche Ordnungspolizei 1939–1945, Paderborn 2011, page 483. See also: Szydłowiec, at: Cmentarze żydowskie w Polscehttps://bloodandfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/encyclopedia/poland/kirkuty/szydlowiec.htm