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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.

The murder of the children, their caretakers, and the Soviet prisoners at Bullenhuser Damm
 

On 19 February 1945, Himmler, who was trying to secure a separate ceasefire with the western Allies, met the vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross, Count Folke Bernadotte, at Hohenlychen in order to negotiate the return of Scandinavian prisoners interned in German concentration camps. According to the agreement, the Scandinavians, most of whom came from Denmark and Norway, were to be brought together in Neuengamme and from there, taken northwards in what later became known as the “White Buses”. On 23 March, the British Second Army crossed the Rhine and advanced towards the north German lowlands. One day later, the clearing of the satellite camps of Neuengamme in the Emsland region began. By the end of the month, they were followed by the satellite camps in Hildesheim, Lengerich, Barkhausen, Lerberg, and Hausberge.[20] On 31 March, Count Bernadotte visited Neuengamme concentration camp, where he was received by the camp commander Pauly[21]. The Scandinavian prisoners were then transferred to Neuengamme from the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Ravensbrück, Neubrandenburg, Zwickau, and Theresienstadt via the “White Buses”. On 4 April 1945, the British army units reached the Weser river. 

From 14 to 17 April, the satellite camps of Neuengamme, Dessauer Ufer, Blohm & Voss, Spaldingstrasse and Bullenhuser Damm that were situated in Hamburg were cleared. The Bullenhuser Damm satellite camp in a former adult education centre which originally offered thirty classes (see title image) was converted into a concentration camp satellite by the SS in the autumn of 1944 after the Hamburg district of Rothenburgsort had been largely destroyed during a bombing raid on 27/28 July 1943 and the former school building had been damaged. The prisoners who arrived there in December 1944, who came from Poland, Denmark, France and the Soviet Union, were deployed to clear the area and to produce new stones from the rubble. According to the report by Trzebinski, at the end of March 1945, there were 592 prisoners in the camp. From 14 April onwards, the SS began to clear the Bullenhuser Damm satellite camp, where only Ewald Jauch and Johann Frahm from the SS remained. The prisoners were taken to the former Sandbostel prisoner-of-war camp near Bremervörde, which was now used as a collection camp.

On 19 April 1945, the British army units reached the Elbe river. On the same day, the commander Pauly ordered that the main camp at Neuengamme be cleared. All the Scandinavian prisoners were taken to Denmark on Red Cross buses. From 20 to 26 April, the remaining 900 prisoners were transported from Neuengamme to Lübeck. From there, they were sent to the former luxury steamship “Cap Arcona” and the freight ships “Thielbeck” and “Athen”. Given the fact that these ships were very likely to be torpedoed or bombed by the Allies, this amounted to sending the prisoners to their deaths. Around 7,000 were killed when the ships were bombed in the Bay of Lübeck by the Royal Air Force. A residual taskforce of 600–700 men remained at Neuengamme in order to clean up the camp, burn files, and remove the beating rack and gallows. The last prisoners and SS men departed shortly before British troops reached the camp on 2 May 1945.[22] During the seven years of the camp’s existence, at least 42,900 people died there and in the satellite camps. [23]

On the morning of 20 April, the protective custody camp leader (Schutzhaftlagerführer) and SS senior storm leader (Obersturmführer) Anton Thumann, who had previously served at the Dachau, Gross-Rosen, and Majdanek concentration camps, approached Trzebinski and said: “... I have something to tell you that is not exactly pleasant. Pauly wishes to let you know that an execution order has been issued by Berlin for the caretakers and the children, and that you are requested to kill the children using gas or poison”.[24] By this point in time, Heißmeyer had not visited Neuengamme for six weeks.[25] Trzebinski, who – if his later statement is to be believed – initially refused, was summoned that afternoon to Pauly, who confirmed that such an order had come from Berlin, and that it was Trzebinski’s duty to comply. During the Curiohaus trial, Pauly claimed on 2 April 1946 that the order had been issued to the doctor on site in the form of a telegraph or radio message. When challenged by the state prosecutor that such an order cannot have been addressed to a doctor, Pauly responded that: “In my opinion, this is not impossible, since the whole matter was a medical one. Trzebinski was always in the company of Professor Heißmeyer”.[26]

 

[20] Maps of the satellite camps, the clearance transports, and the progress of the front from March 1945, http://media.offenes-archiv.de/zeitspuren_karteraeumung.pdf

[21] See also Odd Nansen: Von Tag zu Tag. Ein Tagebuch, aus dem Norwegischen übertragen … (Fra dag til dag, Oslo 1947), Hamburg 1949; online resource at: Frühe Holocaustliteratur. Digitale Giessener Sammlungen, https://digisam.ub.uni-giessen.de/ubg-ihd-fhl/content/pageview/2781798

[22] See also Detlef Garbe: Die Räumung der Konzentrationslager in Norddeutschland und die deutsche Gesellschaft bei Kriegsende, in: Das KZ Neuengamme und seine Außenlager. Geschichte, Nachgeschichte, Erinnerung, Bildung, published on behalf of KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme by Oliver von Wrochem, Hamburg 2010, page 111–135

[23] The Bullenhuser Damm memorial site in 2011 (see Bibliography), page 8

[24] Curiohaus-Prozess 1969 (see Bibliography), Volume III, page 346, quoted from Schwarberg: SS-Arzt 1997 (see Bibliography), page 45 f; also in: Dossier Täter vor Gericht (see footnote 1) 

[25] Schwarberg: SS-Arzt 1997 (see Bibliography), page 45

[26] Max Pauly's statement on 2/4/1946, Curiohaus Trial 1969 (see Bibliography), Volume I, page 335 f., quoted from: Dossier Täter vor Gericht (see footnote 1)