There are many things worth seeing in Jewish Berlin. Following are some of the numerous interesting sites. For a detailed list, please refer either to the “Cultural Map of Jewish Sites” (this text contains excerpts from this map), which was published by the Allgemeine Jüdische Wochenzeitung, or if you want a more profound and comprehensive view on Jewish Berlin, have a look at Andrew Roth’s Jewish Berlin (Goldapple Publishing).
- Centrum Judaicum
Oranienburger Str. 28, 13437 Berlin
Phone: +49(0) 30 - 88028300
The Centrum Judaicum is located in the former New Synagogue which was inaugurated in 1866, defiled in 1938, destroyed in 1943 and reconstructed from 1988-1995. It is a museum, a house for prayer, and a cultural meeting point. Together with the community center, the community’s library and its archive, the public learning center it forms the a focal point of Jewish life in Berlin.
- The Jewish Museum
Lindenstr. 14, 10969 Berlin
Phone: +49(0) 30 - 25993410
The building in the form of a broken Magen David and is one of the major public attractions of the city.
- Topography of Terror
Niederkirchnerstr. 8, 10117 Berlin
Phone: +49(0) 30 - 25486703
On this area the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais once stood which the Gestapo and the SS used as their center of terror during the Third Reich from 1933 onwards. Their historical role is documented by an exhibition which is installed in the excavated former torture chambers. A new building for a permanent exhibition is under construction.
- The Empty Library on Bebelplatz
Bebelplatz, 10117 Berlin
The memorial is located at the spot where national-socialist students threw around 20,000 books into the flames on May 10th 1933 – books written by more than 400 different authors who were considered to be “un-German”. Among were works by Lion Feuchtwanger, Erich Kästner and Thomas Mann. The empty shelves in the subterranean library symbolize the loss of these 20,000 burnt books. The memorial was inaugurated on the 60th anniversary of this infamous fire, on May 10th 1993.
- The House of the Wannsee-Conference
Am Großen Wannsee 56-58, 14109 Berlin
Phone: +49(0) 30 - 8050010
www.ghwk.de or www.haus-der-wannsee-konferenz.de
On January 20 1942, this villa housed a meeting under the leadership of SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reichssicherheitsamt with fourteen leading members of the ministerial bureaucracy as well as the SS to discuss and organize the implementation of the decision to deport and murder the European Jews in the East. This meeting is named after the villa it took place in – “Wannsee-Konferenz”.
- Memorial dedicated to Rabbi Menchem M. Schneerson, The Lubawitscher Rebbe
Hansa Ufer 7, 10555 Berlin
At his previous home where the Rebbe lived on Hansa Ufer 7, the city of Berlin dedicated a plaque honoring the Rebbe and expressing his achievements as one of the leaders which rebuilt world Jewry follwing the holocaust. This Memorial was unveiled in November 2001 by the Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Israel Lau in commemoration the hundredth anniversary of the Rebbe's birth. It is one of the important Jewish sites of Berlin.
- The Memorial Stone in the Große-Hamburer-Straße
Große-Hamburger-Str. 26, 10115 Berlin
A memorial stone commemorates the “collection point” installed at this spot by the Gestapo in 1942 – thereby commemorating the more than 55,000 Berlin Jews who were deported into camps and to their deaths. Originally, the Jewish old-age home was located here, directly in front of the oldest Jewish cemetery of Berlin.
- The Holocaust Memorial
Cora-Berliner-Straße 1, 10117 Berlin
The memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe near the Brandeburg gate.
For ten years, the concept for a memorial – a field of columns – designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman was at the center of a controversial public discussion. Following the positive vote in the German parliament, the memorial is opened on May 8, 2005.