DE-gedbr 6909 961122 Gedenkbuch Berlins +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ Gedenkbuch Berlins +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ A JewishGen InfoFile By Peter Simonstein Cullman This review appeared originally in AVOTAYNU, vol XI, no. 4, p. 74 and is reprinted with permission. "Gedenkbuch Berlins der juedischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus" A new comprehensive memorial book was published earlier last year in Berlin to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Europe. The Gedenkbuch Berlins, six years in the planning, contains the names of 55,969 persons who are listed as deported, fate unknown, disappeared or "verschollen". The victims are listed in bold letters by names and maiden names, including their dates and places of birth (often as far away as New York, Jerusalem, St. Petersburg or "Russian Poland"). In contrast to the 1986 "Gedenkbuch", which then only covered the regions of Germany that became known as West-Germany and West-Berlin, this new book lists the last known address in and around Berlin from where a person was deported, or a street address with district, based on the 1939 census. Almost all entries provide date and destination as well as the deportation transport number to the death camps. Often no date of death is given, merely the place of deportation; frequently one finds the date of suicide. Numerous entries also state a date and a person's initial place of immigration to countries like Norway, Holland or France in the early 1930s. When no documentation was extant to explain the circumstances of death, one still finds the euphemism "verschollen", a term often looked upon with scorn by survivors who see a distinct difference between the English translation of that word (meaning vanished) and the true meaning of the word in the context of history as we know it. The authors of the book devoted a sizable chapter to explain the German and international legal ramifications in using the term "verschollen". In one of the forewords, Jerzy Kanal, the current head of the Jewish community of Berlin reminds the reader of the painful knowledge that Berlin's Jewish population had shrunk from 160,000 in 1933 to 75,000 in 1939, only a few thousand of which remained at the end of the war. An addendum elaborates, with passion and in considerable detail, on the Nazi regime's devilish, macabre machinations that preceded and followed the deportations. Jews caught as far way as Narvik in Norway were sent to Berlin, only to be deported to the death camps in the 1940s. Listed on three pages of tables are the transports and the number of deportees, their fate and the number of known survivors, with an expression of a percentage to the total. The first transport left Berlin for Lodz/Litzmannstadt on October 18, 1941, the 117th transport left as late as March 27, 1945! In compiling the book's data, extensive use was made of the 1939 census and the virtually complete extant Berlin deportation lists as well as documents from Theresienstadt. The authors, fully aware that errors and omissions are inevitable in an opus of such scope and dimension, apologize to relatives of victims not listed here and to survivors who may inadvertently have been listed as "verschollen". The book's summary is an abbreviated form of the one that was used in the 1986 Gedenkbuch; a revision of this section would have been appropriate, given the earlier inaccuracies, repeated here. The Gedenkbuch Berlins was conceived by the leader of the Berlin Social Democrats Dr. D. Staffelt and made possible through a variety of institutions such as the Jewish Claims Conference, the Berlin Freie Universitaet, the Senate of Berlin, the cultural foundation of Deutsche Bank and particularly through the generous contributions of the German Lottery, without whom this project could not have succeeded. The publisher Hentrich, long known for producing an excellent series of books on the Jews of Berlin, is once again credited for a well produced work. The idea to publish a memorial book for all Jewish victims of National Socialism who had lived in Germany was originally conceived in 1960 by Dr. Baruch Z. Ophir of Yad Vashem. The "Gedenkbuch" of 1986, then published by the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz was the result. Yet, political circumstances at the time didn't allow for a complete documentation of all cases as the East German government refused to cooperate or to supply any data. A second, revised edition of that book, to be published in the near future, will include data from all of Germany within her 1937 borders. The Gedenkbuch Berlins will be considered as a much needed new tool in Holocaust research, continuing where the Gedenkbuch of 1986 faltered. This new memorial book with an easy-to-read layout, smaller format and extended data on virtually every person, is not only of interest to the researcher with an ancestry that has long and solid roots in the former Prussia and its capital. Even if one's area of research was believed to be in other parts of Germany, the book can be an invaluable resource, since countless Jews sought refuge at the time in the anonymity of the large metropolis Berlin, at least temporarily removed to some extent from the often vindictive local party official of a small town. One of the first copies of the Gedenkbuch Berlins was presented last year to the Jewish community of Berlin on the occasion of the opening of the Centrum Judaicum at the Neue Synagoge. Major research institutions and libraries are currently adding the Gedenkbuch Berlins to their holdings. Appropriately one hopes that this book will in future be found on the shelves of Synagogue libraries, the gathering places of the Jewish communities of today and tomorrow. However, priced at approx. US $190.00, it may fit only the budget of the larger JGS libraries. --- "Gedenkbuch Berlins der juedischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus" published by Zentralinstitut fur Wissenschaftliche Forschung der Freien Universitaet Berlin on behalf of the Senator for Cultural Affairs. Prefatory words by Ulrich Roloff-Momin und Jerzy Kanal. Published by Edition Hentrich; D-12167 Berlin, Albrechtstr. 112 Germany Tel. 030/792-9428; FAX 030/792-5073 DM 258.00; 1454 pp; weight 3.5kg; DS 135 G5 A1357 1995; ISBN 3-89468-178-0 Distributor for Germany: BUGRIM Verlagsauslieferung Dr. Laube & Lindemann GbR D-12099 Berlin Saalburgstr. 3 Germany Tel. 030/606 8457 or: 030/606 8130 Fax: 030/6060 3476 ------------- [6May96psc]wb +----------------------------------------------------------------------+