Jüdische Gemeinde Hannover
»A New Epoch for Jews in Germany«
11.12.2016 – 07.01.2017
The German War Graves Commission (German: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.), in conjunction with its Latvian partner organization, the Fraternal Cemeteries Commission, and the Riga City Council, created a dignified burial place and memorial for the victims of the Holocaust.
The dedication ceremony took place on November 30th, 2001: 60 years after the beginning of the deportations.
The Volksbund president at the time, Karl-Wilhelm Lange, envisioned that the joint maintenance of the facility by Latvian and German youth should “create a living bond of remembrance and exchange between Riga and the German cities from which the mass transport [of Jews] originated”.
The legal basis for the places of commemoration is the German-Latvian War Graves Agreement from 1996 in which the federal government committed to the creation of dignified burial places for German deportation victims in Latvia.
In May 2002, Henny Markiewicz-Simon traveled to Riga with her children and grandchildren on a “journey to the past”. She describes the visit of the memorial site in the forest of Biķernieki:
Now we drove on to the forest of Biķernieki where my beloved mother, relatives, friends and acquaintances were shot. A commemorative plaque had been installed at the entrance. We walked along the “path of death” to the memorial. We found the plaque for Hannover. I spoke the Kaddish with my children, and we laid down a stone. This was a difficult path, but I was drawn towards the graves of our murdered [people]. I think it was, so to speak, a closure for me.
1. German War Graves Commission
2. Private Collection, Henny Simon
Exhibition: | Deported to their Deaths |
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Duration: | December 15th, 2011 to January 27th, 2012 |
Location: | Neues Rathaus Hannover, Bürgersaal |
Panel: | 34 from 39 – Culture of Remembrance |
Size: | 650 x 2050 mm |
Technique: | Digital print on Alu-Dibond |