Berlin Memorial Exercise: lesson plan
Berlin Memorial was put up in Berlin in 1993. It consists of signs placed on lampposts throughout a part of Berlin, which before 1933 had 6,000 Jews. Nearly all of them were killed under Hitler. On the back of the signs are posted anti-Jewish decrees, or, in some cases, statements by the victims. All date from the period 1933-1945, the Hitler years. There are close to ninety here, but actually there are more than 400.
The lesson plan is followed below. You can also download the printable form (PDF format).
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Materials:
- List of decrees
- Cards, each one with one decree
Activities:
- Read through the list of decrees. What do all of them have in common? Write out your answer or discuss as a group.
- Place or have people hold signs that indicate the individual years from 1933-1945 in chronological order around the room. Hand out cards so that each person has one or two cards until all of the cards are utilized. When the year is called out, starting with 1933, all those cards dated 1933 walk up to the 1933 sign. Each person reads the decree out loud. Do this for all of the years. Note: After reading the card each person could sit down. However, it is quite dramatic to see, after all of the decrees have been read, no one is left in his or her seat.
Questions:
- What did you learn?
- Why do you think this monument was built?
- What did you notice about the number of laws passed in certain years?
- Which restrictions do you think you would have most trouble dealing with and why?
Breakdown of number of decrees per year:
- 1933 - 12
- 1934 - 1
- 1935 - 5
- 1936 - 2
- 1937 - 2
- 1938 - 21
- 1939 - 9
- 1940 - 3
- 1941 - 7
- 1942 - 20
- 1943 - 1
- 1944 - 0
- 1945 - 1
Berlin Memorial Laws:
- Jews may use public transport only to go to work. 9/13/41
- Jews not allowed to make use of ticket dispensers for public transportation. 6/26/42
- Jews not eligible for clothing rations. January 1940
- Compelled to turn in wool and furs. January 1942
- Jewish children no longer allowed to attend public schools. 11/15/38
- Jews not allowed to go to school. 6/20/42
- Supplying Jews with meat, meat products prohibited. 9/18/42
- Jews not allowed to use public transportation, if crowded. They are only permitted to sit down when none of the other passengers are standing. 9/18/41
- Jews not allowed to use ration cards to obtain cigarettes or cigars. 6/11/42
- In Bavarian Square Jews only allowed to sit on benches marked with yellow color. 1939
- Jews to declare all assets. 4/26/38
- Jews not allowed to use public libraries. 8/2/41
- Jews not allowed to buy books. 10/9/42
- First mass deportation of Berlin Jews. 10/18/41
- First direct deportation to Auschwitz. 7/11/42
- A film is German only if made by citizens of German heritage. 6/28/33
- Anti-Jewish signs removed in Berlin during Olympics. 1936
- Jews allowed to shop for food between 4 pm and 5 pm only. 7/4/40
- Jews allowed to use public transportation only when job is more than 7 km from home. 3/24/42
- Marriages between citizens of German blood and Jews punished with prison. Marriages contracted despite this are void. 9/15/35
- Jews have to turn in electrical appliances, bicycles, typewriters, and records. 6/12/42
- All Jews to perform forced labor. 3/4/41
- Organized arrests of Jews in workplaces for deportation. 3/26/43
- Jewish veterinarians prohibited from practicing. 1/17/39
- Jews were not allowed to graduate. 4/15/37
- Jews expelled from choir clubs. 8/16/33
- To prevent creating a bad impression on foreign visitors, signs with extreme anti-Jewish contents are to be removed. Signs with "Jews not wanted here" are sufficient. 1/29/36
- Jewish musicians prohibited from performing. 3/31/35
- Jews over six years of age to wear yellow star with word "Jew". 9/1/41
- Jews expelled from German Chess Union. 7/19/33
- Jews can no longer be members of German Red Cross. 1/1/38
- Jews to hand in drivers licenses. 12/3/38
- Hiking of Jewish youth groups consisting of more than twenty persons prohibited. 7/10/35
- Jewish children to make use of public transportation only where school is more than 5 km from home. 3/24/42
- Jews need police approval to leave the neighborhoods in which they reside. 9/18/41
- Kept bird despite law against having pets. Betrayal led to death at hands of police. 1943
- "This powderbox shall be a small, personal keepsake; think of me, whenever you open it. Yours, very sadly, Else Stern. " Just before deportation. 1/16/42
- Jew's last will and testaments are no longer valid. 7/27/39
- Jews not to obtain eggs with their ration cards. 6/22/42
- No milk. 7/10/42
- Jewish publishers and Jewish book dealers to close by end of 1938.
- Journalists to prove Aryan ancestry going back to 1800. 4/15/36
- Jews not allowed to have pets. 5/15/42
- Jews not to obtain soap or shaving cream with ration cards. 6/26/41
- Jews no longer allowed to request telephone hookup. 7/29/40 Jews not allowed to use public telephone. 12/21/41
- Only racial comrades may engage in gardening. 3/22/38
- The conversion from Judaism to Christianity has no bearing on race--based on birth one was still considered a Jew. 4/10/36
- Jewish home must display "Jewish Star". 3/26/42
- Jews cannot testify in court against Germans. 8/7/42
- Jews no longer allowed to emigrate. 10/23/41
- Jews not allowed to purchase newspapers or magazines. 2/17/42
- "It's finally come, the order for my deportation. Tomorrow is the day. I am so upset. I'll write you." 1/16/42
- Jews to turn in gold, silver, platinum, pearls. 2/21/39
- Dentists, dental technicians, pharmacists, nurses can no longer practice their professions. 1/17/39
- Jews not allowed to be tradesmen. 11/12/38
- Postal clerks married to Jewish women must leave job. 6/18/37
- Jews can be thrown out of their homes without notice and without compensation and placed in appointed "Jew homes". 4/30/39
- "Night of Shattered Glass" (Kristallnacht). Thousands of Jews in concentration camps. 1938
- Jewish art dealers must close shop. 1935
- Streets with Jewish names to be renamed. 7/27/38
- Jewish women cannot become midwives. 12/21/38
- Jews not allowed to use the beach in Wannsee (Wannsee: lake in Berlin suburb). 8/22/33
- Jewish organizations responsible for cleaning debris of synagogues. They are not to be rebuilt. 3/24/39
- Jewish lawyers/notaries can no longer practice in Berlin. 3/18/33
- Jewish judges placed on permanent "leave". 3/13/33
- Jews cannot belong to German Automobile Club. 10/1/33
- Jews to add middle name of "Sarah" or "Israel". 8/17/38
- Jewish actors and actresses prohibited from performing. 3/5/34
- All schools to teach racial science. 9/13/33
- Jews expelled from sports clubs. 4/25/33
- Jews not allowed to take jewelry or other valuables when emigrating. 1/16/39
- Jewish doctors can no longer practice. 7/25/38
- Jewish doctors not to be reimbursed for treating patients. 3/31/33
- Passports of Jews to be stamped with a "J". 10/5/38
- Official acts documenting anti-Jewish actions are to be destroyed. 2/16/45
- Jews to turn in radios. 9/23/39
- Jewish civil servants discharged from their jobs. 4/7/33
- Bakeries and candy stores off-limits to Jews. 2/14/42
- Certain parts of Berlin off-limits to Jews. 12/31/38
- Jewish employees may be discharged without notice or benefits. 11/12/38
- Jews not allowed to use swimming pools. 12/3/38
- Jews not allowed to go to movies, operas and concerts. 11/12/38
- Jewish teachers to be discharged. 4/1/33
- Suicide of Professor Alex Israel C. 3/1/43 Overdosed on sleeping pills. Police notice 1943
- Aryan and non-Aryan children can't play together. 1938
- Jewish writers no longer allowed to write. March 1935
- Jews cannot be self employed in any trade. 11/12/38
- Jews not allowed to leave their home after 8:00 pm; 9:00 pm in summer. 9/1/39