• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Hanover
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Hanover remembers since 1994 the 6,800 city's Jews who became victims of National Socialist persecution. The names of about 1,900 Hanoverian Jews who were deported to the ghettos and extermination camps in the occupied East are engraved in the memorial's pedestal.
Image: Hanover, about 1900, Synagogue of the Jewish community of Hanover, Historisches Museum Hannover
Hanover, about 1900, Synagogue of the Jewish community of Hanover, Historisches Museum Hannover

Image: Hanover, 2012, Memorial in the city centre of Hanover, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Hanover, 2012, Memorial in the city centre of Hanover, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Hanover was home to a Jewish community already since the 13th century. In the course of the 19th century their number grew from about 1,300 to 4,500 in 1900. In 1933, four months after the National Socialists' rise to power approximately 4,800 Jews lived in Hanover, out of a total population of 444,000. After their rise to power, the Nazis began to systematically discriminate against the Jews and exclude them from society. Jews were mobbed out of their professions, many were forced to shut down their businesses. National Socialists and their supporters destroyed the New Synagogue during the »Kristallnacht« in November 1938. About 480 Jews without German citizenship were deported to Poland, approximately 330 Jewish men from Hanover were abducted to the Buchenwald concentration camp. By the end of 1938 all Jewish shops, solicitor's offices and medical practises were closed. Hundreds fled into exile. From 1941 onwards about 1,200 Hanoverian Jews had to vacate their flats and had to move to so-called Judenhäuser (English: Jewish houses). There they lived crowded together under catastrophic living conditions until they were moved to the assembly camp at the Israelite School of Horticulture at Ahlem. From there the Nazis deported 1001 Jews via the Fischerhof freight depot to the Riga ghetto on December 15, 1941. Only 68 people from this transport survived the ghetto. Until 1945 more deportations to the ghettos and extermination camps in the East followed.
Image: Hanover, about 1900, Synagogue of the Jewish community of Hanover, Historisches Museum Hannover
Hanover, about 1900, Synagogue of the Jewish community of Hanover, Historisches Museum Hannover

Image: Hanover, 2012, Memorial in the city centre of Hanover, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Hanover, 2012, Memorial in the city centre of Hanover, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
1,935 Hanoverian Jews who were murdered by the National Socialists or who are officially missing since World War II are known by name. Only few Jews from Hanover survived.
Image: Hanover, 1938, The burning synagogue, Historisches Museum Hannover, HAZ-Hauschild-Archiv, Foto: Wilhelm Hauschild
Hanover, 1938, The burning synagogue, Historisches Museum Hannover, HAZ-Hauschild-Archiv, Foto: Wilhelm Hauschild

Image: Hanover, 2011, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Hanover, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Hanover, 2011, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Hanover, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
On October 9, 1994 the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Hanover at the Openplatz in the centre of town was unveiled. It was preceded by many years of discussions about the monument. It was initiated by the Memoriam association and financed by private donations. The memorial was designed by the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto: A stylised stone bracket hints at a void. The names of about 1,900 murdered Hanoverian Jews are engraved in the memorial's pedestal. Victims whose place of death is unknown are marked »missing«.
Image: Hanover, 2012, The memorial depicts a symbolised bracket, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Hanover, 2012, The memorial depicts a symbolised bracket, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover

Image: Hanover, 2011, Engraved names at the memorial, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Hanover, 2011, Engraved names at the memorial, Projekt Erinnerungskultur Hannover
Name
Mahnmal für die ermordeten Juden Hannovers
Address
Opernplatz
30159 Hannover
E-Mail
erinnerungskultur@hannover-stadt.de
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times