• Memorial Forgotten Coat
Since 2003 a memorial on the railing of the Wiwilí Bridge (until 2003 Blue Bridge) leading over the railway line near the station remembers the deportation of about 350 Jews from Freiburg to the Gurs camp in Southern France. Approximately 6,500 Jews from from Southwest Germany were deported from the German Reich to the internment camp at the edge of the Pyrenees on October 22, 1940 in one the the first deportation campaigns.
Image: Freiburg, undated, Adolf-Hitler-Straße (today Kaiser-Joseph-Straße), Stadtarchiv Freiburg
Freiburg, undated, Adolf-Hitler-Straße (today Kaiser-Joseph-Straße), Stadtarchiv Freiburg

Image: Freiburg, 2012, Detailed view, Johannes Rühl
Freiburg, 2012, Detailed view, Johannes Rühl
After the 1940 campaign against France the German Reich annexed Alsace and Lorraine. The same year all Jews from both provinces were deported to the southern part of France controlled by the collaborating government in Vichy. At the time, the two provinces were administered by Robert Wagner and Josef Bürckel, in charge of the neighbouring districts of Baden and Saar-Palatinate respectively. These deportations prompted Wagner and Bürckel to also expel the Jews from Baden and Saar-Palatinate to France. The orders had not come from the Reich government in Berlin; the operation was kept a secret and had been initiated by the two »Gauleiter«. The so-called »Wagner-Bürckel-Aktion« was put into effect on October 22 and 23, 1940 - it was among the first deportations of Jews from the German Reich. Members of the Gestapo rounded up the Jews from the regions of Baden and Saar-Palatinate, giving them one hour to pack only few belongings before gathering at public squares. Many were arrested in their homes. Police chased the Jews onto trucks and buses and transported them to larger train stations. A total of nine trains had been prepared to take them to France. The French authorities had not been informed about the plan. Disguised as transports of the Wehrmacht the trains could pass the demarcation line dividing France undetected. When the Vichy Government found out who had been on the train, it decided that the Jews were to be interned at the Gurs camp near the Spanish border. The camp was completely unprepared to take 7,000 new inmates. The men and women were separated at Gurs and allocated to barracks. Within a few months, many of those interned at Gurs fell ill and died due to the insufficient food and medical supplies as well as a lack of hygienic facilities at the camp.
Image: Freiburg, undated, Adolf-Hitler-Straße (today Kaiser-Joseph-Straße), Stadtarchiv Freiburg
Freiburg, undated, Adolf-Hitler-Straße (today Kaiser-Joseph-Straße), Stadtarchiv Freiburg

Image: Freiburg, 2012, Detailed view, Johannes Rühl
Freiburg, 2012, Detailed view, Johannes Rühl
About 650 of the more than 1,100 Freiburg Jews could leave the German Reich in time. The SS deported about 350 Jews from Freiburg, all in all approximately 450 Jews from the city and its surroundings were deported. The total number of the deported from the Baden and Saar-Palatine regions amounted to 6,500.
Until summer 1942 more than 1,000 of the interned perished because of the bad conditions in the camp. Between August 1942 and March 1943 six transports left Gurs. The SS deported about 3,900 Jews to the extermination camps in occupied Poland via the Drancy transit camp near Paris.
Image: Freiburg, undated, Destroyed synagogue, Stadtarchiv Freiburg
Freiburg, undated, Destroyed synagogue, Stadtarchiv Freiburg

Image: Freiburg, 2012, Memorial, Johannes Rühl
Freiburg, 2012, Memorial, Johannes Rühl
For a long time nothing remembered the deportation of the Freiburg Jews to Gurs. Since 2000 a memorial exists, located at the Platz der Alten Synagoge in shape of a road sign indicating the direction and the distance to the former Gurs camp.
Since 2003, a bronze coat on the railing of the Wiwilí Bridge bearing a »Judenstern« (yellow badge) strikingly but at the same time incidentally draws attention to the starting point of the deportations. A plaque is mounted next to the coat. Already in autumn of 2000 following the suggestion of the Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes/Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten (International Federation of Resistance Fighters - Association of Anti-fascists, FIR) a working group met to devise a proposal for a memorial plaque or a stele. Also involved were the Jewish community, the Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft (German-Israeli Association), the Gesellschaft für Christlich-Jüdische Zusammenarbeit (Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation) as well as the city's cultural office and the municipal archive, who were in charge of the process. It was Johannes Rühl, deputy head of the city's cultural office, who came up with the he idea to create a memorial in shape of a forgotten coat placed on the bridge's railing. A long and heated public discussion about the development and the design of the memorial flared up. In May 2001 the council's culture committee approved the design of the coat. The council confirmed the decision in December 2002. The Memorial Forgotten Coat was dedicated in 2003. The design alludes to the fact that many of the deportees to Gurs wrote in their letters about their coats they forgot in Freiburg. The »Judenstern« (yellow badge) which wasn't yet compulsory in 1940 is symbolic.
Image: Freiburg, 2012, Memorial, Johannes Rühl
Freiburg, 2012, Memorial, Johannes Rühl

Image: Freiburg, 2012, Memorial plaque, Johannes Rühl
Freiburg, 2012, Memorial plaque, Johannes Rühl
Name
Mahnmal Vergessener Mantel
Address
Wiwilí-Brücke / Konrad-Adenauer-Platz
79098 Freiburg im Breisgau
Phone
+49 (0) 761 201 21 01
E-Mail
Kulturamt@stadt.freiburg.de
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times