A local commission in Oranienburg has proposed converting SS barracks on the grounds of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp into headquarters for the local police.
In addition, the commission proposed building 6,000 housing units on the site, which lies across from a contemporary memorial to the Holocaust, part of which was set on fire last September.
A plan by the Polish-born American Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind, who lives in Berlin, to build a complex including a memorial, educational and cultural facilities, was rejected, although Libeskind was given a special prize of recognition by the commission.
The commission said that Libeskind’s plan, by its references to the Holocaust, would “mean a new trauma for the city.”
Libeskind, who designed the recently opened Jewish museum in Berlin, rejected that viewing, saying, “The trauma has already happened.”
“One cannot overcome it by hiding it,” he said.
The Israeli consul general, Mordechai Levy, supported Libeskind’s viewpoint: “Apartments have no place in such a traumatic place.”
“Sachsenhausen is part of Oranienburg’s history,” Levy said.
About 100,000 people, among them 10,000 Jews, were killed in Sachsenhausen between 1938 and 1945.
The commission’s proposals must still be approved by local authorities.
The Union of Jewish Communities in Germany has protested not having been consulted on the proposals.
The union’s representative for memorials, Andreas Nachama, complained that organizations representing victims of the Holocaust were also not consulted.
The chairman of the German Jewish community, Ignatz Bubis, is due to visit the site next week and meet with local authorities.
The union’s secretary, Peter Fischer, predicted that the authorities would heed Bubis’ opinion on the matter.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
