Gedenkort Güterbahnhof Moabit

The significance of the Moabit freight station during the Nazi era and the role it played in the systematic deportation of Jews from Berlin was not known for decades. It has since been discovered that most of the so-called “special transports” were carried out from tracks 69, 81 and 82 at the station. About 30,000 people were deported from here to ghettos and death camps between 1942 and 1944. A 2016 competition asked artists to help put this long-forgotten location back on the map of Berlin’s culture of remembrance by creating a long-overdue memorial and warning to future generations. The jury gave Berlin artist collective raumlabor first prize for its work “Hain” (“Grove”) and recommended that it be installed. At the core of the concept is a grove of 24 pine trees.