An unintended post about a very special place

I didn't intend to write another post but Alison discovered, almost by accident, a very sombre place, thirty minutes by train from Berlin's central station at Grunewald. It is known as Gleis 17, which translates to Platform 17. Platform 17 at Grunewald was the main station for the deportation of German Jews, firstly to the ghettos and later to the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, where most of them were gassed. The memorial consists of a series of metal grates on both platforms, chronologically arranged, detailing the number of Jews sent and their destination. 

Grunewald station. Platform 17 is a few minutes walk from the main station.

One of the grates showing that on September 28th, 1943, 74 Jews were sent from this platform to Auschwitz.

By the end of the war, more than 50,000 had been deported through the station and along the very track I stood on. It has to be remembered, this is just the numbers being sent from Berlin.  Undoubtedly, there were myriad other cities which deported similar numbers. We were the only people at the memorial, and I have no idea how many even know about it, but it is a chilling experience to know you were standing where 50,000 innocent people had been sent to their deaths by a heartless, genocidal regime.

These grates line both sides of the track. 

The very track which sent 50,000 Jews to their death.