conflict over street names near the former sachsenhausen camp
Sachsenhausen Memorial
Despite the massive criticism of the International Sachsenhausen Committee, associations of former camp prisoner, the international advisory board of the Memorial Foundation, the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the Memorial and over 1,000 signatories to an online petition, the city councilors of Oranienburg decided the streets in a new development area on the site of the former “Zeppelin” external command will be names after women from very different historical contexts. Only one in eight streets is to be named after a victim of the German Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The proposal to name a street after a special camp detainee was heavily criticized. According to the context of numerous submissions and letters, the inclusion of this name is tantamount to equating different historical contexts with the victims' experiences of suffering.
Foundation Director Axel Drecoll explains: “The decision of the Oranienburg city council to not name the streets on the site of the former concentration camp external command after concentration camp prisoners deeply disappointed us. It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that it was not possible to change the list of proposals for weeks and months and despite the numerous comments, requests and protests from home and abroad. The now decided naming practice takes no account of the concerns of the victims of the concentration camp and their relatives, a clear affront, of all people, for whom the city of Oranienburg would have to take special responsibility”.
Andreas Meyer, Vice President of the International Sachsenhausen Committee, adds: “We are deeply concerned that the vast majority of city councilors have ignored the many urgent appeals from across Europe against the concealment of the site's concentration camp history and against the equation of concentration camps and special camps. In doing so, they inflict deep injuries on the survivors and their relatives, which will have a long-lasting effect and can permanently damage their relationship with the city of Oranienburg. This caused damage to the land, which could have been avoided with a little good will and willingness to talk. The fact that this was not possible is also of great concern for the future”.
On October 1, 1942, a branch of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH Friedrichshafen, which was located in the immediate vicinity of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the site between Aderluch and the train tracks, went into operation.
Initially around 150 and later up to 700 prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, supervised by around 120 civil workers, had to manufacture and repair tethered balloons with which the approach of enemy aircraft was to be prevented. A residential area with eight new streets is currently under construction on the site, the naming of which has been the subject of debate for months.
Sachsenhausen Memorial. Photo: Lars Wendt
Photo: Till Strätz, Sachsenhausen Memorial