Stumbling Stones

Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones) call to memory all those who were persecuted and murdered during the 12-year reign of the National Socialists. The stones are in fact small concrete blocks measuring 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, covered by a brass plate. The name of a holocaust victim is inscribed on every brass plate and embedded in the ground in front of that person's former residence. Victims are thereby given an identity, while the stumbling stones draw attention to their terrible fate.

Günter Demnig, the initiator of this project, has to date laid more than 13,000 of these stumbling stones in some 280 German cities and communities. In 2005, he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) for his efforts.

Börneplatz

Consecrated in 1996, the Börneplatz Memorial pays tribute to all those Frankfurt Jews murdered by the National Socialists before and during World War II. Together with Museum Judengasse, it is an impressive place of remembrance of Jewish persecution in Frankfurt. Located behind the administrative headquarters of Frankfurt's municipal works department, the memorial is a symbolic grave that reminds of some 11,000 deported and murdered Frankfurter Jews.

During the construction of Börneplatz in 1987, workers came across the archaeological remnants of a number of Jewish houses, ritual baths and fountains. As it turned out, these finds were in fact remains of the southern end of the former Judengasse, the old Jewish ghetto. Significant portions of this former laneway were carefully excavated during these digs, thereby preserving some 800 years of Jewish history. The remains were integrated into the basement of the municipal works building. There, visitors will also find a mikvah, an original Jewish ritual bath. The Department of Municipal Works is currently erecting a special learning centre on their premises, which is to be named after Oskar and Emilie Schindler, the famous German industrialist and his wife, who famously saved some 1,200 Jews from almost certain death.

Paul Arnsberg Memorial Column

Frankfurt's East End district (Ostend) became the home of many displaced Eastern European Jews in the 19th century. In 2010, Paul Arnsberg Square was inaugurated in the Ostend, paying homage to the neighbourhood's Jewish past. A year later, a triangular, stainless steel column created by the sculptor, Clemens M. Strugalla, was erected there to further remind of the quarter's former Jewish residents.

Paul Arnsberg, a solicitor and historian, was for many years a leading member of Frankfurt's Jewish community. He became famous for his detailed documentations of Jewish history in Frankfurt and the State of Hessen.

The Former Synagogue at Friedberger Anlage - A Place of Remembrance

The synagogue, once situated at what is today Friedberger Anlage 5-6, was burnt down by the National Socialists during the November pogroms of 1938. After its destruction, the Wehrmacht built an above-ground bunker on these grounds in 1942.

In 1985, an architectural competition was held with the objective of redesigning the forecourt as a tribute to the former synagogue. The winning entry, an installation by the landscape architect, Jeannette Garnhartner, was officially inaugurated in 1988. Its centrepiece consists of four massive, similarly sized granite monoliths. Between these granite slabs, one finds a memorial stone with an inscription reminding of the destruction of the synagogue during the so-called "Night of Broken Glass", which took place during the night of 09th/10th November 1938. The installation is supplemented by a reconstructed column as well as a fragmentary remnant of the synagogue's entrance portal. The remodelled bunker is today home to a permanent exhibition informing visitors of Jewish life in the Ostend.

Westend Campus

The former premises of IG Farben have been part of Frankfurt University's Westend Campus since 2001. Once the world's largest chemical firm, IG Farben was established in 1925/26 as a collaboration of Germany's leading chemical companies, including Friedrich Bayer AG and BASF. In 1928, the architect, Hans Poelzig, was commissioned to design and build the company's representative headquarters. The result, one of Europe's largest and most modern administrative buildings, was completed in less than two years.

After the National Socialists' rise to power in 1933, all Jewish employees and executives of IG Farben, including Arthur and Carl von Weinberg, Kurt Oppenheim, Max Warburg, Alfred Merton, Otto von Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ernst von Simson, were dismissed from the company and soon thereafter persecuted. Ironically, it was a company belonging to the IG Farben Group named Degesch Ltd. that produced the deadly "Zyklon B", a cyanide-based pesticide that ended up being used to mass-exterminate millions of people in the dreaded death camps.

In 1951, Norbert Wollheim, a former inmate of the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp, took charge of a test case at Frankfurt District Court. Six years later, in 1957, the chemical company was forced to pay 30 million deutschmarks in compensation. The "Wollheim Memorial", which was created by the artist, Heiner Blum, and today stands in the former gatehouse of IG Farben, was named after him. Video interviews with survivors document the tragic fate of the site's forced labourers, while photo boards situated throughout the grounds serve to illustrate what life was like for the slave labourers working at IG Farben during World War II.

The Memorial Column at Grüneburg Park

In 1968, a wooden column created by the German sculptor, Hans Steinbrenner, was erected in this scenic park to remind of the moving history of this location. In the 19th century, Amschel Mayer von Rothschild purchased a manor house named "Grün Burg" ("Green Castle") from the Frankfurt banking family, Bethmann-Metzler. Having purchased the property, Rothschild commissioned a small castle to be built on the grounds. Meanwhile, various Frankfurt landscape architects took up the task of shaping the vast parklands. In 1935, the park was forcibly expropriated by the National Socialists. Soon thereafter, in 1938, the Goldschmidt-Rothschild family emigrated to Switzerland. Sadly, Castle Grüneburg was destroyed during the air raids of 1944, like so much of Frankfurt.

A commemorative plaque by the artist, Clemens M. Stragulla, was placed behind the column in 2007, featuring supplementary information and a silhouette of the former castle.

Memorial at the Großmarkthalle

The memorial at the Großmarkthalle, Frankfurt's former main market hall, was designed at the time of the construction of the new European Central Bank (ECB). It pays tribute to the memory of some 10,000 former Frankfurt residents, who were from here deported by train to concentration camps, where they were systematically murdered. The cellars of the former Großmarkthalle, which are now part of the memorial site, were used by the Gestapo from 1941 to 1945 as an assembly centre for Jews prior to their deportation.

One section of this place of remembrance, situated along the former railway embankment, is publically accessible (Philipp-Holzmann-Weg). The previously mentioned vaulted cellars are located on the grounds of the ECB and may therefore only be visited within the framework of a guided tour, which may be booked through the Jewish Museum.

Am Hauptbahnhof 4: The Former Residence of Oskar Schindler (1908-1974)

Oskar Schindler lived in Frankfurt from 1957 until the time of his death in 1974. The former German industrialist and factory owner did not achieve worldwide fame until the release of Steven Spielberg's award-winning film, "Schindler's List". Risking his fortune as well as his life, Schindler rescued some 1,200 of Jews from certain death in concentration camps. A memorial plaque was erected at his former residence, "Am Hauptbahnhof 4", in 1996.

The Virtual Synagogue of Höchst – Telescopes into the Past

At Ettinghausen Platz, situated adjacent to a marketplace, one finds two telescopes mounted on steel posts. Entitled "Telescopes into the Past ("Fernrohre in die Vergangenheit"), this installation was inaugurated in November 2010 in remembrance of the synagogue that once stood here, destroyed during Crystal Night on 10th November 1938.

Looking through the telescopes, visitors are offered a virtual view of the interior and exterior of the former place of worship, providing insights into how the synagogue and its immediate surroundings would have appeared before that fateful day.

The square was named after the Ettinghausen family, who through their efforts greatly influenced the lives of the Jewish community living in the city district of Höchst.