This year, the city and Dresden's Jewish communities are once again commemorating the deportations of Jewish citizens from the region under National Socialism. A public memorial event for the victims of the Shoah is planned for next Tuesday at the Old Leipzig Railway Station, from where the trains departed directly to the Riga camp in Latvia in 1942 and 1943. According to the city hall, the future vision for the authentic site will also take center stage.
Culture Mayor Annekatrin Klepsch (Left Party) sees it as a historical responsibility to commemorate those who were deported before the eyes of the city's population. This day is a reminder "of the unimaginable atrocities of the Nazi dictatorship and the incomprehensible fates associated with the deportations." At the same time, it reminds us to "take a clear stance against anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of misanthropy".
According to a city council resolution, a memorial and place of remembrance, including a Jewish cultural and meeting center, is to be created on the site with the preserved station building. According to the city council, it is one of the sites of perpetrators and victims from the National Socialist era in the city area that are provided with sculptures or steles and described in terms of their current content.
City draws attention to other memorial sites
This also includes the so-called Grove of Honor for Fighters against Fascism and the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime, which is repeatedly the subject of discussion due to the equation of the destruction of Dresden with Nazi crimes.
An area in the Hellerberge, where a forced labor camp was located, and one of the former barracks wings in Hellerau, which was a training center for SS and Wehrmacht officers, will also be designated on the basis of current research.
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