Historical Background

Introduction

The two most important Jewish displaced persons camps in Germany were located in Berlin: Wittenau in the French sector, and Düppel Center in the American sector. The latter was situated in the Potsdamer Chaussee 87-91. The area is a part of the district Steglitz-Zehlendorf, which also includes the lake Schlachtensee. The DP camp “Düppel Center” is therefore more commonly called Berlin-Schlachtensee.

The main characteristic of these two camps is their transitory aspect: they were a crossing place for the Jewish refugees who since 1945 came back from Poland and more generally from Eastern Europe for economic reasons or to escape the postwar anti-Semitism. The American sector was indeed more willing than the other sectors to accept these refugees.

Although this camp was intially supposed to be “transitory”, it finally turned into one of the main centers of Jewish life in postwar Germany. The rich cultural, religious and educational life in Düppel Center makes the absence of memorialization of this DP camp today even more stunning.

In January 1946, approximately 36.000 DPs were registered in the American sector; at the end of the year this number grew approximately to 110.000. One of the reasons of this growing number was the pogrom in Kielce in July 1946.

The Jewish community and Jewish aid organizations had to face the emergency of the growing number of Jewish refugees. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the (Jewish) Central Comittee decided to place the Jewish refugees in the American sector; the DP camp Düppel Center was opened on 12 January 1946 in the Potsdamer Chaussee 87-91 in the district Zehlendorf. The camp could house approximately 3500 persons. From January 1946 on, the American sector in Berlin represented a secure place for Jewish refugees from Poland.

Organization of the Düppel Center

From November 1945 on, the “United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration” (UNRRA) undertook officially the administration of the American zone. There were several UNRRA-teams in Berlin: the Zehlendorfer UNRRA-team under the direction of Charles J. Taylor supported the US army in the construction of the Düppel Center camp.

The most important help for Jewish DPs came from the biggest American-Jewish welfare organization, the “American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee” (AJDC, Joint).

Because DPs from the American sector couldn’t be put in hospitals in other Berlin sectors, the Düppel Center built up its own hospital.

In May 1946 an office of the Jewish Agency for Palestine was created in Zehlendorf. The creation of the DP newspaper “Undser Lebn” in August 1946 was also an initiative of the Jewish Agency.

Jewish life in Düppel Center

Because the transitory aspect of the Berliner DP camps lasted much longer than expected, Jewish life in Düppel Center turned into a real microcosmic society.

In 1947, the Düppel Center camp committee consisted of 12 members, directed by Chaim Fischer. The function of the camp committees was basically an administrative one. The camp committee was superordinated to the Central Committee of the Freed Jews in Berlin (“Zentralkomitee der befreiten Juden in Berlin”). Düppel Center had its own camp tribunal. The educational system is a very important aspect in the organization of the camp.

In November 1946 there were 959 children in Düppel Center. Approximately 50 pupils had lessons in Düppel Center in January 1946; the teachers were chosen among the camp population. The transitory aspect of the camp made the educational system more difficult to organize. There were Hebrew, English, Jewish history, arithmetic, physical education, singing and drawing lessons.

Concerning the employment of the camp population, 1427 of the 3050 inhabitants of Düppel were considered as “employable” in 1947, but only 795 were considered as “working population” on a statistical basis. The rest of the camp population (1623 DPs) were children, young mothers or pregnant women, invalids and people older than 60.

In 1946 a library was opened in Düppel-Schlachtensee with only 75 books, but this number grew constantly until the dissolution of the Düppel Center. A people’s university (“Volksuniversität”) was also created in June 1946, directed by Chaim Silberstein. The next year, a cinema, called “Herzl”, was opened, launching mostly Yiddish films. In July 1946 the cultural council in Düppel-Schlachtensee created the sportclub “Herzliya”.

The Yiddish-speaking camp newspaper was published for the first time in August 1946: “Undser Lebn. Wochenzeitung von den befreiten Jidn in Berlin Schlachtensee”.

At the same time, in summer 1946, Leo Hecht and Michael Grasmann created the Yiddish revue theatre “Baderech”, which consisted of professionals and amateurs. The theatre activities of “Baderech” in Berlin ended with the evacuation of Düppel Center in July 1948.

In January 1946, a camp synagogue was opened. A religious comitee was created by the camp rabbis in Düppel and assisted the camp population in all religious questions. There were three rabbis for a camp population of 3050 DPs.

The End of Düppel Center

The dissolution of the Düppel Center camp occurred as a consequence of the sovietic Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 until 12 May 1949).

The evacuation of the Düppel Center camp started on 23 July 1948. Jewish DPs were brought to Berlin Tempelhof and from there flew to Frankfurt am Main. The evacuation was completed on 1 August 1948. The ex Berliner DPs from the American sector were spread from Frankfurt to several Jewish DP camps in the American sector.

In the 1950s, some buildings of the ex Düppel Center were made to emergency accommodations for refugees and homes for the homeless. The last buildings were broken down in 1977/78.

Really an End?

Is there really nothing left from this frantic period in one of Berlin's most distinguished districts? Has this piece of Berlin history vanished completely?

In the next chapter (the search) you will find more about our pursuit of an answer to this disturbing question.

For further reading

Grossmann, Atina. Jews, Germans, and Allies. Close Encounters in Occupied Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007

Königseder, Angelika. Flucht nach Berlin. Jüdische displaced persons 1945-1948. Berlin: Metropol, 1998 (the details provided in this chapter are based mostly on this book)

Königseder, Angelika u. Wetzel, Juliane. Lebensmut im Wartesaal. Die jüdischen DPs im Nachkriegsdeutschland. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1994