The place from which most of the Berlin Jews were deported was Moabit goods station. It was also known as Putlitzstrasse station, Quitzowstrasse station or just Moabit station.
Located in the north of the district, it was part of a whole chain of railway installations. It was the interchange between the Hamburg and Lehrte lines as well as the circle line. In addition, it was the local goods station. This resulted in a tangle of tracks and railway embankments that is hard for lay people to understand. In addition to typical facilities such as goods sheds and loading tracks, there was also the military ramp on track 69 in the eastern part of the station on Quitzowstrasse and tracks 81 and 82, which ran almost parallel. These served to transport the three large regiments based in Moabit. After the First World War and in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, many of the barracks were disbanded, leaving these tracks deserted.
That changed once deportations began. In this, Moabit goods station was similar to Grunewald station: There it was a disused passenger station, here military tracks. Both still had signalling and security technology at that time, which could be used for the purposes of the Shoa. Also, in both cases the tracks were located away from the railway facilities that were still in use. In other words: Deportations did not disrupt regular operations.
Between October 1941 and the spring of 1945, over 50,000 Jews were deported from Berlin and the surrounding area via train stations in Berlin. Their destinations were the ghettos, camps, and extermination sites to the East, in German-occupied Polish, Czech and Soviet territories, such as Riga, Minsk, Lodz, Theresienstadt or Auschwitz. Only very few survived the camps.
Immediately after the war, small commemorative events were already held at Grunewald station, which probably consolidated the importance of this place. For a long time, one assumed that most people had been taken to their deaths from there.
By contrast, Moabit Goods Station was only mentioned as one of several, for decades. They were therefore also content with the comparatively small memorial on Putlitzbrücke. It was made by Volkmar Haase in 1987 and features broken-off stairs and an inscription.
But there was also an intention to create a memorial at the original site of the deportations in Quitzowstrasse.
Advancing planning for the lines to the new central station threatened to erase the last historical traces. In addition, the German government urged Deutsche Bahn to sell all facilities that were no longer used for railway purposes. The historical site was acutely endangered by demolition and new construction. In 1998, Tiergarten District Office initiated a development plan procedure to arrange the site in urban planning terms and to enable the construction of a place of remembrance.
Nevertheless, there were obstacles to creating a memorial site. To fill the knowledge gaps about deportations from the goods station, several expert reports were commissioned after 2000. They confirmed the outstanding importance of Moabit station for the Shoa.
A roundtable to prepare an art competition was convened in 2006. One year later, the District Office had a simple stele erected directly on Quitzowstrasse to refer to the history of the place.
Both Moabit District Parliament and local citizens criticised the stele as not very dignified after 2010. An artistic competition was therefore held in 2016, from which Büro Raumlabor emerged as the winner. Their design was realised in 2017: A grove of 20 Scots pines and two Corten steel panels. A short time later, the remaining historical traces such as the path, a section of track 69, the former military ramp and areas of the present memorial site were placed under a preservation order.
