The Children of Bullenhuser Damm association

In 1979 a group of relatives and survivors of Neuengamme Concentration Camp, together with the journalist Günther Schwarberg, lawyer Barbara Hüsing and Hamburg friends, founded the Children of Bullenhuser Damm association.

The founding members included Philippe Kohn, brother of Georg-André Kohn; Hendrik Zylberberg, father of Ruchla Zylberberg; Henri Morgenstern, cousin of Jaqueline Morgenstern, and Herbert and Ruth Schemmel and Jupp Händler, members of the resistance, who had seen the children in Neuengamme camp.

In 1980 a memorial was opened by the association in the basement of the former school building at Bullenhuser Damm 92-94. For almost 20 years, the memorial was run privately by the Children of Bullenhuser Damm association, until the City of Hamburg officially recognised it. It is now a branch of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial.

A rose garden has also been laid out behind the school by the association, in which relatives and friends have erected memorial plaques for the children and their attendants. At the entrance to the rose garden is a memorial to the 24 unidentified prisoners of war who were hanged on the same night as the children. Many visitors have planted roses in the garden in remembrance.

The objectives of the association, as laid out in the articles of association, are:

The purpose of the association is:

• To keep alive the memory of the children and those from Neuengamme Concentration Camp who shared their fate, murdered by fascists during the night of 20/21 April 1945 in the school on Bullenhuser Damm in Hamburg.
  
  
• To disseminate knowledge of this murderous crime, in particular to German schoolchildren.
  
  
• To combat neo-fascism.
  

What do we do in practice?

• Each year we organise a commemoration ceremony for the Children of Bullenhuser Damm, which receives financial support from the Hamburg culture ministry. The very first remembrance ceremony in the school was attended by more than 2000 people; today 200 to 300 come to it every year. Relatives of the 20 children travel from all over the world to take part in the commemoration; it takes place annually on 20 April. The association also arranges for relatives of the children to give talks in school, as oral history dialogues or about the children of Bullenhuser Damm.
  
  
• We designed a travelling exhibition for children and adolescents, which is lent regularly to schools and public institutions. It has generated a very positive response from visitors. The exhibition is produced in German and English so that it can also be shown in the countries from which the children came.
  [Link zu Projekte]
  
  
• We want to grapple with our history and we want to remember. We are committed to a future free of fascism and racism. We take part in protests against the Right. We want to be there and support relatives when they come to Hamburg to remember their dead.
  
  
• In conjunction with the Friends of Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial we publish information for members twice a year:
  http://fk-neuengamme.de/freundeskreis-aktuell/
  

Do you want to join us?


We would like to thank all our members for their support.

We also want to thank the following for their help and support for our work, which in some cases goes back many years:

Olaf Christoph
Marisa Dührkopp
Claire Freerks
Michael K. Nathan, Hamburg, for the Hebrew translation
Ines Omenzetter
Henning Rogge
Georgina Watkins
Bezirksamt Eimsbüttel
Kulturbehörde der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg
Party Rent GmbH
Reset Grafische Medien GmbH
Sprinkenhof AG
Stiftung Kindergärten Finkenau, Kita Sonnenschein
Thomas Wieske und Matthias Kühn, Wieske's Crew GmbH