Lelka Birnbaum, H. Wassermann, Roman Zeller
Eighty years after the Shoah, there are still three children about whom we hardly know anything:
Lelka Birnbaum, H. Wassermann, and Roman Zeller.
Unfortunately, there are no known personal photographs of etc…
The only surviving photos we have of them were taken by the SS during the ‘medical’ experiments.
We have chosen deliberately not to display them.
After the war, a list was found containing children’s surnames, including that of a girl from Poland: “L. Birnbaum.”
Her full name, Lelka Birnbaum, was discovered on the cover(?) of an X-ray for ‘medical’ experiments carried out by Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer.
Lelka was murdered at the age of twelve.
The street Lelka-Birnbaum-Weg in Hamburg-Burgwedel and a day care centre in Hamburg-St.Pauli are named after Lelka.
H. Wassermann was only eight years old when she was murdered.
We know nothing more about her.
The Wassermannpark in Hamburg-Burgwedel, has been named in commemoration of her since 2003.
There is little known about the 12-year-old boy R. Zeller from Poland.
Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer wrote the initials “R.Z” on a note containing experiment data for the boy.
His first name was most likely Roman.
A commemoration ceremony for the twenty children is held every year on April 20th at the Roman-Zeller-Platz in Hamburg-Burgwedel.
In 2001, a monument by Russian artist Leonid Mogilevski was erected in the square in memory of the lost children.