Holocaust Memorials - Monuments, Museums and Institutions in Commemoration of Nazi Victims

in detail

A few weeks after the National Socialists had seized power on January 30, 1933, the first riots by the Köpenick SA occurred following the German Reichstag elections on March 5. On the night of March 20, numerous government opponents including Mrs. Jankowski (SPD), leader of the social committee; Mr. Ehrlich (SPD), the acting mayor; and Hermann and Paul Spitzer, both members of the Communist Party, were interrogated and brutally abused at the SA meeting place in the restaurant Demuth. The terror against Social Democrats and Communists, trades union members, the Young German National Combat Unit, and labor youth organizations, as well as against citizens of the Jewish faith reached an unsurpassed level between June 21-26, 1933 in Köpenick. Hundreds of opponents of the government were brought to the district court jail and to SA meeting places in Köpenick and cruelly beaten. Herbert Gehrke, the leader of the SA battalion 15, directed the operation with the support of SA unit 33 (Maikowski Unit) from Charlottenburg. The district courthouse served as a headquarters, where people who had already been abused in other SA meeting places were then brought for further "questioning". At least 22 Köpenick citizens are known to have died. Many of the badly beaten victims died later in hospitals from their wounds. In the beginning of July 1933, a number of corpses, bound in sacks, were retrieved from nearby rivers.

The permanent exhibition of the "Köpenick Bloody Week in June 1933" Memorial Museum documents the incidents that occurred during the week of June 21-26, 1933. In addition to describing the actual occurrences, the documentation exhibit explores the political situation in Berlin-Köpenick in 1933 and depicts reactions to the events up to and including trials in 1947-1950. The memorial museum is run by the district office ofTreptow-Köpenick in Berlin. The museum provides special events, tours and use of the archives free of cost.

1901
The district court and prison are established

May 1933
The Köpenick SA (Sturmbann 1/15) establish their staff quarters here

June 21-26, 1933
The SA seize the jail and use it as a central detainment and torture site

May 1980
The first "Köpenick Bloody Week in June 1933" Memorial Museum is opened in a basement cell

1987
The site is expanded into an "Antifascist Resistance in Berlin-Köpenick 1933-1945 Traditional Memorial"

1993
The memorial returns to its original name: "Köpenick Bloody Week in June 1933 Memorial"

July 1995
The new permanent exhibition opens