The birthplace of Herschel Grünspan Herschel Grünspan grows up here in Burgstrasse before living in Paris as an illegal immigrant. Whilst there, he hears of his family’s deportation to Poland. His shooting of an official at the German embassy provides the National Socialists with the long-awaited excuse to radically intensify their anti-Jewish measures. Hanover: Ballhofplatz…
Old Jewish cemetery The Old Jewish Cemetery in Nordstadt, not far from the Christuskirche, is an amazing sight: a mound in the middle of the residential district, upon which stand hundreds of old gravestones set beneath tall trees, a walled island of the departed. Hanover: “Juden-Kirchhof” [Jewish churchyard]: The cemetery hill depicted on a drawing…
The Mellini affair The Mellini Theater was located in present-day Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse (known at that time as Artilleriestrasse) opposite the junction with Odeonstrasse. It was a variety theatre or boulevard theatre. During the Second World War, it was converted into a “Kraft-durch-Freude-Theater” [Strength through Joy Theatre], designed to boost morale (by inspiring a spirit of resilience…
Precious metals handed over to the Lending Office The city authorities were also involved in robbing and marginalising the Jewish population. In the spring of 1939, the Jews in Hanover and the surrounding area were forced to bring all their valuables made of precious metal to the municipal Lending Office at Am Hohen Ufer. Today…
Am Hohen Ufer: “Polenaktion” [the expulsion of Polish Jews from the German Reich] and Reich pogrom night Hanover’s historical origins are to be found at the ford across the River Leine and the river island just by the Beginenturm. One thousand years later, buildings at the point known as Am Hohen Ufer [literally: High Bank] are…
Neues Rathaus: the New Town Hall in Hanover Four scale models of the city vividly illustrate Hanover’s development, from the time it was the small residential seat of the House of Guelph (or Welf) (1689), to an industrial city on the eve of the Second World War (1939); then from the almost completely destroyed city…