Gleis 17 Memorial

Gleis 17 Memorial

Gleis 17 Memorial
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JESUS SOLERO
Malaga, Spain21,247 contributions
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Dec 2024 • Solo
Opened on 27 January 1998, it pays tribute to the thousands of Jews who were deported from this station to the concentration camps in Riga, Warsaw, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt. The monument consists, on the one hand, of 186 cast iron plates attached to the ground, one for each of the trains that left from this platform between 1941 and 1945, transporting more than 50,000 human beings to death. Another symbolic element that reminds us of these events is the vegetation that has spread along the track, a symbol that no train will return from it. It is absolutely shocking and chilling, and in my opinion it should be a must for anyone in Berlin. Access to this monument is very easy, just take the train S7 Postdam from Charlottenburg station, and in five minutes and two stops we will have reached our destination.
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Written 4 February 2025
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

nicnjames
Ipswich, UK42 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2024 • Couples
Did not know of this place until I googled it and found it by mistake. Should be advertised more. Was a very solemn visit which made me respect how the poor people must’ve felt standing on the sidings awaiting to board the trains. A peaceful setting to reflect and respect.
Written 28 December 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Fergs85
Thornton-Le-Dale, UK1,083 contributions
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May 2022
You’ll find this memorial at a suburban train station – Grunewald. It’s a disused platform from which most of the deportations of Berlin Jews took place during the war years. A sign in the pedestrian tunnel points the way, and up a flight of stairs you’ll find a disused railway platform with metal inscriptions along both edges indicating the dates of each transport that left the station. Also shown are destinations – usually Theresienstadt, but later Auschwitz – and the numbers being transported in each case.
This is a very moving place – there is no other explanation, nor any display board – it simply speaks for itself. It’s the sort of place where quiet contemplation is sufficient.
By the way, if you take the S-Bahn further down the line you’ll come to Wannsee, where you can visit the Max Liebermann Villa and the house of the Wannsee Conference. These three locations together manage to tell just about the whole story of the Holocaust
Written 24 June 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

BrakiWorldTraveler
Belgrade, Serbia20,037 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
I've visited really a lot of Holocaust memorials all over Europe and US. Most of them are big, with big commemorative monuments, next door museums,...etc.
Contrary to those, this one, at Berlin's western outskirts is very simple.
It's just a railway track - a track at the Grunewald station from which tens of thousands Jews were deported to concentration camps all over Europe.
From the direction you're entering (from the underground passageway of the S Bahn station you've arrived) you'll spot 2 platforms by the tracks: the lower one to the right and the left upper platform (on which you're walking).
Start your visit from the lower one, as from there begin the floor marker blocks chronologically laid. Each of them tells the date, the number of Jews deported and the destination.
Although very simple, the memorial is very moving. A cloudy February morning with little rain and noone around also contributed to that impression.

TIP: this memorial is off the beaten track and far away from Berlin main attractions. In order not to come only for it, I'd suggest visitng it as a stop over if heading to Wannsee or Potsdam (they're on the same S Bahn line), or other attractions close by such as Charllotenburg palace or Olympiastadion (both are worth a visit, see those reviews).
Written 9 April 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

GranZorro
Zug, Switzerland1,559 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2022
Every visitor - especially if he or she is German - should go to this small railroad station located in an idyllic and very wealthy part of town from whence during the Nazi terror thousands of Berlin Jews were carted away to their deaths in overcrowded, filthy cargo rail wagons.

Not only to take in the atmosphere and see the two memorials on the site. But to reflect on the fact that all the signs of an open season on Jews are here again - right in Germany, the country of the Holocaust, right in Berlin, the seat of the monstrous Nazi government.
Written 24 June 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Ben V
Maarssen, The Netherlands2,262 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2023 • Couples
Memorial site from where the Jewish Berlin population was transported to the various concentration camps. What really struck me was that the last transport took place in March 1945. The war was long lost by then, and within just over a month the Russians would be in Berlin.
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Written 14 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Joe Kemchi
Tel Aviv, Israel275 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2022
We visited Platform 17 as part of a Jewish tour of Berlin.

Many of the monuments and memorials across Berlin for the former Jewish community feel "forced" or placed out of necessity, rather than compassion for the tragic events, if this makes senses.

However, Platform 17 is one of the better memorials we have visited across Europe and definitely the best in Berlin.
Written 22 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

John C
Wateringen13 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2014 • Couples
Gleis 17 isn't on any tourist guides. In fact, if you didn't actually know it existed you would never visit what is one of the most poignant sites I have ever seen.
Taking the train out of the city to this quiet south west suburb, you would never realise the history of what took place. The station is a functional station but as you leave the train and walk down the stairs, you see a sign for Gleis 17. Walking up the stairs, takes you to an abandoned side line. At first, it doesn;t appear anything special - when we went, there was no one else around. Its a small railway track and the first thing you notice are the metal sheets placed across the edges of the platform on both sides. As you get closer, you notice dates and numbers and place names and then the horror hits home.
Every plate has a date from the Second World War, the number of Jews and the concentration camp they went to. And then you realise how many plates cover this platform on both sides.
On some days, 30 Jews were deported, on others up to 100 Jews (a lot of rounded off numbers) - but visit the right hand side and you see that in a 3 days period nearly 5,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
It is hard not to get emotional - this is a quiet backwater place that deported thousands of Jews to their deaths. Hitler obviously didn't want to advertise what the Third Reich was up to so chose this place to hide it from public eyes.
It's a shame this place does not get the recognition it clearly deserves - this is a place that time should not forget and should be up there with Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall as a must-see on a visit to Berlin. It left an impression on me that I won't forget.
Written 14 July 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

WinchesterCathedral
Winchester, UK114 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2017 • Couples
Fiding Gleis 17 is easy but you need to be looking for it. It is worth finding.

Take the S7 (S Bahn towards Potsdam and get off at Grunewald Station. You can also take a bus (M19 I think)

As you get off the train and walk towards the exit, there are sign posts but before going to visit the memorial, walk to the exit and look at the station. It was built in the late 19th century and is almost Tirolean in design. Then go back to the memorial and think about what whose who boarded the train saw before they departed and how much more sinister it was for Nazi's to use such a chocolate box setting to deport 50,000 Berlin Jews to the death camps.

The memorial comprises 186 cast steel plates placed in gravel along gleis (platform) 17. Each of these refers to a transport which took place from Berlin, the date of the transport and the number of people transported on that day. The destinations, Theresienstadt, Minsk, Riga, Kaunas and Łódź, Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps.

As one walks up and down the platform, looking at the metal plates, the number of those sent per train become larger and the frequency increases. The scale is shocking and the silence of the place allows you to consider what actually happened here. A carving by the Polish sculptor Karol Broniatowski has been placed to the right of the station entrance and leads up to the loading sidings of the freight station where the trains were loaded with their human cargo and dispatched. It is an 18-metre concrete block with embedded silhouettes of deportees.

It is not important for memorials to be built on a grand scale adorned with information as to why it was built in the first place. It is important for memorials to be built in locations where events took place, to provide facts and allow those who visit to contemplate the horror which took place.

Gleis 17 is worth finding. Search for it. Make the effort.
Written 14 June 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

zoli18
London, UK191 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2015 • Friends
We went to Gleiss 19 in Gruenwald on our way to Potsdam. We bought a Small Group Day Ticket for zones AB and C at the cost of €17.40. This allows up to five adults to travel on the one ticket within the zones in both Berlin and Potsdam on S and U Bahn, Regional Trains, trams and buses.

We took the S7 train from Friedrichstrasse to Gruenwald. When you come out of the platform walk under the tunnel and this will bring you out at Gleiss 17 (Platform 17). This is where about 50000 Jews were deported to various concentration camps including Theresienstadt, Riga and Ausschwitz between 1941 and 1945. This is a single track with a series of steel rectangles which document each transportation in chronological order - date, number of deportees and final location. It was not very busy when we went. Not sure if it ever gets very busy with visitors. We stood there, shut our eyes and tried to imagine what had happened - men, women and children being herded into the trains and men shouting at them. The terror and fear that must have taken place there.

Near the front of the station there is a large concrete block with hollowed out human silhouettes - created by Polish artist Karol Broniatowski. This sets a very sombre mood.

It is such a pretty station from the outside. It seems hard to believe what went on there between 1941-45.

Would definitely recommend seeing this.
Written 16 June 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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GLEIS 17 MEMORIAL (2025) All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos) - Tripadvisor

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