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4d ago

Berlin Unveils Temporary Memorial to Polish Victims of Nazi Occupation

The installation features a 30-ton boulder crowned by a wild apple tree as a precursor to a permanent memorial alongside a planned German-Polish house.

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Bauarbeiter legen einen Findling mit Hilfe von Baustellenfahrzeugen an den vorgesehen Gedenkort. Ein tonnenschwerer Findling soll als ein vorläufiges Gedenkzeichen für die polnischen Opfer des Zweiten Weltkriegs und die Opfer der deutschen Besatzungsherrschaft in Polen 1939-1945 errichtet werden.
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Eine Person steht in der Hocke vor einem Gedenkstein und Kränzen mit überwiegend rot-weißen Blumen

Overview

  • The temporary site was inaugurated on June 16, 2025, in Berlin’s government district as the first public tribute to Poles who suffered under Nazi rule.
  • A 30-ton glacial boulder and wild apple tree bear an inscription in German, Polish and English dedicating the memorial to victims of the 1939–1945 occupation.
  • The memorial stands on the former Kroll-Oper grounds where Adolf Hitler announced the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.
  • German and Polish officials, including Culture Ministers Wolfram Weimer and Hanna Wróblewska, have called for a Bundestag vote to authorize a lasting monument and a German-Polish cultural house.
  • More than five million Polish citizens, among them around three million Jewish men, women and children, perished under Nazi Germany during World War II.