Unknown individuals vandalized the Holocaust deportation memorial at Putlitz Bridge in the Moabit district of Berlin over the weekend, a site from which the Nazis deported more than 32,000 Jews to extermination camps.
German police reported that officers discovered the damage on Sunday, noticing white paint sprayed on the memorial and packing tape wrapped around it.
While police were able to remove the fresh paint immediately, they were unsuccessful in fully detaching the tape, which had stuck to the monument. Authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the incident, which joins a growing list of acts of vandalism targeting the historic site.
The memorial stands on the eastern side of the bridge spanning the former Moabit freight station, the primary deportation point for Berlin's Jews to Eastern Europe. Starting in January 1942, over 32,000 Jews were deported from tracks 69, 81, and 82 at the station to concentration camps.
The original memorial, created in 1987 by artist Volkmar Haase, featured stairs ascending skyward and a small plaque. The current installation, inaugurated in 2017, consists of a grove of 20 pine trees intended to stand out in the center of the industrial area once fully grown.
The site has suffered repeated acts of vandalism since the first memorial was erected. On August 29, 1992, it was severely damaged and had to be dismantled and restored. It was rebuilt in March 1993. A plaque on the bridge’s railing commemorates that earlier act of vandalism.
In another incident last November, the memorial was defaced when unknown individuals threw a memorial wreath onto the tracks beneath the bridge and lit candles. At the time, the district council condemned the act as “a serious affront to the memory of Holocaust victims and an attack on peaceful coexistence and the culture of remembrance in society.”