Plans to demolish parts of an underground bunker beneath the former Nazi chancellery complex in Berlin to make way for a new residential and office development have sparked growing opposition from historians and preservation advocates.
Berlin municipal and government officials argue that the remaining underground structure holds little historical or social value that justifies its preservation. They say redeveloping the site would contribute to the city's growth and help address housing and commercial needs.
Historians, academics, and heritage organizations disagree, warning that destroying one of the few surviving structures from the center of Adolf Hitler's regime would erase an important physical reminder of one of history's darkest chapters. They argue the bunker serves as tangible evidence of the Nazi era and should be preserved for future generations.
Amid the debate, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, proposed an alternative: transferring the site to one of Berlin's Jewish communities to establish Jewish institutions there.
"There is a more moral alternative than demolishing the bunker for housing and offices, or turning it into yet another underground tourist site," Goldschmidt said.
He described the bunker as "one of the last remnants of the Nazi regime's center of power, a regime that stripped Jews across Europe of their rights, their property, and their dignity before murdering millions and destroying entire communities. The site's future is not only a real estate matter, but a moral test. In a place where they tried to erase Jewish life from Europe, Jews should be allowed to build a future."