Düsseldorf (memorial, Alter Hafen)
Historical background
In the years 1937–43/45 in Düsseldorf there was a camp for Gypsies called Höherweg (Lierenfeld). Over 200 people were interned there, about a hundred of whom were deported to Auschwitz in 1943. Roughly twice as many of them died of inhuman conditions in the camp.
One of the prisoners of the Höherweg (Lierenfeld) camp was Otto Pankok, born in 1893 in Mülheim an der Ruhr, a Gypsy artist, sculptor. In 1936, he was banned from artistic activity by the Nazi authorities, and a year later 56 of his works were confiscated from German museums. He survived as one of the few, and after the war he began to create again. He died in 1966 at Wesel.
Description of commemoration
The memorial presents a girl named Ehra, who, like the author of the sculpture, Otto Pankok, survived the Auschwitz camp. The figure commemorates the Roma and Sinti community from Düsseldorf, who died of hunger and disease or were murdered in the camps during the war.
The commemoration consists of a bronze cast sculpture of Otto Pankok, the girl named Ehra. The cast is placed on a brick pedestal. On the left hand of the girl a bronze plaque with information in German was placed in the wall of the old port.
Inscriptions
In German:
Zum Gedenken an die Düsseldorfer Sinti und / Roma, die durch den Nationalsozi- / -alismus Opfer des Völkermordes / wurden. // Diese Figur des Sinti Mädchens / Ehra schuf der Künstler Otto / Pankok (1893-1966). Zur Erinnerung / an die mit ihm befreundeten Düssel- / -dorfer Sinti, von denen über 100 / aus dem Lager Höherweg abtrans- / -portiert und ermordet wurden. // Das Mädchen Ehra selbst gehörte / zu den wenigen KZ-Überlebenden.
Translation:
In memory of the Sinti and the Roma of Düsseldorf, who became victims of the genocide of National Socialism. It is a sculpture of a Sinti girl named Ehra, created by the artist Otto Pankoka (1893-1966). In this way the artist commemorates his fellow prisoners, the Düsseldorf Sinti, of whom more than 100 were deported from the Höherweg camp [to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau] and murdered. The girl called Ehra survived the concentration camp as one of the few.
Date of the unveiling
January 27, 1997
Author
Otto Pankok
Address
Alter Hafen (The Old Port), vicinity of Akademiestrasse 1, 40221 Düsseldorf, Germany
Location
51°13’28.9″N 6°46’15.2″E
51.224694, 6.770889
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Gallery
