Perhaps unseen stories echo within St. Lukas Church. On January 27 2002, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, St. Lukas Church dedicated a memorial wall. It commemorates civilian victims of National Socialism in Fuhlsbüttel. The wall stands in the memorial chapel. It acts as a counterpart to the Totenteppich. The Totenteppich is a death tapestry. It is made of stone slabs. This memorial is dedicated to fallen soldiers from Fuhlsbüttel.
The church council initiated the memorial wall. They shared their idea with the Alstertal Secondary School. The school’s advanced art course designed the memorial chapel. The church council chose a wall relief. It is made of 25 different square tiles. A project group was formed. It included six students, their art teacher, and the school head. Five members of the St. Lukas parish also participated.
The students thoroughly researched the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. They learned about the fates of forced laborers. These laborers came from Holland, Poland, Denmark, France, and the Soviet Union. The Willi-Bredel-Gesellschaft helped them meet a former forced laborer. Students researched their school’s history under the Nazis. They focused on Erna Stahl. She was a teacher and later the school’s headmistress. She was arrested in 1943 for resistance work. The project won the Bertini Prize in 2001.
Parish members interviewed eyewitnesses. They researched the church’s history. They investigated the fates of former Jewish residents of Fuhlsbüttel. This research took place in the state archive. Findings became themes for the memorial wall in St. Lukas. Anita Reé’s story is one theme. She created an altarpiece for the church. It was rejected because she was Jewish. Another theme is Kurzer Kamp 6. It was once the Mendelson-Israel-Stift home for the needy. The Nazis used it as a Judenhaus. Thirty-five Jews were deported from there to concentration camps and murdered. Individual persecuted Jewish families from Fuhlsbüttel are also remembered.
The project team crafted the tiles from clay. They fired them in the school’s kiln. One tile remains blank. It symbolizes unknown victims, unidentified injustices, and untold stories.
In 2005, a follow-up project installed Stolpersteine. These stumbling stones commemorate individual Nazi persecution victims from Fuhlsbüttel. Students and others funded the Stolpersteine through donations. Fifty Stolpersteine now exist in Fuhlsbüttel. They are dedicated in the presence of relatives when possible. Local students polish the stones each year. They commemorate the victims on Yom haShoah. This is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
St. Lukas stands as more than a church. It represents remembrance, reflection, and reconciliation. It embodies Hamburg’s commitment to confronting its past. The memorial wall serves as a lasting tribute. It honors those who suffered. It reminds us of the importance of vigilance and justice.