Platform 17 at Grunewald Station: Berlin's Holocaust Deportation Memorial

Updated on October 9, 2026

The Gleis 17 ("Platform 17") memorial stands on a former platform at Grunewald station in western Berlin. From 18 October 1941, the first trains carrying Berlin's Jews to be deported by the Reichsbahn left from here. Unveiled by Deutsche Bahn on 27 January 1998, it can be visited freely, at any hour and at no charge. Allow 20 to 30 minutes. The memorial is quiet and understated: about 160 metres of the original platform have been preserved, with rails where vegetation has grown back, as if to show that no train will ever leave from here again.

Highlights

The 186 cast-steel plates

Along the platform edge, 186 steel plates are set into the gravel in chronological order. Each shows the date of a transport that left Berlin, the number of people deported and the destination. The memorial is the work of Nikolaus Hirsch, Wolfgang Lorch and Andrea Wandel. The last transport, to Theresienstadt, dates from 27 March 1945.

The rails and the vegetation

The rails have been left in place, overgrown with grass and shrubs. Deportations left from Grunewald only in the early period: from 1942 they shifted to the Moabit goods station and then to other departure points in the city.

The Jewish Community plaques

Inside the station, bronze and enamel memorial plaques remember the Jewish victims, as well as the Sinti and Roma persecuted by the Nazi regime.

Practical info

Tips

This is a living place of remembrance with no ticket office or opening hours: there are no guided tours on site, and walkers or ceremonies should be respected. To understand the context, combine your visit with the House of the Wannsee Conference, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe or the Jewish Museum Berlin. See also: Berlin and the Second World War.

How to get there

Am Bahnhof Grunewald, 14193 Berlin. S-Bahn line S7 to Grunewald station; the memorial is signposted from the station. You can follow it with a walk in the nearby Grunewald forest.