#yellowbrickwall

The Löcknitz school is in a Berlin neighborhood that was then populated by 16,000 Jews. Albert Einstein, theologian Leo Baeck, sociologist Erich Fromm, and author Alfred Kantorowicz numbered among illustrious Jews who had lived there. The school was built on the site of a former synagogue.

As it happened, a building was being constructed near Niclasen’s home with yellow bricks. She acquired a handful for her project. Students then wrote the name, birth date, and date and place of death on their bricks. Then they placed the bricks—27 in all—in the school yard, the start of a wall that would grow a bit each year. As each student presented a brick, he would say “I think of this person because…” and state some information about the person.

Today the project, called Denkmal an jüdische Mitbürger—a word play that literally means Memorial: Think about our Jewish neighbours, has become a highly anticipated tradition. Students have laid 1,500 bricks, and there’s plenty of room for more.