Berlin to get a Yad Vashem Street

"Dorotheenstraße" is written on a street sign near the Bundestag. Part of the street is to be renamed Yad Vashem Straße. (File photo)

In Berlin's government district, a section of Dorotheenstraße is to be named after the Yad Vashem International Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

The target date for this is January 20, 2027, the 85th anniversary of the Wannsee Conference, according to a Senate spokesperson.

Wegner: Remembering Shoah is integral and indispensable part of our history

At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, high-ranking Nazi officials discussed the systematic murder of up to eleven million European Jews. The aim of the meeting at a villa on Lake Wannsee was to accelerate the implementation of the genocide. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) said that with the renaming, the Yad Vashem memorial would occupy a special place in the heart of the government district. "Berlin is thus making it clear: The memory of the Shoah and of this crime against humanity committed in the name of Germany remains a fixed and unshakeable part of our history."

"The symbolism of the date is immense"

The Friends of Yad Vashem, the group behind the initiative to name a street in Berlin after Yad Vashem, welcomed the Senate’s decision and the announced date. "The symbolism of the date is immense. There could hardly have been a better day for the renaming," said Kai Diekmann, chairman of the Friends of Yad Vashem. "With this, Berlin is sending a strong signal against anti-Semitism and in favor of preserving the memory of the crimes against humanity committed in the name of Germany." A corresponding Senate resolution enables the responsible district of Mitte to rename the section of the street. According to reports, this involves a section of Dorotheenstraße leading toward the Reichstag building, between Wilhelmstraße to the east and Ebertstraße to the west.

Approval has already been granted by the Bundestag

The Bundestag had already approved the renaming by a resolution of the Council of Elders. "Street names shape our everyday memories. The naming of Yad Vashem Straße is therefore far more than just a change of a street name," said Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU). "Yad Vashem stands worldwide for the remembrance of the victims of the Shoah and the obligation to ensure that the inconceivable is not forgotten."