Gedenkstätte Ahlem

The Gedenkstätte Ahlem stands in Hannover’s Ahlem district on the grounds of the former Israelitische Gartenbauschule. The site was turned into a memorial and educational centre in 1987, later taken over by the Region Hannover after 2001. It serves as the region’s central place for remembering Jewish persecution during the Nazi era. Exhibitions focus on the school’s history and the lives of Hannover’s Jewish residents. A room inside is named after Martin Gerson, and the centre holds records about the nearby Hannover-Ahlem subcamp. The permanent display traces persecution from the November 1938 pogrom and highlights the school’s role. A special events hall and a media library with a reading room are also part of the building. Outside, a recreated school garden marks the spot of the former Laubhütte where inmates were executed in early 1945. A slate memorial now covers the ruins, and a grove of trees around it is protected as a natural monument. Visitors walk among 3,000 name plaques in the “Wall of Names,” each listing dates of victims who passed through Ahlem on their way to death. An arcade lined with these plaques forms a quiet path through the garden. The memorial has repeatedly been targeted by right-wing vandalism since 2022, yet it remains a place where people gather to protest such attacks and honour the victims.