JANUARY 12 • 2023 | 29

BLOCK DER FRAUEN / 
BLOCK OF WOMEN 

BY STEPHANIE BELSKY

Never underestimate the power of a 
group of angry women. 
One of the most impactful memo-
rials we saw while in Berlin was 
covered in graffiti, in a small park 
in the empty lot and former home 
of the Alte Synagogue — “The Old 
Synagogue” — which was destroyed in 
World War II on Rosenstrasse, one of 
Berlin’s oldest streets, and the site of 
the Jewish community center, which 
was built in 1905. 
It was in this spot that a courageous 
act of civil disobedience by hundreds 
of non-Jewish women took place. 
On Feb. 27, 1943, the Nazis deported 
the last remaining Jews in Berlin to 
Auschwitz. Of these 6,000 deportees, 
a group of 1,700 Jewish men who had 
married “Aryan” women and were 
considered to be in “mixed marriages” 
were separated from the group, arrest-
ed and held captive in a welfare office 
for the Jewish community located at 
Rosenstrasse 2–4. The wives, mothers, 
sisters and friends of these men mobi-
lized and publicly protested for their 
release. Of these men, only 27 were 
deported to Auschwitz. 
The first group of Jewish men 
were released on March 6, 1943, 
and others followed. The 27 men 
who had initially been deported 
to Auschwitz were released and 
sent back to Berlin. Can you 
imagine? These women were able 
to free the men being held in the 
community center before being 
deported and bring 27 back from 
the dead. Back from Auschwitz. 
The artist and sculptor 
Ingeborg Hunzinger created this 
memorial, Block of Women, in 
1995. Hunzinger was the daugh-
ter of a Jewish mother and want-
ed to commemorate one of the 
very few public acts of retaliation 
against the Nazis and to show 
that the idea of “no one could 
fight against the Nazis” was com-
pletely false; these brave women 

are proof. This protest was the only 
known public German protest against 
the deportation of Jews. 
The artist brilliantly portrays the 
anguish and fear that these women 
had of losing their menfolk, as two 
women console each other. Hunzinger 
shows the torment of the Jewish men, 
and the joyous reunification of the 
families. In the end, love won over 
hate. 
Further back from the sculptures 

of the women and men fighting for 
their lives, is a solitary figure sitting 
comfortably on a bench looking away 
from the scene taking place only feet 
away. This is meant to symbolize all 
of the people of Berlin — and around 
the world — who knew (who saw 
and heard) what was happening and 
still did nothing while millions of 
men, women and children were being 
persecuted and murdered during the 
Holocaust. 
This powerful multi-part 
memorial is a reminder that 
during a time of complete dark-
ness and suffering, there is still 
light and love, faith and hope, 
and a group of people who 
refused to accept their fate as 
inevitable.
Being in Germany while the 
U.S. and Michigan’s impending 
election with a woman’s right to 
choose on the ballot only three 
days away, I couldn’t help but 
have faith and be proud that 
I am part of another group of 
strong women who stand up for 
what they knew to be right and 
to fight for the truth and to fight 
the darkness with, and for, love. 

Stephanie Belsky lives in Royal Oak.

Ingeborg 
Hunzinger 
sculpture in 
Berlin

Stephanie Belsky, 
Jenna Lopatin, 
Marisa Meyerson, 
Erica Meyers

continued on page 30

