DP Camp Düppel Center

The Düppel Center was on the height of Potsdammer Chaussee 87, where the last building in its original state is located. There is a commemorative plaque on the house wall and an information board at the nearby bus stop. It was opened on January 12, 1946 by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)

From 1946 until 1948 it was a transit camp for Jews*Jews, most of whom fled from Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland, Soviet Union) to the west of destroyed Berlin, as they were no longer wanted in their countries. However, they wanted to travel on from there to Palestine or the USA in order to find a new home.

It was an area of about 200,000 square meters where only Jewish women*Jews lived and it was possible for them to continue their lives with all their traditions . It was practically like a world of their own where Yiddish was spoken and where they were safe.

The camp was initially a dead end, as the British blocked the way to Palestine and only occasional visas to enter the United States were granted. Since Soviet troops blocked all access routes to West Berlin in 1948, Berlin had to be supplied by air. In order to reduce the numbers of people in need of supplies, the American military governor agreed to close the camp. At the end of July 1948, the IRO (International Refugee Organization) camps in Schlachtensee and Tempelhof were closed. About 5500 DPs (Displaced Persons) are evacuated in "raisin bombers" of the American military. Only a few remained in Germany.

Shortly after that it became a camp for GDR refugees.

The buildings on the site were demolished except for one (Potsdammer Chaussee 87). Today there s a park named after the gifted Jewish violinist Yehudi Menuhin, a training center for socially disadvantaged youth and a refugee shelter.