Private forest school Kaliski

The “Private Waldschule Kaliski” was founded in 1932 by the Jewish teacher Lotte Kaliski, after she came to Berlin a year earlier and found no employment, partly because of her physical disability. The school was first opened in Eichkamp. Until 1934, Jewish and non-Jewish children were taught there under reformist educational approaches. From Easter 1934, all non-Jewish children and teachers had to leave the school. In 1936 the school was relocated to Dahlem, Im Dol 2-6, to a villa whose residents had previously emigrated from Germany to Austria. The school was renamed in 1936 from “Private Waldschule Kaliski” to “Private Jüdische Schule Kaliski”. Between 1936 and 1939, about 320 students studied in the school. The focus of the lessons was on preparing the students for emigration. The school was forcibly closed in 1939 under the Nazi regime. Lotte Kaliski emigrated to New York a year before her school was closed, in 1938, and nine years later opened the New Kaliski Country Day School for handicapped children.