Hands of the memorial in Jantarny

In Palmnicken in East Prussia, today’s Jantarny in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, a massacre of approximately 3,000 Jewish inmates of the Stutthof concentration camp was carried out during the night of January 31 to February 1, 1945. 13,000 people, mostly women, had been rounded up in the last days of January from the Stutthof subcamps of Heiligenbeil (now Mamonowo), Jesau (Juschny), Seerappen (Ljublino) and Schippenbeil (Sępopol) to Königsberg (Kaliningrad). Then SS men drove them in snow and ice in the direction of Palmnicken, where Hundreds were murdered or beaten to death on the way. The road was lined with corpses.

In 2011, the Jewish congregation of Kaliningrad inaugurated a memorial to the victims on the beach of Jantarny, created by the artist Frank Meisler. An annual memorial march of the community members on the anniversary of the massacre has become an important tradition.

To this day, survivors’ testimonies are scattered in many places. Here we try to gather all the information.

The Kaliningrad Jewish congregation is also trying to learn as many names of victims as possible in order to document them.

We ask for more information, with the help of which the page can be updated.

Last update JAN 10, 2022

Names of the murdered

Hilda Danneberg *1926

Lisbet Danneberg *1928

Sonia Dyna Schach nee Ginat, camp Schippenbeil (Sępopol), vha 4862

Rothschild Hillel

Sarah Kronisch, camp Heiligenbeil (Mamonowo),

Fela  Lewkowitz

Ruchcia Milner, *1928 camp Seerappen (Ljublino), vha 44173

Machcia Milner, *1926

Frania Naparstek

Mania Naparstek

Miriam Ptak, *1920, from Lodz, shot during the march

Helia Raidenbach

Breindl Salz, *1926, camp Heiligenbeil (Mamonowo), from Cracow, killed during the march

Gita Salz, *1922, camp Heiligenbeil (Mamonowo), from Cracow, killed during the march

Ganka Sonnenstern

Mania-Matl Yakubowitz

Names of the survivors

Genia Biedermann (nee Weinberg), camp Jesau (Juschny), vha 2395

Maria Blitz (nee Salz), *1918, camp Heiligenbeil (Mamonowo), from Cracow

Walter Falkenstein, *1899, from Hochneukirch near Grevenbroich (Germany)

Alter Feder

Sasha Friedenstein, *1925, camp Waggonfabrik Steinfurth Königsberg, from Riga, vha 55269

Ester Frielman, (nee Fischbein), *1925

Mana Gleismann, (nee Zweig)

Dora Hauptman, *1919, camp Jesau (Juschny)

Dina (Dusha) Herzberg, (nee Blachman), *1926, camp Jesau (Juschny), from Lodz

Frida Klaynman (Gabrylewicz), *1922, camp Seerappen (Ljublino), from Lodz

Pnina (Pola) Kronisch, *1927, from Belzec, camp Heiligenbeil (Mamonowo)

Sheva Levi, *ca 1910, camp Seerappen (Ljublino), from Lask,

Bluma Lonicki, (nee Landgarten), *1914, under name Bronislawa Krakauer listed in Yad Vashem , camp Jesau (Juschny)

Celina Manielewicz (nee Moshkowitz), *1921, camp Jesau (Juschny)

Regina Mueller (nee Lieberbaum)

Zysla Muller (nee Lieberbaum), *1926, camp Schippenbeil (Sępopol), vha 18848

Eva Minka Nagler (nee Ginat), *1926, Schippenbeil (Sępopol), vha 4862

Chana Ojzerowicz, camp Schippenbeil (Sępopol)

Henia Ptasznik (nee Milner), *1922, vha 44173

Pola Zwardon, (nee Mondschein), *1909, camp Heiligenbeil (Mamonowo)

Bibliography English

Blitz, Maria, and Uwe Neumärker. Final Days in East Prussia: An Unspoken Chapter of the Holocaust.  2019. 

Kossert, Andreas, ““Endlösung on the ‘Amber Shore’” The Massacre in January 1945 on the Baltic Seashore—A Repressed Chapter of East Prussian History.” The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 49.1 (2004): 3-22. Link to Pdf

Leiserowitz, Ruth, Palmnicken and further questions (Research outline) 2021 Pdf-document (English) >>

Nagler, Eva. Massacre on the Baltic. Glebe: Wild & Woolley, 1995.

Bibliography German

Bergau, Martin, Der Junge von der Bernsteinküste. Berlin 2012.

Bergau, Martin, Hans-Jochen Vogel, und Andreas Kossert. Todesmarsch zur Bernsteinküste : Das Massaker an Juden im ostpreußischen Palmnicken im Januar 1945 : Zeitzeugen erinnern sich. Heidelberg 2006.

​Blitz, Maria, Endzeit in Ostpreussen: Ein beschwiegenes Kapitel des Holocaust. Berlin: Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, 2013.

Leiserowitz, Ruth, Palmnicken und weitere Fragen (Forschungsskizze) 2021 Pdf-Dokument (Deutsch) >>

Links

vha (+number of interview) = Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation collection

Audio Interview Maria Blitz
Video interview with Maria Blitz (German) Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (with registration)

Audio Interview Eva Nagler