Distrusting the Parks: Heinz Knobloch's Journalism and the Memory of the Shoah in the GDR

“Distrust the parks.” ¹ The first sentence of Heinz Knobloch’s book on the Jewish philosopher and writer Moses Mendelssohn sounds alarming, but it does nevertheless accurately encapsulate the author’s agenda. Describing a seemingly peaceful, insignificant lawn in the center of Berlin, Knobloch soon points to its history as the site of the city’s oldest Jewish cemetery. Despite being marked with a somewhat hidden memorial plaque, the site could easily be mistaken for an actual park. “Someone might not have known this,” he tags, “it is not his fault that the Jewish cemeteries of most small and medium-sized cities have vanished, leveled as storage areas, flattened as car parks or covered over with grass—distrust the parks.” ²