Since November 9, 1938, known as the Night of Broken Glass, German Jews have been in the direct custody of the Nazi regime. Many were transferred to concentration camps, but many others remained in German cities and served the German war effort as forced labor.
In 1940, Otto Weidt opened a brush workshop in the center of Berlin. Due to his advanced age, he was losing his vision, so he became aware of the difficulties that people with this disability had. Due to this, he managed to get the German armament ministry to assign several dozen blind Jews to his workshop, who, had it not been for him, would have been quickly eliminated due to his inability to work in a concentration camp. .
The workshop was in operation until 1943, when the Gestapo closed it permanently and transferred its workers to Auschwitz, where most of them died. Otto Weidt, however, managed to save his secretary, a woman named Alice Licht, whom he hid in his house until the end of the war.
How to get to Otto Weidt's workshop
Otto Weidt's small workshop is located on the Rosenthalerstrasse. To get there we must go to the Hackeschermarkt station with the S3, S5, S7 or S9 S-bahn lines. To know the best combination to arrive you can consult the following LINK.
Opening hours
- Monday to Sunday – 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Free admission
Visit Otto Weidt's Workshop
Otto Weidt's former workshop is today a small museum where the story of its owner and his workers is told. The small exhibition has been located in the old brush workshops. In the display cases of the exhibition you can see objects used in the workshop and also personal objects of the former workers of the place.
