European Central Bank hosts Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at its Frankfurt headquarters and creates an annual Memorial Garden

The European Central Bank hosted a commemorative event on International Holocaust Remembrance Day at its main building in Frankfurt’s Ostend, paying tribute to Holocaust victims and highlighting the historical significance of the Grossmarkthalle site. The ceremony also marked the creation of an ECB Memorial Garden, beginning with the presentation of a magnolia tree to designer and philanthropist Diane von Fürstenberg. The programme included addresses by ECB President Christine Lagarde, the City of Frankfurt’s Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture and Science Ina Hartwig, Jewish Museum Frankfurt Director Mirjam Wenzel and Hessian State Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight Against Antisemitism Uwe Becker, as well as a discussion between Lagarde and von Fürstenberg on family history, intergenerational trauma and hope. The ECB reiterated that the Grossmarkthalle’s eastern wing basement was used between 1941 and 1945 as a gathering point for deporting more than 10,000 Jewish people to concentration camps, and noted that it has established a memorial with engraved testimonies in cooperation with the Jewish Community Frankfurt and the City of Frankfurt am Main. The magnolia tree, a new breed named Lily Nahmias in honour of von Fürstenberg’s late mother who survived Auschwitz, will be the first tree in the Memorial Garden, with a new tree to be added each year.