In the years before it served as a Jewish burial ground, the land where the Schönhauser Allee Cemetery now stands was home to a brewery and dairy farm. Many of the brewery’s architectural elements, such as cisterns, can still be seen in the cemetery today. It was alleged that in one of these cisterns a handful of deserters from the German Army hid to evade capture as World War II drew to a close. Ultimately, these men were discovered by the gestapo and hanged from the trees of the cemetery…
