[1] The orphanage was originally intended to be a home for refugee children who had escaped the pogroms following the assassination of Emperor Alexander II of Russia in 1881.

[1] Due to the fact that many of the children had lost their parents, the Jewish community of Berlin converted the home into an orphanage in 1882.

[1] Following the November pogroms of 1938 the director of the orphanage, Kurt Crohn succeeded in saving the lives of many children by the means of kindertransports to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, among these was Leslie Baruch Brent.

The building fell into disrepair and was acquired from its owner (the state of Israel) by the Dr. Walter and Margarete Cajewitz Foundation in 1999.

[2][3][4] The memory of the Jewish orphanage is preserved by an association of friends and sponsors, among these are Jutta Limbach, Wolfgang Thierse and the late Christa Wolf.