Topographie des Terrors (Arrangement of the Terrors) Sept/Oct 2007
In 1945 Gestapo headquarters was damaged but not destroyed by allied bombing. After the war Berlin was divided into four sectors: French, British, American and Soviet, and this building was in or near the Soviet sector. The commies, seeing no historical value in the building had it torn down and the area buldozed flat. In 1961 they built the Berlin wall, about 75 miles in length, a part of which ran right in fromt of where the HQ once stood. A remnent of that wall at the site was preserved and remains there today.
After unification in 1989 someone discovered that the Gestapo basement was largely intact under all that dirt. This basement had a notorious reputation in its time because it contained a prison and torture chambers, and people who were sent there rarely came out alive. The federal government had the site partially excavated and turned into a museum named Topographie des Terrors. In approximately a 100 yard walk from beginning to end it photographically depicts the rise and fall of the Nazis and some of the horrors they committed from 1933 to 1945 in chronological order. This is a tiny representation here.
Another reminder to the Germans, and the world -- never again!
Gestapo headquartersc. 1940 on notorius Prinz Albert Strasse. The street was later named Niederkirchenstrasse after a 36 year old lady communist martyr execusted by the Nazis in 1944.
excavated basement, with a section of "the wall" preserved just above it
They love him. Notice all the flags. Just like at home after 911.
More adulation.
The beloved.
Himmler, center, head of SS. One time he witnessed some executions by rifle fire, got spattered with blood,and said there must be a better way. Cyclon B gas was then used and mass executions began.
Mehr Verherrlichen. More Adulation. by the troops.
Hitler with his friend Rohm, leader of the early "brown shirts" who he later had executed for posing a threat to his rule.
SS troops
Himmler reviews SS troups.
"vernichtung" is extermination, which they did often.
Jewish store.
sign says "Jews, enter this place at your own risk"
Kristall Nacht, 1939, main Jewish synagogue torched along with nearly all others in Berlin. Many Jews killed by rioters.
Summary justice for being the wrong person, saying the wrong thing, or just because.
More justice
GIs walking in downtown Berlin, post war
Reichstag, I think
1947, still in bad shape
Gestapo HQ 1945
U-Bahn (metro) going home
9/2/2008 :
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