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On the site of the former Nazi Gestapo Headquarters and SS Central Command in Berlin (near Potsdamer Platz) is the free indoor and outdoor museum, Topographie des Terrors.
The Outside Museum at Topographie des Terrors
After the war, the site was leveled but made accessible to the public in 1987. Outside you’ll find the remains of the headquarters including where the garage, prison, and offices were.
The Indoor Museum at Topographie des Terrors
Indoors, you will find an exhibit with 5 themes:
The National Socialist Takeover of Power
Institutions of Terror (SS & Police)
Terror – Persecution – and Extermination on Reich Territory
SS and Reich Security Main Office in the Occupied Countries
and The End of the War and the Postwar Era.
The exhibit is comprised of photographs, documents, videos, computer stations, and reading folders. Everything (aside from the reading folders) is translated into English for international visitors.
Topographie des Terrors – highly recommended
I would highly recommend a visit to the Topographie des Terrors when you are in town to better understand the history of the Nazis and their High Command. Individuals (e.g. Heinrich Himmler) and procedure (eg. The Final Solution) are laid out in great detail sure to send a chill through even the coldest of hearts.
Do allow yourself a couple of hours to visit the museum between the opening hours of 10 am-6 pm.
UPDATED: As of 15 July 2020 – The documentation center and all its exhibition areas have reopened for visitors.
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