Topography of Terror

Between 1933 and 1945, the central institutions responsible for the repressive and criminal policies of National Socialism were located at this site, which is now the area of the Topography of Terror, situated between Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse (today Niederkirchnerstraße), Wilhelmstrasse, and Anhalter Strasse.

The high-ranking officers of the SS (Hotel Prinz Albrecht), the headquarters of the Gestapo (Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8), and the headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst (Wilhelmstrasse 102) were all housed at this location.

With the concentration of these institutions in one location, this area effectively became the district of the National Socialist SS and State Police. Here, Himmler, Heydrich, Kaltenbrunner, and their assistants also had their offices.
Important decisions were made here regarding the persecution of political opponents, the "Germanization" of the occupied areas in Poland and the Soviet Union, the murder of Soviet prisoners of war, and the genocide of European Jews.
The notorious special police units (Einsatzgruppen) were also assembled and the "Wannsee Conference" was prepared here. There is no other location where so much terror and murder was planned and organized on such a large scale.


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Timour