Topographie of Terror & Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Thoroughly filled with currywurst and Checkpoint Charlie museuming, Rick told us to follow the in-lain cobblestone path demarcating the trace of the Berlin Wall west to the Topographie of Terror. This is where Rick loses some of his credentials.

The Topographie of Terror had been the site of the main SS Office Building during WWII. It was destroyed during the war and so as to not provide Neo-Nazis a site to commemorate Hitler, the rubble has been left alone and is now grown over with shrubs. The main part of the park is now a vast field of gravel and only one wall of the old SS Building remains excavated as it had also served less notorious purposes before the war. Running parallel to the excavated wall is a remaining section of the Berlin Wall as well.

Across the street from the Topographie of Terror is the only Hitler-era building remaining. It had been the headquarters for the Germain Air Force and was not really damaged during the War. It now houses the German Finance Department. Aside from the wall, the only preserved portion of the SS HQ building are pillars which held up the driveway to the building. I can only assume these are left in memorial to all of the prisoners who were brought over this driveway on their way to being interrogated or tortured or worse.

Though Rick didn't even have a ranking for this site, Lizzie and I both agreed that the site and the museum here were amazing! And it's free! The museum is a large room with many informational panels throughout. There is a lot of information there, but not all at once, and it's large enough that you don't feel pressured to move on by others. We didn't think we were going to spend much time at the Topographie, but ended up staying at least an hour, which was almost not enough time!

But we had to move on! Just north of the Topographie of Terror is the site of Hitler's underground bunker, the activities of which are amazingly portrayed in the film, Downfall. There is nothing more than a little poster at the site, which was left buried and a parking lot paved over it. Excavators, though, worked with the set designers of the film and the movie set is a 1:1 replica of the bunker. Across the street from the bunker is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. Filling an entire city block are these giant blocks of stone. Though the stones themselves do not represent anything, the feeling you get as you walk through the alleyways between the teetering monoliths is very eerie. You can hear people talking and can tell where they are, but you never can figure out which alley they are down which inevitably ends up in some surprising encounters. Lizzie definitely was scared at one point and screamed!

Then, the worst thing that could possibly happen while traveling happened. I BROKE MY CAMERA!!! I was standing on one of the shorter blocks near the edge of the memorial and went to step to the next one over to take a photo. Somehow or other, I missed my step, and my foot slipped down between the blocks, and my left shin slammed into the top edge of the block. I put my hands out to catch my fall. I was okay, minus the bleeding gash in my leg, but my camera, which had been in my right hand bore the brunt of my falling weight and was crushed between me and the top of the stone. The display still worked, though the lens wasn't shutting and the zoomable optics no longer retracted...

Lizzie says I handled it better than she would have. Luckily I still have my iPhone with me so I can still take photos. They just won't be as good.

The Museum below the Memorial is also amazing! It is also free, but it is a dark, silent, commemorative space. The rooms are lit by displays depicting the lives of families through the war, letters and postcards sent during the war, details on various concentration camps, and a room where brief stories of countless individuals who lost their lives during the war are read aloud. The stone monuments above seem to sink down into the museum below and their footprints provide the design for displays, monitors, and benches throughout. This is an absolute must if coming to Berlin!

Lizzie and I then headed back to my guest-apartment, and I treated both her and Brian, my host, to dinner at Ruz, a Spanish Tapas restaurant around the corner from where I'm staying. Delicious food! Bacon-wrapped plums? I need that recipe!

Here is the entire photo set from my trip: