The Germans are very open and remorseful about the Nazi history that has tainted their recent experiences as a people. After re-unification they chose to redevelop a once infamous area of the city into a devastating reminder of just what can happen when a people deliberately choose to follow a leader like Hitler and the Nazis. They did choose - they voted almost overwhelmingly for the Nazis and then supported the Parliaments self-destruction.
What emerged from that was state within a state that is represented at its worst by the activities of the Reich security services and one one element of that apparatus in particular - the Geheime Stats Polizei or Gestapo for short.
This is one of the original underground cells at Prinz Albrecht Strasse - the HQ of the Reich Security services. The whole area is now a museum (the Topography of Terror) that forensically details how the Nazis got into power, the organisations they used to maintain power and the results.
This is looking back along the length of the underground chambers - in the background is part of the Berlin Wall, another reminder of totalitarianism.
A shot of two unfortunate inmates clearly showing the terror that such an environment created. The Nazis and the Gestapo started initially by liquidating known political opponents - so members of the Communist party, trade unionists etc. They then moved onto to other 'undesirable' groups. The best know being the Jews of course. But there were hundreds of thousands of others. Gypsies, religious leaders, homosexuals, resistance fighters. Patients of asylums, handicapped individuals - the Nazis introduced the word 'euthanasia' to describe the systematic elimination of elements that would contaminate their twisted view of perfection.
It started with a populist political viewpoint that people supported. It ended with a World War and the Holocaust.
A view of the unsettling Memorial to the Holocaust. A vast field of massive granite 'stelle' or blocks. You walk in between them and the path goes up and down. You can disappear into the memorial. It is powerful and thought provoking.
As I said at the start, the Germans are remorseful.
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