Holocaust, WWII & Third Reich Sites in Berlin
Berlin is still grappling with its role as the capital of a National Socialist Germany, which was responsible for World War II. Today, visitors to the city can explore certain remnants of the Third Reich and pay their respects at Holocaust sites. These include the Topography of Terror, which documents the history of the Nazi regime, and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, located just outside the city. Visiting these sites is a sobering reminder of the atrocities committed during this dark chapter in history, and a way to honour the victims and ensure their stories are never forgotten.
Anhalter Bahnhof
Inaugurated in 1841, Anhalter Bahnhof was one of Berlin’s most important train stations. And known as the Gateway to the South. During the Nazi era, it is estimated some 500,000 people fled the country from here. From 1942 to 1945 over 9,600 Jews were sent from here to Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. In the final months of Second World War the building was destroyed. A new museum telling the story of exile will open on this site in 2026.
Berlin Story Bunker
The WWII bunker on Schöneberger Straße near Anhalter Station was intended to shelter up to 3,000 commuters in the event of an air raid on Berlin. Today it houses the exhibition ‘Hitler – how could it happen’. With text, historic photographs and film, on three of the bunkers’ five levels, the rise of and demise of Hitler is documented in 40 separate displays. The exhibition has the only model of the Führerbunker. This self-guided tour takes between two and three hours.
Gleis 17 Memorial, Grunewald Station
The goods platform station of Grunewald S-Bahn is where an estimated 50,000 Jews from Berlin were transported to their death. From here, one of three deportation stations in Berlin, Jewish citizens were deported to labour and concentration camps in Riga, Warsaw, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Theresienstadt. Platform 17, or Gleis 17, has a metal installation that preserves the platform and records the dates of the departures, the number of people and their destinations.
Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center, Berlin-Schöneweide
During WWII 12 million people from around Europe were forced to work in the German economy. Labouring and living under appalling conditions. They were housed in specially constructed camps of barracks. Only one such camp has survived in Berlin, in the south east of the city. Over 400 forced labourers from Italy were among the detainees here. Today the camp is a documentation centre on Nazi forced labour. Poignant and moving exhibitions tell the stories of the men and women incarcerated here and elsewhere in Berlin during the war.
Schwerbelastungskörper - Heavy Load Exerting Body
Hitler’s megalomaniacal plans for a new Berlin at the heart of a Greater Germanic Empire included monumental structures, including an enormous triumphal arch. French forced labourers were required to create a load bearing body to test the soil conditions for the weight of the arch. They built a solid concrete cylinder, 21 m in diameter, 14 m high, and extending 18 m into the ground. A viewing platform allows you to see this sole surviving remains of Nazi urban planning for all angles.
Topography of Terrors
Topographie des Terrors in central Berlin is an indoor and outdoor exhibition space detailing the horrors of the Nazi regime. The site was the headquarters of both the SS and Gestapo. Who not only planned many atrocties here, but so too were prisoners tortured in the Gestapo cellar. Before May 1933 this was the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. The area was heavily destroyed at the end of the war, but recent excavations have uncovered the cellars and other basement elements.