It was here, where the Gestapo headquarters were located, ehm, the leading offices of the SS, the headquarter of the secret service of the SS and at least since 1939 the headquarters of the Reichs-security main offices were located on this area here. And now we are presenting here an exposition, which is dealing with the history of the institutions which were seated here.
The entrance of this bulding here, „Prinz-Albrechtstraße Nr. 8“ was one of the fewest adresses in Berlin, all women and men, who were in opposition to Nazi regime at this time, they knew this adress.
But the Gestapo was not only responsible for the persecution of people out of political reasons. But the Gestapo was also involved in one of the important institutions within the Holocaust.
The question is, what kind of people were working within the Gestapo, what are the Gestapo officials, you know?
But I think, it´s very important to see, ehm, they were no monsters or something like that. They were ordinary men, they had their families, they had their children at home and doing their work. And their work was at first persecution of people, persons out of political reasons or on the other side, later on, during the war especially, the organization for example of the deportation of jews in the camps.
Just have a look at this photo: which we´re seeing here members of a special command Nr. 8, uh, in their free-time in an occupied area in the Soviet Union near Mogilev, you know. Ehm, and once again, when we compare it with the officials of the Gestapo Flensburg, which we have seen just before, once again you can see, they´re young, more or less young people, they are friendly, they are, ehm, ordinary men, you know, and on the other side, when we have a look at the job, they were doing, you know, we can see, they were responsible for example for mass murders.
I think, we can´t give answers, you know. We can open a field for discussion. We provide information and the visitors, eh, task is to come to their own results, you know.