Topography of Terror

Topography of Terror is the official name of an exhibition in Berlin that addresses the horrors of the Nazi regime. Topography studies land forms and features, it traces the surface. The visitor has an annotated map to follow. Sometimes there is only an address, and often there are empty spaces, bombed during the war or blasted after the war. They are left to themselves and maintained as voids at the same time. Names may be changed but the evil seems to repel even developers.

You have to wonder if a place holds memory, if it remembers? Scientists can trace the blood, the bodies, the ashes, even after all these years. But can one measure the horror, the suffering, does it linger? When the body reacts by changing posture and step, and the eyes scrutinize every detail, is it simply the brain imagining, creating composites? - Would there be a change if one didn’t have a map?

All images were taken in March 2024 at the Topography of Terror site, Niederkirchnerstrasse 8 in Berlin. This street used to be called Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, the buildings bombed and demolished here were the headquarters of SS, SD, Einsatztruppen and Gestapo, including prison cells and torture chambers.