The “House Prison” at Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin

2. revised and enlarged edition

The exhibition on the “House Prison” of the Gestapo headquarters focuses on the stories of numerous prisoners: their careers, resistance activities, experiences of incarceration in the “House Prison,” and their subsequent fate.

The example of this site illustrates the great importance of covert and open terror against political opponents for securing Nazi rule. This place also stands as evidence of people in National Socialist Germany – albeit a small minority – who were determined to maintain their political and moral integrity, refusing to tolerate the crimes of the dictatorship. As individuals or in groups they chose refusal, protest, and resistance, and many of them lost their lives in the process.

A selection of more detailed biographies also highlights the varied backgrounds from which inmates came. Chapters offering an overview of the history of the SS and the police allow us to locate the history of the “House Prison” within the broader framework of the “SS state.”