German Resistance Memorial Center - Exhibition

The fact that there was a National Socialist concentration camp in the middle of Berlin from 1933 to 1936, where more than 8000 people were imprisoned, was forgotten for decades. It was not until discussion over the use of the former Tempelhof Field during the 1990s that the Columbia-Haus began to be publicly remembered. 

Curated by Karoline Georg, Kurt Schilde, and Johannes Tuchel, the exhibition shows the Columbia-Haus Gestapo prison and concentration camp as a central instrument of early political persecution in Berlin. The camp was set up in a former military arrest facility on the Tempelhof Field and was the only camp in Berlin under SS supervision from the very beginning. It became a training center for many subsequent concentration camp commandants. From the summer of 1933 until November 1936, the Nazis exerted terror here against communists, Social Democrats, labor unionists, Jews, clergymen, dissidents, and homosexuals. The exhibition shows examples of prisoners' very different life stories, placing the Columbia-Haus in the overall context of National Socialist terror in Berlin for the first time.

The exhibition opened on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 in the German Resistance Memorial Center. 

Speakers: 
Prof. Dr. Johannes Tuchel: opening speech 
Dipl.-Pol. Karoline Georg: introduction to the exhibition 

The exhibition will be on display until June 30, 2024 in the special exhibition area on the first floor.