Place of execution

Here is a look at the execution room at Plötzensee. Originally prisoners were executed one at a time by guillotine, but later they installed the hanging bar you see in the back where up to eight prisoners could be assassinated at a time. Some school groups had visited earlier and left letters and roses in memorial, a touching gesture.

Sorry to make such a downer post on a Friday. Hope you have something exciting planned. I'll be on the golf course (where else?) and at the apartment. We have at least half a kitchen now!

PS: I am posting photos from my recent trip to Paris on my other photoblog, Halcyon Travels. Please stop by and take a look. You can click here or on the link on the right side of this page. Enjoy!

Blue skies over Plötzensee

Although the Plötzensee Memorial is a very somber place, it was nice to have a beautiful blue sky above on the day I visited. I originally heard about this spot after reading Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. It's a fiction book based on a true story of a couple in Berlin who wrote postcards against Hitler and the Nazis and distributed them around Berlin. The couple went three years before being caught and were eventually tried and executed here at the Plötzensee prison. 

If you sit on the benches in my first shot, you have a perfect view of the Memorial wall. It says, "To the victims of the Hitler dictatorship, years 1933 -1945". It's a very simple, yet moving reminder that we must never forget those terrible times.

PS: I am posting photos from my recent trip to Paris on my other photoblog, Halcyon Travels. Please stop by and take a look. You can click here or on the link on the right side of this page. Enjoy!

Plötzensee Memorial

Gedenkstatte Plötzensee is on the site of the old part of Plötzensee Prison (there is still a functioning prison here). During the Nazi years around three thousand people were executed here, most of them political dissidents. I'll be showing more of the memorial site in the days to come. Until then, you can find more signs at Signs, Signs.

PS: I am posting photos from my recent trip to Paris on my other photoblog, Halcyon Travels. Please stop by and take a look. You can click here or on the link on the right side of this page. Enjoy!