This building housed the headquarters of the Geheime Staats Polizei ‘Gestapo’ during World War II. After ‘Operation Gomorrah’, the devastating British bombing in 1943, the building was so damaged that it was no longer usable. Hamburg's Gestapo was notorious and for countless people it was a place of ill-treatment, torture and deprivation before being deported to prisons, concentration camps and execution sites.
A plaque against the facade recalls this dark period:
'WIR MERDENKEN DER OPFER
Die hier während der nationalsozialistischen gewältherrschaft under der geheimen Staatspolizei gelitten habben. Fur viele war dies die erste leidensstation auf dem weg in die konzentrationslager.
VERTEIDIGT DIE MENSCHENRECHTE'
'WE COMMEMORATE THE VICTIMS
who suffered here under the secret state police during the National Socialist dictatorship. For many, this was the first place of suffering on their way to the concentration camps.
‘DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS’
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