The pot & sons memorial site

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Building of the place of remembrance

The Topf & Sons memorial site is a memorial site with an exhibition and adjoining rooms for educational work in the former administration building of the JA Topf and Sons company in Erfurt , which supplied part of the technical equipment for the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and other concentration camps . The curator of the place is the historian Annegret Schüle .

history

The company JA Topf and Sons , founded in 1878, manufactured crematorium ovens and ventilation technology for gas chambers for the SS from 1941 . After World War II , the company was a state-owned enterprise in the GDR continued and went to the 1994 bankruptcy .

The idea of ​​setting up a memorial on site already came up during this time. In 2001 the site was occupied until it was cleared by the police in 2009. Even during this time, guided tours and events co-organized by the occupiers took place on the site. After the clearance, the factory buildings, most of which were still in their original state, with the exception of the former administration building, were demolished and the site was rebuilt.

After many years of refusal, the city administration agreed in 2008 to rent rooms in the former administration building and to set up a historical site there.

The Cologne architects Kastner Pichler in collaboration with the designer Gerd Fleischmann received the order for the design . The place of remembrance became on January 27, 2011 with the permanent exhibition Technicians of the "Final Solution". Topf & Sons: The Auschwitz furnace maker opens.

Buildings and outdoor facilities

Lettering on the place of remembrance

The administration building was rebuilt in 2009/2010. The permanent exhibition was housed in the former drawing room on the third floor. Overall, a simple design was pursued during the renovation, which preserves the gutted condition of the rooms and thus does not distract from the content. The main items on display are correspondence and construction drawings that document the company's natural use of technology for mass murder . Some testimonials such as the urns used are also shown. The writing “Always happy to work for you…” was applied to the building, which also refers to the company's business and acts as a symbol of the place of remembrance towards the train station and Weimarische Strasse. A model of the factory and a memorial stone were placed in front of the building.

Exhibitions

The permanent exhibition “Technicians of the 'final solution' is located on the third floor of the building. Topf and Sons - The Oven Builders of Auschwitz ”, which refers to the achievements of the Topf and Sons company . Among other things, there are offers and dispatch notes that confirm the order or the delivery of various components of incinerators or urns. You can also find telegrams from camp guards and other SS officials requesting the redesign of the incinerator. The focus is not only on the product range of the company at the time, but also provides information on the experiences of the so-called special commands .

One floor below is a conference room in which group discussions can be held and image and video material can be viewed with the help of projectors. Guided groups come together after a tour through the upper floor to discuss what they have learned and to exchange ideas.

Furthermore, there is a hall on the second floor of the building in which regularly changing special exhibitions are shown.

photos

  • Monument in the ground in front of the building

  • Lettering on the outdoor exhibition of the place of remembrance

  • SS telegram to JA Topf & Sons

  • Dispatch advice for individual parts required to build an incinerator

  • Various documents from the indoor exhibition

literature

  • Steffen Raßloff : 100 monuments in Erfurt. History and stories. Klartext, Essen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8375-0987-8 , pp. 188-189.
  • Annegret Schüle : Industry and the Holocaust. Topf & Sons - The furnace builders of Auschwitz. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0622-6 .
  • Annegret Schüle: International traveling exhibition Industry and Holocaust. Topf & Sons - The furnace builders of Auschwitz. (= Accompanying volume for the traveling exhibition). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95565-223-4 .
  • Annegret Schüle: JA Topf & Sons - An Erfurt family business and the Holocaust. State Center for Political Education Thuringia, Erfurt 2014, ISBN 978-3-943588-45-3 .
  • Thuringian State Parliament, City Administration Erfurt (Ed.): Opening "Pot & Sons - The Oven Builders of Auschwitz". Erfurt 2011 ( PDF ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julika Bürgin: Should there be a “Topf & Sons Memorial” in Erfurt? In: City and History, magazine for Erfurt, 4/00. P. 24; Steffen Raßloff: 100 monuments in Erfurt. History and stories. Klartext, Essen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8375-0987-8 , pp. 188-189.
  2. ^ Project: a place of remembrance, Topf & Sons Erfurt. In: kastnerpichler.de. Accessed January 30, 2019 .
  3. ^ Dörthe Gromes: Engineers of Murder. In: Zeit Online. January 20, 2011, accessed January 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ As early as 2005, the exhibition was named Technician of the "Final Solution". Topf & Sons: The Auschwitz furnace builders presented in the Jewish Museum in Berlin and in the Erfurt City Museum.

Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 20.2 "  N , 11 ° 2 ′ 55.2"  E