NS DOK El-De Haus: Retracing the steps of Nazi history in Cologne

I recently visited the El-De Haus in Cologne, a former center of the Gestapo and now the NS Documentation Centre of Cologne, which left a profound impression on me. The house is not like other museums; it is a storyteller of a dark chapter in Cologne’s history and a stark reminder of the horrors that totalitarian regimes like the Nazis can inflict. What I liked most is that the documentation center focuses on the story of victims and the resistance to the Nazi regime, giving them much more space than the perpetrators. Here is a summary of the exhibition, coupled with my personal reflections. All photographs presented were taken by me, and the accompanying descriptions are primarily based on information provided by the documentation center.

Exhibition area of the NS Documentation Centre in the El-De Haus.

• Cologne under the Nazi dictatorship
• The El-De Haus
• NS Documentation sites
• Youth resistance groups in Cologne
  • The Navajo group
  • Edelweiss Pirates
• Acts of resistance in Cologne
• “Forgotten victims” of the Nazi regime
  • “Social outcasts”
  • Homosexuals
  • Disabled individuals
  • Roma and Sinti
• Jews in Cologne
• Consequences of war for Cologne’s population
• The Gestapo cells in the cellar: Silent witnesses to oppression, brutality and torture
  • Adventurous escape
• Conclusion
• References and further reading

Cologne under the Nazi dictatorship

Before the regime change, Cologne was a bustling hub of cultural diversity and liberal thought. Known for its vibrant arts scene and the celebrated Cologne Carnival, the city epitomized openness and creativity. However, this dynamic landscape underwent a drastic transformation under the Nazi regime.

As the Nazis seized power, Cologne’s cityscape and culture shifted dramatically. Nazi architectural principles began to dominate, with imposing structures emerging to reflect the regime’s ideology. Public life, once marked by a rich tapestry of cultural expression, was now under the shadow of censorship and propaganda. The once-lively arts and cultural scene was suppressed, replaced by state-sanctioned events designed to bolster the Nazi ideology. The Cologne Carnival, a symbol of the city’s identity, was not spared, as it too was co-opted and ‘browned’ to align with Nazi propaganda. For example, traditional carnival parades and festivities, once a celebration of local culture and humor, willingly or unwillingly transformed into events promoting Nazi racial ideology. This appropriation demonstrated the regime’s intent to infiltrate and reshape all aspects of cultural life.

Office of the Cologne NSDAP, Hohenzollernring 81, 1928.

The Jewish community in Cologne, once integral to the city’s vibrant cultural and economic life, faced devastating persecution. Systematic disenfranchisement, dispossession, and eventual deportation marked the harrowing experience of the Jews in Cologne. The once-thriving Jewish quarters stood as a haunting reminder of the community that had been torn apart by the Holocaust.

Meeting of leading National Socialists of the Rhineland branch in Cologne, 1928.

Cologne was also a site of brutal atrocities. The city saw the establishment of forced labor camps and detention centers. These sites were grim embodiments of the regime’s cruelty and inhumanity, where countless individuals were subjected to extreme hardship and degradation. For instance, the Messelager Köln, a notorious forced labor camp located at the Cologne Trade Fair in Deutz, was a place of severe mistreatment and suffering for many prisoners. Additionally, during the war, companies like Ford in Cologne utilized forced labor, with workers living under appalling conditions, deprived of basic rights and subjected to harsh treatment. These examples illustrate the widespread use of forced labor in Cologne and the inhumane conditions under which people were forced to work, reflecting the broader cruelty of the Nazi regime in urban centers.

Cologne during the Nazi regime.

At the heart of this dark chapter was the El-De Haus, the Gestapo’s headquarters in Cologne. It became a symbol of terror within the city – a place where detainees were held, interrogated, and tortured. The El-De Haus played a pivotal role in the regime’s machinery of repression, serving as a stark reminder of the inhumanity and brutality that pervaded the city during the Nazi dictatorship.

Entrance to the Protestant parish hall in Cologne-Bayenthal (Martin Luther House), inaugurated in 1934; relief on the left: Martin Luther; relief on the right: SA man. In 1932, the National Socialist-oriented faith movement German Christians emerged within the Protestant Church. Supported by the new regime’s policy of equalization, the German Christians in Cologne achieved considerable success in 1933. Throughout the entire Nazi era, they exercised a decisive influence in most Cologne parishes and church bodies.

The El-De Haus

The El-De Haus, originally built for business purposes, became the headquarters of the Gestapo (“Geheime Staatspolizei” or Secret State Police) in Cologne. Its transformation from a commercial building to a center of Nazi terror is emblematic of the broader changes in Germany at the time. The building’s architecture, which now seems unassuming, hides a past filled with secrets and terror, making it a potent symbol of the city’s suffering and resilience during the Nazi era.

El-De Haus around 1936. The headquarters of the Secret State Police (Gestapo) for the government district of Cologne was based in this building from December 1935 to March 1945. Investigations, interrogations, torture and murder took place here.

The Gestapo’s use of the El-De Haus is a grim chapter in its history. The building was a site of terror: a place for interrogations, imprisonment, and torture. The cellars, where many were held and abused, stand as a stark reminder of the cruelty inflicted upon those who opposed the Nazi regime or were deemed undesirable.

The Appellhofplatz court building, directly opposite El-De Haus, was the seat of the district court, the regional court and also the special courts. Around 600 trials for ‘racial defilement’ were held here. In 1979, the trial of Kurt Lischka, who was head of the Cologne Gestapo in the EL-DE building in 1940, took place there.

Another photo that gives a further impression of how central and embedded the El-De Haus was and is in the city.

However, its story doesn’t end with the fall of the Third Reich. Post-war, the building faced the possibility of being forgotten or repurposed, erasing its dark history. It was the dedication and perseverance of committed citizens of Cologne that led to its preservation and transformation into a NS Documentation Centre. These engaged individuals recognized the building’s significance as a testament to the past, ensuring it would serve as a perpetual reminder and educational site for the atrocities committed by the Gestapo. This act of civic responsibility helped to repurpose a site of terror into one of remembrance and learning, making the El-De Haus a powerful symbol of Cologne’s resilience and commitment to confronting its history.

On March 18, 1987, Cologne citizens staged a protest in front of and inside the EL-DE House demanding the establishment of a Nazi documentation center. They even managed to reach the city’s head of legal affairs, Dr. Simon.

Protest poster for the establishment of an NS documentation site in the EL-DE House.

NS Documentation sites

NS documentation sites like the El-De Haus play a vital role in Germany’s efforts to confront its Nazi past. These sites serve as educational resources, providing historical context and personal stories to illustrate the extent of Nazi crimes. They help in understanding the societal structures that allowed such atrocities to occur and the importance of vigilance in preserving democratic values.

Cologne, scarred by its past, is home to several other documentation sites. Each site offers a different perspective on the Nazi era, from the roles of ordinary citizens and the church to the experiences of various victim groups. Collectively, these sites paint a comprehensive picture of the city’s struggle and endurance under Nazi rule.

Today’s exhibition area of the NS Documentation Centre in the EL-DE House.

Today’s exhibition area of the NS Documentation Centre in the EL-DE House.

The library of the El-De Haus.

Youth resistance groups in Cologne

Which was completely new to me was the existence and the amount of youth resistance groups in Cologne. I was aware of the White Rose and the Scholl siblings, but I had no idea that there were so many other groups. The El-De Haus has a dedicated section to these groups, which I found very interesting and inspiring.

Protest action against voting for the Nazis.

The Navajo group

The Navajo Group was a resistance group comprised mainly of young individuals from Cologne. Inspired by American Western culture, they adopted the name “Navajo,” symbolizing their desire for freedom and adventure, starkly contrasting the rigid conformity demanded by the Nazi regime. Their activities included listening to banned American music, discussing forbidden ideas, and occasionally engaging in acts of defiance against the Hitler Youth. The group was eventually discovered by the Gestapo, leading to the arrest and interrogation of several members. Their fate is a stark reminder of the dangerous reality of resisting the Nazi regime, especially for the youth who dared to defy the system.

Some of the non-conformist youths were willing and able to carry out politically motivated actions. In mid-September 1942, for example, slogans such as ‘Heil Navajo’ were painted on the walls of public buildings in the city center overnight.

Edelweiss Pirates

The Edelweiss Pirates emerged as a youth subculture opposed to the Nazi regime’s strict control over young people’s lives. They rejected the Hitler Youth’s ideology, engaging in nonconformist behavior such as hiking, camping, and singing songs banned by the Nazis. The group also participated in more overt acts of resistance, such as distributing anti-Nazi leaflets and aiding deserters and prisoners of war. Their defiance led to severe repercussions, with members of the group being monitored, arrested, and in some tragic instances, executed. The fate of the Edelweiss Pirates underscores the perilous nature of resistance in Nazi Germany, especially for those who stood against the regime’s indoctrination of youth.

Cologne Edelweiss pirates on the Rhine, around 1940

Cologne Edelweiss pirates in Beethoven Park, 1943.

Acts of resistance in Cologne

Resistance in Cologne during the Nazi regime took various forms, ranging from covert activities to more visible protests. Many groups used hidden messages in their publications or public spaces to subtly undermine the regime. Open protests, although rare due to the high risk of immediate and severe punishment, did occur. These acts, whether small gestures of non-conformity or larger organized protests, represented a significant challenge to the Nazi regime. The participants of these acts often faced harsh retribution, including arrest, torture, and execution, highlighting the extreme risks involved in any form of resistance.

In response to the National Socialist attacks, the German Bishops’ Conference set up the “Defense Office against Anti-Christian Propaganda” in Cologne in 1934, which was headed by the cathedral vicar Josef Teusch. In the following years, this office distributed around 20 brochures in the German Reich with a total circulation of around 17 million copies. Confessional pamphlets were also published within the Protestant church to ward off National Socialist attacks.

The resistance groups used the spoken and written word almost exclusively as a form of political struggle. In addition to writing situation reports, which found their way into publications abroad, and distributing leaflets and anonymous flyers, camouflage pamphlets smuggled in from abroad were mainly used to inform people about the true nature of the regime.

Communists and Social Democrats hid their protest messages in disguised writings.

Call for resistance.

“Das Dritte Reich” by Gerd Arntz. Screen print from 1978 after the woodcut from 1934. Gerd Arntz, born in Remscheid in 1900, belonged to the Cologne Progressive artists’ group in the 1920s. He worked in Vienna from 1928. In 1934 he emigrated to The Hague. In 1936, an enlargement of this graphic was shown in Amsterdam at the exhibition “De Olympiade Onder Dictatuur”. It had to be removed at the insistence of the German removed at the insistence of the German embassy.

Election posters against Hitler, before 1933.

Protest graffiti by a Catholic youth group, 1942.

The book printer Karl Küpper (1905-1970) was a local celebrity in Cologne’s carnival and known as ‘Dr Verdötschte’. Carnival in Cologne began to come to terms with the Nazi regime after 1933, but Karl made no secret of his distanced stance towards the Nazi regime. He displayed this subtly but clearly in his performances. He soon stopped participating in radio broadcasts with the explanation: “Die dunn do immer su komisch ‘Hallo’ roofe” (“They always shout hello so strangely”), an allusion to the Hitler salute. He also satirized it on stage. When he entered, he often raised his right arm and said to the surprise of the audience: “Su huh litt bei uns dr Dreck em Keller!” (“That’s how high the dirt is in our cellar!””). Initially, his popularity secured him further appearances, until he was banned from speaking in February 1939 and ordered to report regularly to the Gestapo. He escaped further sanctions by enlisting in the Wehrmacht. After 1945, Karl Küpper renounced a major career.

Association headquarters of the Catholic workers’ associations of West Germany, Kettelerhaus, Odenkirchener Straße 26 (today Bernhard-Letterhaus-Straße), ca. 1929. From the mid-1930s onwards, clergy and lay functionaries of the Catholic workers’ movement, the Kolping family and Rhenish centrist politicians held conspiratorial meetings in the Kettelerhaus, later also in the Kolpinghaus in Breite Straße. The members of the discussion group in the Kettelerhaus were part of the extended resistance circle from among which Count Stauffenberg carried out an assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944. Most of the members of this circle were arrested by the Gestapo in August 1944 as part of the so-called Operation Thunderstorm and initially imprisoned in the Deutzer Messe or in the El-De Haus.

Georg Fritze (1874-1939), 1938. Georg Fritze had been a Protestant pastor in Cologne since 1916. He was one of the founding members of the group of religious socialists in 1920 and joined the Confessing Church (an opposition movement within the Protestant Church) after 1933. In 1938, he refused to swear allegiance to Hitler and was subsequently (forcibly) suspended. He died a short time later.

“Daß wir hier in Flammen aufgehen verdanken wir dem Führer!” by Karl Schwesig, 1938. In February 1938, while residing in Antwerp, Karl Schwesig created a satirical ink drawing. This artwork, part of a collection of eight similar pieces, depicted a skeletal figure with Adolf Hitler’s face entering Cologne’s ablaze railway station. These drawings were meant for the Kölner Rosenmontags-Zeitung (Cologne Rose Monday Newspaper), an underground publication. Printed in Cologne, this newspaper was distributed during the city’s Carnival celebrations on Rose Monday, shortly before Lent in early 1938. The original drawings, however, never left Germany due to the risks involved in smuggling them out. They remained stored in the printer’s shop, where they suffered damage from a wartime fire. Schwesig’s life took a tumultuous turn after Hitler’s rise to power in January 1933. Being a Communist, he was arrested and spent 16 months in prison. Released in 1935, he found refuge in Antwerp, Belgium. However, with the German invasion of Belgium on May 10, 1940, Schwesig’s safety was again compromised. He was arrested and taken to Vichy France, enduring confinement in various internment camps. In 1943, Schwesig was transferred to the Ulmer Hoeh prison in Dusseldorf, only to be freed by American forces in April 1945.

As the defeat of the German troops became apparent in 1943, individuals and a few small, scattered groups came together to engage in resistance activities. In the Cologne group of the National Committee for a Free Germany, the largest resistance group during the war, social democrats, Christians and commoners worked together with communists against the Nazi regime. The communists Engelbert Brinker, Otto Richter and Wilhelm Tollmann were among the founding members of the National Committee Free Germany in Cologne. They were arrested by the Gestapo during their attack on the Klettenberg group of the National Committee in November 1944 and were tortured during interrogation in the El-De House and in Brauweiler to such an extent that they died there. The photo shows the stairwell at Sülzgürtel 8. The Humbach family’s apartment at Sülzgürtel 8 served as the National Committee’s contact point. The entire management was arrested here by the Gestapo in November 1944.

Franz Vonessen (1892-1970) was the head city doctor at Cologne’s health department from 1929. As a member of the Center Party, he suffered professional disadvantages from 1933 onwards. After refusing to cooperate in the implementation of the ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases’ out of religious conviction, he was retired in 1936. Despite his stance against the Nazi racial laws, he was able to set up as a doctor and run a private practice until the end of 1944. Despite the ban, he also treated Jews and other persecuted people, hiding some of them and providing them with food stamps and false papers. On May 1, 1945, the American military government appointed Franz Vonessen head of the Cologne health department.

“Forgotten victims” of the Nazi regime

“Forgotten victims” are those who were ostracized and persecuted from the “national community” during the Nazi era and persecuted and continued to be shunned and discriminated against after 1945. They were denied moral recognition as victims, official rehabilitation and the payment of compensation. A special exhibition in the El-De Haus pays tribute to these victim groups and their suffering.

“Social outcasts”

Labelled as “Volksschädlinge” (“social outcasts”), individuals such as alcoholics, the homeless, unemployed, and prostitutes were persecuted under the Nazi regime. They were often considered “unworthy” of living in the Nazi society and were subjected to various forms of state-sanctioned discrimination, including forced sterilization, incarceration, and in some cases, euthanasia. Their persecution was part of the regime’s broader aim to eliminate what it saw as social deviancy.

Prostitution in Holzgasse, 1907 (?).

NS propaganda poster ‘Gesunde Eltern - gesunde Kinder!’ (Healthy parents - healthy children!) showing what the Nazis saw as the ideal German family.

Document on the preventive police detention of a woman, 1942. Reason for arrest: classification as “asocial” and accusation of prostitution. “Asocials” for the National Socialists were people who “did not want to fit into the order of the national community (“Volksgemeinschaft”)”, so-called “strangers to the community” (“Gemeinschaftsfremde”). They included beggars, homeless people, “work-shy” people, prostitutes, maladjusted young people, but also “gypsies and people wandering around like gypsies”. Several large-scale raids were carried out throughout the Reich, such as the “beggar raid” (“Bettlerrazzia)”) of September 1933 and the “Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich” of April 1938. Recorded by the criminal investigation department and labeled as “asocials”, these people could be taken into preventive police custody and sent to concentration camps. As a remnant of the Nazi era, Germans still use the term “asocial” in their everyday language as a derogatory term for what they see as useless people. I think the Germans in particular should think carefully about the use of this term.

Homosexuals

Homosexuals were severely persecuted by the Nazis, who saw homosexuality as a threat to the German nation’s demographic growth and moral fabric. Under Paragraph 175, thousands of homosexuals were arrested, imprisoned, and sent to concentration camps. In the camps, they were often subjected to brutal treatment and experimentation, and many did not survive. Nazi propaganda obscured the reality that, before 1933, homosexuals experienced a degree of social emancipation. For example, Magnus Hirschfeld, a prominent sexologist and gay rights advocate, founded the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, which became a hub for progressive thought and advocacy for sexual minorities.

However, the Nazi regime’s perspective on homosexuality had long-lasting effects, extending far beyond 1945 into the era of the Federal Republic of Germany. The version of Paragraph 175 that was intensified by the Nazis remained in effect for decades after the war, continuing the criminalization of homosexual acts. It was not until 1994 that this version of Paragraph 175 was finally repealed, marking an end to the legal persecution of homosexual men in Germany. This delay in repealing the law reflects the enduring influence of Nazi ideology on post-war German society and the slow journey towards recognition and equality for the LGBTQ+ community.

Evidence of homosexual life and culture in Cologne before 1933. Top: The magazine “Der Eigene” was the first homosexual magazine in the world. Bottom: Advertisements of Cologne homosexual venues. According to National Socialist racial ideology, homosexuality was regarded as a “plague” that led to a “weakening of the people’s strength”, as homosexuals were not part of the ‘natural reproductive process’. In 1935, Paragraph 175 of the penal code, which punished “unnatural fornication” with imprisonment, was tightened considerably. The local criminal police conducted the investigations. Most court cases ended with prison sentences. The worst consequences of the persecution included forced castration and deportation to concentration camps, where homosexuals were marked with the pink triangle. Lesbian women were not covered by Paragraph 175, but they could be persecuted as so-called “asocials” (see above) and sent to concentration camps. Hundreds of homosexuals were sentenced to prison and penitentiary sentences in Cologne, some died in concentration camps and some were executed in Klingelpütz prison.

Document of the police preventive detention of a homosexual in 1943. His alleged offense: attempted seduction of males under the age of 21 to commit fornication, false accusation and fornication.

Disabled individuals

The disabled were among the first victims of the Nazi regime’s ideology of racial purity. Under the T4 Euthanasia Program, individuals with physical and mental disabilities were systematically murdered. The regime portrayed these individuals as “life unworthy of life” (“lebensunwertes Leben”) and a burden on society. The mass murder of disabled individuals was a precursor to the Holocaust and represents one of the most horrifying aspects of the regime’s eugenics policy. Despite the secrecy surrounding the euthanasia program, there were protests from Catholic and Protestant clergy in particular, especially from the Bishop of Münster, Clemens August von Galen. Hitler then had the killings stopped in 1941, but they continued on a reduced scale. More than 100,000 adults and 20,000 children fell victim to the killings throughout the Reich, including several hundred from Cologne.

The “euthanasia” victims were transported from the intermediate institutions such as Galkhausen to the killing centers in buses operated by a specially founded ‘Gemeinnützige Kranken-Transport-GmbH’ (charitable hospital transport company)

The Cologne “euthanasia” victims were transported via the Galkhausen institution (now Langenfeld) to the Hadamar killing center in the Westerwald.

Court building on Reichenspergerplatz: seat of the Hereditary Health Court and the Higher Hereditary Health Court

Smoking chimney of the crematorium of the Hadamar killing center, 1941. The killing of people in gas chambers was used for the first time on the ‘euthanasia’ victims.

Hitler’s letter that became the basis of the “euthanasia” murders (left) and Friedrich Tillmann (right). Friedrich Tillmann, the director of the Cologne orphanages, worked as an office manager at the “euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin from the summer of 1940 to the fall of 1941 in addition to his work in Cologne. In a letter dated September 1, 1939, Hitler appointed the head of the “Chancellery of the Führer” Bouhler and his accompanying physician Dr. Brandt as “euthanasia” commissioners. Not a law, but this letter alone formed the basis for the “euthanasia” murders.

Alfred Vogel: Erblehre und Rassenkunde in bildlicher Darstellung, 1938. The ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring’ provided for the possibility of forced sterilization in nine cases. On the basis of this law (enacted on 14 July 1933), people could be forcibly sterilized, i.e., made infertile against their will. Requests for forced sterilization were made by doctors and the directors of institutions. Doctors from the Advisory Office for Hereditary and Racial Care of the Health Department wrote expert opinions. The Hereditary Health Court – and the Higher Hereditary Health Court as the second instance – decided on the applications. The operations were carried out in hospitals such as the Lindenburg University Hospital and the Weyertal Protestant Hospital. Over 2,000 people were forcibly sterilized in Cologne.

Roma and Sinti

The Roma and Sinti communities were among the severely persecuted groups under the Nazi regime. Labelled as “racially inferior”, they were subjected to widespread discrimination, forced sterilization, and internment in concentration camps. The regime’s policies towards Roma and Sinti culminated in what is known as the Porajmos (also referred to as the Romani Holocaust), during which hundreds of thousands were murdered. This genocide is often overshadowed by the broader narrative of the Holocaust, but it represents a critical and tragic component of the Nazi regime’s racial policies.

The familiy Reinhardt.

File card of Anton Reinhardt.

File card of Klara Reinhardt.

File card of Fritz Wernicke.

File card of Franz Wernicke.

The family Wernicke.

Due to its proximity to the sports field of the Schwarz-Weiß Köln club in Cologne-Bickendorf, Venloer Straße 888, the camp was given the name ‘Schwarz-Weiß-Platz’. The local criminal investigation department, which had set up its own ‘Department for Gypsy Affairs’, was responsible for monitoring and persecuting the Sinti and Roma.

Jews in Cologne

The Jewish community in Cologne, once a vibrant part of the city’s cultural and social life, faced systemic persecution under the Nazis. The regime’s anti-Semitic policies led to the gradual stripping away of their rights, property, and livelihoods, culminating in the deportation and murder of thousands of Cologne’s Jews. The destruction of this community was part of the broader genocide of Jews across Europe, known as the Holocaust.

Cologne chapter of the Federation of German-Jewish Youth, 1934.

Girl group of the Jewish Scouts Cologne (JPD) on a trip.

Vacation colony of the Cologne synagogue community, 1937.

Synagoge at Roonstraße.

The Israelite Apprentice Home was built at Utrechter Straße 6 in 1904/05. Founded shortly before the turn of the century, the sponsoring association aimed to train young Jews in the trades in order to counteract the concentration of the Jewish population in academic and commercial professions. The aim was to fend off anti-Semitic attacks that attacked Jews as “unproductive” and “pests of the German economy” due to their particular occupational structure. After 1933, the house was mainly used to prepare for emigration.

Left: Leonhard Tietz department store, Hohe Straße / corner of Gürzenichstraße, around 1920 Right: Kaufhof, around 1935. The Leonhard Tietz department store group was already the target of National Socialist smear campaigns in the 1920s. After systematic reprisals from the beginning of 1933, the company was forced to change its name to “Westdeutsche Kaufhof AG” in July 1933. In 1934, the complete “Aryanization” was carried out. The owners of the company had to emigrate and Jewish employees were dismissed.

Thieboldsgasse 112, Esther Kentof in front of her store with her daughters Siddy and Henny, March 1933. The household goods store and the house at Thieboldsgasse 112 were owned by the widowed merchant Esther Kentof. After the November pogrom of 1938, in which the store and home were vandalized, she sold the house and fled to Belgium. From there, she was deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the German occupation and murdered.

Glockengasse synagogue after the November progrom, 1938. During the pogrom of November 9/10, 1938, the so-called “Reichskristallnacht”, staged throughout Germany by the state and the National Socialist party, synagogues in Cologne were burned down or vandalized and countless stores and homes were destroyed, unhindered or even supported by the population. Jewish people were mistreated, hundreds arrested and deported to concentration camps.

The building at Cäcilienstraße 18-22, which contained event rooms, offices and a small synagogue, belonged to the Jewish association “Rheinlandloge”. After its dissolution in 1937, it served as a community center for the synagogue community. From the summer of 1941, the authorities used it for the forced deportation of Jewish women, men and children from Cologne, but also from the entire region. In the months that followed, it was one of the largest ghetto houses in Cologne (Cäcilienstraße ghetto house). The names of more than 200 people are known for whom it became their last place of residence before deportation.

The Salm family. One of the families deported from the Cäcilienstraße ghetto house (see previous image) was the Salm family. The butcher Julius Salm, his wife Jeanette and their children Juliane Ruth, Erwin and Inge had lived in Brühl. In April 1939, when the reprisals against Jews there became unbearable, the family moved to Cologne, where they initially lived in the ghetto house at Moselstraße 44. While the eldest daughter was able to emigrate, her parents and siblings were forcibly relocated to Cäcilienstraße 18-22. On July 20, 1942, they were deported to Minsk and murdered in the Maly Trostenez extermination camp immediately after their arrival.

Deportation of children during the ‘Great Lockdown’ in September 1942.

Adele Benjamin’s last letter to her daughter Rosa in the USA before her deportation to Lodz.

Axel Lazarus’ last letter before his wife and daughter were deported to Riga. The family was murdered.

Consequences of war for Cologne’s population

The aftermath of the war left Cologne in a state of devastation. The city, reduced to ruins, stood as a stark testament to the havoc wreaked by the Nazi regime. This destruction serves as a poignant reminder of the harsh consequences of war, dictatorial governance, and a rigid, exclusionary ideology. The El-De Haus also exhbitis images of the bombing war in Cologne.

The following image series does not follow the order of the exhibition. Some images are intentionally juxtaposed with evidence of German bombings and crimes throughout Europe. This is not to diminish the severity of the Allied bombings, but rather to underscore the complex duality of the German experience during the war, where they were also victims but primarily perpetrators, including architects of their own suffering.

Burning Minsk, photographed by a soldier from Cologne (1941).

Air raid warning at Neumarkt, Cologne, around 1942/43

Rotterdam after the German air raid in May 1940.

Fields of rubble in Cologne, unkown date.

Wehrmacht soldiers on the French Channel coast.

Rescue from a bombed house in Cologne.

The Warsaw Ghetto, photographed by a soldier from Cologne.

Call for clothing donations in Cologne in 1944.

NS war propaganda poster.

Over the course of the war, “communal catering” became an increasingly important part of daily life. After the “1000-bomber raid” of May 31, 1942, the “Social Welfare Office for the Air-damaged” was set up. One of its tasks was to provide the necessary food rations for Cologne residents who had become homeless after bombing raids. These were then distributed at various locations in the city, and the white cups used became a symbol of the bombing campaign.

Christmas 1943 in the Kluckstraße bunker (today: Marktstraße) in Cologne-Raderberg. In Cologne, as everywhere else, there were too few air raid shelters and bunkers. Moreover, it soon became apparent that – contrary to propaganda assurances – they were anything but safe. The majority of the 20,000 or so people who died in Cologne’s bombing raids perished in these often inadequately constructed shelters.

Searchlight of the flag defense over Cologne, date unknown.

Poster for fighting firebombs – and a concession to the actual helplessness of the regime to protect the people.

Concentration camp prisoners recover bodies from the rubble after bombing raids, July 1943. From mid-1941, as the number and severity of the bombing raids increased, clean-up operations dominated the streetscape and daily life in the city. Whether officially organized and carried out by forces of the Security and Relief Service (SHD) or on private initiative – the generally futile efforts to restore housing and infrastructure became a dominant element of everyday wartime life. The authorities soon used forced laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates for this work, which was visible to everyone.

Map of war-related industrial production in Cologne at the beginning of 1944. The map illustrates why Cologne was in focus of Allied bombing raids. However, many of these industrial sites also exploited forced laborers from all over Europe, who were also among the victims of the bombing raids.

So-called “Osterarbeiter” (forced laborers from Eastern Europe.). Since 1940, a total of around 250 Jewish forced laborers from Cologne and the surrounding area were forced to work at Glanzstoff. In July 1942, most of them were deported to the Maly Trostenez extermination camp near Minsk. The first “Osterarbeiter” had arrived at the factory shortly beforehand.

On the morning of March 5, 1945, the 3rd Spearhead Division of the 1st US Army launched the decisive attack on Cologne.

US soldiers on their advance in Komödienstraße.

After Cologne’s other Rhine bridges had been gradually destroyed by bombing raids since October 1944, German sappers blew up the Hohenzollern Bridge, the last passable Rhine crossing, at noon on March 6, 1945. One of the last “glorious” things the Nazis left behind in Cologne.

The Gestapo cells in the cellar: Silent witnesses to oppression, brutality and torture

The Gestapo cellars in the El-De Haus, now meticulously documented, reveal the extent of the horrors that took place within. They serve as a physical and historical record of the inhumanity that occurred, acting as a powerful educational tool and a place for reflection and mourning.

The Gestapo prison in the cellar.

Interior of a Gestapo cell.

Adventurous escape

Askold Kurow managed to escape from the Gestapo prison in an adventurous way. He was deployed in the underground cellar to transport files when the Gestapo officer on duty was summoned to the prison one floor above by the ringing of the telephone. Askold Kurow was able to escape because the door to the boiler room was unlocked. The windows in this area were not barred, as this room was used to deliver coal. He managed to escape and flee to the Bergisches Land.

The boiler room through which Askold Kurow managed to escape.

Conclusion

The El-De Haus, through its transformation into a documentation center, stands as a beacon of memory and education. It confronts us with the realities of our past, emphasizing the importance of remembering and understanding history. This understanding is crucial to ensuring that the horrors of the Nazi regime are never repeated and that future generations recognize the value of tolerance, human rights, and democracy.

The detailed exhibitions, from personal stories to the depiction of daily life under Nazi rule, provide a comprehensive and engaging journey through time. It’s a stark reminder of how a city’s vibrant culture and diverse community can be systematically dismantled by totalitarian ideologies. The El-De Haus plays a vital role in keeping these memories alive, serving as a custodian of history that challenges us to reflect on the consequences of hate and the importance of standing against injustice.

I was actually suprised by my visit to the El-De Haus. I had expected a more traditional museum experience, but the El-De Haus is more than just that. It’s a powerful reminder of our collective responsibility to remember the past and learn from it. It’s a testament to Cologne’s resilience and an educational resource that imparts crucial lessons about the dangers of extremism and the necessity of vigilance in safeguarding freedoms. The lessons learned here are not just historical footnotes but guiding principles for a more just and inclusive future.

At the end, two final images from the exhbition: One portrays the Nazis’ grand vision for Cologne in 1939, while the other reveals where the Nazi ideology ultimately led: the complete destruction of the city and the suffering of its people.

“Das Zukunftsbild Kölns aus der Vogelschau” (The future image of Cologne from a bird’s eye view) – The Nazis’ vision for the future of Cologne. From: “Geschenk der Hansestadt Köln zum fünfzigsten Geburtstage des Führers”, 1939.

Neumarkt, Cologne, April 19, 1945.

References and further reading

• Website of the NS Documentation Center El-De Hausꜛ
• NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln, Köln im Nationalsozialismus: Ein Kurzführer durch das ELDE Haus (NS-Dokumentation), 2010, Emons Verlag, ISBN: 978-3897052093
• Werner Jung, Bilder einer Stadt im Nationalsozialismus: Köln 1933-1945, 2016, Emons Verlag, ISBN: 9783740800147
• Horst Matzerath, Geschichte der Stadt Köln, Bd. 12: Köln in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus 1933-1945, 2009, Greven, ISBN: 978-3774304291
• Hans Peter Richter, Damals war es Friedrich: Roman, 1979, dtv Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, ISBN: 978-3423078009.
• jugend1918-1945.deꜛ
• Interactive website exploring Jewish live in Cologneꜛ (a web-app by LVR Jüdisches Museum im Archäologischen Quartier Köln)