Germany's Topography

From Deutsche Welle:
"'Topography of Terror' opens on site of former Gestapo headquarters"

This is the kind of reminder that German youths need. Even though they were not born and had nothing to do with the war or it's deaths visiting this museum will hopefully spark conversation between the youth and the older generations. They will see how ordinary Germans voted Hitler into power, sang at his parades, looked the other way as innocent people were deported and then tried to claim themselves as victims. Many of these childrens' grandparents and/or great-grandparents were alive during the war and while a few were true victims of the Gestapo and the SS the majority simply went along.

I visited a former Gestapo prison when I was in Dortmund once and while many horrible things happened there it still didn't have the same awful feel as when I visited Dachau (but it was still a place I wanted/needed to visit.) The Topography of Terror Museum in Berlin is at the former headquarters of the Gestapo so has a little more meaning. Regardless, I think the Museum will show new generations of the evils of dictatorships and passivity.

Along the same lines the horrible things that the East German Stasi did also need to be shown (especially since many of today's German youths' parents and grandparents were involved.) To me the Stasi and the Gestapo did the same basic, awful things.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5545090,00.html