I am in BERLIN! Some friends and I got in late last night (like 3am bedtime) and took it easy this morning. We found our way to Checkpoint Charlie--the spot in the middle of Berlin where World War III almost started during the Cold War, the Soviet Union and U.S. tanks facing off. We then made our way towards the Topography of Terror--the area that housed the most important institutions of Nazi terror: the national central headquarters of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), the Reich SS Leadership, the Security Service (SD) of the SS, and the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). And our LIS eyes honed in on it immediately--the Topography of Terror had a LIBRARY!! So of course we had to visit, and pester the staff member on duty with tons of questions!
This library is a specialty library. They have scholarly literature on the SS, Gestapo, police state and society under National Socialism, persecution and annihilation of European Jewry and other victim groups, World War II, legal prosecution of Nazi crimes, Holocaust commemoration and remembrance, and more.
It's a reference library, meaning the materials are not typically available for checkout. They have a scanner to make copies of anything that users would need to take home or have more time with. The person working today was a student--he said the only staff members of the library were him and his boss. A small library, but such an important one.
This library is a specialty library. They have scholarly literature on the SS, Gestapo, police state and society under National Socialism, persecution and annihilation of European Jewry and other victim groups, World War II, legal prosecution of Nazi crimes, Holocaust commemoration and remembrance, and more.
It's a reference library, meaning the materials are not typically available for checkout. They have a scanner to make copies of anything that users would need to take home or have more time with. The person working today was a student--he said the only staff members of the library were him and his boss. A small library, but such an important one.
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| This essentially translates to Book Return cart but it made me laugh--different languages are wild! |
The library offers classes and hosts schools to teach the information they have. The most interesting thing I learned by far about the library was that those training to be part of the police must take classes with the Topography of Terror library--the power the police forces in Germany had in the past was extreme and caused a lot of terrible things to happen, and so in consequence Berlin is aware of this and wants to make sure their police are too. I really admire that. It was clear from the museum and library that Germany takes its history seriously and wants to make it possible for everyone to learn from it. The museum and library were both completely free to use.
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