The Wewelsburg near Paderborn was selected by Heinrich Himmler as the central meeting place of the SS. In the world’s only complete SS overview offered by a museum, the permanent exhibition “Ideology and Terror of the SS” gives visitors a comprehensive insight into the local history of the SS as well as Niederhagen’s regional concentration camp and informs them about the national and pan-European developments during the National Socialist reign.
At least 1,285 people lost their lives in the Niederhagen concentration camp. In 1939, Heinrich Himmler founded it in order to have cheap labor for his massive Wewelsburg reconstruction project. The content of the permanent exhibition does not end in 1945, but rather goes on to illuminate the historical reception of the public commemoration in Wewelsburg as well. Above all, the exhibition gives considerable attention to the memories of concentration camp victims and their dealings with what happened to them.
For particular thematic sections of the exhibition, the Anne Roerkohl dokumentARfilm GmbH conducted interviews with contemporary witnesses and academic experts and produced films for various media stations. In collaboration with the Wewelsburg District Museum and the LWL-Media Center for Westphalia, we also created the new film about the memorial place "Wewelsburg – Ideology and Terror of the SS" in 2010.
For more information: Erinnerungs- und Gedenkstätte Wewelsburg 1933-1945, Kreismuseum Wewelsburg
