Zepplin Grandstand, Nazi Rally Grounds, Nuremberg

- Backblip - Nuremberg : Day 3

We travelled by underground and tram to the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds. The north wing of the unfinished Congress Hall designed to accommodate 50,000 people, now holds the permanent exhibition "Fascination and Terror". We had about an hour and a half to go through this very emotional, and visually distressing exhibition, charting the history of the Nazi Party and the rallies which took place in this eleven square kilometre area. The space is slashed in half by a very long corridor, designed to cut into the building, as a statement of destroying what went on there. The exhibition ends with the Nuremberg Trials before the International Military Tribunal from November 1945 to October 1946.

We were able to view what remains of the Congress Hall, and then walked around the Dutzendteich Lake to the Zepplinfeld. The Grandstand area, 1935-37, was modelled on the Pergamon Altar in Asia Minor and the field in front of it would have held around 200,000 people. A place where Hitler demonstrated his power and mobilized the masses.

A very moving experience to visit the place, standing on the platform looking out over this vast area. I wish we had had more time to see the Grosse Strasse where the huge marches took place, facing towards the castle in the city beyond.

Many images, and what I felt here today, took me back to my visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem two years ago.

More information here.