An Unknown Site in Berlin: The SS Head Office for Economic and Adminstrative Affairs (SS-WVHA)
The former SS Head Office for Economic and Administrative Affairs The building is today used by the Federal Government of Germany
I knew about the former SS Head Office for Economic and Administrative Affairs (SS-WVHA) at Berlin-Lichterfelde, Unter den Eichen 126-135 for several years. The office, lead by Oswald Pohl was - like Eichman's Jewish Department -a further central site of crimes committed by the Third Reich.
The new posters that now stand in front of the former SS-building (klick on the posters for enlargement)
Oswald Pohl in the uniform of the SS
The first page of a document relating to the redistribution of the confiscated belongings of murdered Jews and its translation (klick on the documents for enlargement)
At memorial centres like the Wannsee Villa, or in the exhibitions at Sachsenhausen, Stutthof or Auschwitz concentration camps, documents relating to the SS-WVHA with its address Unter den Eichen 126-135 can be found.
The SS-WVHA played a leading role in the industrial and economic exploitation of Europe's Jews, their murder and the evaluation of their belongings. Oswald Pohl was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials and was executed at Landsberg Prison in 1951.
From today, all drivers on Unter den Eichen cannot miss this new info-stand. It is also illuminated at night. The site and the crimes of the SS Head Office for Economic and Administrative Affairs will thus become common knowledge.
I would above all like to express my gratitude to Hans and Claudia Wall for their generosity and their willingness to sponsor my projects. I would like to thank Erika Bucholtz of the memorial centre Topography of Terror who supplied the texts for the memorial.