Fünf Fotos-Köln Day 3

We had another unscheduled day which we are really loving. We decided to take a walk in the neighborhoods after breakfast at a nearby café.

I suggested that we visit a museum that I had read about:NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln (The Nazi Socialism Documentation Center).

Before we reached the museum, we saw a strange site, a Golden Winged Ford Fiesta on top of a city museum. We learned that it was a quirky art installation. After passing the winged vehicle, we arrived at the EL-DE Hause.

The EL-DE house at Appellhofplatz 23-25 ​​was the headquarters of the Cologne Gestapo from 1935 to 1945. The house is named after Leopold Dahmen (LD) the original owner.

His name became synonymous with the Nazi reign of terror in Cologne, and later dealing with the Nazi history of the city after 1945.

The experience was quite heart wrenching to see the prison cells and interrogation rooms and to know that many brought here had no idea why they were being held and interrogated. Many of the original Jewish captives' writings on the walls of the cells remain intact.

Hearing stories are always powerful, and this was certainly no exception. We followed the story of a young French woman who gave birth to her child while in prison, and the child was given to nuns to raise. It wasn't until many years later that the mother and daughter were reunited..

There were stories of those who survived and who visited these cells decades later. I just can't imagine going back to a place where so much trauma occurred.

The prison tour ends in the courtyard where hundreds of Jews and other suspected political dissidents were executed. An art installation was added to enhance the impact of the courtyard, it is filed with mirrors. Everywhere you look, you see yourself. It was a powerful and startling portrayal.

The museum also housed a series of photographs taken by a youth who captured much of life in Cologne prior to the war and the emergence of life under Nazi Socialism. The boy was involved in the Hitler Youth movement. It was a broad portrayal of every day life and a society that became oblivious to the growing atrocities under this dictatorship.

We left the museum and wandered past a Romanesque style church which has a considerably different style than the Gothic architecture of the Cathedral.

After a test this afternoon, we enjoyed dinner at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. We sat next to a young couple who had recently telecommuted in the LA area for four months to escape Cologne's cold wet winter. The raved about California, and we were remarking about all the wonderful aspects of Cologne. We both mused that we sometimes fail to acknowledge the treasures in our own back yards. It was a fun conversation to end the evening.

We have loved Cologne, and we look forward to our next journey to Amsterdam tomorrow.
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