Special tour: Nazi criminals in Lindenstraße prison

The special tour focuses on the arrest and conviction of Nazi criminals as part of the denazification process in the Soviet Occupation Zone and takes place in conjunction with the current special exhibition ["The Gray Misery of Potsdam. Soviet Detention and Tribunal Site Lindenstraße 1945–1952"](https://www.gedenkstaette-lindenstrasse.de/das-graue-elend-von-potsdam-sowjetischer-haft-und-tribunalort-lindenstrasse-1945-1952/). The detention and court complex on Lindenstraße in Potsdam was a central location for Nazi persecution in the region until April 1945. It is not isolated but was part of a far-reaching system of repression sites and practices. Many of the individuals detained here for political or racist reasons were later transferred to penal institutions, concentration camps, or extermination sites. The hereditary health court, which had been based here since 1936, was responsible for the sterilization of at least 3,300 people, many of whom later also became victims of the Nazi "euthanasia" murders. The Soviet secret police, which took over the building complex in July 1945, used it as a tool for enforcing dictatorship, while also serving as a detention site within the framework of denazification measures. In this way, between 1945 and 1952, numerous individuals were held here who were indirectly or directly involved in the Nazi crimes committed at the site, including employees of the Gestapo, management and guard personnel from various camps, as well as Nazi collaborators from countries previously occupied by Germany. The secret police also detained doctors and other medical personnel accused of committing murders of patients. Among them was the physician Valentin Kessel, who was sentenced to death and executed in 1946 for the killing of prisoners of war and forced laborers. The approximately 60-minute tour provides an impression of the role played by the Soviet secret police and the building complex on Lindenstraße in the denazification and prosecution of Nazi perpetrators, using further biographical examples of victims and perpetrators. The tour takes place as part of the current special exhibition "The Gray Misery of Potsdam. Soviet Detention and Tribunal Site Lindenstraße 1945-1952."