Our first association field trip of the year took place on February 17th. The program included two historically significant places, the company headquarters of “Topf und Söhne”, Erfurt, and the museum on the history of the Russian aircraft squadron in Nohra.
We were at the former Topf &Söhne headquarters at 10 a.m. sharp, where Mr. Rokk warmly welcomed us.
Topf & Söhne, founded as a family business in 1878, developed and delivered corpse cremation ovens ordered by the SS to the concentration camps from 1939 onwards. In 1943 they sent new, special ovens and gas chamber ventilation technology for the large crematoria in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, which thus became a “death factory”.
Planned in 2010 for exhibition purposes, the interior design into a memorial site began here in the company’s former administration building. The exhibition opened in Erfurt on January 27, 2011, on the day of remembrance of the victims of National Socialism.
With Mr. Rokk we had an extremely good and informative guide through the well-designed documentary exhibition. We were very impressed by his expertise and the way he presented this company’s history to us in an understandable and conclusive way. Thank you very much Mr Rokk!
At lunch afterwards, the impressions of what we had seen and heard were still so deep that we had to process everything through conversation. Lunch was very quiet.
In the afternoon we continued to Ulla, where Lucas was waiting for us. He knows the history of the former Russian Nohra airfield documented here very well and was able to tell us a lot about this place, which ultimately ends with the withdrawal of the Russian army in 1993. We were able to get a clear picture of this history using films, photos, documents and exhibits. Thank you Lucas!
All participants were visibly impressed by this day, as evidenced by the many conversations and opinions afterwards, and of course everyone is already looking forward to the next club outing in April.
At this point, we would all like to thank the team at the Topf & Söhne memorial site and Lucas.
