Nuremberg 3 - the elephant in the room

On the last day here, we visited the museum at the old rally grounds south of town.  On this site the annual NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) rallies were held from 1933 to 1938.  We've all seen the films of these, but I wasn't clear as to what these actually were, multi-day events akin to a folk festival.  In fact, they co-opted the folk festival that had been held here for over 100 years, and continue to be held.

It was extremely sobering to be on this site.  The presentation of the lead-up to the rallies, the rallies themselves, the war years, the holocaust, and the post-war trials was extremely well done.  As we have found in other places, no excuses were made.  It was described how Nuremberg was a center-left city in the 1920s, but how the right wing took over in a big way as Hitler gained strength.

We couldn't see the rally grounds themselves (called the Zeppelin Field) but could see the Congress Hall site, which was being constructed as a permanent covered site for rallies holding 50,000 people.  It was never finished.

Kongresshall site.

Maddy on site.

Memorial to holocaust victims.