You know you have arrived when you first see the metallic scarred facade on what could best be described as a nondescript east Berlin street, one the locals tend to call Lindenstrasse. The entrance is not where you think it should be but is actually in the adjacent, older building. Past the metal detectors and ticket office and just to the right of the museum shop you see something that looks unlike the rest of the historical building, an unmistakable stair down into the abyss. Once underground you find yourself lost in multiple disorientating axes- one leads to an exterior garden with large concrete piers topped by trees, while another leads to an especially disturbing holocaust memorial tower. Behind an especially large and heavy door is an exterior, enclosed tower, maybe 75 feet high, maybe higher. From underground you gaze up into near darkness, as the muffled and distant sound of the Lindenstrasse provide little comfort for the speechless visitor, something which needs to be experienced to be understood. A third underground axis leads to a stair and the museum, two floors of exhibits and a quiet room, a concrete shaft lined with another disturbingly effective memorial at is base- piles of flat, sculpted faces, discarded in an almost breathtaking terror. 

This picture is from the top of the stair, before the incredibly detailed exhibits begin, before the quiet room, before the journey as some local kids revel in the fact that they have just ascended the stair, completely unprepared for what lies just ahead.