Erinnerungsort Topf & Söhne

Erinnerungsort Topf & Söhne is a museum and memorial in a former factory building in Erfurt that documents the history of a company that designed and built cremation equipment for concentration camps. The exhibition displays the machinery, plans, and correspondence that show how this business operated.

The company began in the 1800s and initially built steam boilers before supplying cremation systems to the Nazi regime from 1941 onward. After the war, the factory changed hands, and the memorial and learning center opened in 2011.

The place shows how workers and companies made choices that supported the camp system. Visitors see documents, photographs, and technical drawings from that time, revealing how daily work and business became linked to crimes.

The visit works best during daytime hours when the exhibition is fully accessible and the rooms are naturally lit. It is wise to allow enough time to read the documents carefully and process the difficult content at your own pace.

The building preserves the actual work spaces where engineers designed the machines that were later used in the camps. These physical rooms make the link between everyday office work and systematic crime especially clear.