The permanent exhibition:
“Ideology and Terror of the SS”

The history of Wewelsburg during the “Third Reich” cannot be explained without recourse to the general history of the SS. Local and regional events were closely linked to national and pan-European developments during the Nazi regime and World War II. For this reason, the new permanent exhibition presents the entire history of the SS for the first time in the world on a wide-ranging museum basis.
The local history of SS activities and the local concentration camp is embedded in an extensive overall presentation of the history of the Schutzstaffel across 850 square metres of exhibition space. The permanent exhibition is located in the historical rooms of the former SS guard building.
The exhibition presents in detail both the ideological basis of the Schutzstaffel and their radical and criminal consequences. In addition to self-image and organisational structure, religious, scientific, art-related and cultural policy ambitions of the SS, the exhibition also focuses on mechanisms of exclusion, the persecution apparatus, the camp system and its practice of extermination. In this context, the life and suffering of the victims of SS violence are also addressed based on the local example of the Niederhagen-Wewelsburg Concentration Camp.

The exhibition utilises a comprehensive media concept as well as classical image and text elements. Many qualitative, original exhibits such as Heinrich Himmler’s pocket calendar, concentration camp barrack walls and prisoners’ clothing are on display.

Use our free audio guide for your tour of the exhibition.