Is this what you thought a bunker looked like? I expected it to be underground. The man who runs this private museum, and who collected most of the items, told us that there were about 25 above and 25 below ground bunkers in Mannheim. Sandhofen is part of that city.
We spent a bit more than 1.5 hours there. It was quite unique in that this man's purpose is to show the everyday life of people during this time and of the Nazi soldiers in their various places of work in this area. Jack and I agreed afterwards that he certainly succeeds, but it's unsettling not to see anything about the concentration camps. When we asked, he said that he felt other museums dealt with the death camps, but that he collected other memorabilia.
It is illegal to promote anything Nazi here in Germany. And while this museum certainly doesn't promote Nazi propaganda, it does present a lot. We were somewhat appeased by the number of quotations from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One can also peruse books for children of varying ages that told them about the dangers and horrors of Jews. So upsetting!
Jack appreciated the many uniforms and the various explanations. The man told us about the young people who visit and who don't really know what life used to be like in Germany. It turns out that Zeppelin built his dirigibles in Mannheim around 1915. He has very early pictures of the hangars used to built these balloons. Those hangars were moved to France after WWI as part of war reparations.
The entire bottom floor of the bunker is memorabilia from the U.S. Army bases in the Mannheim area (1946 until they closed in 2014!).
Today some of these same barracks are being used to house refugees.
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