This museum is housed in the former administrative building of Topf & Söhne, builders of crematorium ovens for Nazi concentration camps. Although it seems as though the management were not ardent supporters of Hitler's mass extermination policies, the company had no qualms about cooperating with the regime, and thereby helping the Nazis kill millions of people. 

The slogan on the outside wall of the building "Stets gern für Sie beschäftigt, …" ("Always happy to be at your service, ...") was the closing line in letters from the company to S.S. officers in charge of the extermination camps, and a chilling reminder that the company willingly assisted in the genocide of European Jews, Sinti and Roma by reducing the industrial annihilation of human life into nothing more than orders, work, and technical challenges.

The best way to reach the Topf & Sons museum from the main station is to take  number 9 bus travelling towards Daberstedt. Get off at the next stop (Spielbergtor). Head south from the bus stop and turn left onto Nonnenrain. You are now heading straight for the grounds of the Place of Remembrance. The walk from the bus stop takes about four minutes. 

Probably the oldest synagogue in Europe from the floor to the roof, this building has experienced nearly a thousand years of history. The wood in the oldest part of the synagogue dates back to the year 1094. 

In 1349 there was a pogrom in Erfurt and the Jewish population was massacred and the building was taken over by the city council, which then sold it to a merchant, who added two floors and two cellars in order to use it as a warehouse. Eventually its origins were forgotten, which saved it from destruction when the Nazis were in power.