TABLE FROM S.D./GESTAPO HEADQUARTERS, PRAGUE
Rare relic from the offices of the brutal Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS offices in Prague, an office table marked as having been used in those offices during World War II. The simple, functionally-designed table has two horizontal surfaces, the top measuring 28 in. across. The table stands 25.5 in. tall on four square legs, and is completely original and contemporary in construction. When the table is inverted, there are two identifying marks burned into the wood on the bottom. One reads: 'S.D. DIENSTELLE BERLIN' and this marking has a black ink cross-mark through it. Next to it appears a similar branding: 'S.D. DIENSTELLE PRAGUE' with inventory marking: 'INVENTURE NR. 336'. It was common for office furniture and fixture to be so markes. Clearly, this table was moved from Berlin with S.D. staff to their new quarters at Petschek Palace in Prague. The finish on this table is largely gone, and there is a scuff to the veneer top; still very much a frightening and vivid relic. Petschek Palace became the headquarters of the S.D. and Gestapo for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It was here where the interrogations and torturing of the Czech resistance members took place, as well as the courts-martial established by Reinhard Heydrich which sent most of the prisoners to death or to Nazi concentration camps. Many people died as a result of imprisonment and torture in the building itself.
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Rare relic from the offices of the brutal Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS offices in Prague, an office table marked as having been used in those offices during World War II. The simple, functionally-designed table has two horizontal surfaces, the top measuring 28 in. across. The table stands 25.5 in. tall on four square legs, and is completely original and contemporary in construction. When the table is inverted, there are two identifying marks burned into the wood on the bottom. One reads: 'S.D. DIENSTELLE BERLIN' and this marking has a black ink cross-mark through it. Next to it appears a similar branding: 'S.D. DIENSTELLE PRAGUE' with inventory marking: 'INVENTURE NR. 336'. It was common for office furniture and fixture to be so markes. Clearly, this table was moved from Berlin with S.D. staff to their new quarters at Petschek Palace in Prague. The finish on this table is largely gone, and there is a scuff to the veneer top; still very much a frightening and vivid relic. Petschek Palace became the headquarters of the S.D. and Gestapo for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. It was here where the interrogations and torturing of the Czech resistance members took place, as well as the courts-martial established by Reinhard Heydrich which sent most of the prisoners to death or to Nazi concentration camps. Many people died as a result of imprisonment and torture in the building itself.
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