Cottbus: A Station of Memory Makes Nazi History Visible
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A Station Becomes a Place of Remembrance
The special exhibition "Cottbus: A Station of Memory. Deportations and Forced Labor in National Socialism" focuses on the repressed history of a central transportation hub. During the Nazi era, the Cottbus station was the site of expulsions, deportations, prisoner transports, and forced labor. At the Cottbus Human Rights Center, this history is made visible through historical research, a temporary presentation, and an immersive media installation.
Four Narrative Threads of a Shocking City History
The curated exhibition connects four intertwined themes: the exclusion and disenfranchisement of the Jewish population, the station as a transit point for deportation trains, the women's prison Cottbus as a site of political detention, and the daily life of forced labor in businesses and institutions of the city.
In 1938, Jewish people with Polish citizenship were expelled from Cottbus and the region to Poland. Later, deportation trains passed through Cottbus to ghettos in occupied Poland and to Theresienstadt. Prisoner transports to and from the women's prison, as well as transports of people who had to perform forced labor in Cottbus businesses, with the Reichsbahn, in municipal facilities, and on farms, shaped the history of the station.
Media Installation Between Light, Writing, and Memory
A media installation takes the form of historical departure boards. Names, former addresses, destination stations, and deportation routes appear as sober, yet shocking traces of memory. Writing, light, movement, and spatial effects create a concentrated exhibition atmosphere where historical data become individual fates.
The presentation does not work with decorative painting or classical sculpture. Its artistic quality lies in the connection of installation, documentation, and place-based memory culture. The station itself is readable as a testimony of an era. This expanded consideration of the work opens an aesthetic experience that combines historical knowledge with quiet reflection.
Cultural Education and Democratic Responsibility
The project emerged from the program "MemoRails – Stop! Here, Nazi History is Remembered." Involved are the Cottbus Human Rights Center, exhibeo e. V., the AG Stolpersteine Cottbus, and the City Collections Cottbus. The initiative is funded by the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future as well as by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
The exhibition does not see memory as a completed retrospective. It questions the significance of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy in the present. In doing so, it connects historical processing with cultural education and invites viewers to consider local history in a European context.
Conclusion: Experience History on Site
Visitors can expect an intense artistic experience of memory: historically based, media-supported, and closely linked to Cottbus. The exhibition atmosphere arises from names, documents, light, space, and proximity to the historical site. Those who wish to not only read about memory culture but experience it as an aesthetic experience should definitely visit this exhibition live.
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