Cottbus: A Station of Remembrance – Experience the History of National Socialism Intimately
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A Station Becomes a Space of Remembrance
The special exhibition Cottbus: A Station of Remembrance. Deportations and Forced Labor during National Socialism highlights how closely the Cottbus station was linked to expulsion, deportation, political imprisonment, and forced labor during the Nazi period. At the Human Rights Center Cottbus, visitors encounter a historically informed presentation that connects local city history with European memory culture and political education.
Historical Traces between Tracks and Memorial Sites
The Cottbus station was much more than a transport hub during National Socialism. In 1938, Jewish people with Polish citizenship were expelled from Cottbus and the surrounding region. During World War II, deportation trains ran through the city to ghettos in occupied Poland and to Theresienstadt. Transport from towns in western and southern Germany, as well as from occupied countries in Western Europe, also passed through the Cottbus tracks.
The exhibition broadens this perspective to include prisoner transports to and from the women's prison in Cottbus. It documents how thousands of people were forced to work in industrial enterprises, for the Reichsbahn, in municipal facilities, and on farms. Thus, a historical connection arises between infrastructure, state persecution, and economic exploitation.
Documents, Biographies, and an Impressive Media Installation
Historical documents, photographs, maps, and biographical information restore names, origins, and individual life stories to the affected individuals. A media installation modeled after historical departure boards names deportation sites and commemorates specific fates. Writing, light, movement, and the proximity to the memorial create a concentrated exhibition atmosphere.
The focus is not on decorative painting or classical sculpture, but on the installation as a bearer of historical testimony. The aesthetic experience arises from the connection of documentary clarity, spatial impact, and quiet reflection. The historical site itself becomes a readable trace of an era in which bureaucratic processes, technical infrastructure, and state violence intermesh.
Four Thematic Areas of Precise Curation
The exhibition follows four interconnected narrative strands: the exclusion and disenfranchisement of the Jewish population, the deportation trains through Cottbus, the women's prison as a site of political detention, and the daily life of forced labor in the city's businesses and institutions. This curation connects historical research, memorial work, and cultural education.
The project originated within the framework of the program MemoRails – Stop! Here, the history of National Socialism is remembered by the Foundation Memorial, Responsibility, and Future and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. The project carrier is the Human Rights Center Cottbus e. V. in collaboration with exhibeo e. V., the AG Stolpersteine Cottbus, and the Municipal Collections Cottbus.
Remembrance with Relevance to the Present
The presentation focuses not only on historical events but also on the significance of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in the present. The artistic experience of this exhibition emerges from the conscious consideration of a historical site, encounters with specific life paths, and the question of how remembrance remains alive in public spaces.
Conclusion: History Becomes Tangible on Site
Visitors can expect a factually precise and emotionally concentrated exhibition about deportations, prisoner transports, and forced labor in Cottbus. The combination of documentary presentation, media installation, and historical site offers an intense aesthetic experience and invites engagement with responsibility, human rights, and memory culture. A visit to the Human Rights Center Cottbus enriches cultural education and makes history directly tangible.
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