Cottbus: A Station of Remembrance Makes Nazi History Visible
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A station becomes a space of remembrance
The special exhibition Cottbus: A Station of Remembrance. Deportations and Forced Labor in National Socialism makes visible how closely the Cottbus station was associated with exclusion, deportation, political imprisonment, and forced labor during the Nazi era. At the Cottbus Human Rights Centre, local history is connected with European persecution history and contemporary cultural education.
Historical traces between tracks and remembrance
The Cottbus station was much more than a transportation hub during National Socialism. In 1938, Jewish people with Polish citizenship were expelled from Cottbus and the region to Poland. During World War II, deportation trains from Cottbus led to ghettos in occupied Poland and to Theresienstadt. Additionally, transports from western and southern German cities as well as from occupied Western European countries passed over the Cottbus tracks.
Four narrative threads of an impactful exhibition
The curation follows four interconnected themes: the exclusion and disenfranchisement of the Jewish population, the deportation trains through Cottbus, the women's prison as a place of political imprisonment, and the daily life of forced labor in businesses and institutions of the city. The role of the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the reactions of the Cottbus population are also contextualized within the historical framework.
Names, routes, and individual fates
A digital media installation based on historical departure boards makes deportation routes, destination stations, former addresses, and names visible. Documents, biographical traces, and the spatial effect of the exhibition venue lead from abstract numbers to individual life stories. The atmosphere of the exhibition is deliberately concentrated: The station appears as a testament to an era in which infrastructure became a tool of state-organized violence.
Cultural education with contemporary relevance
The project was developed as part of MemoRails – Stop! Here, Nazi history is remembered and is supported by the Cottbus Human Rights Centre in collaboration with partners from research, memorial work, and city history. Cooperation partners include, among others, the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, exhibeo e. V., the AG Stolpersteine Cottbus, and the Cottbus Municipal Collections. Students develop peer-to-peer tours, thus providing an intergenerational access.
Conclusion: Remembrance as an aesthetic and democratic experience
Visitors can expect not a decorative art show, but a precisely curated work of remembrance with historical depth. The exhibition combines artwork consideration in a figurative sense, media installation, documentation, and memorial culture into a compelling artistic experience. Anyone wishing to understand Cottbus and the mechanisms of exclusion, persecution, and forced labor should definitely visit this exhibition live.
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