Cottbus: A Station of Remembrance Makes Nazi History Visible
Date and Time
Location
About this Event
Mood
Venue Type
A Station Becomes a Place of Remembrance
The special exhibition Cottbus: A Station of Remembrance. Deportations and Forced Labor in National Socialism makes a long-suppressed part of Cottbus's city history visible. The focus is on the station as a place of exclusion, deportation, prisoner transports, and forced labor during the Nazi regime.
Four Narrative Threads of a Suppressed History
The curation follows four thematic lines: the disenfranchisement of the Jewish population, the deportation trains through Cottbus, the women's penitentiary as a site of political imprisonment, and the everyday life of forced laborers in the businesses and institutions of the city. In 1938, Jewish individuals with Polish citizenship were expelled from Cottbus and the region to Poland. During World War II, deportation trains traversed the Cottbus tracks to ghettos in occupied Poland and to Theresienstadt.
Historical Documents and Individual Fates
Documents, names, former addresses, and deportation sites bring visitors close to individual life stories. The exhibition connects historical research with a temporary presentation and simultaneously focuses on the role of the German Reichsbahn as well as the reactions of the Cottbus population.
A Media Installation Like a Departure Board
A defining element is a digital media installation reminiscent of historical departure boards. Names, routes, and destinations appear in a familiar station aesthetic, transforming the everyday transport location into an evocative choreography of remembrance. Light, text, and spatial effects direct the aesthetic experience toward what historical sources preserve: paths, losses, and the traces of human exploitation.
Historical Education and Responsibility
The project originated in the MemoRails program of the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. Partners include the Cottbus Human Rights Center, exhibeo, the Cottbus Stolpersteine Working Group, and the Cottbus City Collections. Peer-to-peer tours led by students connect cultural education with a cross-generational engagement on human rights, the rule of law, and social cohesion.
Conclusion: Remembrance as a Current Task
The exhibition does not offer a distanced historical panorama but a concentrated artistic experience of documentary forms: names, images, media, and places condense into a compelling work observation. Anyone wishing to understand Cottbus from a new historical perspective and to experience the significance of a vibrant culture of remembrance should visit this exhibition on-site.
