Cottbus: A Train Station of Remembrance Makes Nazi History Visible
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Cottbus as a Train Station of Remembrance: An Exhibition about Deportation and Forced Labor
The special exhibition makes visible how closely the Cottbus train station was associated with exclusion, deportation, transport of detainees, and forced labor during National Socialism. At the Cottbus Human Rights Center, historical research intertwines with cultural education and a penetrating media installation, creating an important place of remembrance.
A Transportation Hub Becomes a Space of Remembrance
The Cottbus train station was far more than a typical transportation site during the Nazi era. In 1938, Jewish people with Polish citizenship were expelled from Cottbus and the surrounding region to Poland. During World War II, deportation trains passed through the city to ghettos in occupied Poland and to Theresienstadt. Transports from western and southern German cities as well as from occupied countries in Western Europe also traversed the Cottbus tracks.
Four Themes of Precise Curating
The exhibition connects four historical narratives: the exclusion and disenfranchisement of the Jewish population, the train station as a transit point for deportation trains, the women’s penitentiary in Cottbus as a site of political detention, and the everyday life of forced labor in businesses and institutions of the city. Documents, biographical references, and historical information focus the exploration of the works on concrete life paths and individual fates.
Media Installation with Names and Deportation Locations
A central element is a media installation that references historical departure boards. Names, deportation locations, and life paths become present in the exhibition space. The combination of text, light, movement, and historical research creates a concentrated exhibition atmosphere. Instead of decorative painting or classical sculpture, an installation specific to the site makes the historical place itself a testament to an era.
Culture of Remembrance and Political Education
The project was created as part of the MemoRails program and is supported by the Cottbus Human Rights Center in cooperation with exhibeo e. V., the AG Stolpersteine Cottbus, and the City Collections Cottbus. The project is funded by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future as well as the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The exhibition opens pathways to the history of National Socialism, human rights, the rule of law, and democratic responsibility.
Conclusion: Experience History on Site
Visitors can expect not a distant panorama of history, but a concentrated artistic experience of remembrance: historically grounded, media-supported, and closely tied to Cottbus. The aesthetic experience arises from engagement with documents, names, spaces, and voices of the past. Anyone who wants to understand how remembrance remains visible in public space and what significance historical education holds for the present should definitely visit this exhibition live.
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