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Forced and Unfree Labour. Our Point of View

The digital study camp organized by the Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre in cooperation with Service Civil International Germany brought together a diverse group of people from Bangladesh, China, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine. All of us were eager to prepare a digital exhibition and find out more about the topic of forced labour in our surroundings.

During the digital camp we learned more about Nazi forced labour and explored other examples from the Second World War period. We also discussed modern forms of forced and unfree labour, such as child labour, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation and inhumane labour conditions. Despite different backgrounds and distinct approaches we noted that forced labour is not only confined to the past. It remains a truly global phenomenon in the twenty-first century. Even in our home countries there are numerous cases of forced labour with people being abused and human rights not being respected.

During the study camp each of us embarked on a personal journey searching for traces of forced and unfree labour and photographing them. We invite you to become part of this journey and reflect together:

What is your role in forced labour today?
Did you take part, even passively, in other people’s exploitation and abuse?
What can you personally do to make people aware of this problem?

Popular but Still Unknown

Nowadays we get in touch with so many products and items produced by various companies. For us it is normality and we are used to them, but most of the time we cannot even imagine the dark parts of their histories. Such stories include the broken lives of thousands of people, who were or still are performing forced labour. For instance, this happened back in 1942 to my compatriot who was brought to Bonn to work at the “Konservenfabrik”. Maybe that place is not that well known, but what about others: Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen, Bayer? How should they cope with their past?

Nina, Ukraine

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Slumbering Railways

As a fan of railways, I always take the train to commute and go on vacation. Railways make our everyday lives easy and comfortable, but that was not always the case.

During the Nazi Regime, railways were used to transport prisoners and forced labourers. Inmates of Mauthausen and its subcamps had to endure a four kilometer journey from the station, abused and mistreated by the SS guards.

In East Asia, railways were used to deport forced labourers during the Second World War, including “comfort women” (women forced into being sex slaves by the Japanese Army).

Seung Hwan, South Korea

1/5

Door to Forced Labour

Located in Jevrejska (Jewish) Street, close to the city center, the synagogue has been a landmark of Novi Sad since it was built in 1909. It consisted of two edifices decorated in a similar way. One building housed the offices of the Jewish Community and the synagogue officials, while the other one served as a Jewish school. In January 1942 over 800 Jewish men, women and children were murdered during the massacres conducted by the Hungarian police. In May 1944 the remaining Jews were assembled in the synagogue of Novi Sad before being transported to the Nazi labour and extermination camps. The building of the synagogue, although desecrated and robbed of many valuable items, suffered only light damage.

Novak, Serbia

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Visibility of Former Forced Labour Camps

I have been living in Berlin-Steglitz for almost one year now, but I have never searched for traces of forced labour in my neighbourhood. During the SCI study camp I visited six different locations of former forced labour camps to see how they are used today. The most exciting part of this field trip was to realize that the six former forced labour camps I visited were in the centre of residential areas and thus very visible to the German population.

1. Teltowkanalstraße 1-4, 12247 Berlin. A former forced labour camp.

2. Birkbuschstraße 53, 12167 Berlin. A former forced labour camp of the Askania-Werke.

3. Birkbuschstraße 40, 12167 Berlin. A former camp for Italian military internees.

4. Leonorenstraße 18-22, 12247 Berlin. A former forced labour camp (Saallager Pichlers Viktoriagarten).

5. Leonorenstraße 37-39, 12247 Berlin. A former forced labour camp of the gardening company P. und H. von Cotzhausen.

6. Borstellstraße 23, 12167 Berlin. A former forced labour camp in the pub Südendklause.

In none of these places could I find a memorial plaque that commemorates the former use as a forced labour camp.

Freya, Germany

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Where is the Youth?

When we talk about drugs we almost immediately think of ‘capos’ (drug lords), and yes, they run the business; but what about the other people in the drug empire? As big as it is, to work, it needs its group members who are not always there voluntarily. Cartels often force them to work by blackmailing them with their families' safety or even by kidnapping them.

Distributing the drugs keeps the drug empire wealthy by maintaining its source of income, but... at what cost? In the case of children and teenagers, it is at the expense of their youthfulness and innocence, and sometimes, their lives. Instead of going to school, playing games and simply just being children, they are outside, waiting to be called to deliver packages by driving motorcycles during the day, but especially at night, when no one can see, in every kind of environment, including very dangerous ones. As a result, motorcycles and children become tightly connected to the drug business and are traces of the existence of forced labour and how it operates: sometimes hidden, but very real.

Valeria, Mexico

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Still Life

During the Second World War many women, seperated from their homeland, were made to perform forced labour for the enemy. Among their tasks one could be to sew teddy bears for SS men's children for Christmas. Even though their own world was falling apart, this duty, along with their unshakeable determination to keep their children safe, could help them to survive,

Füsun, Turkey

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Forced Child Beggars

A little boy, whose legs, tongue and an arm were cut by human traffickers, used to be forced to beg for money here - day in and day out.

The boy used to hold a similar old bowl. All he had to do was to fill the bowl with enough money so that he wouldn't get beaten so hard when he got back to the traffickers at the end of the day.

Since the boy was made disabled, he was put on such a skateboard. With it he could move around slowly and with difficulty, and it was almost impossible for him to escape.

This is the street where the boy used to move around. The shadows on the street are actually mine and my sister's. We were freely riding a bike while enjoying the bright pleasant sunshine and taking pictures. But we couldn’t help thinking: A bright day like this is just another day in a scary, dark hell for the boy, bearing incredible pain and frightened to get tortured again and again for not getting enough money. And sadly the boy I met is just the tip of the iceberg of forced child beggars whose bodies, minds and lives have been ruined by human traffickers.

Fan, China

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Struggle for Recognition and Memory

In 1938, to wage a “Total War“ against China, the Japanese Empire enacted the National Mobilization Law. This new law enabled them to mobilize forced labourers from their colonies, including Taiwan and Korea. Eighty years later, to commemorate the victims of forced labour, two Korean labour unions teamed up to erect a statue of colonial forced labourers. It is their first step to raise the level of recognition among the public, but will the world remember the workers?

Kyu Dong, South Korea

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Forgotten in Transition

Where? Spain. During the Spanish Civil War and early stages of the dictatorship, between 700 000 and 1 million people were forced to work. How? They were forced to repair cities, construct roads, etc. And now? It may seem that their stories are ignored, as there are only a few places where the horrors that occurred at that time are explained.

This building is now a Convent of the Carmelitas Descalzas, but more than 1000 prisoners were imprisoned during the last stages of the civil war and afterwards. Prisoners of war and victims of forced labour were confined in prisons like this or concentration camps located across the whole territory of the country. These were not only soldiers, but also civilians who supported the democratic values of the Second Republic.

They were forced to carry out diverse types of work. In addition, because they were considered traitors and disloyal to their nation, prisoners usually had to undergo re-education programs that were based on religious and fascist premises.

Time passed and the memories of those whose rights were violated seem to be left far behind in transition. This monument represented in this picture is located in the town Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) and is one of the few memorials to the victims of fascism in Catalonia.

Clara, Spain

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Shadows of Survivors

No traces remain of the former police detention camp in Borgo San Dalmazzo. There's only a memorial located near the railway station to commemorate the victims of the deportation. In November 1943, 329 men, women and children were put on the train and taken to the camps in Fossoli di Carpi or Drancy and later to Auschwitz. They were Jewish refugees from different countries who were trying to escape via France, through the mountains, but were captured and moved to Borgo San Dalmazzo. Only 18 people survived. At the memorial the names of the victims are written according to where they were standing before their final journey. The names of the survivors are written in large upright letters to draw the attention of passersby.

Silvana, Italy

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Hands

A life began on a farm, where there is always work and many hands are needed all the time. This life also ends on the farm.
My grandma's hands were forced to work since she was ten years old. Her hands started working from the moment she was able to use them. Now she is 83 and can't really stay away from work: even when she's not forced anymore. It's in her hands.

Gül, Turkey

Shattered Dreams

Despite of child labour being penalized in Bangladesh, it is still crippling the lives of many unprivileged children. In my photo story I tried to portray how child labour is collapsing the child’s dreams and childhood. Child labour is a threat to the nation as these children are going to remain illiterate and hopeless for the rest of their lives. Poverty leads the families of the children to be responsible for this kind of forced labour.

In my photos I used some props like toys, cars, balls, board etc. Through that I wanted to represent the childhood but in the photos we will be able to detect the odd prop out which is a hammer. The hammer is the representation of ‘child labour’. Instead of playing, studying, a child’s life changes through the replacement of a hammer.

In the construction sites, sometimes they try to draw a perfect happy family as most of those children do not get to experience a decent family life. Their family usually consists of 8 to 12+ members. Thus they forced the children to work to bear their bread and butter.

In some other photos, I tried to portray those children’s interests in education. In Bangladesh for the past 10 years, primary education has brought so many positive changes. Their campaign for ‘education for all’ has a drastic impact on the working class as till primary and secondary education, government schools offer free education including free books.

However, the irony lies in the life of some children who are bound to do the labour for the sake of poverty despite having immense interest in education. Thus I named this series as ‘shattered dreams’.

Tamanna, Bangladesh

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Eine virtuelle Ausstellung von

Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit

Internetadresse

https://www.ns-zwangsarbeit.de/home/

Service Civil International

Internetadresse

https://www.sci-d.de/

Team

Kurator*innen

Curators of the exhibition: Clara Morer, Fan Gao, Freya Ziegelitz, Füsun Çetinel, Gül Akbulut, Lee Kyu Dong, Nina Mialo, Novak Stanišić, Ryu Seung Hwan, Silvana Mossotto, Tabassum Islam Tamanna, Valeria Jarumi Sosa Millán

Concept and Program: Tanja Vaitulevich, Lena Sommerfeld, Leonardo Pape

Photography Workshops: Oliver Peters

Workshops on NS Forced Labour: Elisabeth Anschütz

Erstellt mit:

Ein Service von:

Diese Ausstellung wurde am 17.09.2020 veröffentlicht.

Impressum

Die virtuelle Ausstellung Searching for Traces of Forced Labour wird verantwortlich im Sinne des Medienstaatsvertrags veröffentlicht von:

Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit
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12439 Berlin-Schöneweide
Das Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit ist eine Abteilung der Stiftung Topographie des Terrors

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Hinweis

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