Museum Forced Labour during National Socialism

The former Gauforum in Weimar has housed the ‘Museum Zwangsarbeid im Nationalsozialismus’ since 8 May 2024. During World War II, as many men as possible were called up for service in the army. Their jobs, and those in the war industry, were taken by women, but above all by millions of forced labourers who came from all occupied countries.

The museum, which is an initiative of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials, pays attention in a permanent exhibition to the history of the mass enlistment of prisoners, Jews and recruited civilians who were forced to do work for Nazi Germany under mostly miserable conditions.

In addition, the museum also paints a portrait of National Socialist society. This was radically racist and rested on two pillars: on the one hand, the offer of integration to the majority, propagated as the ‘Volksgemeinschaft’, and on the other, exclusion, persecution and, ultimately, often murder of those who did not belong.

The museum's location is a historical choice. The Gauforum was the residence of Fritz Sauckel, the Gauleiter of Thuringia. In this building that is a paragon of Nazi architecture, Sauckel was appointed ‘General Delegate for Labour Deployment’ (GBA) in 1942. As GBA, Sauckel was largely responsible for the deportation of millions of forced labourers to the German Reich.

For current visiting hours, please visit the website of the museum.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Renée Cieraad