Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit

Description

In Niederschöneweide (Bezirk Treptow‑Köpenick), the Dokumentationszentrum NS‑Zwangsarbeit preserves the testimonies of those who were subjected to forced labor under National Socialism. It documents their living conditions in camp accommodation, at work and in everyday life, and, until the opening of the Museum Zwangsarbeit im Nationalsozialismus in Weimar in 2024, was the only institution of its kind in Germany.

The site between Britzer, Köllnischer and Rudower Streets belonged predominantly to the Reichsbahn at the beginning of the 20th century and, as a pine woodland, served as a recreational area; a small part was Jewish-owned and was expropriated during the course of Nazi persecution. From 1943 the responsible Reich authorities planned the construction here of a residential camp with 13 stone barracks for more than 2,000 foreign forced laborers; the complex was designated “Lager 75/76.” The stone barracks, partly fitted with air‑raid shelters, were intended to gain additional protection from air attacks from the tree cover. Parts of the double camp housed Italian military internees; other barracks were used temporarily as a concentration camp subcamp for female prisoners who worked in battery production.

After 1945 various state institutions used the area; in the following decades individual buildings were demolished or repurposed. Investigations in the 1990s showed the ensemble to be a largely preserved trace of the forced labor system. Initial commemorative projects began in the mid‑1990s; since 2006 the Dokumentationszentrum has been under the auspices of the Stiftung Topographie des Terrors and the State of Berlin.

As a place of commemoration and learning, several of the surviving barracks were restored and converted for exhibitions, seminar rooms, a library and an archive. One of the earliest restored barracks displays numerous original traces such as inscriptions, unrendered masonry and sanitary facilities; other buildings house permanent exhibitions and rotating special exhibitions on regional and international aspects of forced labor under National Socialism.

The permanent exhibitions include depictions of everyday life under forced labor, 1938–1945, as well as a detailed examination of the fate of the Italian military internees, 1943–1945. The Dokumentationszentrum combines historical research, conservation work and remembrance work at this historic site.