Polish forced labourers in Witten, 1940–1945

Culture of remembrance over the course of time
 

During the first four decades after the end of the war, no systematic effort was made at all in Germany to examine and process the history of forced labour during the National Socialist period. The deployment of foreign forced labourers was hardly mentioned. The subject faded into the background and historical research focused on other aspects of National Socialism and the course of the war. It was not until the 1980s that historians increasingly began to be interested in the topic, and slowly, it took hold in the collective memory.

In Witten, too, the first decades after the end of the Second World War were characterised by a refusal to talk about the National Socialist history of the town. During that time, the history of the forced labourers in the town and the satellite concentration camp in Witten-Annen was ignored, and collective amnesia set in. For example, during the first years after the war ended, some of the former forced labourers returned to Witten, to come to terms with what had happened to them and to find out what had become of their tormentors. However, their quest for information was unsuccessful: the majority of the population of Witten could not or would not remember the events surrounding the satellite concentration camp. This was a very clear example of the desire to draw a line under what had occurred. However, according to the historian Ralph Klein, who has researched the forced labour in Witten during the National Socialist period, there can be no doubt that the local population were aware that there were forced labourers in their midst. In the words of the headline of a press article about Ralph Klein’s research paper, which was published in 2015, “Everyone knew”[18]. Klein points out that the population of Witten repeatedly came into contact with the forced labourers during the war, either through the work itself or on the way from the camps to the places where they were deployed:

“The locals were able to see the camp inmates, many of whom were colleagues, walk the around 600-metre route from the camp (...) to the main entrance of Ruhrstahl AG in Stockumer Strasse. The factory lay in the centre of the town district, close to the train station and the market square. The Evangelical and Catholic churches, the post office and the local school were close by. Stockumer Strasse was lined with restaurants, shops and residential buildings”.[19] 

For a long time, despite the knowledge of the existence of the forced labourers and the satellite camp, there was no discussion or reflection on what had happened during that time. Rather, the few steps that were taken in this direction were limited mainly to criminal proceedings, particularly against the camp leaders, which were dealt with at a bureaucratic and judicial level. Otherwise, from the summer of 1945, with the approval of the Witten building authority, the barracks of the former camp were converted into a kindergarten. In time, the buildings were torn down one by one, and the empty area was partly filled with residential buildings and parking spaces.[20] 

It was not until 1984 that a research project by year 10 of the Albert Martmöller Gymnasium grammar school in Witten reminded the local population of that aspect of National Socialist history. In response to the pupils’ work, the town of Witten decided to erect a memorial plaque as a reminder of the existence of the satellite camp and its prisoners:[21] 

“From September 1944 to April 1945, a satellite of the Buchenwald concentration camp was located here. This memorial site is dedicated to the memory of the people who were incarcerated here and is intended as a reminder of the crimes committed against them”. (Fig. 3)

In 2013, two further panels were erected, containing information about forced labour under the National Socialists in the town (Figs. 4 & 5). Both the memorial stone and the information panels are situated on the remaining unused area of the former camp site, which was designated a site of special interest in 1992. (Figs. 1 & 7). To date, however, not least for financial reasons, the creation of a central memorial site has remained out of reach.

Natalia Kubiak, January 2020