Memorial in Berlin to recall victims of Nazis' forced labor program (07/17/05)

Memorial in Berlin to recall victims of Nazis' forced labor program

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - City officials in Berlin announced plans to build a memorial that would pay tribute to victims of the Nazi regime's forced labor program. The memorial is scheduled to open in the summer of 2006 and will commemorate the millions of people who were forced to work against their will during World War II.

According to the German news service Deutsche Welle, the state government of Berlin announced on July 7 that it had purchased a Nazi-era former labor camp near the capital. Once completed, the memorial would become the first in Germany to document the lives of forced laborers under Nazi rule.

"It is essential to supplement the actual places of National Socialist atrocities in the German capital," Thomas Flierl, Berlin's culture senator, said in a statement.

City officials said they paid $1.7 million for the site, which is located in the Schoneweide section of east Berlin. The 8.2-acre site features still-intact stone barracks and workshops, many of which were threatened with collapse.

During World War II, Nazi officials began a program of using Ostarbeiters - the German term for the several million civilians who were taken from occupied eastern territories and forced to work in Germany. The program used the Ostarbeiters to work in German industry and thereby allow German citizens to focus their energy on the war effort.

According to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, the impact of this program on Ukraine was profound. "Ukraine was by far the most important source of Ostarbeiter: of the approximately 2.8 million civilians deported to Germany in 1941-1944, about 2.2 million were from Ukraine."

Mr. Flierl noted that the memorial site is a part of history and should be remembered. "Now, the historical traces can be secured and deciphered in Schöneweide," Mr. Flierl said. The memorial - which will be managed by the Topography of Terror Foundation - would create a place to come together and come to terms with Nazi-era crimes, the senator added.

The city government "will also enter into a close dialogue with similar facilities, mainly in middle and eastern European nations," Mr. Flierl said, according to Deutsche Welle.

German companies and the Nazi regime operated a massive forced labor program during World War II. They enslaved hundreds of thousands of people to build railroads and air bases, as well as work in factories, military production and concentration camps.

The camp was opened in 1943 under the supervision of Albert Speer, the minister of armaments. The complex was closely tied to the nearby industrial region of Oberschöneweide and Niederschöneweide in Johannisthal.

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