Exhibition Opening: "Without Rights or Wages: Forced Labor for the War Effort at Siemens & Halske"

It is dedicated to the more than 40 female forced laborers who were interned in the parish hall during World War II.

The exhibition also tells the story of forced labor throughout the German Reich.

The project is funded by the Decentralized Cultural Work Fund of the Spandau District Office of Berlin and by the Spandau Evangelical Church District.

Background

From 1940 to 1945, up to 48 female forced laborers were interned in the parish hall of the Siemensstadt Evangelical Church; they were forced to perform war-related work for Siemens & Halske AG.

Last year, the parish had a Stolperstein installed in memory of these women. It was the first Stolperstein in the Spandau district.

Now, an exhibition has reconstructed their lives—to the extent that this was even possible given the very limited available sources.

But by connecting the exhibition to the monstrous scale of forced labor throughout the German Reich, many details about the women interned in the Siemensstadt community have also come to light.

A small working group from the community set out to investigate and designed an exhibition featuring text and images.

Throughout the research, a statement by the forced laborer Marija was always present:

“We were forced to endure all of this because we were slaves who had been forcibly driven to a foreign country to work.”