Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit

Current exhibitions

About the museum

The camp on Britzer Straße was built from late 1943 on behalf of Albert Speer as Generalbauinspektor (General Building Inspector). It was planned as a double camp of 13 accommodation barracks and one stone service barrack for more than 2,000 foreign workers; those who actually lived here included Italian military internees as well as civilian forced laborers, men and women, from various European countries.

After the war the Soviet army initially used the site, and from 1946 a vaccine institute moved in. Other barracks served for decades as a daycare center, medical practice or clubhouse, among other things, so the history of the place long remained barely visible. Since 1995 the roughly 3.3-hectare site has been a protected monument as the last largely preserved one of what were once some 3,000 forced labor camps in Berlin.

Following civic campaigning, the Berlin Senate decided in 2004 to set up a documentation center in the empty barracks; it opened on August 24, 2006, as a department of the Stiftung Topographie des Terrors. In 2010 the carefully restored Barrack 13, with surviving inscriptions by internees, was opened to the public. Today the center presents two permanent exhibitions – on the everyday reality of forced labor and on the history of the Italian military internees – along with temporary exhibitions, a public specialist library, online databases of camp locations and an extensive educational program.

Highlights

• Berlin's only largely preserved Nazi forced labor camp (listed monument)
• Permanent exhibition “Alltag Zwangsarbeit 1938–1945” (Forced Labor in Everyday Life)
• Exhibition on the Italian military internees in Barrack 4
• Original Barrack 13 with inscriptions by internees (guided tours only)
• Media guide in many languages, including sign language and Easy Language
• Free admission and free public guided tours

Permanent exhibitions

• Alltag Zwangsarbeit 1938–1945 – Shows forced labor as an omnipresent mass phenomenon: life in the camp, at the workplace and in contact with the German population, shaped by the racist hierarchy of the Nazi state.
• Zwischen allen Stühlen. Die Geschichte der italienischen Militärinternierten 1943–1945 – Exhibition in Barrack 4 about some 650,000 Italian soldiers who were forced to work as military internees after 1943 – from their capture to their belated remembrance.
• Baracke 13 – Largely original accommodation barrack with inscriptions by Italian internees in the basement; accessible only on guided tours.

Founded

2006

Operated by

Stiftung Topographie des Terrors

Director

Christine Glauning

Admission & discounts

Admission is free.

Free admission, including public guided tours. Exhibition catalog (272 pages, four language editions) for €15.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials
• Audio description

Exhibitions including Barrack 13 are wheelchair-accessible. Media guide in 13 language versions, including German Sign Language, Easy Language and audio description; visitors are welcome to bring their own headphones. Also available as an app for iOS and Android.

Kids & families

Only partly suitable for kids

Memorial and documentation site on Nazi forced labor; most group tours are aimed at teens from grade 9, the exhibition tour "Forced to Work" from age 14. There is a dedicated child-friendly tour for grades 5 and 6.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

Public academic reference library (some 6,000 items) on site.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.

Plan your visit