"Stopover Forced Labour" - Memorial site Trebnitz railway station

From September 2025 to June 2026, Schloss Trebnitz is developing the project “Stopover Forced Labour. Memorial site Trebnitz railway station” in coordination with regional remembrance initiatives. The focus is on engaging with the history of forced labour under National Socialism in the village of Trebnitz and in rural Brandenburg.

Trebnitz railway station was a central site in this history. Through this station, numerous people from different parts of Europe were brought to the region, including German and Czech Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, as well as concentration camp inmates from France and Norway, and civilian forced labourers from Italy and Poland. They were primarily forced to work on construction sites for alternative service offices as well as on estates and farms.

The project commemorates the fates of those affected and makes the crimes of National Socialism visible in rural areas.

“Stopover Forced Labour” makes local history visible and raises the question of how remembrance can be shaped today. The project combines historical research, artistic formats, and educational work, and invites visitors, young people, and the regional public to engage with the history of Nazi forced labour.

The memorial site at Trebnitz railway station thus becomes a place of remembrance, learning, and encounter.

MemoRails is a funding programme of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future. It supports projects that research railway stations as historical sites of Nazi persecution and develop new forms of remembrance.