From 20 October 2023

In 2017, an unusual find was made in the municipality of Wedemark in Lower Saxony. Several pieces of historical wooden furniture were recovered from the attic of a former enamelling factory. They had to work in the enamelling plant around 1943.

Among this wooden furniture were two bunk beds - with a special feature: the beds have enamelled nameplates that raise many questions about the fate of the unknown forced labourers. In 2020, the municipality of Wedemark donated one of the two bunk beds to the Documentation Centre for Nazi Forced Labour.

What can this object tell us? With this presentation, we would like to illustrate various research approaches and shed light on the conditions under which forced labourers had to live.