New permanent exhibition opened at Torgau youth work camp

The Torgau Closed Youth Correctional Center Memorial is commemorating the repressive power structures of the GDR with a new permanent exhibition. 35 years after the last young person was released from the facility in northern Saxony, the exhibition commemorates the young victims of socialist re-education practices, according to Gabriele Beyler, chairwoman of the memorial.

Thousands of young people were sent to re-education homes in the GDR. Between 1964 and 1989 alone, around 4,000 were sent to Torgau, the only closed youth work camp in the GDR. Since 2009, a permanent exhibition at the memorial has been exploring the everyday lives and emotions of the young people. To date, 265,000 visitors have been recorded.

This exhibition has now been revised, it said. Under the motto: "I was born a human being and I want to get out of here as a human being!", sexualized violence in the GDR youth welfare homes is also addressed for the first time. With audio stations and reading aids, visitors can learn more about GDR home education.

The new permanent exhibition was to be opened with a ceremony in the evening in the presence of numerous former children from the homes. Speeches were planned by Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU), Minister of State for Culture and Media Claudia Roth (Greens), the Federal Commissioner for East Germany Carsten Schneider and Evelyn Zupke, SED Victims' Commissioner at the German Bundestag.