Memorial Signs for forced labourers of the Reichsbahnlager Nauaubing,
Ehrenbürgstraße 9

Around 13.5 million people were made to perform forced labour in the German Reich. In the Munich area, more than 120,000 people were deployed not only in state-owned companies but also in private enterprises and households. The camp at what is now Ehrenbürgstraße 9 in Neuaubing was one of over 450 camps for forced labourers. It was built by the Reichsbahn in 1942 and was used to house up to 1,000 people who had to clean, repair and convert railway carriages for war purposes until the end of the war. They came from the Soviet Union, Poland and Italy. Their everyday lives were characterised by experiences of violence, hunger, cold, catastrophic living conditions and worries about their daily survival.

Without their exploitation, National Socialist Germany would not have been able to wage the Second World War for so long. Large sections of society also profited from this mass crime. After the war, it often took decades for their suffering to be recognised in Germany. It was not until the 2000s that increased civil society involvement led to the state and companies paying compensation - but this came too late for many of those affected. The barracks in Neuaubing are one of the last surviving camp complexes of this kind in Germany. The Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism is building a memorial to the history of Nazi forced labour there.