MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Leipzig (ots)
Between 1938 and 1945, more than 13 million people from all over Europe were brought to the German Reich for forced labor. In the documentary “Among Germans – Forced Labor in the NS State” the descendants of the victims tell of their fate, but also that of the perpetrators. Writer Natascha Wodin (“She came from Mariupol”), whose parents were forced laborers in Leipzig, has a say. The three parts can be seen on May 9th and May 14th on MDR television and in the ARD media library.
The author duo Matthias Schmidt and Vít Poláček (awarded the German-Czech Journalist Prize 2021 for “Expulsion – Odsun”) follows the fates of victims and perpetrators in the three-part series. The series follows Czech workers to Norway, Ukrainians to Leipzig and Poles to the Black Forest – to the workbenches of the Nazis.
For 14 million Wehrmacht soldiers who fought at the front, 13 million forced laborers came to the German Reich. “Among Germans” makes the forgotten biographies of these mostly young adults and adolescents visible. Through diaries, photographs and letters, the eyewitnesses of that time have their say. Their fates are told by their descendants, their children and grandchildren. The parents of the writer Natascha Wodin were also brought to Leipzig from the Soviet Union as forced laborers for an armaments company: “They had to build the bombs that destroyed their own homeland,” says Wodin in the film. She worked up her mother’s story in the novel “Sie kam aus Mariupol”, for which she was awarded the Leipzig Book Prize in 2017.
When the war ended for the Germans in 1945, it continued for the forced laborers: as “displaced persons” only a few were able to continue their old lives. Some even remain in the former enemy country. Natascha Wodin’s parents also remained “among the Germans”, but the contempt for the Germans did not stop after the war. The third episode of the series explores the protagonists’ war trauma and asks why the fate of forced laborers has been marginalized and forgotten in European memory over the past few decades. A fate that still shapes the lives of their descendants and thus also numerous narratives of guilt and reconciliation in today’s Europe.
The three-part series was produced by LOOKsfilm on behalf of MDR, Czech Television (ČT) and Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in cooperation with ARTE and funded by the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the German-Czech Future Fund. Anais Roth (editors for history and documentaries) was in charge of the editorial team at MDR.
The broadcast dates on MDR television:
- Part 1 “Lost Youth”: Tuesday, May 9, 2023, 10:10 p.m
- Part 2 “Forbidden Love”: Sunday, May 14, 10:20 p.m
- Part 3 “Forgotten Trauma”: Sunday, May 14, 11:05 p.m
After the TV broadcast, the documentary series can be accessed in the ARD media center for three months.
Press contact:
MDR, press and information, Birgit Friedrich, phone: (0341) 3 00 6545, email: [email protected], Twitter: @MDRpresse
Original content from: MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, transmitted by news aktuell
