On the initiative of the Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht Memorials and in cooperation with the Alliance Tradition Lives on Memory, a new project was launched in January 2023. The project is supported by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future as part of the educational programme Nazi Injustice and by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Under the motto “From a place of jubilation to a place of injustice: Nazi forced labour camps on football pitches and sports grounds”, the project team is researching former football pitches and sports grounds that were used as camp sites under the Nazis. The main aim is to show that the crime of forced labour did not take place in isolated places, but was firmly rooted in the heart of society. The erasure of these forced labour camps from people’s memories suggests that there has been no real effort in the post-war period to come to terms with Nazi forced labour. The project aims to encourage football fans and others to actively engage with the Nazi past and to place lasting signs of remembrance in the digital space and at the forgotten campsites.

The project grew out of the work of the association “Tradition lebt auf Gedächtnis” (Tradition lives on memory), which is associated with the Osnabrück football club VfL Osnabrück and has done extensive research into forced labour in the Osnabrück district of Gartlage. The former VfL Osnabrück stadium in the Osnabrück district of Gartlage was replaced in 1939 by a forced labour camp for the nearby metalworking company Osnabrücker Kupfer- und Drahtwerk (OKD). A place of jubilation became a place of injustice. The findings of the Gartlage project raised the question of whether there were other sites in Germany and Austria that were transformed from sports grounds to camps in the same way. Another project was started to investigate this and to research these sites.

The results will be made visible and usable for the public. The results of the collaboration with fan initiatives, fan projects, civic associations, archives, memorials and other football and civil society stakeholders and interested parties will be stored and made accessible on an interactive map. Anyone interested would then be directed to this digital map by means of an NFC tag placed at the location. The sites identified on the map will be supplemented by documents, interviews with contemporary witnesses and photographs.

The aim is to make the content available for educational purposes beyond the confines of the projects. The project's educational team is working with the Gestapokeller and Augustaschacht Memorials to develop educational materials that can be used by a wide range of institutions for their own educational work.

Contact
Gedenkstätten Gestapokeller
und Augustaschacht e.V.
Zur Hüggelschlucht 4
49205 Hasbergen

Julian Krings
Email: julian.krings@augustaschacht.de