Detail

The Trutzhain Memorial and Museum was opened in Schwalmstadt-Trutzhain on 27 June 2003 in a former guard barrack of the Stalag IX A Ziegenhain prisoner of war camp. It is one of the four central memorials in Hesse, which serve as examples of the various contexts of persecution under the Nazi regime. The memorial is financially supported by the city of Schwalmstadt.

The memorial’s permanent exhibition in four rooms uses original objects to tell the story of the POW camp from its establishment in 1939 to the foundation of Trutzhain, the youngest municipality in Hesse, in 1951. It commemorates the fate of the prisoners under the Nazi regime, their treatment in violation of international law and their use as forced labourers.

The memorial also includes an outdoor area that includes the former camp road with its barracks, now used as housing, and war cemeteries. Guided tours of this area take place regularly. A tour using a digital app is now also available.

The main focus of the memorial is the Nazi era, but it also deals with the post-war use of the site. The first prisoners of war arrived at Stalag IX A Ziegenhain at the beginning of the Second World War. The more than 10,000 prisoners and more than 43,000 other registered prisoners of war who were used in external labour detachments were mainly French and, from the autumn of 1941, Soviet prisoners of war. The latter were housed in a segregated area, known as the Russian camp, under inhuman conditions. Unlike the Western European prisoners, they were not protected by the Geneva Conventions. Many of them died and were buried anonymously in a cemetery in the forest, which became the Trutzhain Forest Cemetery Memorial in 1992. When the French prisoners died, they were buried in what is now the town cemetery.

American troops liberated Stalag IX A Ziegenhain on 30 March 1945 and used the barracks as an internment camp for Wehrmacht soldiers, members of the SS and SA, Nazi Party officials and women belonging to Nazi organisations until the summer of 1946.

For a short time in 1946 and 1947, Jewish Displaced Persons, survivors of the Holocaust, were housed in the barracks. Around 2,000 Jews, for whom the site was a transit camp, lived in the DP camp set up by the American military government. Mural paintings from that time remain, such as the Stars of David on the ceilings of some of the former barracks.

One of the memorial’s main tasks is education. Since 2015, this has been supported by a delegation of teachers who are seconded for four hours a week. In the field of political history education, the memorial offers a wide range of learning opportunities for different types of schools and age groups. The memorial’s extensive programme also includes courses for teachers and talks with contemporary witnesses. One of the most important tasks of the memorial is to research and clarify the fate of the victims. Every week the memorial receives enquiries from relatives wanting to know more about their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers.