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Urban space as refuge

Moments of self-determination in forced labour

During the Second World War, around 500,000 people had to work as forced labourers in Berlin. Particularly the daily working and living conditions of the so-called eastern workers were subjected to the National Socialists’ racism. They were not allowed to leave their accommodations on their own. However, privately taken photographs of Ukrainian women who were forced labourers show how during their scarce free time, they managed to defy the lack of freedom they were subjected to.

Portraits of Ukrainian forced labourers in Wedding and Tiergarten, taken in Berlin in 1943 and 1944 (reproductions)

Donations: Antonina Davidivna Grebenyuk, Feodosiya Kozur, Nadja Petrovna Maistrenko, Nadeshda Grigorjeva Olschanskaya and Alexandra Ivanovna Skorochodova 2002