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Breaking the silence about forced labor in Nazi Germany

12:33

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May 3, 2025

German photographer Stefan Weger began to research his family's history after questioning their silence regarding the Nazi era. He discovered his great-grandmother's involvement in the execution of a 17-year-old Polish forced laborer.

After many decades, German photographer Stefan Weger began to examine his family's silence. Weger's photography series "Luise" explores guilt, denial, and responsibility. 

 

Meanwhile, Daniel Sieczkowski from Poland has been researching his grandmother's life as a Polish laborer in Nazi Germany.  His grandmother was taken to Nazi Germany as a young woman. The Nazis sold her and many other Poles like cattle, considering them "racially inferior." At an estimated three million people, they were the second largest group of civilian forced laborers - after Soviet citizens.

Two people from the same generation tell a different side of the story. This generation  is asking difficult questions, like "What did our forefathers do?" and, "What does that mean for us today?" The quest takes them through a web of denial and silence.

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Reporter — On Location

DW’s on-the-ground reporters are always close to the action, be it covering international events or zooming in on some of the quirks of daily life. Camera always in hand, they report on the changes they see taking place in Germany, Europe and around the world.

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