Torgau closed youth work center memorial

Front view of the memorial

The memorial for the closed youth work center Torgau is a memorial in the Saxon city of Torgau , which commemorates the injustice in the closed youth work center Torgau as the culmination of repressive home education in the GDR , its effects and victims.

location

The memorial is located on the site of the former closed youth work yard, which used the buildings and outside areas of the former prison from 1964 until the fall of the Wall and the peaceful revolution in 1989 . While in 1996 the majority of the buildings were privatized and converted into apartments, the memorial was set up in the remaining administration building in 1998. The dark detention cells as well as the original inner courtyard and remains of the outer walls can also be visited.

Contents of the exhibition

The exhibition deals with the repressive education system and the structure of the GDR youth welfare and the special homes of the GDR, including special children's homes and youth work centers . From an ideological point of view, the aim was to develop a socialist personality through re-education who would fit into the system-conforming collective . Unwanted divergent political opinions or pro-western influences were the starting point for the admission to the home (see e.g. Punk in the GDR ) as were questionable diagnoses from psychology or social behavior. Untrained staff and inhumane treatment methods, including massive use of force, torture and mistreatment, ultimately led to a catastrophic system of injustice in Torgau. 4000 young people passed through this youth work center. In the exhibition, contemporary witnesses have their say and parts of the files can be viewed. Exhibits and illustrated everyday activities illustrate the repressive character of the youth work center. Individual young residents of the home committed suicide, others tried to escape the daily drill by harming themselves. Many former victims still suffer from physical and psychological consequential damage to this day. In addition to the permanent exhibition, guided tours, discussions with contemporary witnesses and project days take place in the memorial. Traveling exhibitions complement the content shown.

Eberhard Mannschatz was responsible for setting up the youth work center ; his portrait hangs in a room of the memorial with those of the other responsible persons: home manager Horst Kretzschmar and Margot Honecker .

The play "Who turns around or laughs ..." by Ulrike Schanko was premiered in 2011 at the memorial. In addition to the historical processing, the memorial researches current grievances and tendencies towards repressive educational models. Rainer Eckert is a member of the scientific advisory board .