The exhibition centers around the story of forced laborer Hanna Kovalenko (1927–2003), from the village of Puhalshchyna in the Poltava Region, and her friends who between 1942 and 1945 worked at various enterprises in the city of Furtwangen, Baden-Württemberg.
In April 2022, the NGO “After Silence” Team managed to purchase Anna’s photo archive through an online auction, identify many individuals depicted in the photos, and reconstruct their biographies using documents from Ukrainian and German archives. The exhibition title features a quote from an inscription on the back of one of these photographs.
From January 25 to April 28, 2024, the exhibition was displayed at the German Clock Museum in Furtwangen. A digital tour, “Forced Labor in Furtwangen”, created by the museum team as part of the exhibition, is available at the following link.
Photos: Anna Yatsenko, Kristina Fotografin, NGO “After Silence”
Publications:
Zwangsarbeiter in Furtwangen. Über ihre Geschichten wurde viel zu lange geschwiegen – Schwarzwälder Bote
Keine blühenden Jahre – Ausstellung zur NS-Zwangsarbeit in Furtwangen – Erika Weisser, chilli - Das Freiburger Stadtmagazin
Neue Ausstellung in Furtwangen zeigt Schicksale ukrainischer Zwangsarbeiterinnen im 2. Weltkrieg – Dominik Bloedner, Badische Zeitung
The exhibition was created by:
Andrii Usach – Researcher
Andrii Dostliev – Artist, Designer
Daria Reznyk – Coordinator in Germany
Anna Yatsenko – Coordinator in Ukraine
Dr. Johannes Graf – Exhibition coordinator at the German Clock Museum
Olena Martynchuk – Researcher
Viktoria Eismunt – Literary editor
Nelia Vakhovska, Claudia Dathe, Susanne Macht – Translators
Ihor Khorkavyi – Audio editing
Iryna Dutkevych – Photo restoration
Yuliana Dradrah – Accountant
We extend our gratitude for the support in preparing the exhibition to Dr. Oksana Kuzmenko, Liubov Zhurba, Dr. Ludger Beckmann, and Liudmyla Kryvchenko.
The exhibition was created in collaboration with the German Clock Museum in Furtwangen with the support of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).