MEMORY IN PRACTICE

During World War II there were more than 400 units of collective accommodation for forced laborers in the Munich area alone. In some cases the barracks were erected in the immediate vicinity of places of work or on company premises. In others, schools, gymnasiums, or guesthouses were converted into housing. Today, there are virtually no visible signs of these historic buildings. The photographer Hadas Tapouchi visited 30 of these sites, seeking to make their former presence come alive again. The interactive map of the city invites you to document changes in the urban space yourself and to share them with others, thus forging a connection between physical historical sites and digital memory space.

Adresse

List of former forced labor camps in Munich

All information are based on the data base of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism.

No results

Context

Start
Memory in Practice

Memory in Practice

Hadas Tapouchi’s photographs show the everyday cityscape, the ordinary places where people live, work, go to school, and spend their leisure time. It is only the addition of information about the historical context that makes the history of these places palpable and alters our view of them as we discover that these are the very places where forced laborers were housed in Nazi Germany.

Tapouchi’s photographs map historic places in order to investigate how they have become normalized in the contemporary city. Her images bridge the historical distance and thus mediate between between past and present. Especially during World War II, forced laborers were a ubiquitous sight on the streets of Munich. They could be seen on their daily journey to work or at laboring in public space, for example building roads or working for the city. In order to be allocated forced laborers, an enterprise not only had to register its workforce requirement but also provide housing for the workers. For this reason, large companies erected their own camps. Public bodies, such as the City of Munich, provided mass accommodation and rented housing space to smaller companies.

Tapouchi is interested in the potential of collective remembrance to resist the marginalization and invisibility of history in public space. Through what she calls “memory practice” she explores the urban planning of the past and the power relationships it expressed and examines how the memory of the violent history of forced labor has been overwritten by gentrification and value creation. Her project brings history perceptibly and physically closer to those who remember today.

Hadas Tapouchi

Hadas Tapouchi (b. 1981) received her M.A degree from the Faculty of Arts – Hamidrasha at Beit Berl College in Israel. She works with photography and video integrating a research-based practice with social encounters. She approaches history as a tool for understanding social relations as well as a medium through which to investigate urban and social transformations. In her artistic practice Tapouchi also focuses on social constructs that manifest the normalization of power.
Her works have been shown in international institutions, including Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Villa Oppenheim (Berlin), Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (Berlin), The Living History Forum (Stockholm), Jewish Museum (Berlin), and Cultural Center Zamek (Poznań). She has received numerous grants and taken part in several AIR programs, Kunsthalle Krems, and Cultural Center Zamek in Poznań. Hadas Tapouchi lives and works in Berlin.

www.hadastapouchi.com

Places

Themes