»The Disavowed. Victims of National Socialism 1933 – 1945 – Today« will be on display from October 8, 2026, to January 3, 2027, at the City Museum Cottbus, Bahnhofstraße 22, 03046 Cottbus. The exhibition is open from 10 am to 5 pm on Tuesdays to Fridays, and from 1 pm to 5 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
It will be accompanied by several events.
The opening will take place on October 7 at 5 pm at the City Museum Cottbus. Mayor Doreen Mohaupt, and Uwe Neumärker, Director of the Foundation Memorial, as well as other representatives from the participating organisations will speak at the event. In addition, Annika Kleist and Marina Orywahl, relatives of former victims of persecution and members of the »Vevon. Association for the Remembrance of the Denied Victims of National Socialism e.V.«, will talk about their experiences. The curators of the exhibition, which has been expanded for Cottbus, will also be present.
The exhibition commemorates people who were persecuted under National Socialism as »asocials« and »career criminals«. Their experiences take centre stage. Between 1933 and 1945, the authorities and police capitalised on social prejudices. They controlled, harass and deprive tens of thousands of their freedom. Many are murdered.
The Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR and Austria refused to compensate those affected. Their experiences of injustice are denied.
In February 2020, the German Parliament decided: »No one was rightfully imprisoned in a concentration camp; even those persecuted as ›asocials‹ and ›career criminals‹ were victims of National Socialist reign of terror«. In the context of this decision, the parliament commissioned the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial to create an exhibition. It represents one of the most important remembrance projects of the decade in the Federal Republic of Germany.
After its opening presentation in Berlin, the exhibition moved to Flossenbürg, Cologne, Leipzig, Osthofen and most recently to the Documentation Centre Prora. There, a lot of visitors from the nearby seaside resort went to see the exhibition.
