The Website describes the Soviet penal labor camp system and provides information about political persecution in the Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR.
The Web site has three focal points: labor camps, biographies and literature. A map of the Soviet Union locates the former camps. An alphabetical list helps finding specific camps.
Labor camps
The Web site offers information on over 500 labor camps. Visitors can read about the history of the camp, its numbers of prisoners and the kind of work they were forced to do. This information is linked to biographies of people imprisoned there. The material is enriched by related pictures and documents. A seperate search engine facilitates information.
Biographies
There are over 250 biographies in schedules. Some of them include quotations from letters and memoirs, also photos of prisoners. The information comes from the archive and museum of the Internationale Gesellschaft MEMORIAL and the project of MEMORIAL Deutschland - Potsdamer KGB-Gefängnis in der Leistikowstr. Other biographies were written by Prof. Jenkner and Dr. Ammer.
Literature
There are articles from the compendium "System der Besserungsarbeitslager in der UdSSR" or the book by Siegfried Jenkner "Erinnerungen politischer Häftlinge an den GULAG". These two books were written escpecially for the Web site and may be downloaded. There are many other books available, also about the methods of political oppression in Soviet Union and in the Soviet Occupation Zone, then the GDR. All of them may be downloaded.
Target group
The information on the Web site can be applied in school lessons. They could be also interesting for scientists.
Contact
If you have questions about the project, please write to:
- Vera Ammer: vera [dot] ammer [at] memorial [dot] de or
- Sebastian Prieß: sebastian [dot] priess [at] memorial [dot] de from Memorial Deutschland, who are in charge of the Web site.
Link: www.gulag.memorial.de
English Version found on our Polish partner website "Learning from History"
