Political prisoners were once forced to do piecework in Hoheneck, the largest women’s prison in the GDR. The products, such as tights, were sold to the West.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is calling for more information about forced labor in the GDR and is also holding former profiteers in the West accountable. At the opening of the new memorial in the former Hoheneck women’s prison, he spoke of a dark chapter in German-German economic history. The prisoners were once forced to do piecework and their labor was exploited for foreign currency, said Steinmeier in his speech in Stollberg near Chemnitz. In addition to the GDR state, West German companies also profited from this, receiving cheap goods.
It is good that historians are investigating the German-German supply chains of the time and what consequences this work had for the political prisoners in the GDR. “I hope that companies that imported products made in the GDR at the time will help with this investigation and seek to exchange ideas with the former political prisoners,” explained Steinmeier. “That would at least be a necessary but also a good gesture of respect.”
Hoheneck was once the largest women’s prison in the GDR. Between 1950 and 1989, around 24,000 women were imprisoned there, around 8,000 of them for political reasons. According to contemporary witnesses, everyday life in prison also included hard shift work, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. This involved making things like bed linen and tights, which were sold to West Germany. On Thursday, a new memorial was opened in the former women’s prison.
Source: Stern
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