Forced labour camps
During the Second World War, there were hundreds of camps in the Cologne urban area in which prisoners of war, forced labourers and concentration camp inmates from almost 20 European countries were forced to live.
About the database
The first „foreign workers“ to be deported to Cologne in the autumn of 1939 were Polish prisoners of war who were interned in the Cologne Trade Fair. In the course of the war, an enormous „camp complex“ was created there.
But there were camps all over the city – in the centre as well as in the industrial suburbs or the rural villages on the outskirts. The size of these camps varied greatly: ten, a hundred, sometimes thousands of people lived in inns, factory buildings, former forts, but mainly in barracks, under primitive, often miserable conditions. Only a tiny minority of „foreign workers“ were lucky enough to live as subtenants in a proper apartment.
Please note: This database was created in the 1990s. Some of the information in the database is therefore outdated. Since it will take some time before we can provide a new version, please consider this database as provisional. Comments on the database will be collected and taken into account in a future revision.
The Data
The Database, which is the result of years of research by the NS-Documentation Centre in collaboration with the „Projektgruppe Messelager“, is the first attempt to identify all of the currently known prisoner-of-war camps and labour camps for „civilian“ forced labourers, private accommodation and the so-called displaced persons camps that were set up by the Allies in Cologne after the war as reception camps. As far as information was available, the database also contains information about the number, gender and nationality of the people, the companies and businesses in which they were forced to work, as well as other details that were usually only passed down by chance. It was rarely possible to provide even a small insight into the living and working conditions of the forced labourers. Further research will be needed to provide a more accurate and graphic description of the conditions in the camps and companies.
The sources
The information in the database has been checked against the contemporary address books and added to where necessary. The terms used are largely taken from the contemporary language of the Nazi authorities and agencies. For ease of reading, the source references have been omitted. The complete register can be viewed at the NS-Documentation Centre.
The information compiled here is not only far from complete and therefore provisional, but often contradictory. In addition to documents from the period 1939 to 1945, it is mainly based on several lists that were only made after the end of the Second World War, as well as on eyewitness statements. Despite all efforts, our knowledge about the life and work of forced labourers in Cologne is still very limited. The destruction caused by the bombing raids and, above all, the lack of interest shown by companies, administrative authorities and courts after 1945 have contributed to this.
Support
As a lot of information, photos and other materials on the Cologne forced labour camps and the life and work of the people interned there are still missing, the NS-Documentation Centre is very interested in your cooperation and help.
You can either make additions and/or corrections to the database or point out previously unknown camps to us. To do so, please use our contact form. Your information will then be transferred to the database as quickly as possible, thus ensuring its growth and completion. If you wish, we will also be happy to contact you personally.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support.