Permanent exhibition “Wolfenbüttel Penitentiary under National Socialism”

Wolfenbüttel Penitentiary was the central detention center in the former state of Braunschweig. Starting in 1933, the judiciary increasingly incarcerated political dissidents, socially and racially marginalized persons, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as foreign prisoners during the war. In 1937, an execution site was set up in the prison; 500 death sentences were carried out here until the liberation.

The permanent exhibition of the memorial in the JVA Wolfenbüttel uses the example of Wolfenbüttel to explore the role played by the judiciary and the penal system as a means of National Socialist rule. It also takes a closer look at the continuities and ruptures in the early Federal Republic: While the judiciary was supposed to fulfill a new, constitutional function, at the same time there was a practice in some areas that resembled that of the Nazi era.

We designed and implemented four interactive media stations and three animated films for the permanent exhibition.