Vanished and Forgotten

A visitor to Berlin's "Vanished and Forgotten: Refugee Camps in West Berlin" exhibit walks right into the thick of things in a room quite similar to what an actual refugee from East Germany might have experienced. Parts of the exhibit are literally hanging from laundry lines, dividing the room.

Pictures have been printed on bedsheets and articles of clothing hanging from the lines: one depicts a blonde boy, looking through a barbed wire fence into West Berlin; another shows a mother who managed to make it over to West Berlin, sitting with her children in a refugee camp.

The laundry lines that make up the exhibit are a central symbol of what conditions were like in the actual camps, says Enrico Heitzer, curator of the "Vanished and Forgotten" exhibit at the Marienfelde Refugee Camp Memorial.

"They represent the fleetingness and improvisation of these people, who were often here a short time before moving to the next camp," said Heitzer. "The laundry lines were also a means of gaining a little privacy. You could separate the space between beds by hanging up your jacket."

A reflection of GDR changes

In the refugee camps, it was always close quarters - especially when the situation in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) worsened.

Following a national uprising in the GDR on June 17, 1953, and in the years leading up to the construction of the Berlin Wall, around 90 camps were in operation in West Berlin. Heitzer estimates there were more than 20,000 East German refugees who received help at those camps during that time. Some camps received thousands of refugees, others just a few.

The refugee numbers swelled and shrank, reflecting the crises and political developments of the GDR like a seismograph, Heitzer explains.

By the time Germany reunited in 1990, around 1.35 million people had passed through Berlin's camps, living in barracks, bunkers or canvas tents.

According to Bettina Effner, head of the Marienfelde Refugee Camp Memorial, when camps were closed, they were quickly forgotten, initially making her and her colleagues' work a tall order.

"We examined the former West Berlin to see how many of these camps there were, where they were and what buildings they were housed in," she said. "We also looked into the conditions and circumstances that existed for the refugees once they got to West Berlin."

Cold showers and cold shoulders

It wasn't ever really comfortable for the refugees. Audio narrations of what things were like can be heard at the exhibit from people who were actually there, like 87-year-old Wolf Rothe, who was the deputy director of the Volkmarstrasse camp in Tempelhof - one of the biggest camps, with nearly 4,000 refugees.

"People would cry bloody murder about it now," Rothe says in his audio recording. "Most of the time there was only cold water. And the food was catastrophic from our perspective today! I can still picture the kitchens, with huge barrels of potatoes. Everything had to be made in huge portions."

But, Rothe continues, the refugees seemed surprisingly satisfied to be out of the GDR, despite not receiving a very warm welcome in West Germany.

Since they weren't citizens of the West Germany, the refugees couldn't work, and were regarded with suspicion by the West Berliners who saw them as immoral and unhygienic.

"Who likes having refugees around?" says Rothe. "People keep their distance for various reasons. Some were blatantly mean, because they saw the refugees as communist and such. The refugees had it damn tough becoming a part of West German society," Rothe said.

When the wall was constructed 50 years ago, the number of refugees from East Germany dropped dramatically. Most camps were closed, some were repurposed.

Marienfelde, on the other hand, was until recently an operational refugee camp. Today, near the "Vanished and Forgotten" exhibit, refugees and asylum seekers still live nearby, facing similar problems as the camp's former East German residents.

Author: Heiner Kiesel / mz
Editor: Martin Kuebler