Overview
- The Werra-Kalibergbau-Museum in Heringen has opened a special exhibition that documents forced labor in the local potash district under National Socialism.
- Museum research points to roughly 10,000 coerced workers from across Europe and maps a dense camp network in the rural Werra region that scholars say rivaled major industrial areas.
- Curators used the Buchenwald archive to confirm the owners of specific artifacts, tying items to named people, including the Russian prisoner Iwan Smetanikow.
- The show centers victims through large portraits, short biographies, and first‑person accounts such as Italian survivor Rosa Cantoni’s description of 10‑hour shifts and near total confinement.
- Visitors can use QR codes to reach an interactive knowledge site, and the exhibit is open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on select weekends while the main building undergoes renovation.