Stumbling blocks of forgetting: Rudersberg remembers the forced laborers

Stumbling blocks of forgetting: Rudersberg remembers the forced laborers

On May 26, 2025, a moving commemoration ceremony took place in Rudersberg on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the labor education camp (AEL) there. As part of this celebration, the artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block to commemorate the thousands of women who were forced into forced labor in this camp during National Socialism. Historian Sonja-Maria Bauer reported that over 3,000 women were imprisoned in the Gestapo-run camp, which functioned as a forced labor center between 1942 and 1945.

The restaurant called “Zur Ritterburg” was converted into a labor training camp, where women had to work under harsh conditions in agriculture, crafts and in businesses important to the war effort. Many of them suffered from mistreatment, poor hygiene and little food. The sad highlight was that some women from the camp were deported to concentration camps and murdered there. Two young women died as a result of the abuse they suffered in the camp.

Remembrance and processing

The commemoration also included the reading of the names of imprisoned women by students from the Rudersberg school center. The stumbling block was placed in the immediate vicinity of the former labor training camp and is intended to keep the memory of the victims alive. Gunter Demnig is known for creating and laying stumbling blocks and stumbling blocks in many communities to commemorate the murder victims of fascism and their survivors. So far he has laid stumbling blocks and stumbling blocks in around 1,200 municipalities, and he is currently also active in the Stuttgart region, including in Esslingen, Sindelfingen and Bietigheim-Bissingen.

Labor training camps like the one in Rudersberg were set up by the Gestapo from 1940 onwards to discipline and re-educate dissidents and foreign forced laborers. Historically, by the end of the Second World War there were around 200 such camps in the German Reich and the occupied territories, in which around 500,000 people suffered. Detainees were often subjected to arbitrary detention, often without clear reasons for detention. The living conditions varied greatly and led to numerous deaths and psychological trauma.

Context of forced labor

Forced labor under the National Socialist regime was made necessary by the shortage of workers during the Second World War. Since 1940, in order to maintain their wartime economy, men and women from the countries invaded by Nazi Germany were forced to work in the German economy. Foreign workers made up more than a quarter of the workforce in many companies, with conditions particularly discriminatory for Eastern workers and Poles.

Overall, many forced laborers suffered from a strict apparatus of repression and control that shaped their daily lives. Overcrowded accommodation and inadequate food were the order of the day. The debate about compensation for victims of forced labor that began after the war lasted up to 65 years and promoted a comprehensive examination of the devastating consequences of these employment practices.

The stumbling block in Rudersberg is therefore not only a memorial, but also a step towards historical reckoning and in memory of the many women who lost their lives and dignity in this camp. It remains crucial to keep the memory of these events alive so that such injustices are never repeated.

For more information about the background of the labor education camps and forced labor under National Socialism, you can visit the following links: SWR, Wikipedia, bpb.