Souvenir Photo for a Forced Laborer

During World War II, Nazi Germany deported over 12 million people from occupied territories for forced labor.

In Hamburg alone, around 500,000 civilians were subjected to forced labor — many of them young women from the former Soviet Union, particularly from Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia.

For decades after the war, these women were unable to speak openly about the trauma they had endured. Social stigma, state-imposed restrictions, shame, and personal pain kept their stories silent for a long time.

Now, in old age, some of them — teenagers during the war — are breaking that silence. They speak about what happened to them in Hamburg. Their memories surface through old photographs, unlocking emotions buried for a lifetime. The recollections are at times fragmented, at times painfully vivid — revealing how memory grapples with deep trauma.

This film gives voice to those long unheard and offers an intimate perspective on a chapter of history that remains largely untold.