Exhibition on the history of repressive residential care in the GDR
The Torgau Closed Youth Work Camp was the only closed institutional facility in the GDR. Here, young people were to be re-educated into "socialist personalities" within just a few months under prison-like conditions. Today, the memorial stands nationwide as a symbol of the entire inhumane penal system of youth work camps and special children's homes, through which approximately 135,000 children and young people were forced to endure over the course of GDR history. It documents the history of repressive institutional care in the GDR and commemorates the young victims of socialist re-education practices. Historical traces are visible in the former dark cell wing and courtyard area.
