A visit to the former camp, lectures on the flight movements of the post-war period with musical accompaniment, discussions with contemporary witnesses and a themed exhibition
"Home is the Czech Republic, this is my home" said Elisabeth Hille, who lived with her mother and siblings in the Nesow camp for a quarter of a century.
From the fall of 1944 at the latest, caravans of refugees, mainly from the regions of East Prussia and Pomerania, which were increasingly being conquered by the Red Army, passed through the area that is now the district of Northwest Mecklenburg.
Around 900,000 people came to Mecklenburg as a result of the post-war refugee movements, almost doubling the population of the previously sparsely populated region.
The quarantine and reception camp in Nesow temporarily housed up to 4,000 resettlers after the Second World War, most of them Catholic refugees from northern Bohemia and Silesia. The camp existed from 1946 until the 1970s.
The commemorative event begins with a visit to the former Nesow camp, where the last barracks of the former inhabitants still stand and traces of camp life can still be seen.
Afterwards, the historian Brit Bellmann and the historian Christoph Wunnicke will give lectures on the flight movements of the post-war period in the courtroom of the monastery complex. The lecture series will be accompanied by music from Ulf Rust. 80 years after the end of the Second World War, only a few contemporary witnesses are still alive. People who arrived at the Nesow camp and lived there for a short time or decades are invited to talk about their experiences and memories.
The exhibition "Fled, expelled, uprooted - childhoods in Mecklenburg 1945 to 1952" can be viewed in the monastery museum.
Lunch will be provided by chef Oliver Kießling from What's cooking. Coffee and cake will be served in the afternoon.
10:00 am Meeting point at the Nesow camp on the B104
11:30 am Lectures in the Rehna Monastery courtroom
1:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm Discussion followed by coffee and cake
Participation fee in combination with a visit to the exhibitions in the monastery museum:
€ 6.00 regular
€ 4.00 reduced
