When you enter the schoolyard, the first thing you notice is the slatted fence that surrounds the first floor of the memorial. It turns the building into a foreign object from another time, resembling the stripes of the prisoners' suits.
At the same time, the slats, arranged at different thicknesses and distances, are reminiscent of today's digital barcodes. They thus refer to total electronic recording - a possible starting point for modern violations of fundamental rights.
Anyone entering the open area of the memorial via the ramp and looking out from the inside will see through the slats. They open up the view of the school, the former concentration camp, and at the same time bar it. The schoolyard becomes a roll call area, the school building the largest object in the exhibition: the boundaries between outside and inside, between past and present become permeable.
The slatted fence designed by architect Andreas Maria Lang is the defining element of the new memorial and gives it an unmistakable face Neckarlager concentration camp complex
The exhibition area “Neckar Camp Concentration Camp Complex” is located in the permanent exhibition building. It presents topics from the history of the six concentration camps on the Neckar in various stations.
The view of the school is used as an important axis. In addition to original objects in display cases, there are also symbolic installations as well as drawings by former prisoner Jacques Barrau, large-format photos, plans and maps.
Visitors also encounter 27 life-size figures “at eye level”, which represent the camp society and whose biographies can be discovered.
Visitors can find additional information about the exhibition in the drawers.
This room also houses the cash desk and book sales.
Open area
Although the open area is covered, it is exposed to the weather through the open slatted fence. Visitors can find basic information here and the “mirror box” provides initial food for thought on the subject of “perpetrators and victims”. In this function, it is the entrance to the “Neckarlager Concentration Camp Complex” area.
Otherwise, the open area with the topics of illness, death, escape, evacuation and the end of the war shows possible “ways out of the camp”.
The “Illness and medical care” area is located in the former original barracks
