Die Hinrichtung des Wasilij Demenko im Durchgangslager Bietigheim

Lecture and discussion at the Hotel Silber.

On June 19, 1944, 20-year-old Vasily Demenko was hanged in the Bietigheim transit camp. The Gestapo had ordered the execution of the Ukrainian, who was employed by Daimler-Benz in the worsted yarn spinning mill in Bietigheim. Demenko had stolen shoes from a store.

The hanging on the camp grounds was staged as a deterrent example. Members of the police, the city administration and the municipal administrations of the Ludwigsburg district were officially invited to the execution and the subsequent "funeral feast". Companies in Bietigheim had to send delegations of "their" foreign employees to the execution. Inmates of the transit camp also had to watch.

Sonja Eisele, deputy director of the Bietigheim-Bissingen municipal archive, and Norbert Prothmann from the "Forced Labor" working group of the Hotel Silber Learning and Memorial Site initiative shed light on the fate of Demenko and put it into context.

Cooperation partners: Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg, Initiative Lern- und Gedenkort Hotel Silber e.V., Bietigheim-Bissingen City Archives

Participation in the event is free of charge.

Please register at veranstaltungen-hs@hdgbw.de