In 1942, the National Socialists set up a so-called "work education camp" in Heddernheim. The prisoners in such camps - there were a total of around 200 of them in the German Reich - were usually interned without trial and had to do forced labor under inhumane conditions. These included people who had been deliberately deported as forced laborers from the areas occupied by the Wehrmacht, as well as Germans who were accused of "refusing to work." Political prisoners and Jewish people were also interned in the "work education camps." Often they were deported from here to concentration camps after a few weeks.
A total of around 10,000 people were interned in the "work education camp" in Heddernheim. The camp was well known to the local population; in reference to the French penal colony of Cayenne, it was unofficially called "Kajenn." The prisoners' workplaces were outside the camp, so that the population could see them on the way there and, in reference to the blue prisoner clothing, cynically referred to them as the "Blue Division".
After the war, the barracks and other camp buildings were demolished and most of the site was built over. Only a vault made of red brick remained. Incorporated into its current use, today's memorial provides information about the historical background and commemorates the human rights crimes committed here: with the pyramid by Inge Hagner and the text volume by Bernd Fischer.
The order given by the Cultural Office was for a memorial plaque that would bear an extensive text provided by the Institute for Urban History. In his artistic solution, Fischer placed this text in the historical vault as an LED text scrolling display. In this way, red text shines out at visitors from the darkness; on the single-line text volume that runs across the room, it is in constant motion.