In us the place

In 2009 and 2010, photographer Renate Niebler took 54 portraits of former prisoners of the Flossenbürg camp complex. Although the people portrayed are all connected through their experiences of persecution and imprisonment, Niebler portrayed the men and women as individuals living in the here and now. With her pictures, which were shown at the KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg (Concentration Camp Memorial Flossenbürg) in 2011, the photographer wanted to stimulate a dialogue between private memory and the public. She wanted to find answers to the question of what significance will be attached to the recent German past in the future.
Thirteen years later, Renate Niebler returned to Flossenbürg and photographed again over a period of six months. Although Niebler's most recent works reveal the painful loss of the survivors, they primarily open up a panorama of a lively and diverse culture of remembrance that is lived at the KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg (Concentration Camp Memorial Flossenbürg). The images also draw attention to the numerous connections that exist between the site of the former concentration camp, its legacy, its environment and the people - be they visitors from different backgrounds, relatives of former prisoners or local residents. It becomes clear that the site and its history still leave traces in the lives and minds of the people who encounter it and its surroundings. These are carefully uncovered by Niebler's works.
The exhibition places the portraits from 2009 and 2010 in dialogue with the works from 2024. It is complemented by an art installation dedicated to the memory of the 100,000 people imprisoned in the Flossenbürg camp complex. 80 years after the end of the war, the exhibition can be seen as a tribute to the former prisoners. At the same time, it is a window into the future and the potential for coming to terms with the site and its past. A past that is still relevant. Now more than ever before.
The exhibition can be viewed free of charge on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays between 12.00 and 16.00 in the administration building of the former concentration camp quarry (Wurmsteinweg 7, 92696 Flossenbürg).

Last edited on 24.03.2025