The film aims to bring a little-known chapter of German and European history into the public consciousness today: the deportation of German civilians in the former German eastern and settlement areas and their internment in camps. These events are part of the large-scale expulsion that affected the Germans in Eastern Europe during and after the Second World War. They also include the deportation and forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union. The exhibition www.ausstellung-inlagern.de by the CENTER AGAINST EXPULSIONS foundation is the fifth part of the traveling exhibition series and focuses on the special fate of the civilian population that remained there - mostly women, young people, children and old people. Their internment took place as a mass phenomenon in a legal vacuum - without individual charges or judgment. The film shown here is part of this exhibition. From the perspective of the victorious Soviet power, the labor of German civilians represented a form of reparations to be paid. The Soviet Union's western allies, the USA and Great Britain, had no fundamental objections to their forced deployment. The Second World War had caused great destruction and high loss of life for the Soviet Union. In addition, the exploitation of human labor to build up the Soviet Union as an economic power had long been practiced. The causes of the deportation and exploitation of German civilians are closely linked to the previous crimes of the Nazi regime against the people of many nations in Europe. In addition to many millions of war deaths, an estimated 12-14 million people died as a result of criminal measures and the Nazi regime's extermination and racial policies. During the war, the German leadership forced civilians from all countries occupied by Germany to work and also used prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates for forced labor. Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 12 million forced laborers were exploited to maintain the Nazi dictatorship. An estimated 2.5 million people lost their lives in the process. In the wake of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, over a million German civilians were deported to camps. They came from the former German eastern territories, from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia, but also from the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. Within the Soviet Union, the Germans on the Volga and in other settlement areas were initially deported to areas east of the Urals after the Wehrmacht's invasion in 1941. The total number of deported Germans within the Soviet Union is estimated at around 1.1 million people. The exhibition and the film aim to raise public awareness of the fate of those affected. It describes the initial political situation, the motives for the formation of the camps, the various camps and the living conditions there. With quotes from contemporary witnesses and their memories in documentary and literary form, the film brings personal feelings to life.