The Documentation and Information Centre (DIZ) Torgau, part of the Saxon Memorial Foundation, confronts the history of Torgau as a major hub of the National Socialist military judiciary during the Second World War as well as the personal stories of the inmates of Soviet special camps and East German prisons (including a youth detention centre) after 1945.

With the Reich Military Court and two large Wehrmacht prisons, Torgau represented the most important centre of the German military judiciary in the Second World War. Tens of thousands of the Wehrmacht inmates included German soldiers, who were convicted as deserters, as well as members of the European resistance. With executions numbering in the hundreds, the reign of terror did not end until the Americans and Soviets arrived on 25 April 1945.

After the war, the Soviet Army of occupation set up two internment camps in Torgau. One of the two was the central transit camp in the entire Soviet occupation zone from which German and Soviet convicts were deported to the penal and labour camps (gulags) in the Soviet Union.

Located in Torgau’s Hartenfels Castle, the Documentation and Information Centre (DIZ) Torgau recounts the ways in which the military judiciary and penal system were used to silence political opponents and forcible establish the dictatorship during National Socialism, the Soviet occupation and the East German Communist dictatorship.

In its exhibition “Traces of Injustice” DIZ Torgau follows the fates of the persecuted who were held in the prisons and camps in Torgau during the Second World War and after 1945. Documents, photos, reports and video interviews present their moving stories.

DIZ Torgau also offers guided tours and project days including special exhibitions and events as well as tours of Fort Zinna. It was the most important of the former military prisons located in Torgau and today includes a memorial commemorating the victims established by the Saxon Memorial Foundation.