Franz Wanner: The Abandoned Present

The minimal compensation granted to a small minority of the Nazi regime’s twenty-six million forced labourers is still more astonishing when compared with the profit, and resulting German prosperity, gained through a crime that was committed collectively. While the vast majority of citizens under the Nazi government actively participated in the exploitation, most of their descendants now see themselves as having no connection to those events. Franz Wanner exposes the present-day effects of that forced labour, telling the story through photographs, texts, films, and objects – because confronting the long-term impact of the Nazi regime is more important now than ever before.