The exhibition Travailleurs Portugais et Espagnols dans le IIIe Reich (1940-1945) [Portuguese and Spanish workers in the Third Reich (1940-1945)], an output of the European research project FORCED, will open at the Université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis on 12 September, after a postponement due to protests that occupied the university in March.

The exhibition portrays the life stories of men and women from the Iberian Peninsula who were forced to work by the National Socialist regime, despite the neutral status of Spain and Portugal. Prisoners of war, concentration camp inmates, and civilian labourers were forced to work in the Reich or in Nazi-occupied territories. Portuguese and Spaniards were also part of the labour contingents from France.

The opening of the exhibition will be preceded by a round table discussion on the subject “Mémoire douloureuse et citoyenneté“, which will debate the relationship between painful memories and citizenship. The discussion will include the participation of several guests, including the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez Lopez, and the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva.

The project FORCED — Portuguese and Spanish Forced Labourers under National Socialism: History, Memory and Citizenship, coordinated by Cláudia Ninhos, was funded by the European programme “Europe for Citizens – European Memory” and brings together a multinational team from NOVA University Lisbon, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis (France), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), European Observatory on Memories (EUROM, Spain), International Tracing Service (Germany) and the Association of History Teachers (Portugal).

In addition to this exhibition, the FORCED project has also implemented training activities for teachers and will produce a digital platform with information on Portuguese and Spanish people who were forced labourers during the Third Reich.