Order 7161

On Stalin’s order of 16 December 1944, an estimated 70,000 ethnic Germans in Romania were deported to Soviet forced labour camps as a form of World War II reparations. Many deportees died from the harsh labour conditions in freezing temperatures and from insufficient nutrition. Marc Schroeder (LU) met with 40 of the last living survivors. In ORDER 7161 he recounts their stories and memories through a combination of witness portraits, archival and contextual images as well as an important selection of recorded testimonials. This book not only bears witness to an often overlooked chapter of European history, but it also provides insight into the ‘cultural memory’ of this collective trauma.