The Zittwerke was a camouflage company of the Junkers aircraft factory from Dessau. The relocation of production to the Zittau region was initiated as a reaction to the bombing of Central Germany and was pursued with great energy in 1943/44. For this purpose, numerous factories were confiscated, and a barracks in Kleinschönau (Polish: Sieniawka) was expanded as the core of the production complex. There, Jumo engines for the Me262, a jet-powered fighter aircraft of the Wehrmacht, were manufactured. Under inhumane conditions, production was started here by thousands of prisoners at the end of 1944. Up to 5,000 people were affected, including permanent workers from Junkers, European female and male forced laborers, as well as Jewish female forced laborers from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp and prisoners of war.
The central complex is still largely standing, but is only known to insiders. Using existing buildings and planning drawings, Jos Tomlow, together with students Loan Thi Hong Nguyen and Aurel Thieme, has created a reconstruction of the working and living situation, summarized in a 3D animation film.
This is a continuous multi-day event
