Guided Tour: State Secret! The Zittwerke. An Armaments Company under National Socialism (with registration at www.museum@zittau.de or 03583-554790)

The Zittwerke were a front company for the Junkers Flugzeugwerke in Dessau. Here, Jumo engines for the Me262, a jet-powered fighter aircraft of the Wehrmacht, were manufactured. The relocation of production to the Zittau area was initiated in response 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 (Sieniawka) was expanded as the core of the production complex. Production began at the end of 1944 under inhumane conditions involving thousands of prisoners.
The exhibition presents the history of the Zittwerke in the mirror of the Third Reich's armaments production. Original exhibits from the field of engine production, plans and documents of the various facilities, as well as numerous eyewitness accounts are presented. Scale models of the original condition are being shown for the first time.
The exhibition is in German, Polish, and Czech.