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Forced labour under German rule during World War II

The use of slave and forced labour in Nazi Germany (German: Zwangsarbeit) and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale.[2] It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in occupied Europe. The Germans abducted approximately 12 million people from almost twenty European countries; about two thirds came from Central Europe and Eastern Europe.[1] Many workers died as a result of their living conditions – extreme mistreatment, severe malnutrition and abuse were the main causes of death. Many more became civilian casualties from enemy (Allied) bombing and shelling of their workplaces throughout the war.[3] At the peak of the program the forced labourers constituted 20% of the German work force. Counting deaths and turnover, about 15 million men and women were forced labourers at one point during the war.[4]

See also: Forced labor in Nazi concentration camps

Besides Jews, the harshest deportation and forced labor policies were applied to the populations of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. By the end of the war, half of Belarus' population had been either killed or deported.[5][6]


The defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 freed approximately 11 million foreigners (categorized as "displaced persons"), most of whom were forced labourers and POWs. During the war, German forces brought into the Reich 6.5 million civilians, in addition to Soviet POWs, for unfree labour in factories.[1] Returning them home was a high priority for the Allies. However returning citizens of the USSR were often meant suspicion of collaboration or reincarceration in a Gulag prison camp. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), Red Cross, and military operations provided food, clothing, shelter, and assistance in returning home. In all, 5.2 million foreign workers and POWs were repatriated to the Soviet Union, 1.6 million to Poland, 1.5 million to France, and 900,000 to Italy, along with 300,000 to 400,000 each to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Belgium.[7]

Gastarbeitnehmer ("") – Workers from Germanic and Scandinavian countries, France, Italy,[15] other German allies (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary), and friendly neutrals (e.g. Spain and Switzerland). Only about 1% of foreign workers in Germany came from countries that were neutral or allied to Germany.[1]

guest workers

Zwangsarbeiter (forced workers) – Forced labourers from countries not allied with Germany. This class of workers was broken down into the following designations:

  1. ("military internees") – Prisoners of war. Geneva Conventions allowed captor nations to force non-officer prisoners of war to work, within certain restrictions. For example, almost all Polish non-officer prisoners of war (c. 300,000) were forced to work in Nazi Germany. In 1944, almost two million prisoners of war worked as forced labourers in Germany.[15] Compared to other foreign workers, prisoners of war were relatively well-off, especially if they came from western countries that were still at war, such as the United States or Great Britain, as the minimum standards of their treatment were mandated by the Geneva Conventions. Their working conditions and well-being were subject to supervision by the International Red Cross and, in cases of mistreatment, retaliation against German prisoners held in the US, Britain and Canada (who performed similar forced labor) was almost certain. However, the treatment of these workers varied greatly depending on their country of origin, the period, and the specific workplace. In particular, Soviet prisoners of war were treated with utter brutality, as Nazis did not consider them protected under the Geneva Conventions, which had not been ratified or implemented by the Soviet Union.
  2. Zivilarbeiter ("civilian workers") – ethnic Poles from the General Government territory.[15] They were regulated by strict Polish decrees: they received much lower wages and could not use conveniences such as public transport, or visit many public spaces or businesses. For example they could not visit German church services, swimming pools, or restaurants; they had to work longer hours and were assigned smaller food rations, and they were subject to a curfew. Poles were routinely denied holidays and had to work seven days a week. They could not marry without a permit; they could not possess money or objects of value, even bicycles, cameras, or lighters. They were required to wear a badge: the "Polish P", on their clothing. In 1939, there were about 300,000 Polish Zivilarbeiter in Germany.[1][15] By 1944, their number had skyrocketed to about 1.7 million,[15] or 2.8 million by different accounts (approximately 10% of occupied Poland's prisoner workforce).[16] In 1944, there were about 7.6 million foreign so-called civilian workers employed in Germany in total, including POWs from Generalgouvernement and the expanded USSR,[15] with a similar number of workers in this category from other countries.[1]
  3. Ostarbeiter ("Eastern workers") – Soviet and Polish civil workers, mostly rounded up in Distrikt Galizien and in Reichskommissariat Ukraine. They wore an "OST" (East) badge and had to live under guard in camps fenced with barbed wire, and were particularly vulnerable to the whims of the Gestapo and the industrial plant guards. Estimates put the number of OST workers between three and 5.5 million.[17][18]

Militärinternierte

Private sector participation in Nazi crimes

Arbeitseinsatz

, (Polish Construction Service in the General Government)

Polnischer Baudienst im Generalgouvernement

(DWB), (German Economic Enterprises)

Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe

Fritz Sauckel

Forced labor in the Soviet Union

Italian military internees

Ispettorato Militare del Lavoro

(STO), (Compulsory Work Service in Vichy France)

Service du travail obligatoire

Forced labor of Germans after World War II

Homze, Edward L. Foreign Labor in Nazi Germany ( 1967)

Princeton UP

Edward L. Homze (December 1980). "Review of Benjamin B. Ferencz, Less Than Slaves: Jewish Forced Labour and the Quest for Compensation". . 85 (5): 1225. doi:10.2307/1853330. JSTOR 1853330.

The American Historical Review

(2006). The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-52992-2.

Kogon, Eugen

(2008). "Chapter 10: Workers". Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. Penguin Press. p. 294. ISBN 9780143116103.

Mazower, Mark

Mędykowski, Witold Wojciech (2018). . Academic Studies Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv75d8v5. ISBN 9781618115966. JSTOR j.ctv75d8v5.

Macht Arbeit Frei?

Ruhs, Florian (29 May 2011). . aventinus nova.

"Foreign Workers in the Second World War. The Ordeal of Slovenians in Germany"

(2007). The Wages of Destruction. Viking Press. pp. 476–85, 538–49. ISBN 978-0-670-03826-8.

Tooze, Adam

Informational notes


Citations


Further reading

Compensation for Forced Labour in World War II: The German Compensation Law of 2 August 2000

German compensation law

International Organization for Migration

Report on victim compensation

from Yad Vashem

Forced Labour document

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Symposium (2002)

"Forced and Slave Labour in Nazi-Dominated Europe, 1933 to 1945"

International Red Cross

Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre in Berlin-Schoeneweide

Forced Labour at Salamander AG

Archived 26 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine

Claims against Germany

International Tracing Service – Glossary