Forced_labor_in_Germany_during_World_War_II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II Forced labor in Germany during World War II German propaganda poster in Polish language: "Let’s do agricultural work in Germany. Report immediately to your Vogt" Łapanka (round-up) of passers-by to be deported to Germany as forced labour, Warsaw’s Żoliborz district, 1941 Use of forced labour in Nazi Germany during World War II occurred on a large scale. It was an important part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories; it also contributed to the extermination of populations of German–occupied Europe. The Germans abducted about 12 million people from almost twenty European countries; about two thirds of whom came from Eastern Europe.[1] Many workers died as a result of their living conditions, mistreatment or were civilian casualties of the war. They received little or no compensation during or after the war.[1] whom the regime wanted out of the way. During World War II the Nazis operated several categories of Arbeitslager (labour camps) for different categories of inmates. Prisoners in Nazi labour camps were worked to death on short rations and in bad conditions, or killed if they became unable to work. Many died as a direct result of forced labour under the Nazis.[1] Forced workers Hitler’s policy of Lebensraum strongly emphasized the conquest of new lands in the East, known as Generalplan Ost, and the exploitation of these lands to provide cheap goods and labour to Germany. Even before the war, Nazi Germany maintained a supply of slave labour. This practice started from the early days of labour camps of "undesirables" (German: unzuverlässige Elemente), such as the homeless, homosexual, criminals, political dissidents, communists, Jews, and anyone "Obligations of a worker during his or her stay in Germany" (in German and Polish) The largest number of labour camps held civilians forcibly abducted in the occupied countries (see Łapanka) to provide labour in the German war industry, repair bombed railroads and bridges or work on farms. As the war progressed, the use of slave labour experienced massive growth. Prisoners of war and civilian "undesirables" were brought in 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II from occupied territories. Millions of Jews, Slavs and other conquered peoples were used as slave labourers by German corporations such as Thyssen, Krupp, IG Farben and even Fordwerke - a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company.[2] About 12 million forced labourers, most of whom were Eastern Europeans, were employed in the German war economy inside Nazi Germany throughout the war.[3] More than 2000 German companies profited from slave labour during the Nazi era, including Deutsche Bank and Siemens.[4] workers in Germany came from countries that were neutral or allied to Germany.[1] 2. Zwangsarbeiter (forced workers) • Militärinternierte (military internees) For example, almost all Polish nonofficer prisoners of war (c. 300,000) were forced to work in Germany. In 1944 there were almost two million prisoners of war employed as forced labourers in Germany.[5] Cherkashchyna Ukrainians being deported to Germany to serve as slave labour (OST-Arbeiter), 1942 • Zivilarbeiter (civilian workers). Primarily Polish prisoners from the "General Government, they received lower wages and could not use public conveniences (such as public transport) or visit many public spaces and businesses (for example they could not attend a German church service, swimming pools or restaurant); they had to work longer hours than Germans; they received smaller food rations; they were subject to a curfew; they often were denied holidays and had to work seven days a week; could not enter a marriage without permission; possession of money or objects of value, bicycles, cameras or lighters was forbidden; and they were required to wear a sign - the "Polish P" - attached to their clothing. In 1939 there were about 300,000 of them in Germany;[1] In 1944 there were about 2,8 m Polish Zivilarbeiter in Germany (approximately 10% of Generalgouvernement workforce)[6] and a similar number of workers in this category from other countries.[1] "Fighter-liberator, I’m waiting for you!" Soviet Union propaganda invoking the victims of forced labour. A class system was created amongst Fremdarbeiter (foreign workers) brought to Germany to work for the Reich. The system was based on layers of increasingly less privileged workers, starting with well paid workers from Germany’s allies or neutral countries to slave labourers from conquered untermensch (Nazi German term for what they saw as subhuman) populations. 1. Gastarbeitnehmer (guest workers) Workers from Germanic, Scandinavian countries, Italy or other German allies (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary). This was a very small group, only about 1% of foreign 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II Foreign civilian forced labourers in Nazi Germany by country of origin, January 1944 [a] Source: Beyer & Schneider[1] Countries Occupied Eastern Europe Czechoslovakia Poland Yugoslavia USSR Occupied Western Europe France (except Alsace-Lorraine) Norway Denmark Netherlands Belgium Greece Italy German allies and neutral countries Hungary Bulgaria Romania Spain Switzerland Number % of total Transfers per labourer in Reichsmarks c. 15 33.5 4 c. 700 487 5.4 4.2 4,183,000 64.8 248,000 270,000 1,400,000 21.7 2,165,000 33.6 2,175,000 33.7 1,100,000 17.1 2,000 23,000 350,000 500,000 20,000 180,000 82,000 25,000 35,000 6,000 8,000 18,000 0.0 0.4 5.4 7.8 0.3 2.8 1.4 0.4 0.5 0.1 0.1 0.3 913 1,471 • Ostarbeiter (Eastern workers) Soviet civil workers primarily from Ukraine. They were marked with a sign OST ("East"), had to live in camps that were fenced with barbed wire and under guard, and were particularly exposed to the arbitrariness of the Gestapo and the industrial plant guards. Estimates put the number of OST Arbeiters between 3 million and 5.5 million.[7] In general, foreign labourers from Western Europe had similar gross earnings and were subject to similar taxation as German workers. In contrast, the central and eastern European forced labourers received at most about one-half the gross earnings paid to German workers and much fewer social benefits.[1] Forced labourers who were prisoners of labour or concentration camps received little if any wage and benefits.[1] The deficiency in net earnings of central and eastern European forced labourers (versus forced labourers from western countries) is illustrated by the wage savings forced labourers were able to transfer to their families at home or abroad (see table). The official German records for the late summer of 1944 listed 7.6 million foreign civilian workers and prisoners of war in the territory of the "Greater German Reich", who for the most part had been brought there for employment by force. By 1944, slave labour made up one quarter of Germany’s entire work force, and the majority of German factories had a contingent of prisoners.[8] The Nazis also had plans for the deportation and enslavement of Britain’s adult male population in the event of a successful invasion.[9] Extreme cases: extermination through labour See also: List of German concentration camps Millions of Jews were forced labourers in ghettos, before they were shipped off to extermination camps. The Nazis also operated 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II Arbeit Macht Frei ("work brings freedom") gate at KZ Sachsenhausen and concentration camps.[10][11] The rule demanded that the inmates of German WWII camps be forced to work for the German war industry with only basic tools and minimal food rations until totally exhausted.[10][12] Polish-forced-workers’ badge Controversy over compensation To facilitate the rebuilding of German economy after the war, certain groups of Nazi victims were excluded from direct compensation through the German Government; those were the groups with the least amount of political pressure they could have brought to bear, and many forced labourers from the Eastern Europe fall into that category.[13] Since the end of the war, there has been little initiative on the part of the German government or German industry to compensate the forced labourers under the Third Reich.[1] As stated in the London Debt Agreement of 1953: Consideration of claims arising out of the Second World War by countries which were at war with or were occupied by Germany during that war, and by nationals of such countries, against the Reich and agencies of the Reich, including costs of German occupation, credits acquired during occupation on clearing accounts and claims against the Reichskreditkassen shall be deferred until the final settlement of the problem of reparations. To this date, there are arguments that such settlement has never been fully completed OST-Arbeiter badge concentration camps, some of which provided free forced labour for industrial and other jobs while others existed purely for the extermination of their inmates. Ironically, at the entrances to a number of camps a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom" (Arbeit macht frei) was placed. A notable example of labour-concentration camp is the Mittelbau-Dora labour camp complex that serviced the production of the V-2 rocket. Extermination through labour was a Nazi German World War II principle that regulated the aims and purposes of most of their labour 4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II and that Germany post-war development has been greatly aided, while the development of victim countries stalled.[1] A prominent example of a group which received almost no compensation for their time as forced labourer in Nazi Germany are the Polish forced labourers. According to the Potsdam Agreements of 1945, the Poles were to receive reparations not from Germany itself, but from the Soviet Union share of those repatriations; due to the Soviet pressure on the Polish communist government, the Poles agreed to a system of repayment that de facto meant that few Polish victims received any sort of adequate compensation (comparable to the victims in Western Europe or Soviet Union itself). Most of the Polish share of repatriations was "given" to Poland by Soviet Union under the Comecon framework, which was not only highly inefficient, but benefited Soviet Union much more than Poland. Under further Soviet pressure (related to the London Agreement on German External Debts), in 1953 the People’s Republic of Poland announced its waiver of further claims of reparations from the successor states of the German Reich. Only after the fall of communism in Poland in 1989/1990 did the Polish government try to renegotiate the issue of repatriations, but found little support in this from the German side and none from the Soviet (later, Russian) side.[13] The total number of forced labourers under the Third Reich who were still alive as of August 1999 was 2.3 million.[1] The German Forced Labour Compensation Programme was established in 2000; a forced labour fund paid out more than 4.37 billion euros to close to 1.7 million of then-living victims around the world (one-off payments of between 2,500 to 7,500 euros).[14] Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel stated in 2007 that "Many former forced labourers have finally received the promised humanitarian aid"; she also conceded that before the fund was established nothing had gone directly to the forced labourers.[14] German president Horst Koehler stated It was an initiative that was urgently needed along the journey to peace and reconciliation... At least, with these symbolic payments, the suffering of the victims has been publicly acknowledged after decades of being forgotten.[14] See also • Baudienst • Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe • Forced labour of Germans in the Soviet Union • Hunger Plan • Kidnapping of Polish children by Nazi Germany • Organisation Todt • Service du travail obligatoire • Sexual enslavement by Nazi Germany in World War II Notes a. ^ By January 1944, Italy has switched sides and is included in Occupied Western Europe. Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania would not switch sides till summer 1944 and are included in German allies section. References [1] ^ John C. Beyer; Stephen A. Schneider. "Forced Labour under Third Reich - Part 1" (PDF). Nathan Associates Inc.. http://www.nathaninc.com/nathan2/files/ ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/ 000000000072/ Forced%20Labour%20Under%20the%20Third%20Re and John C. Beyer; Stephen A. Schneider. "Forced Labour under Third Reich - Part 2" (PDF). Nathan Associates Inc.. http://www.nathaninc.com/nathan2/ files/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/ 000000000073/ Forced%20Labour%20Under%20the%20Third%20Re [2] Sohn-Rethel, Alfred Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism, CSE Books, 1978 ISBN 0-906336-01-5 [3] Marek, Michael (2005-10-27). "Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Labourers". Deutsche Welle. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/ 0,2144,1757323,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-20. See also: "Forced Labour at Ford Werke AG during the Second World War". The Summer of Truth Website. http://summeroftruth.org/enemy/ barracks.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-20. [4] "Comprehensive List Of German Companies That Used Slave Or Forced Labour During World War II Released". American Jewish Committee. 7 December 1999. 5 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II http://www.charitywire.com/charity11/ books?vid=ISBN0691006857&id=rf1VqMP3gMsC&p 00257.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-20. -f1s_jY4sbm1zsXeFdTqRxA. See also: Roger Cohen (February 17, [12] (Polish) Władysław Gębik (1972). Z 1999). "German Companies Adopt Fund diabłami na ty (Calling the Devils by For Slave Labourers Under Nazis". The their Names). Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo New York Times. Morskie. pp. 332. See also: (English) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ Günter Bischof; Anton Pelinka (1996). fullpage.html?res=9807EFD6113AF934A25751C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Austrian Historical Memory and National Retrieved on 2008-05-20. Roger Cohen Identity. Transaction Publishers. (January 27, 2000). "German Firms That pp. 185–190. ISBN 1-56000-902-0. Used Slave or Forced Labour During the http://books.google.com/ Nazi Era". American Jewish Committee. books?vid=ISBN1560009020&id=75l45XlpXTsC&pg http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ p6kYnU. and (German) Cornelia jsource/Holocaust/germancos.html. Schmitz-Berning (1998). "Vernichtung Retrieved on 2008-07-17. durch Arbeit". Vokabular des [5] Ulrich Herbert (16 March 1999). "The Nationalsozialismus (Vocabulary of the Army of Millions of the Modern Slave National Socialism). Walter de Gruyter. State: Deported, used, forgotten: Who pp. 634. ISBN 3-11-013379-2. were the forced workers of the Third [13] ^ Jeanne Dingell. "The Question of the Reich, and what fate awaited them?". Polish Forced Labourer during and in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Aftermath of World War II: The Example http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/ of the Warthegau Forced Labourers". slave_labour13.htm. Retrieved on remember.org. 2008-05-20. This is an extract from http://www.remember.org/educate/ Herbert’s "Hitler’s Foreign Workers: dingell.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-02. Enforced Foreign Labour in Germany [14] ^ "Germany ends war chapter with under the Third Reich", Cambridge "slave fund" closure". Reuters. 12 June University Press 1997. 2007. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/ [6] A. Paczkowski, Historia Powszechna/ newsdesk/L1260929.htm. Retrieved on Historia Polski, Wydawnictwo Naukowe 2008-07-13. PWN, Warszawa 2008, tom 16, p. 28 [7] (Russian) "Остарбайтеры". http://magazines.russ.ru/zvezda/2005/6/ • Herbert, Ulrich (1997). Hitler’s Foreign po8.html. Retrieved on 2008-05-20. Workers: Enforced Foreign Labour in [8] Allen, Michael Thad (2002). The Business Germany Under the Third Reich. of Genocide. The University of North Cambridge University Press. ISBN Carolina Press. pp. p.1. See also: 0521470005. German historian who has Herbert, Ulrich. "Forced Labourers in conducted a lot of research into the issue the "Third Reich"". International Labour of Nazi forced labour. and Working-Class History. • Edward L. Homze (1980). "Subscription http://projekte.geschichte.unirequired to access: Review of Benjamin B. freiburg.de/herbert/uhpub/ Ferencz, Less Than Slaves: Jewish Forced forcedlaborers.html. Retrieved on Labour and the Quest for Compensation". 2008-05-20. The American Historical Review vol. 85 [9] Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the (5): p.1225 No. 5 (Dec., 1980) JSTOR. Third Reich, Arrow books 1991. http://links.jstor.org/ [10] ^ (Polish) Stanisław Dobosiewicz (1977). sici?sici=0002-8762(198012)85%3A5%3C1225%3ALT Mauthausen/Gusen; obóz zagłady • Kogon, Eugen (2006). The Theory and (Mauthausen/Gusen; the Camp of Doom). Practice of Hell: The German Warsaw: Ministry of National Defense Concentration Camps and the System Press. pp. 449. ISBN 83-11-06368-0. Behind Them. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. [11] (English) Wolfgang Sofsky (1999). The ISBN 0374529922. Order of Terror: The Concentration • Tooze, Adam (2007). The Wages of Camp. Princeton: Princeton University Destruction. Viking. pp. pp.476–85, Press. pp. 352. ISBN 0-691-00685-7. 538–49. ISBN 0670038261. http://books.google.com/ Further reading 6 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forced labor in Germany during World War II External links • Compensation for Forced Labour in World War II: The German Compensation Law of 2 August 2000 • Forced Labor document from Yad Vashem • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Symposium (2002): Forced and Slave Labour in Nazi-Dominated Europe, 1933 to 1945 • International Red Cross Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labor_in_Germany_during_World_War_II" Categories: Economic history of Germany, Nazi war crimes, Unfree labour during World War II This page was last modified on 24 April 2009, at 23:34 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 7