Ostarbeiter
Ostarbeiter | |
---|---|
Nazi propaganda image) | |
Operation | |
Period | 1939 – 1945 |
Location | German-occupied Europe |
Prisoners | |
Total | At least 7.6 million foreign civilians in 1944 [1] |
Ostarbeiter (German:
By 1944, most new workers were under the age of 16 because those older were usually
Ostarbeiter often received starvation rations and were forced to live in guarded
Following the war, the
Terminology
The official German records for the late summer of 1944 listed 7.6 million foreign civilian workers and
A class system was created amongst the Fremdarbeiter (foreign workers) brought to Germany. The multi-layered system was based on layers of national hierarchies. The Gastarbeitnehmer, the so-called "guest workers" from
History
At the end of 1941, a new crisis developed in Germany. Following the mobilization of men into its massive armies, the country faced a shortage of labour in support of its war industries. To help overcome this shortage,
Recruitment and kidnapping
Initially a recruiting campaign was launched in January 1942 by Fritz Sauckel for workers to go to Germany. "On January 28 the first special train will leave for Germany with hot meals in Kiev, Zdolbuniv and Przemyśl", offered an announcement. The first train was full when it departed from Kiev on January 22.
The advertising continued in the following months. "Germany calls you! Go to Beautiful Germany! 100,000 Ukrainians are already working in free Germany. What about you?" ran a Kiev newspaper ad on March 3, 1942. Word got back however, of the sub-human slave conditions that Ukrainians met in Germany and the campaign failed to attract sufficient volunteers. Forced recruitment was implemented,[7] although propaganda still depicted the workers as volunteers.[11]
When the news about the terrible conditions many Ostarbeiter faced in Germany came back to Ukraine, the pool of volunteers dried up. The Germans resorted to mass round-ups, often targeting large gatherings such as church congregations and crowds at sporting events, with entire groups simply marched off at gunpoint to waiting cattle trucks and deported to Germany.
Nannies
One special category was that of young women recruited to act as nannies; Hitler argued that many women would like to have children, and many of them were restricted by the lack of domestic help.
Conditions
Within Germany Ostarbeiter lived either in private camps owned and managed by the large companies, or in special camps guarded by privately paid police services known as the Werkschutz.[16] They worked an average of 12 hours a day, six days a week. They were paid approximately 30% of German workers' wages; however, most of the money went toward food, clothing and board. The labor authorities, the RSHA Arbeitskreis,[16] complained that many firms viewed these former Soviet civilian workers as "civilian prisoners", treated them accordingly, and paid no wages at all to them.[1] Those who received pay got specially printed paper money and savings stamps, which they could use only for the purchase of a limited number of items in special camp stores. By law they were given worse food rations than other forced labor groups. Starvation rations and primitive accommodation were given to these unfortunates in Germany.
The Ostarbeiter were restricted to their compounds, in some cases labor camps. Being ethnically Slavic, they were classified by German authorities as the Untermenschen ("sub-humans"), who could be beaten, terrorized, and killed for their transgressions. Those who tried to escape were hanged where other workers could see their bodies. Escape or leaving without authorization or was punished by death.[2] The Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and the Easterners.[17] On 7 December 1942 Himmler called for any "unauthorized sexual intercourse" to be punishable by death.[18] In accordance with these new racial laws all sexual relations, even those that did not result in pregnancy, were severely punished as Rassenschande (racial pollution).[19] During the war, hundreds of Polish and Russian men were executed for their sexual relations with German women,[20][21] even though the main offenders by far – wrote Ulrich Herbert – were the French and Italian civilian workers who were not prohibited from social contacts with them.[16]
Rape of female Ostarbeiter was extremely common and led to tens of thousands of pregnancies caused by rape.[5] The victims began giving so many unwanted births that hundreds of special Nazi birthing centres for foreign workers had to be created in order to dispose of their infants.[22][23]
Many Ostarbeiter died when Allied bombing raids targeted the factories where they worked and the German authorities refused to allow them into
Nazi authorities attempted to reproduce such conditions on farms, ordering farmers to integrate the workers into their workforce while enforcing total social separation, including not permitting them to eat at the same table, but this proved far more difficult to enforce.[24] Sexual relationships in particular were able to take place despite efforts to raise German women's "racial consciousness".[25] When Germany's military situation worsened, these workers' conditions often improved as the farmers tried to protect themselves against a defeat.[26]
Native German workers served as foremen and supervisors over the forced labour in factories, and therefore no solidarity developed between foreigners and German nationals. The German workers became accustomed to inequalities raised by racism against the workers and became indifferent to their plight.[27]
Statistics
During the German occupation of Central and Eastern Europe in World War II (1941–44) over three million people were taken to Germany as Ostarbeiter. Some estimates put the number as high as 5.5 million.
There were slightly more female than male Ostarbeiter. They were employed in agriculture, mining, armament manufacturing, metal production, and railroads.
Some Ostarbeiter worked for private firms, although many were employed in the factories making armaments. These factories were prime targets for Allied bombing. The Ostarbeiter were considered to be quite productive and efficient. Males were thought to be the equivalent of 60-80% of a German worker, and women — 90-100%[citation needed]. Two million Ukrainians worked mostly in the armaments factories, including the V-2 rocket factory at Peenemünde.[7]
According to Alexander Dallin, as of December 1944, the numbers of deployment were:[29]
Task | Number of Ostarbeiter |
---|---|
Agricultural work | 725,000 |
Mining | 93,000 |
Machine and equipment manufacturing | 180,000 |
Metal industries | 170,000 |
Railways | 122,000 |
Pregnancy
To prevent
Occasionally, when the female worker and the baby's father were "of good blood" (for example, Norwegian), the child might prove "racially valuable." In such cases, the parentage was investigated and both parents tested. If they passed, the woman would be permitted to give birth, and the child was removed for
In some rural areas, the authorities found that German farm-wives were inclined to care for children born to their workers, along with their own children.[34] Attempts were made to segregate these children and use ruthless propaganda to establish that if a worker of "alien blood" gave birth in Germany, it meant immediate and total separation from the child.[35] Repeated efforts were made to propagate Volkstum (racial consciousness) in order to prevent Rassenschande between Germans and foreign workers,[19] nevertheless, the arrival of trains with Polish girls in German towns and villages usually turned into sex slave markets.[36]
Medical experiments
As a result of their abusive treatment Ostarbeiter suffered from high levels of psychological trauma, and those who were admitted to psychiatric hospitals were often the victims of abuse and murder. The Nazi regime also sanctioned the use of Ostarbeiter in medical experiments.
On September 6, 1944 the Reichsminister of the Interior ordered the establishment of special units for Ostarbeiter in several psychiatric hospitals in the Reich. The reason given was: "With the considerable number of Ostarbeiter who have been brought to the German Reich as a labour force, their admission into German psychiatric hospitals as mentally ill patients has become more frequent ... With the shortage of space in German hospitals, it is irresponsible to treat these ill people, who in the foreseeable future will not be fit for work, for a prolonged period in German institutions. "The exact number of Ostarbeiter killed in these psychiatric institutions is as yet not known. 189 Ostarbeiter were admitted to the Ostarbeiter unit of the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Kaufbeuren; 49 died as a result of the starvation diet, or from deadly injections.[37]
Repatriation
After the war many of the Ostarbeiter were initially placed in DP (
Many Ostarbeiter were still children or young teenagers when they were taken away and wanted to return home to their parents. Others who became aware of or understood the postwar political reality declined to return. Those in the Soviet occupational zones were returned automatically. Those in the French and British zones of occupation were forced to return under the terms of the
In October 1945, General Eisenhower banned the use of force in repatriation in the American Zone. As a result, many Ostarbeiter began to escape to the American Zone. Some, when faced with return to Soviet reality, chose to commit suicide.[7]
Upon return to the Soviet Union Ostarbeiter were often treated as traitors. Many were transported to remote locations in the Soviet Union and were denied basic rights and the chance to get further education.[2] Those who returned home were also physically and spiritually broken. Moreover, they were considered by the authorities to have "questionable loyalty", and were therefore discriminated against and deprived of many of their citizenship rights.
Ostarbeiter suffered from state-sanctioned stigmatisation, with special references in their passports (and the passports of their children and relatives) mentioning their time in Germany during the war. As a result, many jobs were off-limits to anyone unlucky enough to carry such a status, and during periods of repression former slave labourers would often be ostracised by the wider Soviet community. Many victims have testified that since the war they have suffered a lifetime of abuse and suspicion from their fellow countrymen, many of whom have accused them of being traitors who helped the Germans and lived comfortably in the Third Reich while Ukraine burned.
Pensions and retribution
In 2000 the
Research
Published eyewitness accounts of the Ukrainian Ostarbeiter experience are virtually non-existent in Ukraine although there were 2,244,000 of them from Ukraine, according to Ukrainian historian Yuriy Kondufor.[citation needed] The State Archival Service of Ukraine now has a collection of documents online showing official notices published by the German government of occupation in Ukraine.[39] A total of 3,000,000 Ostarbeiter were taken to Germany, and it is estimated that Ukrainians constituted about 75% of the total. Ukraine, according to some sources, lost about 10 million people in World War II, which was one of the greatest losses of any country in the war.[7]
Some Ostarbeiter survived the war and were forced to emigrate to the countries outside Europe, primarily to the United States, although a handful also made it to Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Brazil. Ostarbeiter who found themselves in the British or French zones were automatically repatriated. Only those who were in the American zone were not forced to return to their countries of origin. In comparison, Ukrainians from western Ukraine and the Baltic region were not forced to return to the Soviet Union, because the UK did not recognize those territories as part of the USSR.
See also
- Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe, Nazi German Economic Enterprises, DWB
- Generalplan Ost and the Hunger Plan to use and abuse people in Central and Eastern Europe
- German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war
- Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany
- Zivilarbeiter forced laborers in the Third Reich
- Polenlager
- Polish decrees
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Ulrich Herbert (16 March 1999), The Army of Millions of the Modern Slave State: Deported, used, forgotten: Who were the forced workers of the Third Reich, and what fate awaited them? Universitaet Freiburg.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Павел Полян - Остарбайтеры. Журнальный зал в РЖ, 2016. Звезда 2005 / 6. (in Russian)
- ISBN 978-1-84545-990-1.
- ^ ISBN 1-57181-493-0. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
- ^ a b c Cezary Gmyz, Wprost magazine (Number 17/18/2007), ""Seksualne Niewolnice III Rzeszy" [Sex-slaves of the Third Reich]". 22 April 2007. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) pp. 1–3. - ^ International Military Tribunal, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression - Volume 1 Chapter X - The Slave Labor Program, The Illegal Use of Prisoners of War. Avalon Project, Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy.
- ^ a b c d e f g Andrew Gregorovich - World War II in Ukraine
- ^ Roman Hrabar (1960). Hitlerowski rabunek dzieci polskich (1939-1945) [Nazi Kidnapping of Polish Children]. Śląsk. pp. 99, 75, 146 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-0-8078-2960-8
- ISBN 0-679-77663-X
- ^ Europe at Work in Germany "Background"
- ^ ISBN 0-679-77663-X.
- ISBN 0-03-076435-1
- ^ a b Nicholas, p. 255
- ISBN 0-03-076435-1
- ^ ISBN 0521470005.
- ^ Sonderbehandlung erfolgt durch Strang. Einsatz von Arbeitskräften aus dem Osten, vom 20. 2. 1942. NS-Archiv.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-6493-3.
- ^ ISBN 0-399-11845-4.
- ISBN 978-0-89604-712-9.
- ^ Majer, "Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich, p. 855.
- ^ a b c d Magdalena Sierocińska (2016). "Eksterminacja "niewartościowych rasowo" dzieci polskich robotnic przymusowych na terenie III Rzeszy w świetle postępowań prowadzonych przez Oddziałową Komisję Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Poznaniu" [Extermination of "racially worthless" children of enslaved Polish women in the territory of Nazi Germany from the IPN documents in Poznań]. Bibliography: R. Hrabar, N. Szuman; Cz. Łuczak; W. Rusiński. Warsaw, Poland: Institute of National Remembrance. Archived from the original on 2017-06-30. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
- ISBN 978-0-679-77663-5.
- ISBN 0-03-076435-1
- OCLC 3379930
- ISBN 0-03-076435-1.
- ^ A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945, edited by Roger Chickering, Stig Förster, Bernd Greiner, page 185.
- ^ Dallin, p. 452
- ^ Dallin, Alexander. German rule in Russia.
- ^ a b Nicholas, p. 399.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-94068-0. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
- ^ a b c HITLER'S PLANS FOR EASTERN EUROPE
- ^ Nicholas, p. 400-1.
- ^ Nicholas, p. 402
- ^ Nicholas, p. 403
- ISBN 3-927106-02-X.
- ^ Forced Labourers in Psychiatry
- ^ a b (in German) Press release Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "State Archives of Ukraine online collection of German and Ukrainian documents regarding forced transportation of Ukrainian civilians for forced labor in Germany". Archived from the original on 2017-09-22. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
Bibliography
- Berliner Unterwelten e.V. (2010), "OST-Arbeiter" Dokumentartheater Berlin production.
- Billstein, Reinhold editor (November 2000) Working for the Enemy: Ford, General Motors, and Forced Labor in Germany During the Second World War Berghahn Books. ISBN 1-57181-224-5
- Gregorovich, Andrew (1995) "World War II in Ukraine: Ostarbeiter Slave Labor" InfoUkes: Ukrainian History; reprint from Forum: A Ukrainian Review by Ukrainian Fraternal Association, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
- ISBN 978-0-307-73971-1– via Google Books.
- Petrenko, Liebe (2000) "Третій шлях німецьких католиків" OST-ARBEITER ("The Third road for Germans Catholics"), POSTUP/BRAMA № 136 (580), Ukrainian.
- An Ostarbeiter's Employment Identification Document
- Павел Полян - Остарбайтеры
- Колиншні остарбайтери вважають, що їх обдурили
- КОЛИШНI ОСТАРБАЙТЕРИ В НIМЕЧЧИНI
- "Europe at Work in Germany" propaganda aimed at Germans about the program