Excerpts...for
complete editorial see: http://remember.org/educate/dingell.html
The Question of the
Polish Forced Labourer during and in the Aftermath of World War II:
The Example of the Warthegau Forced Labourers, by Jeanne Dingell, dingell@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Copyright 1998, All Rights Reserved. Please contact
the author if you have any questions.
In order to prevent a repetition of the German reparations-disaster of
the Twenties and Thirties, and to ensure the successful integration of the
Federal Republic into the West, certain restraining measures had to be taken
in order to secure the financial stability of the emerging new country. Certain
groups of Nazi-victims were to be excluded from direct compensation through
the German Government. At best, these victims could hope for some sort of
compensation through the German reparations payments to their home country.
In the case of the Poles, this was to take place through the Germans reparations
to the Soviet Union, as agreed upon at the Potsdam Agreements of 1945.
Neither the Polish (non-jewish as well as Jewish) forced labourers of World
War II, nor any of the other numerous victims of Nazi War Crimes in Poland
received any sort of adequate compensation through these reparations agreements.
There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that Poland
never received any sort of reparation payments as such: The Soviet Union
arranged to share their part of the German reparation payments with Poland
through a complicated system of trade and exchange payments. The
truth of the matter is that the Polish Nation never received any concrete
reparations payments and that individual victims of Nazi terror never received
any sort of real compensation for the injustice that was done to them. The only exception
to this rule is the case of the Polish victims of Dr. Mengele's pseudo-medical
experiments. This group of victims is entitled through separate agreements
to a pension through the German Government.
In a complicated system of burocratically determined ethniticity, Volksdeutsche (Germans
by descent, but not by citizenship) were to be segregated from the rest
of the population. Jews were to be crowded into local and then consolidated
regional gettos. Following the Wannsee Conference (January 20, l942), the
Nazis planned the industrial murder of these and all other European Jews
en masse. The Poles were to be used as an inexhaustible
source of slave labour for the colonisation of this and other regions of
Poland and were then to be eventually exterminated. Germans from
all parts of Eastern and Western Europe were to be brought into take their
place in the biggest colonisation project ever planned in Europe.
In the case of the "Warthegau", the governor in charge (Artur
Greiser) was faced with an extreme dilemma as to what to do with the Polish
population. On the one hand, it was not only official Nazi dogma that this "Warthegau" was
to become "German", but his own personal goal that this district
was to become ethnically German, and, if possible, in the course
of the war. On the other hand, the Poles were a
necessary part of the daily workforce. They were necessary in the normal civilian production
and they were a necessary element in the Nazi colonisation projects throughout
the "Warthegau".
(This included many different kinds of infrastructure improvement projects:
pavement and building of roads, construction of administrative buildings,
park planning and improvement, water works and canalisation, rerouting
of rivers, etc.) In addition, there was an increasing tendency throughout
the war for the German industrialists to set up armaments factories in
this and other "annected" parts of Europe. It was thought,
and to some extent rightly so, that the Allies would be less likely to
bomb factories in this region. Poles were a necessary part of this war
production work force, especially after the advent of the Eastern Front
in the Summer of 1941 and the German Declaration of War against the United
States on the 11th of December 1941.
As I have already mentioned, Governor Greiser was faced throughout the
course of World War II with an essential dilemma: On the one hand he wanted
to rid his district of unwanted Poles, in order to realise his goal of
a purely "German
Warthegau". On the other hand he needed these people in order to keep
the economy on its feet. He, the bureaucrats under him and the local firms
who needed these Polish workers, were even forced 1942-43 to compete with
firms in the "Altreich" (Germany in its borders from 1937) for
these workers.
While more than 360,000 Poles from this "Warthegau" were deported
to other parts of Germany to do forced labour, many more Poles were made
to do forced labour in their home country during World War II. How many
is a question of definition: Who is a forced labourer in a war situation?
Are all native workers in an occupied country forced labourers?
Or are only those who are deported "forced labourers"? How does
one define this concept? And how can one define this concept and still
do justice to the victims of these horrendous crimes to humanity without
overreaching the bounds of common sense? A reasonable educated guess is
that some where around 1 to 1 1/2 Million Poles in this "Warthegau",
above and beyond those who were deported, were engaged in some sort of
forced labour in the course of the war. (The pre-war population in the
region that became the "Warthegau" was
around 4 Million.)
In the Nurnberger Trials against the 25 chief Nazi War Criminals , the
prosecution emphasized that the deportation and use of Fremdarbeiter (foreign
workers) in the Reichskriegeinsatz (Nazi Work Programm)
was a violation of International Law, in particular of the Hague Agreements
concerning Land Warfare from l907. While the prosecution, in their case
against the defendants' crimes against humanity, never tried to spare
the Nazi War Criminals of their responsibility for the deportation and
slavery of foreign workers, they were forced in the absence of a better
legal basis to base their case on the said Agreements from the Hague.
Articles 46 and 52 of the fourth Hague Agreements gave them the chance
to present the Reichskriegseinsatz as
an infringement of the occupying army against the rights of the domestic
population. The prosecution interpreted the Agreements from the Hague
as following: The occupying army, in this case the Wehrmacht, had a right
to require civilians in the occupied lands (but only against proper payment
for services provided) to provide provisions for the occupying troops.
Under no circumstances were German authorities
entitled to deport civilians to the Altreich‚ (Germany
in it's borders from l937) and require them to work in order to help
the war effort on the German home front and against their native countries.
The real situation in which these ex-forced labourers found themselves
was, however, not rendered in the interpretation and representation of
the prosecution. While the hierarchy of the Fremdvolkischen (foreign
peoples) and the living conditions of the imprisoned workers - plenty of
photos were presented the court as evidence - were aptly described, the charges
which were made in Nurnberg don't come close to doing justice to the plight
of these victims of Nazi treachery. These people, the"P-Arbeiter" (Polish
Workers) and the Russian [should be Ukrainian] "Ostarbeiter" (Easternworkers)
were, despite the fact that they were legal alien workers in the German
Reich, paid taxes, social security, health insurance dues and other disriminatory
Sonderabgaben (special
taxes for racially discriminated peoples in the Third Reich), under
no circumstances normal workers, but rather inhumanly treated slaves.
They were given the chance to live through doing work for the Third Reich. They received daily rations of on the average 600-800 Kcal. The fare
was representative for concentration camps in the Third Reich: substitute
coffee once daily, a watery soup with little or no meat, 750 Grams of
black bread every three days. And the German authorities and industrialists
responsible for this tragedy expected their slaves to work 6-7 days a
week, 10-12 hours daily.
Depending on the size of the German firm which employed these inmates of
the German industry, their treatment varied. In general,
though, the larger the firm, the worse the treatment. The "Arado" -
FlugzeugwerkeGmbH Out-Placement Works in Rathenow on the Havel river near
Berlin, for example, were nothing less than a concentration camp. The
some 10,000 workers in this armament factory had to deal with not only
hunger, overwork and the loss of any sort of private sphere, but also with
the spectrum of typical concentration camp diseases: typhoid fever, tuberculosis
and diphtheria. The greater the level of rationalisation, the more important it was for the
workers to stay "healthy" and
remain at their work place. Sickness and failure to work meant a break
in the chain of production for the employing firm. For forced workers this
meant risking being replaced, handed over to the SS and at worse being
exterminated.
Following the war, the chance of these forced labourers from the East receiving
a just compensation were not good. In particular, the events and decisions
surrounding the "German Question" made it difficult to speculate
as to whether there would ever again be the necessary geopolitical conditions
necessary to approach the question of the compensation of the forced labourers:
Even before the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht on the
8./9. May 1945 in Karlshorst near Berlin, Stalin had made his claims to
Eastern Europe clear: The Soviet war booty was to be not only the sovereignty
over all lands east of the border set by the secret protocol to the Hitler-Stalin
Pact (August 23, l939) regarding the borders of the Third Reich and the
Soviet Union, but also the betrayal of Poland and the
rest of the lands east of of the Soviet Zone of Occupation in Germany.
The negotiations of the "Big
Three" in Yalta (February 4-ll, 1945) and in Potsdam (July 17- August
2, l945) were the realisation of Stalin's goals: The recognition of the
Curzon Line as the eastern border of Poland, as well as the division
of Germany in Zones of Occupation were set down in the "Declaration
of Freed Europe".
Shrewd observers of the time knew precisely how to interpret these historical
events: The Division of Germany could only mean the Division of Europe.
Millions of people were to be left to their fate under the Stalinists. The
basis of an economic and political dictatorship was created beyond the West
German border. Out of the ashes of the Second World War arose two Super
Powers: One of which, the Soviet Union, was to take the lead of the socialist
dictatorships. The western occupation zones of Germany and Austria were
to return to the cradle of Capitalism. Their leaders were to be formed through "Reeducation",
Lucky Strikes, U.S.Dollars, open markets and American troops.
The forced labourers about whom this paper is about, returned to life in
this divided world. Physically at ends, most of them without any sort of
contact to their immediate families, in a foreign land and at the mercy of
relief organisations, wanted for the most part only to go home. This home
was, unfortunately, only a thing of the past and for many of them would only
be a reality in their everlasting homesickness. Many of
them were still children, when the Nazis deported them to the "Altreich".
After their liberation from the work camps, they were looked after appropriately
for the first time in the Allied camps which were set up for them after the war.
The official Allied policy in regards to these physically and psychologically
damaged victims of Nazi terror, was that they were to be treated for the worst
of the abuse to their persons and then be sent "home". These displaced
persons were expected to take up with their lives where they left off.
Many of them returned to their previous homeland. Many returned on foot,
others with special trains and still others were at the time of their liberation
already at home, as they were enslaved in their home country. Many of these
displaced persons, however, were more than aware of the political and economic
changes that were taking place in Eastern and Central Europe after the signing
of the Potsdam Agreements from August 2,l945 and used their "displacement" as
an opportunity to emigrate. In particular the generation of Poles and
other Central Europeans, who received their socialisation before the war, were
more than aware of the danger in returning to their home country.
Decision-makers and the press in pre-war Poland were more than aware ofthe
hegemonial threat that the Soviet Union for Poland represented: For this
reason, the Pilsudski-Government signed a non-agression Treaty with Nazi-Germany
1934. This treaty, otherwise so inappropriate in the pre-war policies of
Poland, expressed the great fear which the generation of Post-Versailles
Poland had of Soviet-Russia and their French alliance.
Many of the ex-forced labourers decided to stay in Germany. Some
60,000 of them remained in post-war Germany. In addition, many of these displaced
persons emigrated from Europe after their liberation. The U.S.Government,
for example, well aware of the political changes which were taking place
in Europe, kept the immediate post-war policy regarding quotas of immigrants
from Eastern Europe at their pre-war level, even if this wasn't representative
among the different immigrating nations in the US quota system. The
limit for Eastern Europe was set at 20,000 immigrants per year from the respective
leading emigration countries. Nonetheless, this solution was a
difficult one, as the demand to immigrate was much greater than the number
spaces available. In particular, family members, who were of age, were
not automatically guaranteed the right to accompany these immigrants.
The efforts of the many Eastern and Central European exile organisations
in the U.S. and other immigration-countries could only ease the difficulties
these people had in integrating themselves in their new society: During
the war, they were forced to leave their homeland and go to work for a
totalitarian regime. After their liberation, they were often incapable
of finding themselves the right nitch in their new country. The obvious
difficulties that most of them had with learning a new language was certainly
nothing compared to the isolation which many of them must have felt in
their immigration experience. Who can really say, what sort of psychological
barriers these people had to cross, in order to deal with a new language
and culture? What must have gone through thei rheads, the first time they
saw an American city or town? How difficult was it for them to get their
papers and lives in order?
Their immediate goals were certainly no different than those of other post-war
consumers: a regular income, an apartment or a house, a car, the first television.
For many of these ex-forced labourers, the work they did for the Nazis was
the only qualification they had to find a job. Even after the war, they
were to be reminded of this dreadful war experience.
Many of these ex-forced labourers have since died. Often, the cause of their
deaths is directly related to their work experience under the Third Reich.
This is, of course, not always as easy to prove as to suppose. And even
if the damage to their person is determined and documented during their
lifetime, they are not entitled to any sort of compensation or indemnification
by German law:
These non-Jewish displaced persons, who were forced labourers under theThird
Reich are categorised by the German Authorities in the CompensationAgency
(now the Referat V B of the Finance Ministry) as national or at best political,
and not as racially disriminated war victims. In addition, since they are
foreigners who live outside of the German Kulturkreis (cultural
circle), they are not entitled to a compensation or indemnification
under German national law, but are rather expected to turn to their
native countries, who have theoretically received reparation payments
following the war. In the case of Poland, this is especially questionable,
as Poland was theoretically granted reparations through the Soviet
Union in the Potsdamer Agreements. For practical purposes,however,
Poland received only goods and services from the Soviet Union, and
at prices based on hard currency and not at the usual East Bloc "Transfer
Ruble" prices.
An exception was made following the war for Nationalgesch digte (damaged
nationals), who couldn't return home after the war: The requirement
for this sort of indemnification, was that the person inquestion was
a political refugee as defined in the Geneva Convention from July 28,
l95l. These persons had to have been war victims, who were unable to
return home on political grounds or because of the changing political
situation in Eastern Europe. This category of war victim was to be
indemnified by the German Government directly, because they could not otherwise
request help from their native countries.
Many of the displaced persons, who would have otherwise qualified as political
refugees as defined by the Geneva Convention from l95l, had, however, in
l953, at which point in time the Bundesentsch digungsgesetz (BEG:
the German Federal Compensation Law) became effective,
long since emigrated and taken on new citizenships. These ex-displaced
persons were no longer refugees, but rather had established new lives
in new countries.
The rest of the Nationalgesch digte, as I have already
mentioned, were to be compensated or indemnified through their home
countries. German reparations were to be the basis of this compensation.
The one exception to this policy, was, as I have already mentioned,
Polish non-Jewish victims of pseudo-medical experiments, of the sort
which Mengele did. They were compensated l972, following Willy Brandt's
visit to Poland, through a special fund set up by the German Government
as official successor-state of the German Reich.
Some -- mostly Jewish or German -- ex-forced labourers received a minimal
one-time Hilfe (help)
payment from the firm, for which they had worked. In order to receive
such an indemnification, they were required to waive all further claims
for compensation from the firm in question and from the Federal Republic
as the official successor-state of the German Reich. For the most part,
the ex-forced labourers who came in question,were concentration camp
inmates in Auschwitz, who had not even received a token wage for their
slave labour. As German Citizens, this was a violation of their civil
rights. For the successor firms of IG Farben (among others: Hoechst,
Agfa, BASF, Bayer Leverkusen and Dynamit Nobel), it was important to
clear the way for their participation in their armament of Germany
in the framework of the NATO and the western integration of Germany. The
IG Farben Auschwitz-works were undeniable. And following the case of
Norbert Wollheim vs. the successor firms of IG Farben, they were forced
to settle out of court for the some 4,000 victims who came in question.
The rest of the ex-forced labourers, some 10-12 million victims of
Nazi terror, were, as I have already mentioned, expected to be compensated
inthe framework of reparation payments, which were agreed upon in Potsdam
and above all in the London Creditor Agreements of l951. The successor
states of the German Reich, the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria,
negotiated concrete reparation and compensation sums with the western allies
and their creditors, which they agreed to pay under specificconditions.
The Londoner Agreements, were, in particular, a framework which the
Federal Republic used to keep the Wiedergutmachung (war reparations,
compensation, and indemnification payments) costs down.
In the wake of the London Agreements, the People's Republic of
Poland announced in 1953 it's waiver of further claims of reparations
from the succesor states of the German Reich. This was in accordance
with the Soviet Union and the other East Bloc countries, and was a
move designed to protect the German Democratic Republic from being forced
to fufill further reparations claims. (Up until then, reparations had
been paid in kind through demontage.)
All Polish governments, including the socialist governments during
the period of the Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, have never
put the separate claims of the individual ex-forced labourers in question!
The Polish Government recognises the rights of the ex-forced labourers
toindemnification for the work done with minimal or no pay, for pensions
which are now due, as well as the compensation due these victims for the
deportation and abuse done to them by their persecutors.
The Federal Republic and the German firms in question have in the post-war
period consistently refused to acknowledge these rights of the ex-forced
labourers and use the Londoner Agreements and the BEG, which is based on
the terms of these agreements to justify their refusal. Should one of the
many ex-forced labourers, who have taken this matter to a German court,
win, it would mean a precedence for further such cases...an avalanche of
such cases would have to be expected, and this at a time when the Federal
Republic is beginning to drown in the unexpected costs of the Reunification.
Even if only half or one quarter of the 10-12 million ex-forced labourers
still live, it would be very difficult for the Federal Republic to satisfy
all the claims that could be made.
Following the "Quiet Revolution" in Poland and thereafter in
all other Eastern Bloc countries, the Polish and German Governments signed
two friendship treaties in l991 and held talks which were the basis of
theborder agreements (preceeding the German Reunification) from l99l. It
wasagreed among other things, that the German Government would finance
afoundation with 500 Million DM paid over a 3 year period in 3 payments,which
would "help" the
Polish victims of Nazi terror who were stillliving. The foundation
was not supposed to "compensate" these victims,but rather to "linder" the
misery these people had to live with. For themost part these people
receive a one-time payment of between 5 - l2Million Zloty (approximately
$300-500). (This means that an average Polish ex-forced labourer - and only
those still living in Poland -isentitled to a one-time "help"-payment
of around $700 for up to 5 1/2years slave labour! ) The word "compensation" has
been intentionallyavoided in order to prevent any sort of future legal
obligation to Nazivictims of this sort. These "help" payments
are the result of a politicalcompromise between the Polish and German Governments
and should in no way,shape or form be interpreted as a sort of "compensation".
In the last few years the criticism of this "help" funds
has taken a sharpturn: Following an investment scandal on the part
of the funds-management, the German Government and the German press
has put, with good reason, the management capability of the Polish
board of directors into question: The Warsaw District Attorney`s Office
is presently investigating charges of bad management practices and possibly
assisted orat tempted embezzelment on the part of Bronislaw Wilk, Director
of the Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie. Wilk deposited about
$ 2,5 Million of the funds monies into an account with a small private
bank (not guaranteed by the State) in Warsaw, the Bank for Energy-Development
and Environmental Conservation, Megabank SA. A party friend of Wilk's,
Eugeniusz S., apparantly forged Wilk's signature to use the Funds monies
in the Mega Bank account to guarantee loans to five different blind firms,
all of which belonged to Eugeniusz S. The firms and the bank which loaned
the money went bankrupt. The $2.5 million disappeared. Eugeniusz S.,the
directors of the bank and one of their employees are now being detained
pending trial. And the district attorney's office is also looking into
Wilk's questionable investment practices.
The accusations of fraud and incompetence
which are making the rounds in Warsaw diminish the really important questions
regarding this: Why was so little money paid into the funds in the
first place? (500 Millionen DM divided by approximately 600,000 estimated
victims entitled to this "help"‚ leaves an average "help" of
less than l,000 DM or $600 per victim. And there are many more victims
who do not qualify under the present very rigid stipulations.)
500 Million deutsche mark is about 250 Million dollars. The Americans gave
the Poles $600 Million following the transition to democracy. The Germans
have spent 1,000 Billion German Marks on bettering the infrastructure in
East Germany and wiping away all signs of communism in East Germany.
The interest group which represents these forced labourers, Stowarzyszenie
Poszkodowanych przez III Rzeszy, have a suit going against the Federal
Republic of Germany in its capacity as successor state of the German Reichat
the International Court of Justice in the Haag. Their goal is to try to
force the German Government to pay them a pension for the time that they
paid into the German social insurance funds. They believe that even if
the firms and the German Government refuse to pay them the salary which
was kept from them for their forced labour, that they should at least receive
a pension, as is the right of every German who worked and paid social insurance
dues during the Third Reich, for the time they paid into the social insurance
fonds.
Alan Newark
Mobile SIM1: + 44 (0) 7927695640
See Stuttgart archives
or Belgium Tracing Service
Kdo. Natzweiler, Zivilianarbeiterlager (civilian
work camp)
Arbeitslager Weisendorf (death certificates), working for the subterranean
Kessler factory, established autumn 1944, 400 prisoners, closed 1945, prisoners
transferred to Dachau
Civilian work camp is also referenced as KoppenInlager (BNTB- See Belgium National
Tracing Bureau)
Civilian work camp Kappelberg, former PoW camp from 1943 for civilian workers
only with Ukrainians, French and Belgians
Camp Iranhalle
FA. SH. W: Sued - Lager Camp
Wiesendorf Lager Camp
Sportplatzlager (Sport place camp)
Zum Schlegel Lager Camp
Heneshaus Lager Camp
Zum Sand Lager Camp
Wattenscheid Nordrhein-Westfalen
Weimar - Civilian Worker Camp: -- Bindel-Lager, 120 person. Oct '43 - April '45, US zone
Werdohl - civilian workers
camp
15, Jul 2010,
I am working on completing those papers you sent me so I can get their
immigration files. I am hoping there will be some information in there. Fortunately,
I have their alien cards, so I am hopeful that will speed the process.
Thank you so much for this information. I appreciate you taking
the time to research this. I was informed that VDM had factories in
Eveking (now known as Werdohl). On
my mother's arbeitskarte [work card], it stated VDM Halbwerkzeug -- Eveking *- so I am wondering
if there was a camp associated with that area. Many years ago, my mother
gave me Reichmarks and told me to hold on to them. I don't know whether
this was money she earned, or just the money she came here with, since I
know some civilian work camps paid their workers.
Thank you again for this information. It will help me as I continue to
research.
Sharon Miklas laffinbuda@gmail.com
Olga's reply: I have nothing in the book for Eveking. Werdohl had a civilian
work camp at Gemeinschafts lager (camp name) with 2324 persons,
Arbeitsamt Luedenscheid
*https://www.vdm-metals.com/en/products-and-services/alloys-and-semi-finished-products/semi-finished-aluminum-and-copper-products/
Wesuwe - Camp VIII of Emsland group, see Papenburg; never operational
Westerhausen - Krs. Melle, British Zone
Civilian Work Camp: Fa. Westland Gummiwerke, 50 people
Lager Wente: 50 women
Westerstede - Krs. Ammerland British Zone
Civilian work camp: Fa. Frers, Hostemost, 60 people
Civilian work camp: Klamperosch, 50 people
Civilian work camp: Westerstede Bahnbeitslager, 100 people
Westfalen forced workers website in German text, use online Google translator select German to English
Westerbrook Westerbrook
Memorial Jewish photos
Wewelsburg KZ Nordrhein-Westfalen
Wiesbaden
Wilhelmshaven-Mariensiel
Ulrich Racker-Wellnitz
c/o Stadt Wilhelmshaven
Der Oberburgermeister
Kommmunikation & koordination
Stadtarchiv
Rathausplatz1
26382 Wilhelmshaven
Deutschland -Germany
Tel: code + 04421 16
Fax: code + 04421 16 1158
E-mail: stadtarchiv@stadt.wilhelmshaven.de 
Site of main forced labour camp in Wilhelmshaven was linked to Naval Artillery
works. Large Soviet labour force.
I have included a map of the Wilhelmshaven Marineartilleriearsenal camp.
There were other camps, Lager Neufeld, and a particular factory-based
sub-camp, in the Wilhemshaven area. The above addresses are from a letter
sent to me by the City of Wilhelmshaven Archivist which includes an e-mail
address. I have other information about the Sande, Wilhelmshaven, labour
camp. After the war, it housed Soviet soldiers and, possibly, civilians,
being held in transit, and often involuntarily so, to the USSR. During
the war the camp held Dutch, Belgian, French, Polish and other inmates.
Besten. Alan Newark Leeds,
UK
Wildeshausen, Lubeck
3/6/05 Dear Olga,
I found this testimony on a website of a British Veteran:
"On 10th April, just outside Wildeshausen, Lubeck, the Rifle Brigade
captured a large German hospital in the pine wood with 200 patients. During
the night they were mortared, and infantry and self-propelled guns appeared
and when morning broke, the patients and staff had vanished ."
I'm searching information about my mother's past as a German Red Cross
nurse. She was Hungarian and incorporated in a Hungarian field hospital.
This hospital withdrew with the German army all the way to Stalag XI B. She
was among the sanitary personal who took part in the evacuation of the field
hospital few days before the liberators reached the Stalag. I know that she
was captured by the American army. I have her POW # (probably the only real
information in my possession). Soon after she was involved in the UNRRA
activities as nurse. I don't know how long she stayed in Germany as a DP, but she probably stayed
in Travemunde, Lubeck or Hamburg. Can anybody help me with additional information about this event, or direct my research? My mother passed away 6 months ago. She would never talk about her past.
Thank you in advance for the slightest help. Marija
Wolfrathausen
Kdo. (Kommando)
Dachau, Zivilarbeiterlager (Civil
work camp); US zone
2 miles S of Gelting, 3 miles east of Neufahrn
Lager Buchberg, worked with armament industry*, from
1940-45 600 workers, partly POW, partly civilian; write to mayor in Gelting
*Probably the armament plant, DSC, was situated in the fir forest of Foehrenwald,
within the triangle of Wolfrathausen, Gelting, and Neufahrn;
CC Kdo. Dachau had a smaller Kommando in the factory named SS Arbeiterlager
(work camp) Neufarn
Wolfsburg
Women in slave labor: http://lightning-and-ashes.blogspot.com/2007/10/tell-them-we-werent-only-ones.html by
John Guzlowski
Wuppertal Nordrhein-Westfalen
Zeithain - Memorial Museum Zeithain Construction
begins of the Zeithain prisoners of war camp in preparation of the German attack
on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The first transport of Soviet prisoners
of war arrives at the Jacobsthal train station near the camp. The camp is a branch
of the Stalg IV B Mühlberg / Elbe. The Zeithain prisoner of war camp is
converted into as a reserve hospital, in which mostly prisoners of war with tuberculosis
are held.
Zetel - Krs. Friesland
Civian work camp: 780 people
Zwingenberg
Some of the above information provided by Fördergesellschaft
Kulturelle Bildung e.V. info@kulturelle-bildung.de
There were 20,000 German slave labor campsIf you haven't found your camp named listed in the first page, try these sites:
Nazi concentration camps
Das Lagersystem der Nazis. The Camp system of the Nazis (in German) and English version pdf, 2,500 companies in the slave labor system of 20,000 camps with 10-12 million slave laborers
Unnamed camp with piles of dead people from FDR library
Horror of War, Forget Me Not by Olga Prohnitchi
World War II Places home page
Virtual Library Museum, website in German
Forced workers,
website in German
Nazi & Soviet documents for sale
German companies participating in slave labor
Marc Terrance photographs concentration camps
Slovakia - death of a slave labourer
Forgotten Camps,
mostly Jewish research Slave labor links in German
The following sites which describe the Ostarbeiter (worker's from the East) program may be
helpful to some Ukrainian researchers:
Ukrainian Bar Association
Infoukes history of Ostarbeiter
Lavrentiy Krupniak
Labour camps Klup site
Check out book: DAS NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHE LAGERSYSTEM by Martin Weinmann
and published in Frankfurt am Main in 1990.
F. Weiss, Library
Holocaust Memorial Center
6602 W. Maple Rd.; West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248)661-0840; fax: (248)661-4204
e-mail: iinfo@holocaustcenter.org
http://holocaustcenter.org
In the following websites is a comparison: Some starved others were treated better.
John Guzlowski's poem about his dad, called "Hunger in the Labor Camps" along with his innoculation papers from 1951.
The ones who were more valuable to the system were better treated:
Lagergeld Used to Pay Prisoners for Their Work
By Jennifer White
