Dachau was not only the location of a concentration camp, but also of one of ca. 50 transit camps within the Reich (the so-called Dulags), whose task was to receive transports of labour recruited in the occupied territories.
The Dachau-Rothschwaige camp was established under the supervision of the Bavarian Labour Office on 15 July 1942, approximately one kilometre from the Dachau railway station. Forced labourers were registered there, subjected to medical examinations and then sent on to employers. The most numerous national groups in it were citizens of the Soviet Union, who were collectively referred to as ”Eastern Workers” (Ostarbeiter), and Poles. Both groups occupied the lowest positions in the Nazi racial-ideological hierarchy, which meant that Poles and ”Eastern Workers” were treated far worse than, for example, French civilian workers. Among other things, they were obliged to wear the stigmatising ”P” and ”Ost” badges. Their accommodation (usually in camps surrounded by barbed wire), food, pay and medical care were also worse. From the Dachau-Rothschwaige camp, workers were forced to perform labour in the entire district of Upper Bavaria, including the district of Dachau.
Lists of the Dachau Regional Health Fund from 1947 show that 2549 Poles and “Eastern Workers” (mostly from the Ukraine) were employed in the Dachau district, 1309 of whom were young women. Many women worked on farms, where they were also accommodated.
Example:
Documents state that Irena Pschika (born 1921 in Turka, today: Lviv region) worked on a farm in Untergeiersberg (Dachau district) from 18 March 1942 to 15 May 1945. She gave birth to a son, Wassili, on 3 March 1944 in the maternity barrack at the Dachau-Rothschwaige transit camp, whom she initially had with her on the farm. In September 1944, she was forced to give up her healthy baby boy to a barrack for the children of female “Eastern Workers” in Indersdorf. For over a month, she visited the child on every free day until she managed to take him home again on 15 October. However, Wassili was in such a critical condition that he died two days later.
Photos:
1. Irene Pschika, Heimatverein Indersdorf Archive
2. Irene Pschika, Heimatverein Indersdorf Archive
3. Irene Pschika (second from left) on the farm, Heimatverein Indersdorf Archive
4. Baptismal certificate of Wassila Pschika, Indersdorf Catholic Parish Archive
5. Haymaking 1944, Heimatverein Indersdorf Archive
Hay harvest in Feldgeding/Bergkirchen (District of Dachau).
Pictured are farm owners Rosina and Karl Bick with their eight children, Rosina’s two sisters, French prisoner of war Albin (surname unknown) and two female forced labourers (wearing white headscarves): Raissa Voronova (born 1927) from Glebovo in Kursk region (Russia) and Vavara Dichterenko (born 1926) from Kotelva in Poltava region (Ukraine). Both stayed at the Feldgeging farm between 1942 and 1945.
6. Nina, surname unknown, Archive Heimatverein Indersdorf
Nina (surname unknown) worked on a farm in Ebersried (District of Dachau). The photograph shows the patch ”OST” (East)
7. Nina in the countryside, Heimatverein Indersdorf Archive