Forced labour was one of the major crimes committed by Nazi Germany. It is estimated that over 13.5 million foreign children, women and men were exploited on the Reich’s lands during the Second World War. In addition, those living on occupied lands also had to perform hard labour for the enemy. Their numbers may have reached as many as 12 million, allowing researchers to conclude that approximately 25 million people were exploited by the Third Reich. For decades, this crime was passed over in silence. It was not until the debate over reparations in the 1990s that the victims of this exploitation were brought to remembrance. Nonetheless, their commemoration remains inadequate.
There were three main categories of forced labourers deported to Germany, differing in terms of type of labour and level of coercion. These were: civilian labourers (Zivilarbeiter, Fremdarbeiter, Fremdvölkische), prisoners of war (POWs) (Kriegsgefangene) and prisoners (Häftlinge). Although none of the groups had any right to freely decide what labour to perform nor dispose of their own labour force, the labour which prisoners of concentration camps or judicial prison camps were forced to perform differed notably from that of civilian labourers or prisoners of war.
Nearly 1.7 million people of various ages, origins and sexes were subjected to murderous labour, mainly in Nazi German concentration camps, where slave labour was nothing more than an effective method of exterminating those denied the right to life by the Reich.
Prisoners of war, 4.6 million in total, constituted, as it were, war booty for the Wehrmacht, as they were captured during military operations. The first were Polish soldiers (some 410,000), who were barracked in special camps: (Oflag* for officers; Stalag for privates and non-commissioned officers) and forced to work in the first weeks of the war. Along with the German offensive, Norwegian, French and Serbian soldiers and, somewhat later, Soviet and Italian prisoners of war were also sent ”behind the wire.” Their treatment by the Wehrmacht command was by far the worst. Difficult living conditions, combined with hard work on the land and in industry, for which the POWs received no pay, led to a high mortality rate of interned soldiers.
The largest group, more than 8.5 million, were civilian labourers, employed not only in almost all branches of the Reich’s economy, but also in private households. It can be assumed that every German locality, whether village, town or city, participated in the forced labour of foreign civilians. Furthermore, these labourers were a constant part of the Germans’ wartime daily life. It was impossible not to see them and interact with them.
* [Oflag: Ger: Offizierlager / Eng: prisoner of war camp for officers] for officers; Stalag: Ger: Stammlager / Eng: Base camp or Main camp]