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Implementing the Third Reich: Forced Labor

“The use of slave and forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. … The Germans abducted approximately 12 million people from almost twenty European countries; about two thirds came from Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Many workers died as a result of their living conditions – extreme mistreatment, severe malnutrition and abuse were the main causes of death. Many more became civilian casualties from enemy (Allied) bombing and shelling of their workplaces throughout the war.”1

“After the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler expressed his future plans for the Slavs:

“As for the ridiculous hundred million Slavs, we will mould the best of them as we see fit, and we will isolate the rest of them in their own pig-styes; and anyone who talks about cherishing the local inhabitants and civilising them, goes straight off into a concentration camp!”

Nazi ideology viewed the Slavic peoples as non-Aryan Untermenschen (“sub-humans”), who were targeted for enslavement, expulsion and extermination. The racial status of Slavs during the Third Reich was inconsistent over time. Hitler viewed the Slavs as “a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master”. Nazi propaganda portrayed the Germanic peoples as “heroes” in contrast to the Jewish and Slavic “sub-humans”.

…Himmler stated that it was in the German interest to discover as many ethnic groups in the East and splinter them as much as possible, find and select racially valuable children to be sent to Germany to assimilate them and restrict non-Germans in the General Government and conquered territories to four-grade elementary school which would only teach them how to write their own name, to count up to 500 and to obey Germans. Himmler believed the Germanization process in Eastern Europe would be complete when “in the East dwell only men with truly German, Germanic blood.””2

Family Archive

Katarzyna Mostowa

b. 1927

In the photo on the right, you can see a faint stamp in the top right corner.

In the center of stamps used for official documents, within Nazi Germany, is the eagle and swastika

Boleslaw Stupnicki

b. 1922

In the photo on the right, you’ll see the “P” badge sewn onto the jacket.

Poles were required to wear this badge per the polish decrees, implemented by the Third Reich.

P (Nazi Symbol)

The “P” symbol or “P” badge was introduced on 8 March 1940 by the Nazi Germany General Government in relation to the requirement that Polish workers used during World War II as forced laborers in Germany display a visible symbol marking their ethnic origin.

The symbol was introduced with the intent to be used as a cloth patch, but also reproduced on documents (through stamps) and posters. The badge was intended to be humiliating, and like the similar Jewish symbol, can be seen as a badge of shame.3

Anti-Polish poster published by
“Association for ‘Germanness’ abroad”

Translation:

Our position on the question of Poles in the Reich.

The Reichsführer 44 and Chief of the German Police has ordered, among other things, on behalf of Reichsmarschall Göring, that all workers of Polish ethnicity must always wear the cloth badge shown opposite, in original size, visibly on the right breast of every item of clothing. The A6 badge is to be sewn firmly onto the item of clothing.

Today we are witnessing the emergence of our national empire and we are aware that in the future foreign national elements will live in large numbers within our living space. In addition, the influx of Polish farm and factory workers has also made national issues acute throughout the empire. The national empire can only last forever if every German acts in a nationally conscious manner and deals with all these issues on his own initiative. Laws can only regulate coexistence in a supportive manner. The most important thing remains the sensible, secure attitude of each individual. The entire people must therefore be particularly informed about the dangers that coexistence with foreign people entails.

It is therefore necessary to educate at every opportunity, i.e. to repeatedly point out the atrocities committed by the Poles against our ethnic Germans and to call for caution towards the Polish workers.

German people! Never forget that the atrocities in Poland forced the Führer to use his armed Wehrmacht to defeat our Bolshevik Germans! January 1939 claimed 58,000 victims on the ethnic German side in Poland. Men, women and children, defenseless old people and the sick were tortured to death on the deportation marches. In the Polish penitentiaries, German people had to endure tortures whose brutality could only have been imagined by sub-humans with an animal disposition. Days without any food, beatings with sticks, gun butts, gratuitous executions, eye gouging, rape – there is no act of violence that has not been committed. A young person was doused with gasoline and burned in an oven, a locomotive was forced to drive onto a freight transport of deportees. Children bathing recently found 17 bodies in a pond. Thousands of such examples could be cited.

Members of these people have now come to us as farm and factory workers and prisoners of war because we need their labor. Anyone who has to deal with them on an official basis should be aware that the hatred of the Poles is greater today than ever before, that the Poles have far greater experience in the national struggle than we do, and that they still believe that they can build a new, greater Poland with the help of our enemy powers.

The subservience that the Pole shows towards the German peasant is deceitful. Any friendly attitude is wrong. Caution is required everywhere so that the unification of the Poles and possible espionage activities are not encouraged.

Above all, there is no community of any kind between Germans and Poles. German, be proud and do not forget what the Polish people have done to you! If someone comes and tells you that his Pole is decent, tell him: Today everyone knows a decent Pole, just as everyone used to know a decent Jew!

It is about our national community! Above all, make sure that connections are not made through shared faith. Our farmers do not know the national struggle and consider the Pole who constantly greets them with “Praise be to Jesus Christ!” to be a decent person and respond to him with “Forever, Amen!”. Poles who arrived with only the clothes they had on their backs received linen and clothing from their farmers. They then sold them to their neighbours and converted the proceeds into tobacco. Groups of Poles who were dispersed by the police on the country road have reunited on the next street corner. Pay attention to whether the Poles write long letters home. Food has been sent from Poland in response to these letters, so you can imagine what the Pole wrote home. Do not give him any cash! In a farming family where the farmer’s wife is about to give birth to her third child, there is no other help in the house than a Polish girl. In such cases, seek help from your neighbors!

German! The Pole is never your comrade! He is below every German comrade on your farm or in your factory. As always, as a German, be fair, but never forget that you are a member of the master race!

The German Wehrmacht fought for peace in Europe. We are responsible for peace in the new, larger Germany. Living together with people of foreign nationalities will often lead to ethnic tests of strength that you, as a German, must pass.

Polish Decrees

Polish decrees, Polish directives or decrees on Poles were the decrees of the Nazi Germany government announced on 8 March 1940 during World War II to regulate the working and living conditions of the Polish workers used during World War II as forced laborers in Germany. The regulation intentionally supported and even created anti-Polish racism and discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity and racial background.4

Poster in German and Polish describing “Obligations of Polish workers in Germany”

Translation:

For official use only!
Duties of Civil Workers of Polish Nationality
During Their Stay in the Reich

The Greater German Reich provides work, bread and wages to every worker of Polish nationality. In return, it demands that everyone conscientiously carries out the work assigned to him and carefully. observes the existing rules and regulations.

The following special provisions apply to all workers of Polish ethnicity in the Greater German Reich:

1. Leaving your place of residence is strictly prohibited.

2. During the curfew ordered by the police authority, the accommodation may not be left.

3. The use of public transport, e.g. railways, is only permitted with special permission from the local police authority.

4. All workers of Polish nationality must always wear the badge issued to them in a visible manner on the right breast side of every item of clothing. The badge must be sewn firmly onto the item of clothing.

5. Anyone who works lazily, stops work, picks up other workers, leaves the workplace without permission, etc., will be subjected to. forced labor in a labor education camp. Acts of sabotage and other serious violations of work discipline will be punished severely, including at least several years in a labor education camp.

6. All social contact with the German population, especially visiting theaters, cinemas, dance halls, restaurants and churches together with the German population, is prohibited. Dancing and drinking alcohol is only permitted in restaurants specially designated for Polish workers.

7. Anyone who has sexual intercourse with a German woman or a German man or otherwise approaches them indecently shall be punished with death.

8. Any violation of the orders and regulations issued for civilian workers of Polish ethnicity. will be punished in Germany; deportation to Poland will not take place.

9. Every Polish worker, male and female, must always bear in mind that they have come to Germany voluntarily to work. Anyone who does this work satisfactorily will receive bread and wages. Anyone who works lazily and does not observe the regulations will be held to account with ruthlessness, especially during a state of war.

10. It is strictly forbidden to speak or write about the provisions hereby announced.

Forced Labor

Polish Zivilarbeiters

“Zivilarbeiter (civilian worker) refers primarily to ethnic Polish residents from the General Government (Nazi-occupied central Poland), used during World War II as forced laborers in the Third Reich.

Compared to German workers or foreign workers from neutral and German-allied countries Polish Zivilarbeiters received lower wages and were not allowed to use public conveniences (such as public transport) or visit many public spaces and businesses (for example they were not allowed to attend German church services, visit swimming pools or restaurants); 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; possess money or objects of value. Bicycles, cameras and even lighters were forbidden.”5

Labor Policy

“The speed and success of the attack on Poland in September 1939 contributed to the inception of a foreign labor plan since it opened new vistas for Nazi social and economic planners. The entire Polish Army, numbering close to 1 million, fell captive to the Wehrmacht, and the occupation of the western half of Poland left millions of Polish civilians subject to labor exploitation.”

“As a result, within the first few months of occupation, Nazi labor officials repealed Polish social legislation, abolished all Polish labor organizations, and promulgated new laws and decrees concerning wages, hours, and working conditions. One of the first labor laws, issued on October 26, 1939, stated that “all Polish inhabitants between the ages of 18 and 60 shall be subject to compulsory public labor.” This included the construction and maintenance of public buildings, roads, waterways, railways, and “agricultural undertakings.”

“The German effort to secure Polish labor was extremely successful. In May of 1940, there were approximately 700,000 Polish civilians working in Germany. Almost a year later, on the eve of Operation Barbarossa, there were close to 1.3 million civilian workers in Germany, most of which came from Poland and were employed in agriculture. Employing Poles to work in Germany increased the percentage of foreign labor from one percent to three percent of the Reich’s labor force, which was the first significant step in the mobilization of foreign labor during World War II.”6

Public Archives

Arolsen Archives

“The Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution formerly the International Tracing Service (ITS), in German Internationaler Suchdienst, in French Service International de Recherches in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is an internationally governed centre for documentation, information and research on Nazi persecution, forced labour and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and its occupied regions. The archive contains about 30 million documents from concentration camps, details of forced labour, and files on displaced persons. ITS preserves the original documents and clarifies the fate of those persecuted by the Nazis.”7

Translation:

206. STUPNICKI, Boleslaw; born 1922;
207. STUPNICKI, Mieczysław; born 1924;
208. STUPNICKI, Piotr; born 1931;

lived in Zawadowska, Pow Podhajce, woj. Tarnopol and was deported to Germany in 1943 to work. Worked in Weiltingen near Wassertrüdingen/Bavaria, Middle Franconia. After liberation they were in Albachten/Münster.

Footnotes

  1. Forced labour under German rule during World War II – Wikipedia ↩︎
  2. Policies regarding Poles, Russians, and other Slavs – Wikipedia ↩︎
  3. P (Nazi Symbol) – Wikipedia ↩︎
  4. Polish Decrees – Wikipedia ↩︎
  5. Polish Zivilarbeiters – Wikipedia ↩︎
  6. Nazi Forced Labor Policy in Eastern Europe – National WW2 Museum ↩︎
  7. Arolsen Archives – Wikipedia ↩︎

See Also

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