Hitler's Slaves

Life Stories of Forced Labourers in Nazi-Occupied Europe

Alexander von Plato, Almut Leh, Christoph Thonfeld, Alexander von Plato, Almut Leh, Christoph Thonfeld

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781845459901
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Seconda guerra mondiale

During World War II at least 13.5 million people were employed as forced labourers in Germany and across the territories occupied by the German Reich. Most came from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, the Baltic countries, France, Poland and Italy. Among them were 8.4 million civilians working for private companies and public agencies in industry, administration and agriculture. In addition, there were 4.6 million prisoners of war and 1.7 million concentration camp prisoners who were either subjected to forced labour in concentration or similar camps or were 'rented out' or sold by the SS. While there are numerous publications on forced labour in National Socialist Germany during World War II, this publication combines a historical account of events with the biographies and memories of former forced labourers from twenty-seven countries, offering a comparative international perspective.

Table of contents

• HITLER’S SLAVES
• Contents
• Foreword
• Part I
• Introduction
• Part II
• Chapter 1. Reports from Germany on Forced and Slave Labour
• Chapter 2. Work, Repression and Death after the Spanish Civil War
• Chapter 3. Czechs as Forced and Slave Labourers during the Second World War
• Chapter 4. Slovak Republic (1939–1945)
• Chapter 5. 'You can't say it out loud. And you can't forget.': Polish Experiences of Slave and Forced Labour for the 'Third Reich'
• Chapter 6. The Fate of Polish Slave and Forced Labourers from Łódź
• Chapter 7. Interviews with Polish Roma: A Report of My Experiences
• Chapter 8. The French Experience: STO, a Memory to Collect, a History to Write
• Chapter 9. The Experiences of Hungarian Slave and Forced Labourers
• Chapter 10. 'Mother, are the apples at home ripe yet?": Slovenian Forced and Slave Labourers during the Second World War
• Chapter 11. Of Silence and Remembrance: Forced Labour and the NDH, and the History of their Remembrance
• Chapter 12. 'If you lose your freedom, you lose everything.': The Experiences and Memories of Serbian Forced Labourers
• Chapter 13. They Survived Two Wars: Bosnian Roma as Civil War Refugees in Germany
• Chapter 14. Forced Labour in Bulgaria 1941–1944: Tracing the Memories
• Chapter 15. Lithuania 1941–1944: Slave and Forced Labourers Remember
• Chapter 16. Belarusian Forced Labourers: Types and Recruitment Methods
• Chapter 17. Forced and Slave Labour in Belarus: Experiences, Coping Strategies and Personal Accounts
• Chapter 18. The Experience of Forced Labourers from Galician Ukraine
• Chapter 19. Oral Histories of Former Ukrainian Ostarbeiter: Preliminary Results of Analysis
• Chapter 20. Oral Testimonies from Russian Victims of Forced Labour
• Chapter 21. The Experience of Citizens of the Former Soviet Union as Forced Labourers in Nazi Germany
• Chapter 22. Presenting Life in Captivity: Oral Testimonies of Former Forced and Slave Labourers from St Petersburg and the Russian Northwest
• Chapter 23. Women's Biographies and Women's Memory of War
• Chapter 24. The Deportation of the Italians 1943–45
• Chapter 25. Former Forced Labourers as Immigrants in Great Britain after 1945
• Chapter 26. Slave Labour and Shoah: A View from Israel
• Chapter 27. International Slave and Forced Labour Documentation Project: United States, Atlanta, Georgia
• Chapter 28. Forced and Slave Labour in the Context of the Jewish Holocaust Experience
• Part III
• Chapter 29. A Memorial for the Persecuted, Materials for Education and Science: The Compilation of Biographies of Former Slave and Forced Labourers
• Chapter 30. 'A moment of elation … and painful': The Homecoming of Slave and Forced Labourers after the Second World War
• Chapter 31. Witnesses at the First Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt
• Chapter 32. Twenty-five Years Later: Revisitng Testimonies of Holocaust Survivors
• Chapter 33. It Was Modern Slavery: Some Results of the Documentation Project on Forced and Slave Labour
• Appendix 1. Interview Guidelines
• Appendix 2. Timeline: Forced Labour and Compensation
• Appendix 3. Interview Partners
• List of Contributors
• Bibliography
• Index