Ostarbeiter

Ostarbeiter
Woman with an Ostarbeiter badge at the Auschwitz subsidiary IG-Farbenwerke factory (Nazi propaganda image)
Ostarbeiter badge
Operation
Period1939–1945
LocationGerman-occupied Europe
Prisoners
TotalAt least 7.6 million foreign civilians in 1944 [1]
"Nationality badges" (Volkstumabzeichen) of Ostarbeiter from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus colored in accordance with their national flags: blue Saint Andrew's cross on white within a red oval (white-blue-red flag of Russia), yellow within blue badge with the Ukrainian trident and white and red badge in accordance to the white-red-white flag of Belarus.[2][3] The badges were legally introduced on 19 June 1944 as replacements for the "OST" badges[4] and practically implemented seemingly only after February 1945.[5]

Ostarbeiter (German: [ˈɔstˌʔaʁbaɪtɐ], lit. "Eastern worker") was a Nazi German designation for foreign slave workers gathered from occupied Central and Eastern Europe to perform forced labor in Germany during World War II. The Germans started deporting civilians at the beginning of the war and began doing so at unprecedented levels following Operation Barbarossa in 1941. They apprehended Ostarbeiter from the newly-formed German districts of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, District of Galicia (itself attached to the General Government), and Reichskommissariat Ostland. These areas comprised German-occupied Poland and the conquered territories of the Soviet Union. According to Pavel Polian, although the Ostarbeiter from most occupied territories were predominantly men, of the "eastern workers" taken from occupied Soviet territories over 50% were women, and of those from Poland nearly 30% were women.[6] Eastern workers included ethnic Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, Russians, Armenians, Tatars, and others.[7] Estimates of the number of Ostarbeiter range between 3 million and 5.5 million.[6]

By 1944, most new workers were under the age of 16 because those older were usually conscripted for service in Germany; 30% were as young as 12–14 years of age when taken from their homes.[6][8] The age limit was reduced to 10 in November 1943.[6] Ostarbeiter were often the victims of rape, and tens of thousands of pregnancies due to rape occurred.[9]

Ostarbeiter often received starvation rations and were forced to live in guarded labor camps. Many died from starvation, overwork, bombing (they were frequently denied access to bomb shelters), abuse, and execution by the German overseers. These workers were often denied wages; when they did get paid, they received payment in a special currency which could only be used to buy specific products at the camps where they lived.

Following the war, the occupying powers repatriated many of the over 2.5 million liberated Ostarbeiter.[10] American authorities banned the repatriation of Ostarbeiter in October 1945, and some of them immigrated to the U.S. as well as to other non eastern-bloc countries. In 2000 the German government and thousands of German companies made a one-time payment of just over € 5 billion to Ostarbeiter victims of the Nazi regime.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Herbert was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Home-sickness: Soviet forced laborers under the Nazis". 18 March 2020.
  3. ^ Labor Organizations of the Reich. R.J. Bender Pub. 1999. ISBN 978-0-912138-76-3.
  4. ^ Ostarbeiter: weißrussische Zwangsarbeiter in Österreich / Остарбайтеры. Принудительный труд белорусского населения в Австрии. 2003. ISBN 3901661123
  5. ^ Жертвы двух диктатур: жизнь, труд, унижение и смерть советских военнопленных и остарбайтеров на чужбине и на родине. Росспэн. 2002. ISBN 978-5-8243-0130-4.
  6. ^ a b c d Павел Полян - Остарбайтеры. Журнальный зал в РЖ, 2016. Звезда 2005 / 6. (in Russian)
  7. ^ Alexander von Plato; Almut Leh; Christoph Thonfeld (2010). Hitler's Slaves: Life Stories of Forced Labourers in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Berghahn Books. pp. 251–262. ISBN 978-1-84545-990-1.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference HNN was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cezary Gmyz, Wprost magazine (Number 17/18/2007), ""Seksualne Niewolnice III Rzeszy" [Sex-slaves of the Third Reich]". 22 April 2007. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved 2016-02-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) pp. 1–3.
  10. ^ International Military Tribunal, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression - Volume 1 Chapter X - The Slave Labor Program, The Illegal Use of Prisoners of War. Avalon Project, Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy.