Soldiers of Labor: Labor Service in Nazi Germany and New Deal America, 1933–1945

by Kiran Klaus Patel

• ISBN13: 9780521834162
• ISBN10: 0521834163
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Soldiers of Labor is the first systematic comparison between the labor policies of the Nazi dictatorship and New Deal America. The main subject of the book is the Nazi Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst), a public work scheme that provided work and education for young men. Here, the organizational setup, the educational dimension, and its practical work are extensively examined. Originally, the institution was an instrument in the fight against unemployment at the end of the Weimar Republic. After 1933, it became a Nazi propaganda tool that ultimately became involved in the Nazi's war of extermination. This study examines the similarities and differences, the mutual perceptions, and transfers between the Nazi Labor Service and its New Deal equivalent, the Civilian Conservation Corps. Patel uncovers stunning similarities between the two organizations, as well as President Roosevelt's irritating personal interest in the Nazi equivalent of his pet agency, the CCC.

Table of Contents

List of Charts and Illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(21)
1 A Panacea for the Great Depression? Labor Service Ideas and Their Implementation Prior to 1933	22	(42)
1.1. Precursors to the Labor Services	22	(10)
1.2. The Situation of Young People in the Great Depression	32	(9)
1.3. The Precursor in Germany: The FAD from 1931 to 1933 and the Involvement of the NSDAP	41	(23)
2 Service to the Community: The Organization of the Labor Services	64	(126)
2.1. False Start into the Third Reich: The Organization of the German Labor Service at the Beginning of the National Socialist Regime	64	(30)
2.2. From Consolidation to the War-time Deployment of the RAD	94	(27)
2.3. Between Ideology and Economics: The Admissions Criteria of the German Labor Service	121	(30)
2.4. The Organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps	151	(30)
2.5. Interim Conclusion	181	(9)
3 "Citizens," Volksgenossen, and Soldiers: Education in the Labor Services	190	(102)
3.1. The Education Concept of the German Labor Service	193	(23)
3.2. "School of Manhood" between Prescription and Practice	216	(23)
3.3. "The School of the Nation": Political Indoctrination and Organized Recreation	239	(22)
3.4. Education in the Civilian Conservation Corps	261	(24)
3.5. Interim Conclusion	285	(7)
4 In "The Grandeurs of Nature": The Work of the Labor Services	292	(103)
4.1. Work Planning and Areas of Work in the German Labor Service	293	(25)
4.2. Glorification and Pragmatic Compromise: The Concept and Practice of Work in the German Labor Service	318	(22)
4.3. The Labor Service at Work: New Challenges in the Large-Scale Deployments Beginning in 1937	340	(25)
4.4. Work in the Civilian Conservation Corps	365	(22)
4.5. Interim Conclusion	387	(8)
Concluding Reflections	395	(16)
Abbreviations	411	(4)
Sources and Bibliography	415	(24)
Index	439