Jewish Forced Labor Under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Racial Aims, 1938–1944

by Wolf Gruner

• ISBN13: 9780521838757
• ISBN10: 0521838754
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Forced labor was a key feature of Nazi anti-Jewish policy and shaped the daily life of almost every Jewish family in occupied Europe. For the first time, this book systematically describes the implementation of forced labor for Jews in Germany, Austria, the Protectorate, and the various occupied Polish territories. As early as the end of 1938, compulsory labor for Jews had been introduced in Germany and annexed Austria by the labor administration. Similar programs were subsequently established by civil administrations in the German-occupied Czech and Polish territories. At its maximum extent, more than one million Jewish men and women toiled for private companies and public builders. This study refutes the widespread thesis that compulsory work was organized only by the SS, and that exploitation was only an intermediate tactic on the way to mass murder or, rather, that it was only a facet in the destruction of the Jews.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	vii
Introduction	ix
Prologue: Anti-Jewish Policies in the Nazi State before 1938	xx
GERMANY
1 Segregated Labor Deployment — Central Planning and Local Practice, 1938-1945	3	(29)
2 German Jews in Forced Labor Camps, 1939-1943	32	(51)
3 "Special Service" — Forced Labor of Jewish Mischlinge, 1941-1945	83	(22)
AUSTRIA
4 Initiatives in Vienna — Austrian Jews in the Segregated Labor Deployment Program, 1938-1945	105	(36)
THE PROTECTORATE OF BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA
5 After the Failure of Deportation Plans — Forced Labor of Czech Jews, 1939-1945	141	(36)
THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF POLAND
6 Camps and Ghettos — Forced Labor in the Reich Gau Wartheland, 1939-1944	177	(19)
7 On the "Führer's Road" — Polish Jews in Germany, 1940-1943	196	(18)
8 The SS Organisation Schmelt and the Jews from Eastern Upper Silesia, 1940-1944	214	(16)
9 The Labor Office versus the SS — Forced Labor in the General Government, 1939-1944	230	(46)
Conclusion	276	(21)
Index of Subjects	297	(14)
Index of Persons	311	(2)
Index of Places and Camps	313