Figure 1.-- Here the Germans have put Jewish men and a boy to work washhing their vehicles in Rzeszow in September 1939. The boy seems to be pumping the waer. Upon entering a town, Jewish men were rounded up and put to work. Often they were treated roughly. Here the situation seems more benign. The insription from a soldier's ablum read 'Juden bei der Lzflagenpflege' meaning something like 'Jews working in the motor pool'. Rzeszow was a town in southern Poland located near what was then the Slovak border. The Germans had entered Rzeszow (September 7). They remamed the city Reichshofand it becane part of the General Government. Jew were forced into a ghetto (1941) and subsequently murdered at the Bełżec Death Camp.

Beginning with Kristalnacht in Germany (November 1938) forced labor became an element of NAZI persecution of the Jews, limited almost entirely at first to to Jewish males. The invasion and occupation of Poland meant a quantum leap in German use of forced labor (September 1939). And with Jews it soon became slave labor. Poland had a large Jewish population and in German occupied Poland there were no legal constraints on German actions. Conscription of Jews for forced labpr began informally almost immediately after German troops reached a town or village. This began with ad hoc work round-ups. Male Jews including teenagers were pressed ganged into labor service. Often this was done more to humiliate and punish Jews than for any real purpose. This was often accompanied with harassment, tauntings, and considerable brutality. This varied from town to town depending on the officers in charge. There were also some shootings, but not on an organized or country wide basis. The decision to conduct the Holcaust had not yet been made by Hitler. The German authorities made Jews becamme legally liable for forced labor (October 1939). NAZI authorities began formally conscripting all Jewish males in Poland between the age of 14 and 60 years for forced slave labor (December 1939). As the NAZIs seized control of the country, this forced labor began more organized. Jewish leaders cooperated with the occupation autorities to regularize the forced labor operatiins, hopeing to reduce the harassment and shootings. The NAZIs planned to go far further than forced labor. The German authorities soon after the occupation required required Polish Jews to move into ghettos set up throughout Poland. There they could be completely controlled and used for slave labor, most of it manual. Ghetto Jews hoped that they culd suvive by making themslves useful to the NAZIs. Unless the ghetto Jews found work with the Germans, they could not survive on the starvation rations. This evolved into a policy of 'annihilation through work' and when Jews did not die fast enough to please the NAZIs, outright murder. Closing the ghettoes enabled the Germans to kill non-workerslike children nd the eldely while llowing healthy adults to work until incapitated by starbation rations and mistreatment. So great was the German desire to kill Jews, that even productive worker Jews at a time withen a labor shortage was develping were killed as part of Aktion Reinhard, the destruction of Polish Jews (1941-43). Some NAZI officials hung on to isolated group of Jews as they were profiting from selling their labor. Gradually tgese groups too were deported to the death camps.

NAZI Forced Labor before the War

Beginning with Kristalnacht in Germany (November 1938) forced labor became an element of NAZI persecution of the Jews, limited almost entirely at first to to Jewish males.

German Invasion (September 1939

The invasion and occupation of Poland meant a quantum leap in German use of forced labor (September 1939). And with Jews it soon became slave labor. Poland had a large Jewish population and in German occupied Poland there were no legal constraints on German actions or concern that German civilians would observe and be disturbed by the brutal tratment of Jews.

Potential

The Germans had at their disposal a huge labor force, both the 3 million Polish Jews as well as the Jews deported from the Reich and other areas of occupied Europe. During the period from with the goal was expulsion of the Jews from the Reich to the point when the goal became murder, some Germans did attempt to use Jewish labor.

Evolving German Policy

For Jews, woking for the Germans this meant a slow death through malnutition and inadequate sheter and clothing, but this was not always the case. Finally Himmler not satisfied with the speed of 'destruction through labor' decided on immediate murder of all Jews. [Browning, p, 59.]

Initial Ad Hoc Roundups: Razzias (September 1939)

Forced Jewish labor began early in the NAZI occupation of Poland. Conscription of Jews for forced labpr began informally almost immediately after German troops reached a town or village. This began with ad hoc work round-ups. This pricess varried. Occupation forces often just ordered Jews to assemble. Or persons looking Jewish or with Jewish sounding names were grabbed off the stret or pulled from shops and homes. The Germans also began operations called 'Razzia'. This was a term borrowed via French from Algerian Arabic 'ghaziya'(غزية ). The original meaning was 'raiding'. The Germans used it to mean localized raids by German troops and security forces looking for Jews. In Poland they were at first disorganized affirs. Eventually they became more carefully planned. The Grmans would cloes off a localized area, a street or block, and encircle it with a security cordon . Then each house, person and vehicle would be searched. Male Jews including teenagers were pressed ganged into labor service. Often this was done more to humiliate and punish Jews than for any real purpose. Local ad hoz razzias were often more for the amusement of the Germans than any productive labor and ofen resulted in brutalization of the Jews rouded up. This was often accompanied with harassment, tauntings, and considerable brutality. This varied from town to town depending on the officers in charge. SS Eisatzgrupen were incredably brutal, but Whermacht officers were also involved in terrible abuses. There were also some shootings, but not at this time on an organized or country-wide basis. The decision to conduct the Holcaust had not yet been made by Hitler, although who knows what was in his mind..

Jewish Councils: Judenraete (October 1939)

German occupation authorities appointed Jewish Councils througout occupied Poland regularize the control and exploitation of Jews. They were usually called a Judenrat). They were municipal administrations and responsible for ensuring that Nazi occupation orders and regulations were implemented and adhered to by the Jewish population. It was essentially aime saver for the Germans and an efficent way of dealing with the Jewish population. The Jewish councils in return sought to provide basic community services within the narrow limits allowed by the Germans. The most important Jewish Council was in Warsaw, the Polish city with the largest popultion. The Germans a few day after Warsaw surrendered established the 24-member Warsaw Judenrat (October 4). They chose a respected Jewish politica to head the Judenrat, Adam Czerniaków. He was a member of the Wasaw Municipal Council and a senator. One of the most important objectives whn first instituted and before ghetoizion was to form a labor battalion. Jewish leaders cooperated with the occupation autorities both through intemidatio and in the hope of regularizing the forced labor operations. They saw this as the only was of reducing the harassment and shootings. The NAZIs planned to go far further than forced labor, but this was one of the early objectives.

Labor Conscription (1939-40)

The German authorities made Jews becamme legally liable for forced labor. After Hans Frank was appointed to head the Government General he issued a forced labor edict and assigned HSSPFv Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger to oversee the forced labor effort (late-Octber 1939). NAZI authorities began formally conscripting all Jewish males in Poland between the age of 14 and 60 years for forced labor (December 1939). From an early point, forced labor for Jews became slave labor. Jews were denied all civil rights and essentially became slaves of the Reich. As the NAZIs seized control of the country, this forced labor began more organized. Krüger took his assignment seriously. There were in Poland many skilled Jews that could have played a valuable role as workers in the German war effort. He ordered Jewish councils in the Government General to register males Jews by profession. Himmler and Heydrish were also interested in Jewish labor, especially the Ostwall border defenses, the demarcation line in the East btween NAZI and Soviet control (1940). Working out a decesion in how to use the Jews and implementing an administrative system was a comlicated matter. Frank's labor chief, Max Frauendorfer issued guidelines (summer 1940). [Browning, p. 61.]

NAZI Labor Policy

It should not be thought that Jews were the only Poles subjcted to forced or even slave labor. Large numbers of Christian Poles were ronded up for forced labor or forced to work fo the Germans in various ways to qualifyfor foid rations, however limited. Nor were only Jews destined for destruction. Under Generalplan Ost, some 50 percent of Poles were to be removed or murdered. The German term 'removal' may hace been a euphemism for mirder or at the leat removed in away in which many would perish. And the Hunger Plan was designed to kill not only Jews, but Pole and other Slavs as well. NAZI labor policy has major ethnic racial componets. There were, however, major diffrences in NAZI labor policy toward Jews and Slavic Poles. First, Jews were destined for destruction, selections at concentration camps were only temprary reprieves. Jews were murdered without rgard to the impact in the wr effort. Second, Actions against Poles even deportations were temprarily slowed so as not to disrupt the war effort. Three, ethnic Slavuc Poles were given higher food rations han the starvation rations alloted to the Jews. Polish rations were far from generous, but survival to work was possible, espciully if they could be suplemented by the black market or family in the countryside. Four, Slavic Poles wre not ghettoized meaning they had more options than Jews and could not be denied food like the ghetto Jews. Five, Slavic Jews could rely on other Poles for support and a well organized resistance. The Jews were more isolated, both because of anti-Semitism and ghettoization. Six, more than a million Slavic Poles were deported to the Reich for war work. Jews were not deported to the Reich, although some Jewish worker groups survived for a time in wesern Polish areas annexed to the Reich.

Ghettos (1940-41)

The German authorities soon after the occupation required required Polish Jews to move into ghettos set up throughout Poland. There they could be completely controlled and used for slave labor, most of it manual. Once ghetoized, Jews had few if any options. The Germans had full access to their labor. And thge Jews had no choice but to work for the Germans if they wanted o survive. Ghetto Jews hoped that they could suvive by making themslves useful to the NAZIs. Unless the ghetto Jews found work with the Germans, they could not survive on the starvation rations. This evolved into a policy of 'annihilation through work' and when Jews did not die fast enough to please the NAZIs, outright murder--Aktion Reinehard. Closing the ghettoes enabled the Germans to kill non-workers like children nd the eldely while allowing healthy adults to work until incapitated by starvation rations and mistreatment. Even while still in the ghettoe, there were selections to weed out non-workers. The most notorious was the round up of children in the Lodz Ghett--the dreadful Allgemeine Gehsperre (September 1942). The children were immediately murdered at the nearby Chemmo killing facility.

Fall of France (June 1940)

The fall of Franceappears changed the German perspective. And soon the shift toward murder undid the plan to use German labor. The NAZIs opened the first death camp at Chelmo in the Warthegau (December 1941) and had completed the bulk of the clearing of the ghettos (February 1943), they had largely destroyed Polish Jewery. Only about 0.3 million survived in various ghettos and work camps. And Himmler ininiated steps to kill the surviving work Jews. [Browning, p. 89.] Thus the Germans not only committed one of the most horendous crimes in history, but they destroyed a huge work force that could have contributed to their flagging war effort.

Aktion Reinhard (1941-43)

So great was the German desire to kill Jews, that even productive worker Jews at a time withen a labor shortage was develping were killed as part of Aktion Reinhard, the destruction of Polish Jews (1941-43). Operation Reinhard was the systematic plan to kill Polish Jews on an industrial basis. The NAZIs began the Holocaust by driving Jews outof Germany. This substantially reduced the number of Jews in the Reich. Subsequent NAZI aggressions: Austria (1938), Czechoslovakia (1938-39), and especially Poland (1939) brought many more Jews under NAZI control. The NAZI policy was not to kill these Jews in large numbers, but to concentrate themm in medieval ghettos located in occupied Poland. NAZI officials debated what to do with the Jews. There were inpractical schemes flosated like deporting them to Madagascar. Confinement in the ghettos allowed the NAZIs to strip them of their property. Many NAZIs wanted to use them as slavce labor and this was the general aprroach (1939-41). The invasion of the the Soviet Union was the turning point (June 1941). Hitler decided to simply kill Soviet Jews. This was the first major killing operation of the Final Sollution. There were some short term ghettos formned in the Baltics, but most Soviet Jews were killed when ever they were found by specially formed Einsatzgruppen and local auxileries. Next the NAZIs turned to the 2.3 million Jews in occupied Poland, mostly the Government General. This was the second major killing operation of the Final Sollution. The Germands began killing Jews from the first day of the invasion of Poland (September 1939), but in disorganized, largely small scale actions. The plan to kill every Polish Jew on an organized, industrial basis was named Operation Reinhard in honor of SS SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. The planning began in 1941, but was only named Operation Reinhard after British-Czech agents killed Heydrich (May 1942). At the time the killing process was already underway.

Regional Differences

German policy in Western Poland occupied at the begiining of the War (September 1939) was different than in Eastern Poland and the Soviet Union occupied with the Barbarossa offensive (June 1941). In Eatern Poland the NAZI Einsatzgruppen sought out to kill all Jews, both the able body as well as children and the elderly. At the death camps there was no significan selection for healty workrr Jews. Thus in Western Poland the Germans had a labor force which could be exploited for the war effort. And at the time of the invasion, the NAZIs had not yet taken the decesion to exteminate the Jewish people. NAZI officials, however, evebntually made it clear what the priority was. "In principle, economic considerations arenot to be taken into accountin the settlement of the [Jewish] problem (December 18, 1941). [Bräutigam] The situation for Jew in Poland varied from place to place and oiver time.

Concentration Camps

Surviving Worker Groups

Some NAZI officials hung on to isolated group of Jews as they were profiting from selling their labor. Gradually tgese groups too were deported to the death camps.

Impact on the War

Historians differe on the impact of the Holocaust on the German war effort. Some argue that the resources used to kill Jews weakened the German war effort. Men amd material were rquired in the effort as wll as the usuage of the transport (mostly rail) system. We tend to disagree. The Germandns used large number of foreigners in the proces, especully the time consuming process of rounsing up and concerntrting Jews. This included the local police, milkitia, army, and beaureacrats. Thus the German manpower diverted from the war effort was minimal. Even in the killing process, few Germans were involved. The Germans forced cotive Jews and POWs as well s rcruited foreign security forces to do much of the work. The number of Jews at the death camps which murdered millions was increadibly small. Even the deadly Eiusatzgruppen were a very small force. The Holocaust did, however, have two major impacts on the War. First, Hiltler as Max Plank warned, disarmed Gemany in nuclear phuics. The Jewish scientists which fled the Reich were a major component in the Anglo-Amrican Manhattan Project. Second, which the Manhattan Project impacted the Japanese rather than the Germans, the destruction od Jewish labor denied the Germans of a substantial labor force tht woulf have worked to survice.

Sources

Bräutigam, Otto. Memo to Hinrich Lohse, December 18, 1941. Nuremberg Document PS-3666. in Yitzhak Arad, Yisrael Gutman, and Abraham Margoliat, eds. Documents on the Holocaust (Jerusalem: 1981), p. 395.

Browning, Christopher R. Nazi Policy, Jewish Woirkers, German Killers (Cambridge University Press).

Created: 1:57 AM 6/26/2014
Last updated: 1:57 AM 6/26/2014