Arbeitseinsatz () was a forced labour category of internment within Nazi Germany () during World War II. When German men were conscription for military service, Nazi German authorities rounded up civilians to fill in the vacancies and to expand manufacturing operations. Some labourers came from Germany but exponentially more from roundups in the German-occupied territories. Arbeitseinsatz was not restricted to the industry sector and to arms producing factories; it also took place, for example, in the farming sector, community services, and even in the churches.
Labour categories
There were many affected populations who could be grouped by various (often overlapping) variables such as geographic,
ethnic group, religious, political, and health categories. They included German political prisoners of the
Sturmabteilung,
Gestapo, and
Schutzstaffel; foreign
civilian men and women from occupied territories of Eastern Europe (
OST-Arbeiter); prisoners of war; institutionalized people (
disability, or medical and psychiatric patients); and various ethnic, religious, or ethnoreligious groupings (for example,
Jews,
Sinti,
Romani people,
Yeniche people, and Jehovah's Witnesses). They lived in various kinds of camps, called
(
Arbeitslager in German) and concentration camps (
Konzentrationslager KZ in German). Nazi concentration camps were often meant not only for forced labor but also extermination. In 1945 about 7.7 million workers in the German industry were of non-German origin. Many of them were very young, and about half of them were women.
Archival photographs
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1994-027-34, Polen, Juden beim Arbeitseinsatz.jpg|Jews build air-raid trenches under the supervision of RAD, Uniejów, May 1941
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1994-090-06A, Lettland, Riga, Frauen auf Weg zum Arbeitseinsatz.jpg|Paramilitary police with workers, Riga, 11 July 1941 (Wehrmacht photo)
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-137-1010-21A, Weißrussland, Minsk, Aufräumungsarbeiten.jpg|Soviet clear the way for Wehrmacht column, Minsk, July 1941 (Wehrmacht photo)
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J20382, Tunis, Arbeitseinsatz von Juden.jpg|"Jews must work", Tunis, December 1942, (Wehrmacht photo)
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S68015, französischer Mechaniker bei Siemens.jpg|French mechanics at Siemens in Berlin, 1943
Bundesarchiv Bild 185-09-25, U-Boot-Bunker "Valentin", Häftlinge bei der Arbeit.jpg|Prisoners in the construction of the U-boat at Valentin submarine pens, Bremen, 1944
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26334, Berlin, 14-jähriger Ukrainer Zwangsarbeiter.jpg|14-year-old prisoner at the Wehrmacht Automotive Repair Works, Berlin, January 1945
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2007-0618-500, Ostarbeiterin in Deutschland.jpg|Ostarbeiterin from Kiev performing domestic labor, January 1945 (SS image)
Bundesarchiv Bild 192-269, KZ Mauthausen, Häftlinge im Steinbruch.jpg|Stairs of Death in the quarry of the Mauthausen concentration camp
Notes
External links
