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Individual Experiences of Forced Labor
The living conditions of the forced laborers varied according to their status, site of employment, their background and gender.
Page from the workbook of Paul Ch., French forced laborer
Civilian forced laborers had more freedom than prisoners of war or concentration camp prisoners. Forced labor in mining and bunker construction was worse than being deployed in individual households or on farms. Conditions other than in the German Reich itself prevailed in the occupied territories.
Women suffered additional harassment. People of Slavic descent were especially discriminated against. Roma and Jewish “slave laborers” were even targeted as victims of “Vernichtung durch Arbeit” (extermination through labor).
The term “forced labor” covers several very different forms of employment. The diversity of these experiences can be seen in the vastly differing memories of individual survivors. A selection of biographies in the archive depicts the diversity of the lives and experiences of the witnesses. ( » Example Biographies from the Collection).
Walentina K., "OST-Arbeiter"
Józef M., Polish concentration camp prisoner and Auschwitz trial witness
News
Life Story Interviews for the Classroom: Keeping memory alive and imparting history
New multimedia teaching material on forced labor presented to public.
New archive version online
Additional search functionality - Growing number of indexed interviews
Presence at "didacta 2010"
The educational materials of the multimedia archive projects "Forced Labor 1939-1945. Memory and History" and "Witnesses of the Shoah. The Visual History Archive in School Education" will be introduced at the education fair "didacta" from March 16th to March 20th in Cologne.
