NS forced labor: Exploited and "forgotten"

Forced labor was visible everywhere during World War II. Those affected had to carry out hard labor under inhumane conditions on construction sites, in factories and mines, in the industry, in labor and concentration camps - and thus maintained war production for the very country that exploited and destroyed them.

The effects of NS forced labor are still present today: In the (family) biographies of former forced laborers in the various European cultures of remembrance and not least at the intergovernmental level.

Deportation and exploitation

The digital interview archive "Forced Labor 1939-1945" defines forced labor under National Socialism as "the deportation and exploitation of over 13 million foreign concentration camp prisoners, prisoners of war, and 'civilian' laborers in Germany. Forced labor also took place in ghettos, work education camps and other camps throughout occupied Europe, affecting a total of about 26 million people. In addition, in many occupied countries, there was a general compulsion for the civilian population to work. A distinction must be drawn between this and the work duties for the German population (Reich Labor Service, compulsory service, Landjahr (one-year labor service as an agricultural work assistant) which had to be carried out under completely different conditions."

Within the academic discussion, a distinction is often drawn between foreign civilian workers, prisoners of war and prisoners.

Not a purely economic factor

The NS forced labor system served more than a mere economic purpose. It was also an instrument for the persecution, exclusion and oppression of precisely those groups which National Socialists regarded as "inferior". In short: NS forced labor was actually racial ideology put into practice.

With the increasing radicalization, forced labor was used for the purpose of physical extermination: it was especially concentration camp prisoners, including many Jews, Sinti and Roma as well as Soviet prisoners of war and civilian laborers (referred to as "Ostarbeiter" [Eastern Workers]) who died most frequently during work assignment.

German government refuses to make payments

After 1945, the German government, profiteers of the forced labor system – companies, private individuals, farmers, etc. – as well as churches refused to pay compensation to former forced laborers.

The 1953 Federal Compensation Act largely excluded from benefits those living abroad and those who were not persecuted for racial or political reasons. Even the so-called Global Agreements – payments by the West Germany to individual states – did not provide for individual compensation payments to former forced laborers.

The Wollheim trial

Demands for compensation payments were supported by the successful lawsuit filed by former forced laborer Norbert Wollheim against I.G. Farbenindustrie AG i.L. As a result, Wollheim, the Jewish Claims Conference, and IG Farben agreed on compensation for former forced laborers amounting to DM 30 million for Jewish concentration camp prisoners who had to perform forced labor for IG-Farben – and created a model case for further lawsuits.

The establishment of the EVZ Foundation

Nevertheless, decades passed before the Federal Republic and German society would acknowledge their responsibility. Following some political initiatives that were initially unsuccessful, sustained pressure in and from the United States necessitated a serious examination of this matter in the late 1990s. In 1998, the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag agreed to establish a foundation for compensation for forced laborers with a financial contribution from German industry.

The primary aim behind the establishment of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future in 2000 was the payment of humanitarian compensation to former forced laborers and other victims of National Socialist injustice. These payments were officially ended in 2007. 1.66 million people in almost 100 countries received payments totaling EUR 4.4 billion.

The issue of forced labor remains a priority

The issue of forced labor remains high on the agenda of the EVZ Foundation even after the payments have finished. This is reflected in the "NS Injustice Education Agenda" initiated by the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2021, whose funding programs are designed to support precisely those projects that "render the fates of persecuted people and groups visible, with a special focus on those who have received less public attention to date".

The importance of this is also highlighted by the MEMO study by the EVZ Foundation: On average, respondents estimated that only about four million people worked as forced laborers during the entire period of National Socialism in the "German Reich".