© Foto: o. Ang.| 20.7.1938, Quelle: Bundesarchiv, Bild 152-26-20
The National Socialist regime constructed one of the most massive forced labor systems in history. Approximately 26 million people were forced to work in the German Reich and in the occupied territories. For a long time, they were among the ,forgotten’ victims of National Socialism – until the debate about compensation at the end of the 1990s brought their story into the public arena.
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.
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.
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.
From morning until night, people had to mine coal for the Nazis; they had hardly anything to eat and they slept in a tiny chamber with 60 other people. Every morning, 10 to 15 of us were dead.
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.
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.
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 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".
© Foto: o. Ang.| 20.7.1938, Quelle: Bundesarchiv, Bild 152-26-20
Between 1939 and 1945, more than 13 million people in the German Reich were made to carry out forced labor, along with another 13 million in the territories occupied and controlled by Germany. Forced labor was no marginal phenomenon – it was an integral part of the NS system of rule, infiltrating the economy and almost all areas of life.
© Bundesarchiv; Quelle: Deutsche Bank, Kultur und Gesellschaft Historisches Institut, Frankfurt am Main (GNU Free Documentation License)
After their liberation, many forced laborers suffered severe long-term consequences. Individual claims for compensation or back pay were denied. State compensation payments were eventually introduced in the Federal Compensation Act of 1953; however, claims could only be submitted by people who had experienced persecution on political, race, or religious grounds and were living in Germany. Forced laborers were excluded.
© DHM / Documentation Center
As a move towards integration with the West, the Federal Republic of Germany made payments to individual states that took the form of “global agreements”; however, no individual compensation was disbursed. In 1952, the FRG paid a total of DM 3.5 billion in compensation to Israel and the Jewish Claims Conference under the Luxembourg Agreement. Between 1959 and 1964, a sum of DM 876 million was paid out to eleven European states under other agreements.
© Screenshot from the website www.wollheim-memorial.de / Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute
Norbert Wollheim’s compensation claim is considered a test case and was one of the first lawsuits filed by a former NS forced laborer.
Once this precedent had been successfully set, further lawsuits were filed by people who had been made to carry out forced labor for I.G. Farben. From 1957 on, following the conclusion of a global settlement, a sum of DM 30 million was paid out to I.G. Farben’s surviving forced laborers.
© BArch, B 145 Image 00161018 / Engelbert Reineke
During the 1990s, initiatives and pressure from the U.S. and class-action lawsuits against German companies made compensation for NS forced labor a topic of (inter)national public debate. In 1998, the political groups in the Bundestag agreed to set up a foundation for the compensation of forced labor with the participation of German industry.
© BArch; B145 Bild-00161339; Fotgraf: Bernd Kühler
On December 17, 1999, Federal President Johannes Rau announced the amount that would be drawn from the Foundation’s assets to compensate forced laborers. In his address, he asked for forgiveness for the injustices committed. Between 1939 and 1945, more than 26 million people were deported to the German Reich or occupied territories to carry out forced labor.
© Foto: Julia Fassbender Quelle: Bundesregierung
On July 17, 2000, Germany signed an intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. establishing legal certainty, along with an international agreement involving Israel, central and eastern European states, German industry, victims’ associations, and claims lawyers. This stipulated that the federal government and German industry would each pay five billion DM each into a fund managed by a new foundation.
© BArch, B 145 Image 00046031 / Christian Stutterheim
On August 2, 2000, the Law on the Creation of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) was passed with the support of all the political groups in the Bundestag at that time. The purpose of the Foundation was to make payments to former forced laborers and other victims of National Socialist injustice.
© Foto: Christian Stutterheim Quelle: Bundesregierung
The Foundation’s initial capital of EUR 5.2 billion was provided by the German Government and Germany industry. A total of approximately 6,500 companies have participated in the foundation Initiative of the German industry.
© Foundation "Understanding and Reconciliation", Moscow
In order to facilitate the compensation process, the EVZ Foundation cooperated with seven partner organizations created especially for this purpose. These processed applications and were responsible for making the payments. On June 13, 2001, one of the partner organizations, the German-Czech Future Fund, issued the first payments, which amounted to DM 55,612,425.
© Helena Schätzle
In September 2001, the EVZ Foundation approved the first funding project in its history:
the association AMCHA received EUR 414,138 for humanitarian purposes. This supported Holocaust survivors in Israel by means of home visits by psychologists as well as social workers.
© Stiftung „Polnisch-Deutsche Aussöhnung“, Warschau
In all, 4.4 billion euros were paid out to 1.66 million forced laborers or their legal heirs in 98 countries. Until 2007, compensation was also paid for property losses, insurance losses, and “special personal injury” linked with NS injustice.
© Bundesregierung, B 145 Bild-00138954/ Sandra Steins
On June 12, 2007, the payment procedure was formally ended at an official ceremony hosted by Federal President Horst Köhler and attended by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. The final report on the payments was presented at the same time. More than two million applications had been filed by the end of 2006.
© Foto: FU Berlin/ Center für Digitale Systeme Cedis
The internet archive "Forced Labour 1939–1945" commemorates the people who were forced to work for Nazi Germany. Almost 600 former forced labourers from 26 countries tell their stories in extensive audio and video interviews.
© Andrzej Krug
The touring exhibition "Forced Labor. The Germans, the Forced Laborers and the War" of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation was on display from 2010 to 2017. EVZ Foundation has provided it with funding of four million euros. A permanent exhibition is planned in Weimar from 2024.
© Andreas Franke
The EVZ Foundation celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2010. The anniversary was accompanied by festivities and an exhibition on the Foundation’s history.
© Nadine Reimer
A publication of the Working Group for the Improvement of Participation in Education and the Educational Success of Sinti and Roma appeared in September 2015. It was the first study to be produced together with experts from Roma and Sinti organizations. EVZ Foundation follows their recommendations.
© Stiftung EVZ, Sernau Heilmeyer Gestaltung
With "MEMO Germany - Multidimensional Memory Monitor", the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence Bielefeld (IKG) has been researching since 2018 what, how and for what citizens of Germany historically remember.
As part of the Agenda for the Future, new formats were developed. A core element is the Educational Agenda on NS Injustice, funded by the Federal Ministry of Finance. It aims to address current challenges with a historically aware, active communication of the lessons learned from the NS history.
