German Jews in Forced Labor Camps, 1939–1943

Abstract

THE LABOR CAMPS UNTIL THE DEPORTATIONS IN 1941 Under the direction of the Reich labor administration, a network of at least forty now-confirmed camps arose on German territory – independent of the concentration camp system – between 1939 and 1941; that camp system, mostly for German but also for Austrian Jews, has not been described in the literature before now (see map 2, p. 35). In 1939, the Security Main Office wrote in its first situation report, which was intended for a broader audience, “Many Jews became unemployed when Jewish commercial establishments were shut down. In many places, establishment of collective labor camps for Jews became necessary.” While this sounded rather laconic, and the measures haphazard, the Jewish section of the SS Security Service openly expressed the underlying intent in an internal report some months later: “In the businesses in which Jews must work directly with Germans,” it stated, contacts occurred “even though separate eating and changing facilities for Jews had been established,” which indicated “how little effect the National Socialist views on race have had,” especially in Catholic regions. For that reason, the report continued, the SD was pleased that on large construction projects, “use of Jewish labor” could “be effected smoothly,” because “the Jews were housed in camps where they could be kept completely separate from the population living in the vicinity.” Initiatives of municipal welfare offices had established separate camps for anti-Jewish labor programs even before segregated labor deployment was established.