Motivations, contraintes et marges de manœuvre des entreprises allemandes dans l'emploi de travailleurs forcés pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the motives of German firms to employ foreign labourers during World War II and the constraints affecting their decision-making. From the perspective of the firm the employment of foreigners served two functions. First, and in line with the official intentions, their employment was a complement to capital input when it came to producing armaments goods in a situation where no German workers were available on the labour market. Second, and sometimes against the ends of the regime, their employment was a substitute for investment projects that the regime wished but the firm not. Most firms made unscrupulous use of forced labour. For those who had reservations the rooms of manoeuvre became narrower in the course of the war. Faced by the threat of forced plant closures they could not dare to resist the employment of forced labourers which would have resulted in capacity lying idle. Hence whether firms acted ethically is not so much a question of whether they ordered foreign labourers but how they treated them.