Refugees, Welfare Organizations and Compulsory Labour in Postwar Austria

Abstract

During the Second World War, Germany employed 13.5 million men, women and children as forced and slave labourers throughout Europe, including on Austrian territory. Compulsory labour in Austria did not end with the Allied occupation. Despite the aspiration to adopt the values of a liberal democracy, the Austrian federal government enacted a statute on compulsory labour (the Arbeitspflichtgesetz) in 1946. This legislation required everyone residing in the country on a permanent or temporary basis to perform mainly manual work. At the time, one in every five individuals in Austria was displaced from her or his country of origin. They included foreigners who refused to be repatriated and over 200,000 Jews who sought to rebuild their lives far from Europe. Strict quotas in the countries where they wished to settle thwarted their plans. Jewish and non-Jewish refugees found themselves trapped in Austria for months and years, subject to the authority of the occupying military forces and UNRRA. To what extent did the compulsory labour requirement apply to them? An examination of this issue provides an insight into the very gradual transition of Austria from authoritarianism to democracy and the shaping of refugee policies by both the Austrian government and relief organizations.