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First published July 2005

Exploitation, Criminality, Resistance. The Everyday Life of Foreign Workers and Prisoners of War in the German Town of Osnabrück, 1939-49

Abstract

This article examines the experience of foreign workers and prisoners of war in the medium-sized German town of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony during the years 1939-49. It begins with an introduction to the historiography, public and civic memory of foreigners in Germany and Osnabrück during these years, as well as providing details about Osnabrück and the arrival of foreigners after 1939. The article then outlines the experience of exploitation, focusing upon living conditions, work, nutrition, life under Allied bombs and lack of freedom. During and immediately after the war, foreigners in Osnabrück became involved in criminality. The article asks whether such behaviour during the war originated in the exploitation which they suffered and whether the criminality amounted to resistance. It then moves on to examine the violence and looting which broke out immediately after the war, explained essentially by a desire for revenge. This had died down by the autumn of 1945, after which repatriation began in earnest. The article concludes by asserting that exploitation largely explains the criminality which occurred between 1939 and 1949.

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1.
1 Ulrich Herbert, A History of Foreign Labour in Germany, 1880-1980. Seasonal Workers/Forced Laborers/Guest Workers (Ann Arbor, MI 1990), 154, 156.
2.
2 Edward L. Homze, Foreign Labour in Nazi Germany (Princeton, NJ 1967), 195.
3.
3 Mark Spoerer, Zwangsarbeit unter dem Hakenkreuz. Ausländische Zivilarbeiter, Kriegsgefangene und Häftlinge im Deutschen Reich und im besetzten Europa (Stuttgart 2000), 220.
4.
4 Jochen August, ‘Die Entwicklung des Arbeitsmarkts in Deutschland in den 30er Jahren und der Masseneinsatz ausländischer Arbeitskräfte während des Zweiten Weltkrieges’, Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 24 (1984), 305.
5.
5 See, for example, Gerhard Hirschfeld, ‘Der “freiwillige” Arbeitseinsatz niederländischer Fremdarbeiter des Zweiten Weltkrieges als nicht-nationalsozialistischen Verwaltung’ in Hans Mommsen and Winfried Schulze (eds), Vom Elend der Handarbeit. Probleme historischer Unterschichtenforschung (Stuttgart 1981), 499-500.
6.
6 Ulrich Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers. Enforced Labour in Germany under the Third Reich (Cambridge 1997), 61-9, 137-51.
7.
7 Eva Seeber, Zwangsarbeiter in der faschistischen Kriegswirtschaft (Berlin 1964); Homze, op. cit.; and Hans Pfahlmann, Fremdarbeiter und Kriegsgefangene in der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft, 1939-1945 (Darmstadt 1968).
8.
8 His most important volume, a translation of the original German work, is Hitler’s Foreign Workers.
9.
9 Spoerer, op. cit.
10.
10 Most importantly, Vom Zwangsarbeiter zum heimatlosen Ausländer (Göttingen 1985).
11.
11 See, for example: Klaus J. Bade (ed.), Auswanderer — Wanderarbeiter — Gastarbeiter. Bevölkerung, Arbeitsmarkt und Wanderung in Deutschland seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols (Ostfildern 1984); Herbert, History of Foreign Labour, op. cit.; Johann Woydt, Ausländische Arbeitskräfte in Deutschland. Vom Kaiserreich zur Bundesrepublik (Heilbronn 1987); and Lothar Elsner and Joachim Lehmann, Ausländische Arbeitskräfte in Deutschland. Vom Kaiserreich zur Bundesrepublik (Heilbronn 1987).
12.
12 http://www.stiftung-evz.de
13.
13 For an introduction to these issues see Spoerer, op. cit., 233-51.
14.
14 See, for example, Gabriele Freitag, Zwangsarbeiter im Lipper Land. Der Einsatz von Arbeitskräften in der Landwirtschaft Lippes, 1939-1945 (Bochum 1996), and Heinrich Burgdorf et al. (eds), Zwangsarbeiterinnen und Kriegsgefangene in Blomberg (1939-1945) (Bielefeld 1996).
15.
15 Ursula Fisser-Bömer, Zwangsarbeit in Osnabrück (Osnabrück 1982).
16.
16 The titles of the two books are: Niederländer in Verdammten Land. Zeugnisse der Zwangsarbiet von Niederländern im Raum Osnabrück während des Zweiten Weltkrieges (Osnabrück 1998), and Das Arbeitserziehungslager Ohrbeck bei Osnabrück. Eine Dokumentation (Osnabrück 2000).
17.
17 For details of the project see Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, 10, 16 May 2000. The first publication, by Michael Gander is Michael Gander, ‘Beziehungen zwischen sowjetischen Zwangsarbeitern und deutscher Bevölkerung in Osnabrück’ in Babette Quinkert (ed.), ‘Wir sind die Herren dieses Landes’. Ursachen, Verlauf und Folgen des deutschen Überfalls auf die Sowjetunion (Hamburg 2002), 154-65.
18.
18 Ludwig Hoffmeyer et al., Chronik der Stadt Osnabrück, 6th edn (Osnabrück 1995), 497.
19.
19 The statistics come from N[iedersächisches] S[taatsarchiv] O[snabrück] Rep 430-201-16B/65-121, which contains incomplete figures for other years.
20.
20 In 1929 Osnabrück counted a population of 93,800 according to Statistisches Jahrbuch deutscher Städte (Jena 1931), 11.
21.
21 For Jews see: Peter Junk and Martina Sellmeyer, Stationen auf dem Weg nach Auschwitz. Entrechtung, Vertreibung, Vernichtung. Juden in Osnabrück, 3rd edn (Osnabrück 2000), 11. The number of Gypsies in the town is not clear but 54 faced deportation to Auschwitz on 1 March 1943, as outlined in NSO Rep 430-201-16B/65-39-Bd.1.
22.
22 NSO Rep-430-201-16b/65-30, list dated 22 September 1939.
23.
23Der Arbeitseinsatz in Niedersachsen is contained in NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-54-Bd. 1.
24.
24 The details are in NSO Rep 439-22.
25.
25 Karl Kühling, Osnabrück, 1933-1945. Stadt im Dritten Reich (Osnabrück 1980), 214.
26.
26 NSO Dep-3b-XV-4/5, Kriegs-Chronik, Band IV/V, Nov. 1942-Juni 1944, 129.
27.
27 For details of accommodation see, for example, Jehuda L. Wallach, ‘Probleme der Zwangsarbeit in der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft’, Jahrbuch des Instituts für deutsche Geschichte, 6 (1977), 483-91; H. Weisfeld, ‘Zwangsarbeit in Bremen’ in Diethelm Knauf and Helga Schröder (eds), Fremde in Bremen. Auswanderer, Zuwanderer, Zwangsarbeiter (Bremen 1993), 119-34.
28.
28 See correspondence in NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-114.
29.
29 NSO Rep-3b-XV-4/5, Kriegs-Chronik, Band IV/V, Nov. 1942-Juni 1944, 129-30.
30.
30 NSO Rep-430-303-19/56-230, Liste der Ausländerlager im Stadtkreis Osnabrück, 31 July 1943.
31.
31 Fisser-Bömer, op. cit., 45-59.
32.
32 Pax Christi — Basisgruppe Osnabrück und dem Antifaschistischen Arbeitskreis Osnabrück (eds), SpureNsuche. Osnabrück 1933-1945 (Osnabrück 1995), 67-74.
33.
33 See NSO Rep 430-201-14/47-2, Police Report of 11 June 1944.
34.
34 See the correspondence in NSO Rep-727-62/83-10.
35.
35 Interview with Hermann Tewes, 10 January 2001.
36.
36 Issmer, Arbeitserziehungslager, op. cit., 33.
37.
37 Ibid., 171-312.
38.
38 Ibid., 45-91.
39.
39 Ibid., 108-21, 385-92.
40.
40 Frank Bührmann-Peters, ‘Dort haben wir an und für sich gar nicht gemerkt, daß wir Gefangene waren. Der Arbeitsansatz von Strafgefangenen aus den Emlandslagern im Raum Osnabrück’, Osnabrücker Mitteilungen, 103 (1998), 218-32.
41.
41 NSO ERW-A100-103, Karl Reinert to the Militärregierung, 18 March 1946.
42.
42 Quoted in Pax Christi — Basisgruppe Osnabrück und dem Antifaschistischen Arbeitskreis Osnabrück, op. cit., 60-3.
43.
43 For the national picture see Gerhard Hirschfeld (ed.), The Policies of Genocide. Jews and Soviet Prisoners of War in Nazi Germany (London 1986).
44.
44 NSO Rep 430-303-19/56-230, Dr Fischer to Regierungspräsident, 26 January 1945.
45.
45 Pax Christi — Basisgruppe Osnabrück und dem Antifaschistischen Arbeitskreis Osnabrück, op. cit., 65.
46.
46 Issmer, Arbeitserziehungslager, op. cit., 59-78.
47.
47 Especially in Niederländer in Verdammten Land.
48.
48Neue Volksblätter, 14 September, 24 October 1941.
49.
49 Bundesarchiv (BA) Militärarchiv (MA) Freiburg RW/21/51/8, ‘Kriegstagebuch des Rüstungskommandos Osnabrück’, Bd. 8, 1.12.1941-28.2.1942, 6.
50.
50 NSO Rep-610-Osn-614, Report of inspection of OKD dated 14 April 1944.
51.
51 NSO Rep-610-Osn-614, OKD to Ernährungsamt, 1 January 1944.
52.
52 NSO Rep-610-Osn-315.
53.
53 BA MA RW/21/51/6, Rüstungskommando Osnabrück, Band 6, 1.6.-31.8.1941.
54.
54 NSO Rep-610-Osn-283.
55.
55 NSO Rep-610-Osn-252.
56.
56 This information comes from NSO Dep-3b-IV-6496.
57.
57 NSO Dep-3b-IV-6531, Badeanstalten Osnabrück to Stadtrat Hermann, 19 November 1943.
58.
58 Interview with Karl Möller, 10 August 2001.
59.
59 NSO Dep-3b-XIX-124.
60.
60 Pax Christi — Basisgruppe Osnabrück und dem Antifaschistischen Arbeitskreis Osnabrück, op. cit., 65-6.
61.
61 NSO Rep 430-201-16b/65-100, Abschrift, Der Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer, West, 8 August 1941.
62.
62 Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers, op. cit., 71-9.
63.
63 See documents in NSO Rep 430-201-16B/65-114.
64.
64 See NSO Dep-3b-IV-6531.
65.
65 NSO Rep-430-201-16b/65-10 Bd. 3, Polizeiordnung über die in Reg.-Bezirk Osnabrück eingesezten Ostarbeiter und Ostarbeiterinnen, 7 July 1943.
66.
66 See documents in NSO Dep-3b-IV-6496.
67.
67 Homze, Foreign Labour, op. cit., 297.
68.
68 Interview with Gerhard Strüwe, 22 August 2001.
69.
69 NSO ERW-A100-103, Karl Reinert to Militärregierung, 18 March 1946.
70.
70 Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers, op. cit., 317.
71.
71 BA MA RH53/6/68.
72.
72 Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers, op. cit., 326-58.
73.
73 The literature on resistance under the nazis is vast. As starting-points see, for example: David Clay Large (ed.), Contending with Hitler. Varieties of German Resistance in the Third Reich (Cambridge 1995); Francis R. Nicosia, Germans against Nazism. Nonconformity, Opposition and Resistance in the Third Reich (Oxford 1990); Klaus-Jürgen Müller, Der Deutsche Widerstand, 1933-1945, 2nd edn (Paderborn 1986); Richard Löwenthal and Patrick von zur Mühlen (eds), Widerstand und Verweigerung im Dritten Reich, 1933-1945 (Berlin 1982); Wolfgang Benz and Walter H. Pehle (eds), Encyclopedia of German Resistance to the Nazi Movement (New York 1997).
74.
74 As an introduction see Bob Moore and Kent Fedorowich (eds), Prisoners of War and their Captors in World War II (Oxford 1996).
75.
75 NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-58, Abschrift, Kriminalpolizeistelle Bremen, Außendienststelle Osnabrück, 1 July 1944.
76.
76 Special courts were established by the nazis in 1933 to issue summary justice and really came into their own during the war. As an introduction see Ralph Angermund, ‘“Recht ist, was dem Volke nutzt”. Zum Niedergang von Recht und Justiz im Dritten Reich’ in Karl Dietrich Bracher, Manfred Funke and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (eds), Deutschland, 1933-1945. Neue Studien zur nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft (Düsseldorf 1993), 68-70.
77.
77 NHH [Niedersächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover]-Hann-171a-Hann-107-83-254.
78.
78 NHH-Hann-171a-Hann-107-83-916.
79.
79 NHH-Hann-171a-Hann-107-83-630.
80.
80 NHH-Hann-171a-Hann-107-83-266.
81.
81 NSO Rep-439-19-283.
82.
82 NSO Rep-439-19-535.
83.
83 NSO Rep-439-19-1011.
84.
84 NSO Rep-439-19-1061.
85.
85 Tim Mason, ‘The Control of the Working Classes in Germany’ in Jane Caplan (ed.), Nazism, Fascism and the Working Classes. Essays by Tim Mason (Cambridge 1995), 201.
86.
86 Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers, op. cit., 340-5.
87.
87 NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-107, Kriminalkommissar to Regierungspräsident, 24 August 1943.
88.
88 NSO Rep-439-19-86.
89.
89 NSO Rep-439-19-633.
90.
90 Issmer, Niederländer, op. cit., 34.
91.
91 Ibid., 185-212.
92.
92 NSO Rep-950-Osn-18/54-33.
93.
93 Seeber, op. cit., 165, 179.
94.
94 Jill Stephenson, ‘Triangle. Foreign Workers, German Civilians and the Nazi Regime. War and Society in Württemberg’, German Studies Review, 15 (1992), 344.
95.
95 NSO Rep-439-19-320.
96.
96 NHH-Hann-171a-Hann-107-83-933.
97.
97 NHH-Hann-171a-Hann-107-83-956.
98.
98 Gander, op. cit., 158.
99.
99 NSO Dep-3b-XV-41, Chronik von Dr Hans Glenewinkel, 5. April-31. Dezember 1945, 21.
100.
100 Jacobmeyer, op. cit.
101.
101 These statistics come from NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-70-Bd. 2.
102.
102 For the national picture, with a particular focus upon the Ruhr, see Herbert, Hitler’s Foreign Workers, op. cit., 359-81.
103.
103 NSO Dep-3b-XV-41, Chronik von Dr Hans Glenewinkel, 5. April-31. Dezember 1945, 1-4, 21, 35, 59, 80.
104.
104 Bistumsarchiv Osnabrück 04-79-71.
105.
105 NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-76, Kommando der Schutzpolizei to Pol. Offz. B/Det. 902, 16 August 1945.
106.
106 NSO Rep-430-201-16B/65-76, Police Headquarters to Public Safety Officer of the English Military Government, 23 August 1945.
107.
107 Interview with Lora Kreft, 20 August 2001.
108.
108 Interview with Hermann Tewes, 10 January 2001.

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Panikos Panayi
De Montfort University

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