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7. The Slaves
- State University of New York Press
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7 THE SLAVES We make rounds several times a day at each camp. When we have time we listen to stories told by the DPs, repetitive tales about the conditions under which they lived and worked, not only here at Schwabach, but elsewhere in Germany. They tell about their own experiences and those of other DPs. Most of the stories are about the last few years, particularly 1943-a grim year because the war was going badly for their masters. The need for increased industrial production became a reality for the DPs when their working hours increased, their payments decreased, and their leisure time was sharply restricted. Punishments became more severe and frequent, including the death penalty for minor offenses. Simultaneously, as Germany's armies swallowed more and more of its citizens, foreign workers were brought into the Third Reich in increasing numbers in order to replace native civilian workers. This meant that labor camps such as those here became more overcrowded, toilets more inadequate, food poorer, and medical care limited. Official labor recruitment policies became aggressive: organized manhunts began. An Italian tells about labor raids in his country in 1944: sections of cities cordoned off by German soldiers and people abducted , sent to Germany without a chance to notify their families. A Dutchman describes the kidnapping of thousands of people a day from Amsterdam. He says that the Germans had a predilection for searching churches and cinemas. A Pole tells the most frightening story, about the day his small village was surrounded by Nazi troops, the villagers instructed to vacate their homes immediately. Thirty minutes later, all the buildings in town were burned down. The sounds of machine gun fire could be heard in the nearby forest as soldiers searched for es50 I capees. Our Pole, one of the more articulate of the DPs, tells about the icy fear that froze his voice, caused him to tremble uncontrollably. He could not move. Soon the villagers were prodded into trucks, then into boxcars. Fifty, sixty people in one car, he said, with small amounts of food and water. The floor was cold, the sick people groaned, a woman delivered a baby; periodically, the German guards opened the doors of the car and pitched out the dead. Most of the DPs say they came to Germany in boxcars. A few say they arrived in crowded trucks and wagons. Once in Germany they were assigned to quarters of varying size and quality: dog kennels, barns, rooms in private homes, large group dormitories as in the work camps here, and concentration camps. A Frenchman tells a different story, about the soft sell technique used by the Germans after the fall of France in 1940. Many of his countrymen volunteered for labor service in the Third Reich, lured by offers of jobs that not only paid better than in their own countries but also included attractive health benefits. Others came because their families were starving: for many there were no opportunities to work in their own land because the Germans had closed the factories that they considered unessential to the German economy. Later, however, the hard sell began-the penalty for avoiding labor service was death. In the last year or two, conditions for all the workers were about the same. Long hours, no privileges, no contact with Germans other than as servants or slaves. The little money they received was spent in the black market, usually for cigarettes. The workers could not walk freely in the streets. In certain areas, church attendance was forbidden. Even their sex life was regulated ; sexual intercourse was forbidden to certain Poles. Undoubtedly, the greatest pressures were exerted in factories geared for military production, the least in small shops such as Herr Schmauzer's needle shop. Still, people disappeared. Perhaps they had escaped. Perhaps they had been "punished." The Nazi overseers had sentenced their expendable human beasts of burden to hard labor-for life. There are millions of foreign workers in Germany now; the process of liberation is going on daily; soon they will all be free. The Slaves I 51 When the end comes, will they turn on their masters? Are the Germans filled with fear and terror? Considering their treatment, it is surprising to me that so few of the oppressed slaves did rampage, loot, and murder, especially those we have seen wandering through the countryside in search of food and shelter. Perhaps their ability to take action, even vengeance, has been blunted by years of...