Abstract

Jewish labor in East Upper Silesia during the Second World War took many forms. The author surveys camps, ghetto workshops under Judenrat supervision, labor battalions, and private companies. The connection between the economy and the Holocaust was closer here than elsewhere under German occupation, as Albrecht Schmelt, the SS-leader responsible for Jewish labor, established a system of exploitation serving not only Germany's needs but also his own enrichment. Jews employed in his system lived in open ghettos, received some remuneration, and had certain options in regard to where—and whether—to work. Thus, the term "forced labor" must be differentiated to capture the reality of the Jewish experience in the ghettos here.

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