Polish Forced Labour (Zwangsarbeiter/Fremdarbeiter) collection

[StefanM]

A Polish forced worker <P> patch and studio portrait dated August 1941. Worked in Wald Restorant (forest restaurant) Braunsdorf a municipality in the county Greiz in Thuringia, Germany.

[Kingy]

4thSkorpion Here are the photos and the list of prisoners you suggested I post on your thread.
As discussed on the other thread they were taken, I assume, on the farm where they were put to work at Hodingen near Uberlingen on Lake Constance.
My father-in-law, Wojciech Hucko, is the one with the piano accordion in the group photo and the one on the left in the other two photos.
He was captured in September 1939, sent to Oflag VII A, and then to Stalag VII A on the 8th May 1940. In that same month he was put to work on the farm at Hodingen and remained there for the rest of the war. He continued working on the farm post war until emigrating to Australia with his German wife and daughter (my wife) in May 1950.
The list of prisoners is a fascinating document but I have no idea how he came to be in possession of it.
Regards
Kingy

[StefanM]

Just acquired an interesting <P> patch which is stitched over a tin backing-square to which a pin has been neatly soldered into place making it easy for the owner to put on and take off without having to stitch the mandatory patch to the clothing. A very inventive solution!

[StefanM]

Recently for sale this interesting little 'booklet' with notes made by female prisoners at KZ Außenlager Meuselwitz forced-labour camp just after the camp was liberated by US forces in April 1945.

Could someone spare the time to accurately translate the two hand-written pages

* * * *

KZ Außenlager Meuselwitz was a subcamp of Buchenwald which provided slave labour to the HASAG plant. HASAG was a privately owned company which was the third largest employer of slave labour after I G Farben and the Goring Werke. The company was run by Paul Budin, a highly placed member of the Nazi party. Beginning in the summer of 1944, forced labour camps were established next to each HASAG plant in Germany, all of which were sattelite camps of Buchenwald. As of January 31, 1945, the Meuselwitz plant employed 1,666 prisoners, of which 1,376 were women; men's camp (A) on the map, women's camp marked (B). The plant was engaged in the manufacture of small to medium sized munitions. More women were employed since HASAG paid the SS less for women than men. and also HASAG's experience was that women had a higher mortality rate than men. Paul Budin is assumed to have committed suicide with his wife, in April 1945, when he blew up the company's head office in Leipzig.

[StefanM]

This is a very unusual photograph!

I have never before seen a Polish forced worker wearing a sewn-on 'Pole' patch as well as the mandatory <P>?

Very interesting.

Has anyone seen this 'Pole' patch before?

If I had seen such a patch for sale I would presume it was at best a 'fantasy' piece ... just proves there is always something new to learn every day

[StefanM]

Have been meaning to upload this for a while now

A great PDF booklet produced by 'Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation Archive' with details about various German documents; Arbeitskarte, Ausweis etc including Polish forced labour. Illustrated with colour photos of the documents with details describing when they were issued etc. In short a nice little reference work translated into English.

Download link: 'The selection of documents of the everyday life during the repression times' (48 MB PDF)

[StefanM]

A Polish PoW wearing the forced labour 'P' patch over his uniform. His post-war temp ID is for Soisdorf near Hessen, Germany and states he was a Landsarbeiter or agricultural/farm worker.

[AxisDoc]

Susanne , I wonder if this could be the same person as your picture.

[StefanM]

Hi AxisDoc,

Great observation—the similarity is quite remarkable! But the document you posted is for a Ukranian civilian worker and Susanne's lady is Polish as she is wearing the <P> patch for Poles, so they are probably not the same person.

A very nice Gemeinschaftslager document... wish it was in my collection

[AxisDoc]

Here is the paper that is glued to the back of the Gemeinschaftslager ID.