Polish Forced Labour (Zwangsarbeiter/Fremdarbeiter) collection

[StefanM]

Werk-Ausweis for Pole working at the Warsaw company of H. Liefeldt and S. Schiffner GmbH.



I believe this style of laminated ID was introduced in Warsaw due to the large number of forged ID documents produced by the Polish resistance that were in circulation. It was hoped the embossed laminated IDs would be that much harder to forge than the previous printed card documents.

The last date stamp on the card is July 1944 so just before the Warsaw Rising of August 1944 so maybe the factory stopped operation from then on.

* * *

Henryk Liefeldt was born in 1894, Warsaw, and died September 13, 1937. Liefeldt was a mechanical engineer, designer and well known race car driver before the First World War. After WWI Liefeldt started the Warsaw Engine Manufacturing Plant and Mechanical Workshops (Warszawie Wytwórnię Silników i Warsztaty Mechaniczne) Henry Liefeldt - Stefan Schiffner. In 1930 Liefeldt won the Grand Prix Lwow in a Austro Daimler ADR. Liefeldt H. and S. Schiffner company produced industrial engines, motor pumps etc. and was for several years the only representative of the Austro-Daimler in Poland.



Henryk Liefeldt in his Austro-Daimler - Grand Prix Lwow 1930







The 1930's—The greatest period of motor racing!!

[StefanM]

A recent pick-up with probably the most "distressed" Arbeitsbuch I have—covers torn and detached with pages just about hanging together but am looking forward to trying to find out the man's "employers".

[CARL]

Plenty of character, I always like that. It is yet another nice grouping, thanks for sharing and I look forward to hearing about the history of these pieces.

Best,

Carl

[StefanM]

A new studio portrait from 1939/40:

[StefanM]

An arbeitsbuch Polish female from Stanislau, Galicia (now Ukraine):

[StefanM]

An interesting paper document for a Polish worker at Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH, Cottbus (Brandenburg, Germany) dated 11 April 1945 just a few days before the the Cottbus airfield fell to the Red Army on 23 April 1945. Post WWII, the Soviets used its three runways until 1952.



Although issued to a Pole the document is stamped with Russenlager and Ostarbeiterlager

Cottbus airfield—Between 1939 and 1941 the Fliegere Ausbildungs Regiment 82 (FAR 82) was stationed at the Cottbus airfield, along with the maintenance facilities of dive bomber wing Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 "Immelman". In the autumn of 1942 the Focke-Wulf company moved parts of their aircraft production to Cottbus with the assembly of the FW-200C and from 1944 the production of FW-190A and Ta-152H. In February 1945 the Focke-Wulf factory itself was taken apart and moved to the west. The Cottbus airfield was attacked by the 8th Air Force in February 1945 in which the raid also destroyed the Cottbus railway station. During the battles of spring of 1945 the Cottbus airfield was used by two fighter wings.


Focke-Wulf FW-190A


Focke-Wulf Ta-152H


Focke-Wulf FW-200C


Weblink Cottbus airfield museum: Flugplatzmuseum - Stadt Cottbus

[SailorTzipi]

Wow! Your collection is totally amazing!
I have an Auschwitz Cross that came with a heavy small bronze plaque??

Can I ask? When looking at or buying patches and armbands how do you know if its real? What do you look for?? Thanks

[StefanM]

Wow! Your collection is totally amazing!
I have an Auschwitz Cross that came with a heavy small bronze plaque??

Can I ask? When looking at or buying patches and armbands how do you know if its real? What do you look for?? Thanks

Thank you for your generous compliment

With regard to KL prisoner armbands...forget it, there are no genuine armbands for sale no matter what the sales pitch might say...veteran bring-backs, survivor or survivor family donation etc, etc.

Updated = = = = = == = =

Original KL prisoner number patches are very occasionally to be found, my most recent was in part of a large de-nazification document set from 1945-47. The patch was for a German "political" and is in unused condition!



Others like the patch below for a Ravensbrück inmate came with the former prisoners identity card so the provenance is good. The patch style and numbering matching her original inmate photo which shows her wearing this style patch.



Inmate patches were issued in a such large number of styles and non-standardised forms so are VERY difficult to verify just look through the Auschwitz and other KL inmate photos available online and you will see what I mean. This variety makes it easier to produce fakes which is why the context of the "find" is all important.

The letter "P" patches are of course reproduced so look for the perfection that digital artwork produces in the patch ...and avoid. There are plenty of good examples on this thread to compare against but if you find a patch you are interested in buying ask for high resolution scans and post here

[StefanM]

Top photo of Jewish forced labourers in Radom, Poland.

Lower photo taken in Eastern Poland (or Russia). Interesting to note the "roundel" (probably white or yellow cloth) patches stitched to the mens' jackets. Jews were often identified by a variety of patches such as roundels, squares, triangles on their clothing before the later "standardised" star shape patch was adopted.




Update:

An example of non-star badge that Lithuanian Jews were forced to wear.


Newswire caption

[SailorTzipi]

Thanks or the Info, I'll have a good look through the tread