Polish Forced Labour (Zwangsarbeiter/Fremdarbeiter) collection

[StefanM]

Polish forced labourers celebrating Christmas somewhere in Nürnberg, Germany, 1942 together with a sentimental (and somewhat symbolic) New Year greetings card sent home.

[StefanM]

Just acquired a couple of interesting documents for forced worker at: Junkers Flugzeug und Motorenwerke AG at Aschersleben, a town in the Salzlandkreis district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

The Ausweis für Gemeinschaftslager und Vollverpflegung is last date-stamped 5 April 1945—a week before liberation.

* * *

Junkers Flugzeug und Motorenwerke AG was Junkers aircraft serial fuselage production facility. In April 1935 tooling machines were transfered to Aschersleben and by May 1935 the first fuselages were built. The factory was located at Wilslebener Strasse 9 near the so-called Seewiesen, where an airfield was also constructed. Located at the former site of the Aschersleben Maschinenbau AG (AMA) the Junkers manufacturing plant at Aschersleben reached 564,000 sqm and about 6000 people worked in the facility.

During World War II, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was located in Aschersleben and was established to provide slave labour for Junkers (aircraft manufacture) and Motorenwerk (automotive manufacture). By July 1944 about 950 concentration camp prisoners were forced to work at the Junkers Flugzeugwerke in Aschersleben.

At the end of WWII the Junkers-Aschersleben plant was mainly intact despite repeated bombing by the Allies and production was just changing over for the Heinkel He162 but in early April 1945 all production at the factory ceased and on 17 April 1945 U.S. forces occupied Aschersleben and took over the Junkers plant. On 23 May 1945 the city was handed over to the British forces and later, on 1 July 1945 it was finally handed over to the Soviets who then dismantled and transfered the entire production plant to Kiev in 1946.

[dorava]

what are thoughts on this one?...
off hand not like others seen...I know nothing about these

GERMAN WW2 armband Polish Political prisoners AUSCHWITZ - eBay (item 150554629195 end time Feb-02-11 17:25:20 PST)

[StefanM]

IMHO pure fantasy



Recommended reading: Counterfeiting the Holocaust By Alec Tulkoff

also: FAKE HOLOCAUST ARMBAND JEWISH CONCENTRATION CAMP
and: CONCENTRATION CAMP HOLOCAUST SHOA UNIFORM - fake!!!!!!!
and: FAKE SHOA HOLOCAUST JEWISH GHETTO ARMBAND - PART2
and: MORE FAKE CONCENTRATIONI CAMP ARMBAND NAZI PART 3

* * *

Blacklight, Bluelight testing as a proof of age?

The use of long wavelength ultraviolet lights (or Blacklight, Bluelight call it what you will) to demonstrate fluorescence of modern fibres is often used as proof of age and therefore not modern manufacture ie. post WWII.


Black lights produce long wave ultra uiolet, or UV (320 nm - 400 nm) and many textiles and fibres fluoresce under ultraviolet light producing a colour or light shift that is made visible to the naked eye which may be undetectable under white light (natural light). And while it is true that many newly made fabrics and threads do indeed fluoresce, there are also modern fabrics and threads whose manufacture do not cause it to fluoresce.

Also because modern laundry detergents have often contained additives normally intended to make textiles whiter and brighter, these additives can make textiles fluoresce under a black (UV) light—which would could easily confuse a person into thinking an antique textile, washed in these detergents, was of modern manufacture.

So using Blacklight test is NOT proof of anything but it certainly sounds authoratitive and scientific in a sales pitch!

[dorava]

and what about this one?

[StefanM]

I would ask to see a better close-up scan of the <P> patch before passing opinion. But these are such simple patches to copy using two colour silk-screen printing—cheap and quick to produce in thousands just like the originals were! If it is not too expensive buy it for the photo and caption

[A.J. Zawadzki]

. . . these are such simple patches to copy using two colour silk-screen printing—cheap and quick to produce in thousands just like the originals were! . . .

Hmmm – that may explain why there’s seemingly so many on the market lately . . .

[StefanM]

An interesting website for exhibition in Berlin

Forced Labour.
The Germans, the Forced Labourers and the War („Zwangsarbeit. Die Deutschen, die Zwangsarbeiter und der Krieg“)

I have often wondered who took the photos of "happy" Polish forced workers wearing their <P> patches which crop up in my collection and the website provides the answer:

"... Private Photos of Forced Laborers

At first sight, the motifs of these photos are somehow confusing. They show forced labourers in what look like private everyday situations. At the same time, important aspects of these persons’ daily lives – work, violence, resistance, escape – are not recorded here.

The deported children, adolescents, women and men wanted to distil a bit of normality for themselves as a means of escaping from the role of the disenfranchised assigned them by the Nazis. For the most part, the pictures therefore show the experiences the forced labourers wanted to remember. What is more, with these photos they often attempted to paint a positive picture of forced labour deployment and the related living conditions to allay the fears and worries of their loved ones back home.

According to the racist regulations enforced by the Germans, Polish workers – like their Soviet colleagues – were strictly prohibited from owning cameras. Often it was the Western European or Czech forced labourers – persons permitted to keep cameras – who therefore photographed the Poles and Russians. In other cases, German photographers earned money with photos of Eastern European workers. Former forced labourers in Berlin, for example, remember that in many public places German photographers offered to take pictures of foreign workers for a fee. Many of the photos were also taken in German photo studios and printed as postcards to be sent home by the forced labourers to their families as a reassuring sign of life. Finally, there were also many cases in which Polish or Soviet nationals owned cameras secretly..."

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Mr. Skorpion, Very interesting site, many thanks for posting it.

Regards,
Tony

[StefanM]

From the same website:

“Figure of the week”
One of the regulations imposed by the German's was to forbid the “community of the dinner table” between Germans and forced labourers. On the farms, forced labourers were to eat separately from Germans.
“Figure of the week,” from the newspaper Amstettner Anzeiger, 18 April 1943.

Source: Bibliothek der Universität Wien