The Labor use of German Immigrants from the USSR in the Economy of the Third Reich at the Final Stage of World War II

Abstract

The study aims to reveal the mechanism and features of attracting German immigrants from the USSR to labor service in Nazi Germany at the final stage of World War II. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity and a set of special and general scientific methods. Scientific novelty. Based on the involvement of an extensive array of archival documents, for the first time in historiography, an attempt was made to comprehensively illuminate the problem of using the labor of German immigrants from the USSR in the economy of the Third Reich. Conclusions. German refugees were taken out by the decision of the Nazi authorities in 1943-1944. from the occupied regions of the USSR to the homeland of their ancestors, in the conditions of declared total war, they naturally became part of the Third Reich's labor resources. Most of them were concentrated in the agricultural and industrial sectors of the economy. At the same time, the bulk immigrants' movement to the territory of Warthegau was caused not by the objective needs of the region for additional labor but by the geopolitical plans of the Nazi leadership. Attempts by some areas of Germany to make up for the acute shortage of human resources in agriculture at the expense of the refugees who arrived were unsuccessful. Their aspirations were shattered by the inert position of Himmler and his inner circle. They did not want to go beyond the concept of using German settlers and the bureaucratic mechanisms associated with it. Only officials who defended the interests of the German military-industrial complex were able to achieve certain concessions. The majority of Soviet Germans in the system of social and labor relations in Nazi Germany were reduced mainly to the level of foreign labor, which is especially clearly evidenced by their relationship with employers and living conditions.