Extermination Through Labor - in Nazism

In Nazism

According to Nazi ideology, the "Germanic peoples," i.e. the Germans, Flemish, Dutch, English, and Scandinavians, were considered "Aryans" and constituted the "master race." "German blood" and the "Aryans" had to be "kept pure" from the "foreign races."

The Nazis persecuted many individuals because of their race, political affiliation, disability, religion or sexual orientation. While others could possibly redeem themselves in the eyes of the Nazis, there was no room in Hitler's world-view for these people. Because of their size (approximately 1% and 0.1% of the population, respectively) and perceived threat, eliminating world Jewry was the Nazi's paramount concern. As such, the Nazi leadership gathered to discuss what had come to be called "the final solution to the Jewish question" at a conference in Wannsee, Germany. The transcript of this gathering on January 20, 1942 gives historians insight into the thinking of the Nazi Leadership, as they devised the salient details of their future destruction, including using extermination through labor as one component of their so-called "Final Solution":

Under proper leadership, the Jews shall now in the course of the Final Solution be suitably brought to their work assignments in the East. Able-bodied Jews are to be led to these areas to build roads in large work columns separated by sex, during which a large part will undoubtedly drop out through a process of natural reduction. As it will undoubtedly represent the most robust portion, the possible final remainder will have to be handled appropriately, as it would constitute a group of naturally-selected individuals, and would form the seed of a new Jewish resistance.

.

Other groups marginalized by the majority population included welfare-dependent families with many children, vagrants, and transients, as well as members of perceived problem groups such as alcoholics and prostitutes. While these people were considered "German-blooded," they were also categorized as "social misfits," as well as superfluous "ballast-lifes." They were recorded in lists (as were homosexuals) by civil and police authorities and subjected to myriad state restrictions and repressive actions, which included forced sterilization and ultimately imprisonment in concentration camps. Anyone who rebelled openly against the Nazi regime (such as communists, social democrats, democrats, and conscientious objectors) was detained in a prison or a camp. Many of the prisoners did not survive the camps.

In Nazi camps, "extermination through labor" was principally carried out through a slave-based labor organization, which is why, in contrast with the forced labor of foreign work forces, a term from the Nuremberg Trials is used for "slave work" and "slave workers."

Working conditions were characterized by:

• no pay
• constant surveillance of workers
• physically demanding labor (for example, road construction, farm work, and factory work, particularly in the arms industry)
• excessive working hours (often 10 to 12 hours per day)
• minimal nutrition, food rationing
• lack of hygiene
• poor medical care and ensuing disease
• insufficient clothing (for example, summer clothes even in the winter)
• torture and physical abuse through such methods as Torstehen (forcing victims to stand outside naked with arms raised) or Pfahlhängen (hanging from a stake)