Construction service in the Generalgouvernement

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Emblem of the Polish Building Service in the General Government

The construction service in the Generalgouvernement was a work obligation created during the German occupation of Poland in the area of ​​the Generalgouvernement based on the model of the Reich Labor Service (RAD). According to the Führer decree on the administration of the occupied Polish territories of October 12, 1939, the organization was subordinate to Reich Minister Hans Frank .

The convocation was based on Section 1 of the Ordinance on the Introduction of Compulsory Work for the Polish Population of the General Government of October 26, 1939.

Organization and tasks

The construction service was originally set up in the Krakow district by Hans Frank's ordinance of December 1, 1940, but was extended to all districts with the exception of Warsaw in 1942. The director's office was integrated into the internal administration department in the office of the governor general.

All non-German residents of the Generalgouvernement between the ages of 18 and 60 "with the exception of foreigners, Jews and Gypsies" were required to perform construction work. Violations of the duty to work were threatened with disciplinary and criminal penalties up to the death penalty (§§ 7, 8 of the ordinance of 1942).

Polish Construction Service workers in the Kraków District, including Karol Józef Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II.

The members of the construction service were not employed in industrial production, but had the task of “carrying out non-profit or state-political work and providing assistance in the event of disasters” (Section 1 of the 1942 ordinance). They were forcibly used for public works, work for the benefit of the Wehrmacht and also for the burial of the victims of mass executions.

The construction service workers received a “construction service pass” and were entitled to a certain “compensation amount” for their work. This brtrug 1 zloty per day and has never been changed despite rising inflation. Over time, working conditions deteriorated as workers' food and clothing rations were cut.

The construction service later extended to young people from the age of 14. Recruitment could also be based on voluntary reports. However, many German administrative officials raised concerns that it was now difficult to recruit Polish industrial workers for employment in the Reich.

The target strength for the construction service was planned to be 150,000 men. In fact, due to the constant shortage of volunteers and increasing desertions, even at the peak of January 1944, only about 45,000 people were reached. The construction service employees were contractually obliged to work for at least three months, during the spring and summer periods for six to seven months and finally at least one year in construction.

The compulsory construction service was grouped according to ethnicity in the Polish construction service as well as the Ukrainian (Ukrains'ka Sluzhba Bat'kivschyni, USB) and the Goral homeland service . Volksdeutsche were excluded from this service.

literature

  • Mścisław Wróblewski: Służba Budowlana (Construction Service) w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie, 1940–1945. 1984, Państwowe Wydawn. Nauk. (Warszawa), ISBN 83-01-04986-3 (Polish).
  • Karsten Linne: Structure and Practice of the German Labor Administration in Occupied Poland and Serbia 1939–1944 . In: Dieter Pohl , Tanja Sebta (Ed.): Forced Labor in Hitler's Europe. Occupation, work, consequences . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-129-2 , pp. 39-61.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ RGBl. I p. 2077
  2. ↑ VBlGG p. 5
  3. ↑ Ordinance on Construction Services in the Generalgouvernement / Rozporządzenie o służbie budowlanej w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie of December 1, 1940 , VBlGG. I of December 9, 1940, p. 359
  4. ↑ Ordinance on Construction Services in the Generalgouvernement / Rozporządzenie o służbie budowlanej w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie of April 22, 1942, VBlGG of April 30, 1942, p. 218
  5. ↑ Dieter Herrmann: Leadership behavior and actions of Reich German entrepreneurs / managers and their involvement in the Nazi terror in the General Government of the Occupied Polish Territories (GG) 1939 to 1945 . (PDF) Hamburg, Univ.-Diss., 2012
  6. ↑ a b c d construction service. Służba Budowlana w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie 1940–1945 (PDF)
  7. ^ Foundation Polish-German Reconciliation (Ed.): Selected documents during the repression under the German occupation in World War II and evidence of everyday life (PDF) Formal characteristics and historical background. Based on the archives of the “Polish-German Reconciliation” Foundation. Warsaw 2009, p. 22 (illustration)
  8. ↑ Document VEJ 4/121 in: Klaus-Peter Friedrich (arr.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 (source book) Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 . Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , p. 301.
  9. ↑ Mścisław Wróblewski: Służba Budowlana (Construction Service) w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie, 1940–1945. P. 23 ff.
  10. ↑ Section 2 (4) of the 1940 ordinance
  11. ↑ Mścisław Wróblewski: Służba Budowlana (Construction Service) w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie, 1940–1945. P. 16.