Transit camp (forced labor camp)

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As a transit camp (abbreviated. Dulag or DL ) were in the German Reich during World War II camp designated for short-term accommodation of civilian forced laborers. The transit camps were in the area of ​​responsibility of the state labor offices and were subordinate to the general agent for work, Fritz Sauckel . They were an important part of maintaining the system of Nazi forced labor to deport hundreds of thousands of forced laborers to the Reich.

In the autumn of 1941 the National Socialist leadership of the German Reich realized that the war against the Soviet Union could not be won by the end of the year as expected. This presented German economic planning with new challenges, as the mobilization of the German army towards the end of 1941 led to a massive shortage of workers in the Reich. In order to compensate for this, the decision was made to employ civilian forced laborers from the occupied territories of the Soviet Union on a massive scale . In the spring of 1942, a total of 22 transit camps were set up in the area of ​​responsibility of the state labor offices, the number of which increased to 46 camps in the Reich by 1943. Initially only used by Eastern workers , forced laborers from other occupied areas were subsequently smuggled through these camps.

The criteria for the choice of location were an open area, if possible on the edge of zones with high demand for industrial workers, and a connection to the rail network. The deportees were received in the so-called unclean part of the camp. They then had to undress naked and their luggage and clothing were cleaned from pests in so-called disinfestation chambers . They themselves were subjected to a medical examination to determine their ability to work and subsequently recorded by the employment office. They were then transferred to the so-called clean part of the camp, where the deportees usually had to wait several days before being assigned to a local employer.

After the return of sick and unfit forced laborers became increasingly difficult due to the war, many transit camps for forced laborers were given a sickness collection camp attached. The mortality rate in these camps was generally very high due to the weak constitution of the sick, inadequate medical care and poor hygienic conditions.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Herbert: Foreign workers: Politics and practice of the "deployment of foreigners" in the war economy of the Third Reich . JHW Dietz, Berlin 1985, ISBN 978-3-8012-0108-1 , pp. 142 .
  2. ↑ Annette Schäfer: Transit and sickness collection camps in World War II: interfaces between "work" and "destruction" in forced labor . In: Andreas Frewer, Günther Siedenburger (Hrsg.): Medicine and forced labor under National Socialism: Use and treatment of "foreigners" in the health system . Campus-Verl, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-593-37626-1 , p. 207 .
  3. ^ Franz Puntigam: The transit camps of the labor administration as institutions of health care . In: The Health Engineer . tape 67 , 1944, pp. 47-56 .
  4. ↑ Annette Schäfer: Transit and sickness collection camps in World War II: interfaces between "work" and "destruction" in forced labor . In: Andreas Frewer, Günther Siedenburger (Hrsg.): Medicine and forced labor under National Socialism: Use and treatment of "foreigners" in the health system . Campus-Verl, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-593-37626-1 , p. 212 .