Nazi forced labor in the Oberndorf am Neckar area

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Oberndorf am Neckar housed the Mauser works, avery important armaments factoryin World War II with up to 11,000 employees. The proportion of forced laborers among them was over 50 percent towards the end of the Second World War. In the Oberndorf area there were around 7,000 forced laborers from 19 nations, around 700 prisoners of war and around 4,400 people in so-called forced labor camps , which, however, were subject to different jurisdictions and administrations.

In Lautenbachtal the Gestapo maintained a labor education camp in which the prisoners had to work for the Mauser works, for the machine factory in Aistaig, for a colored weaving mill in Sulz and for other companies.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day 2007, a memorial was inaugurated that commemorates the 7,000 forced laborers who worked in the Mauser arms factory during the Nazi era. The reactions to the memorial have turned out differently.

Winners and victims

A part of the local history of the Württemberg Oberdorf and the Mauser there is forced labor in the era of National Socialism . This is to be seen against the background of the "deployment of foreigners" in the war economy of the Nazi era. Its immense extent is due to the importance of local arms production. The topic has only been increasingly researched in municipalities since the 1980s and has been publicly discussed in Germany in 1999 and 2000 , especially in connection with the compensation of former forced laborers who are still alive .

An important point with regard to the situation of foreign workers was the different interests of the economy and the Nazi ideology. If the pragmatists of the industry were interested in maintaining the labor of foreign workers, many ideologues saw workers from the areas of the Soviet Union and Poland above all as "subhumans".

For example, Soviet foreign workers were a thorn in the side of the ideologically oriented decision-makers, because they were not only “Slavs” but also Bolsheviks . Treatment principles were drawn up that included a gradation according to the country of origin. In industrial companies in the conurbations, the living conditions of foreign workers were much worse than in rural areas. Oberndorf had a special position here due to the importance of the moulting works, which can hardly be overestimated. The historical processing of this time is just beginning.

Competent Authorities

After the beginning of the war in 1939, the "deployment of foreigners" planned by the Nazi regime began in the war economy. First, Polish prisoners of war and civilians were deported to work in the Reich. The Reich Ministry of the Interior under Heinrich Himmler took over their distribution.

The district administrator, the Gestapo and the police authorities were responsible for enforcing state instructions . The NSDAP district leader in particular felt responsible for the district. He passed orders from the regime to the party's local group leaders. The district administrator instructed the mayors of the individual communities to implement various state regulations.

Forced labor camp

The forced labor camps that existed in Oberndorf are no longer all localized today. The question for local history is who has had which warehouse set up, when and why. It is known that originally 'racially similar' foreign workers, such as For example, many Dutch people found accommodation in Neckarheim , a large building on the premises of the Mauser factory that also served as a canteen and administration office. From 1943 on they were housed in various camps and homes as works security and German workers moved into the Neckarheim . Barracks were set up for 'Western workers', such as the “Buche” camp, close to the factory premises. There was also a camp "Eiche", about 1.2 km from the Mauser works, a barrack complex that actually consisted of three different camps. Of these, camp III was only intended for female workers. The “Birke” and “Linde” camps were intended for Polish and Soviet workers and prisoners of war. These were under permanent supervision of the works security and were expressly separate from the other residential camps. The fact that around 12,000 foreign workers have worked in Oberndorf over the years can be proven by various lists.

Labor education camp in Lautenbachtal

The labor education camp (AEL) in Lautenbachtal near Oberndorf was set up in 1941 and was under the control of the Stuttgart state police headquarters . The purpose of the AEL detention, which was officially limited to a maximum of 56 days, was to discipline the German and foreign workers through brutal harassment and mistreatment as well as the most difficult physical labor. In quite a few AEL the conditions of detention differed only insignificantly from those in the concentration camps. The number of prisoners in Lautenbachtal rose from 180 to around 400 in the end. A total of 4,500 to 5,000 prisoners passed through the camp.

Prisoners of war

In addition to civilian workers and prisoners of war from camps near the front over were transit camp in team base camp (Stalag) moved to Germany to be used to there as forced laborers. The German Reich deprived them of the protection of international law by z. B. declared that the states of Poland or Yugoslavia have ceased to exist ( see Crimes of the Wehrmacht ). The Wehrmacht was responsible for guarding, and their command offices assigned the prisoners to work detachments. Actually they were under the protection of the Geneva Conventions , which exclude employment in war production.

Investigations after 1945

Nothing is known about the investigation of the activities of those responsible locally by Allied or German courts. The official history of the city hides the epoch.

A private initiative by a former SS member has existed on site for a long time (around 1955) to remind of the forced laborers in the neighborhood.

With a memorial , which was inaugurated on January 27, 2007, the Holocaust Remembrance Day , the city commemorates forced laborers during the Nazi era. The Rottweiler sculptor Jürgen Knubben created an almost man-high “ Book of Memories ” with steel pages on which the 308 forced laborers who died in Oberndorf are named.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ingrid Bauz, Sigrid Brüggemann, Roland Maier: The Secret State Police in Württemberg and Hohenzollern. Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2013, p. 148.

literature

  • Carsten Kohlmann: Memories of former Polish forced laborers in Oberndorf am Neckar . In: Schwäbischen Heimat 56/2005/2/177
  • Klaus D. Rack, Monica Kingreen, Dirk Richhardt: Far from home under duress - the use of “foreign workers” during the Second World War in the Wetterau. History Association f. Butzbach, Butzbach 2004, ISBN 3-9802328-8-3 Here p. 584
  • Karin-Anne Böttcher: “It's only fascism and the cursed war to blame”. Forced laborers in Reutlingen during the Second World War , in: Reutlinger Geschichtsblätter NF 34 (1995), pp. 29-102
  • LG Stuttgart, October 25, 1951 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal convictions for Nazi homicides 1945–1966, Vol. VIII, edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1972, No. 295, pp. 783-788 Detention Center Staff AEL Oberndorf-Aistaig. Abuse of prisoners, sometimes resulting in death

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