In October 1944, the Office of the Commissioner of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for the repatriation of USSR citizens from Germany and the countries occupied by it was created. It was engaged in the return home of millions of Soviet citizens taken out during the German occupation for forced labor in the Third Reich. One of the authors of the book "The sign will not be erased. The sign will not be erased. This is the forgotten tragedy of the Ostarbeiters, driven into fascist slavery and then forgotten by the Soviet state." The Fates of Ostarbeiters in Letters, Memories and Oral Stories”, head of educational programs at the“International Memorial”Irina Shcherbakova.
"Russian policemen went from house to house and took everyone away"
- Is it known how many Soviet citizens were driven to Germany during the Great Patriotic War?
The documents of the Nuremberg Trials speak of almost five million civilians taken to Germany. According to other archival data, during all the years of the war, the Germans took out about 3.2 million so-called Ostarbeiters (from German Ostarbeiter - "Eastern workers"). By the way, this German name was established in our country relatively recently, in the 1990s. The Soviet government designated these people with the faceless term "repatriates", they themselves were often called "ostovtsy" and "ostovki". There were about the same number of our prisoners of war in Germany, whose forced labor was also used.
- When did this practice appear and why?
At first, the Germans were not going to attract large numbers of labor from the occupied Soviet territories - they were afraid that the presence of Soviet citizens in the Third Reich would have a corrupting ideological effect on its inhabitants. The mass dispatch of people to Germany began in the spring of 1942, when, after the failure of the 1941 blitzkrieg, there was a noticeable shortage of workers.
Soviet forced laborers in rural Germany
- Was there really at first in the occupied Soviet territories, especially in Ukraine, there were many volunteers who wanted to go to work in Germany?
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The Germans themselves called the hijacking of the Soviet population recruitment, and until April 1942, mostly volunteers were actually sent to work in Germany. The occupation authorities launched a wide campaign, promising people a happy life in the Third Reich, decent wages and decent working conditions. Some believed these promises and came to recruitment centers themselves, fleeing devastation, hunger and unemployment. As a former student from Odessa recalled, “there were people driven to despair by their position … who had lost their loved ones and their homes, who had nothing and no one left in this world”. But there weren't many of them, and they quickly realized that they had been deceived. The overwhelming majority of Ostarbeiters were sent to Germany forcibly.
- How was it organized in practice? Did the Germans organize raids?
Differently. It happened that people were seized on the streets, in markets, in other public places. But more often in cities and villages, special quotas were lowered for the export of people to Germany, on the basis of which the local collaborationist authorities drew up lists and sent out summons. And here, of course, whole tragedies unfolded, human destinies broke. So, for example, it was in villages and small towns where everyone knew each other. Naturally, the elders and policemen tried to hide some people and hand over others. Most often, refugees from other places who did not manage to evacuate in time were included in the lists for dispatch to Germany. Strangers are always less sorry than their own.
Sometimes people were taken out by whole families, with young children and teenagers. In most cases, Komsomol members, older children from large families, poor people who could not pay off were first seized. I can cite a fragment from the memoirs of a sixteen-year-old girl: “Our Russian policemen went from door to door and took everyone away … Mom went out somewhere and left her brother. The police came and asked: "Where is the mother?" I say that mom is not at home. Then the brother began to shout. I tell them: “You don’t take me now, my mother should come soon”. And they say: "We have no time" … And they took me."
Going into slavery
- What categories of the population were most often driven to Germany?
Mostly young people 16-18 years old. Those who were older - mostly young men - had already been drafted into the Red Army. But the occupation authorities strove for the number of girls and boys among the Ostarbeiters to be approximately half.
- From which Soviet territories did the fascists take out the most people?
About 2.2 million people were driven from Ukraine to Germany. But the most terrible situation was in Belarus, from where in 1943-1944, in the course of the fight against partisans, the Germans drove away the population of entire villages.
Announcement of recruitment for work in Germany in occupied Kiev. 1942 year
- In Germany, were the people driven away there divided according to ethnicity?
Not only our compatriots worked there. The Germans recruited the French, Scandinavians, Italians, Czechs and Poles into forced labor. But they all had a different status and, accordingly, a different degree of coercion. The citizens of the USSR were in the most disadvantaged position. But even among them there was a division. The attitude of the Germans to the Balts and Western Ukrainians was noticeably better than to the rest of the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians. At the end of the war, the Nazis from time to time tried to sow enmity between them, but they did not achieve much success in this.
- They were transported to Germany in freight cars?
Yes, in completely bestial conditions, and the whole road to the destination turned into an endless series of humiliations. One former “ostovka”, recalling later about her misadventures on the way, said that the boys and girls were transported in the same carriage. They had to send their natural needs in different corners, first breaking a hole in the wooden floor. One girl was so embarrassed by the groom who was driving here that her bladder burst and she died.
- How did the fate of the Soviet Ostarbeiters develop upon arrival in Germany?
In different ways - depending on where they were distributed at labor exchanges, organized directly at the dividing points. Potential owners gathered there, who chose workers for themselves. Some were sent to factories or mines, others as farm laborers to rural bauers, and still others to domestic servants. The selection depended on physical condition, education level and qualifications. But most of the Ostarbeiters were young boys and girls who, due to the war, did not even have time to finish school. It is clear that they did not have any specialty.
These labor exchanges were designed as real slave markets. They looked people in the teeth, felt their muscles, then took pictures with a serial number on their clothes. And in the recollections of most of the "Ostovites" the moment of this "transition to slavery", when they were taken away, like cattle at a fair, will be remembered for the rest of their lives.
"Don't forget: Dachau is near!"
- In what conditions did they live in Germany?
The strongest and toughest were sent to work camps at mines and factories, where conditions were the most difficult. These were typical camps with barracks surrounded by barbed wire, where Soviet prisoners of war often worked together with the Ostarbeiters. The observance of the camp regime was monitored by the elders appointed by the administration. Most often they were Poles or Western Ukrainians, but they could also be Russians. Few of the "Ostovites" could remember them with a kind word.
Gostarbeiter's document
The position of those who were assigned to the rural Bauers largely evolved depending on who they were assigned to. The human factor played a decisive role here. Some Germans pitied the forced laborers and tried to feed them, others treated them like talking cattle: they settled in a barn, fed garbage and forced them to work from dawn to dusk. It was especially hard for young townspeople who were unfamiliar with peasant labor.
- Was it easier for those who were taken as domestic helpers?
How to say. Young girls, mostly blondes, were selected there. They worked in large burgher families - for officials, lawyers, bank clerks or doctors. Compared to a work camp at a factory or mine, it was, of course, easier for them - they could even have their own closet. But domestic workers were also periodically reminded that they were second-class people. One former servant in the family of a German doctor recalled having an argument with her mistress, who called her a "Russian dog." In response, the girl threw the keys at her and ran to her room with the words: “I don’t want to see you for two years now”. To which the German woman shouted after her: "Do not forget: Dachau is eleven kilometers away!"
Another girl from Russia, the daughter of a writer and teacher, told how she was initially delighted when, in the house where she was assigned, she found a library with Russian classics and a portrait of Leo Tolstoy. But when the owner's wife hit her for the peel too thickly cut from the potatoes, the girl quickly realized that these German fans of Russian literature also considered her a second-class person.
- Our fellow citizens, deported to Germany, were required to wear a special badge with the word "OST"?
Yes, it was a small cloth rectangle with white letters on a blue background, clearly testifying to the humiliating and powerless status of these people. Refusal to wear the badge was fraught with a fine or punishment cell. In the spring of 1944, when the Germans softened the regime a little, they decided to replace the OST sign with specially designed national symbols. For Russians, they wanted to use a patch with the Cross of St. George, for Ukrainians - a wreath of sunflowers with a blue and yellow trident in the center, and for Belarusians - a gear with a white and red ear. But the Germans did not have time to bring this to life.
- Is it true that Ostarbeiters could correspond with their relatives and receive packages from them?
Formally, they could receive parcels from home until 1944, but in reality this did not happen often. And what could be sent to them from the occupied Soviet territories ravaged by the war? As for letters, from November 1942 it was possible to write only on postcards. They were checked by censorship, and it was impossible to write anything bad about life in Germany in them, so they had to resort to an allegorical form. For example, Ukrainians wrote home in their letters that they live as satisfyingly as in 1933.
- When there was a famine.
Yes - and the family, of course, understood everything at once.
Fragment of the Soviet poster "Soldier, liberate Soviet people from German hard labor!" L. Golovanov, 1943
Years in captivity
- Did the Germans somehow pay for the forced labor of these people?
Yes, on November 7, 1941, Goering issued a directive that Ostarbeiters should receive wages. But it was money exclusively for pocket money, from which the owners constantly made various deductions: for food, accommodation and even for travel to the place of work. As a result, a person often got on hands from three to five marks a week.
- What could they be spent on?
Almost no matter what. In addition, in the factory workers' camps, they paid with camp stamps, which could only be paid in the camp stalls. And those who worked for the Bauers or as servants in families were either paid irregularly or not paid at all.
- Why?
The owners believed that all the money earned by the Ostarbeiters was spent on their maintenance.
- Tell me, did these people try to resist somehow - for example, to run away?
Many wanted to flee. But such attempts succeeded mainly at the end of the war, when the front line was relatively close, and chaos was growing in Germany. Before that, almost all the fugitives were caught, although some managed to get to Poland. Where could they flee if Germany was all around, if they didn't know the language or the way to the house? The captured fugitives were severely beaten, some to death. The survivors were waiting for a punishment cell or a penal camp, and the most "incorrigible" Germans were sent to a concentration camp.
Sending ostarbeiters to Germany. Kiev, 1942
In terms of resistance, there were few conditions for organized protest. Workers in production were under strict guard and constant supervision, while those who worked for the Bauers or in domestic servants were disunited. Let's not forget that we are talking about very young guys who in their previous life had no experience of joint struggle. Although if there were older people next to them, for example, Soviet prisoners of war, they could gather a group around them. German documents for 1944-1945 mention the executions of members of underground organizations.
But more often than not, the Ostarbeiters protested in a different way. They could secretly feed the prisoners of war, verbally respond to insults of the minor authorities, or demonstratively express contempt for those who went to serve General Vlasov in the ROA.
- Have there been cases of sabotage?
There were. Some were engaged in petty sabotage: they dug vegetables that the Germans instructed them to plant, threw stones in clay mixtures to break mechanisms. Others even inflicted injuries of varying severity on themselves, including chopping off their fingers. Sometimes this self-mutilation was caused not only by the unwillingness to work for the enemy, but also by the desire to switch to easier work - after all, their working conditions were hard labor.
The fact that with their work, albeit forced, they somehow help the Germans, they were very depressed. People developed a feeling of powerlessness and even a guilt complex before their fathers and brothers fighting at the front. This was especially true of those who worked in military production.
- When at the end of the war German factories began to be bombed, did our fellow citizens also die?
Of course, the bombs did not make a distinction between where their own and where the Germans were. Although these bombings strengthened their faith in the imminent end of the war, most of the Ostovites remembered them as the most terrible thing they had experienced in Germany. There were a lot of deaths after the Allied air raids. For example, during the British bombing in 1944, an Ostarbeiter camp at a military factory was destroyed. As the woman who was there told us, the consequences of the air raid were terrible: more than two hundred people died, whom the surviving comrades later buried in a common grave behind the camp fence.
"Girls, you are set free!"
- Who liberated these people at the end of the war - ours or our allies?
And those and others. A lot of Ostarbeiters ended up in the western part of Germany, where the main industry of the Third Reich was concentrated, so they were liberated by the British and Americans. To people from the USSR, they seemed very exotic: in an incomprehensible form, with berets on their heads, many blacks … It was surprising that they constantly chewed something, but did not swallow - Soviet citizens did not know about gum at that time.
German propaganda poster for the recruitment of Ostarbeiters
But some of our "Ostovtsy", according to their recollections, did not immediately recognize their soldiers either. "The gates are opening, our soldiers are flying in:" Girls, you are set free! " But we have not yet seen a new form - shoulder straps. We think: "Lord, who is this?"
- Is it true that in the West then there were about half a million former Soviet citizens?
There is no exact data. In different studies, the number of defectors varies from 285 thousand to 451 thousand people. At the same time, the Yalta Agreements provided that all citizens of the USSR who found themselves outside its borders during the war were subject to compulsory repatriation, regardless of their wishes.
- Why didn't everyone want to return to their homeland? Were you afraid of the GULAG?
And therefore, too, but not only. Some got new families, while others simply had nowhere to go. But there were also those who, after looking at life abroad, simply did not want to return to their native collective farm. The allies then caught many of them and handed them over to the Soviet side. But most of the Ostovites were eager to get home as soon as possible. According to the Office of the Commissioner for Repatriation of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, more than 2.6 million Soviet citizens returned from Europe after the war.
- What happened to them next?
Now they were called not Ostarbeiters, but repatriates. All of them had to go through a sieve of Soviet testing and filtration camps. According to the recollections of people, the conditions of detention there were not much different from the German labor camps. In July 1945, the Department of Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent a note to Malenkov, which said that the camps were not properly prepared for a huge influx of repatriates, that people spent the night either side by side on a dirty floor or under the open sky.
Then the verification procedure began - the SMERSH employees thoroughly interrogated the people exhausted by German captivity. The Soviet state, which in 1941 failed to protect millions of its citizens, in 1945 tried to reproach them for deliberately working for the enemy. Village girls, taken to Germany at the age of 16-17, hardly understood what they wanted from them. Suspicions of treason humiliated and insulted the "skeleton". As one of them later told us bitterly, “I was a 'Russian pig' for the Nazis, and for my own I became a 'German bedding'”.
- But after the filtration, the former Ostarbeiters were still allowed to go home?
Differently. Those who inspired suspicions of cooperation with the Germans were sent to the GULAG. This mainly concerned men. Men of military age were sent to the active army or, for example, to restore mines in the destroyed Donbass. After filtration, many young girls were recruited into the subsidiary plots of the military units of the Red Army. The rest, after long ordeals, finally went home, where a difficult post-war life awaited them.
Forgotten victims of war
- Did the Soviet government grant them the official status of victims of Nazism?
Of course not. On the contrary, it was one of the disadvantaged categories of citizens to whom the Soviet state was suspicious. After all, in the USSR, every person, upon entering a university or finding a job, was obliged to fill out a questionnaire with the questions "whether he was in the occupied territory" and "whether he was abroad." And they were both there and there - therefore, even a modest career was often closed to them. Remember, these were mostly young people for whom forced labor in the Third Reich became a stigma for the rest of their lives. Many "Ostovtsy" hid for many years that during the war they were driven to Germany, and kept this pain inside themselves.
- Is it true that they were not paid any compensation for free labor and moral damage during the war years due to the fact that the Soviet Union in 1953 renounced reparation claims against the GDR?
Yes, it was a political decision. The Soviet leaders considered that Germany had compensated for all the damage caused by the USSR with reparations, and then no one thought about people. The former ostarbeiters did not fit into the official Soviet memory of the war: they were not considered either prisoners of fascism or veterans. The situation changed only at the turn of the 1980s-1990s.
- It was then that Memorial began to deal with this topic and collect materials for a book about the fate of the Ostarbeiters?
Yes, in 1989, when Memorial had just appeared, the deputies of the Greens faction of the German Bundestag turned to its chairman Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. They quite rightly pointed out that the Ostarbeiters were the last victims of the Second World War, and forgotten victims at that. We started to deal with this issue, started collecting data. In April 1990, Nedela, a Sunday supplement to the Izvestia newspaper, published an article claiming that the Germans would begin to pay compensation to Soviet citizens who were driven away to Germany during the war, and that these questions should be addressed to Memorial.
Red Army soldiers talk to a Soviet girl-ostarbeiter who worked at the German Junkers plant in Poznan, Poland
After that, in a few weeks we received 400,000 letters from former Ostarbeiters. People sent us documents, photographs, postcards and other unique evidence of being in fascist slavery. We began to collect and organize them, and then decided to write down their memories. This process dragged on for many years, but now Memorial has a huge array of data, which we are gradually posting on the Ta Side website. The book "The Sign Will Not Erase", fragments from which I read to you, we also published on the basis of the memoirs of the Ostarbeiters.
- And what about compensations - did people get them in the end?
The database created by Memorial has greatly helped people to receive payments that were made in the 90s and continued in the 2000s. At the same time, when many former Ostarbeiters were still alive, the Germans, according to our lists, often organized trips for them to Germany.
- Was it a public initiative on the part of the Germans or at the expense of the FRG budget?
For payments to forced laborers in Germany, the "Memory, Responsibility, Future" fund was created. Part of the funds was given by the governments of Germany and Austria, and part - by firms in whose factories Soviet citizens worked during the war (for example, Siemens and Volkswagen).
- What amounts were due to the citizens of Russia from among the former Ostarbeiters?
Depending on where they worked, in the 90s they were paid from one and a half to several thousand Deutschmarks. True, at one time the Germans suspended payments: this happened when it turned out that some strange confusion was taking place with the allocated funds, and part of the transferred money disappeared altogether in Russia. Later, with the transition to the single European currency, the average amount of compensation was around 2,500 euros. Needless to say, how essential such help was at that time for our old people.
- Is it known how many former Ostarbeiters are alive now?
Unfortunately, this is now difficult to say. In countries from which the Nazis also drove away the population (Poland, Ukraine and Belarus), the Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation Funds, created in the 90s to record compensation, continued to work after the payments were completed. And in Russia in 2011, the government refused to finance the activities of the fund and closed it. It took a lot of efforts of our public for the Rosarchiv to at least agree to accept for safekeeping a gigantic array of documents about the fate of our compatriots, who were driven into captivity during the Great Patriotic War. Therefore, how many of them still remain in Russia - probably no one will tell you for sure.