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From The New International, Vol. XIII No. 4, April 1947, p. 126.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Editor:
The discussions by Leder and Juddin the November issue of The New International, valuable though they are, suffer in their analyses of Germany during the war years from the defect that has characterized just about every similar discussion – the lack of any consideration of the role of the tremendous foreign population. Including foreigners in concentration camps, prisoners of war the various categories of slave workers, they numbered at least twelve million. This excludes the large number of German prisoners of one type or other. A great potential for revolt, they were, instead an important instrument for its prevention. For some reason, historical and journalistic accounts have ignored them except to describe their travail under the Nazi rule. How did they fit into the Anti-Fascist Committees? How did they function in the much-neglected popular coups preceding the arrival of Allied armies in such cities as Augsburg and Halle. or the attempted insurrection in Munich? What was their exact relation to the German worker throughout? Some stories have been written of close fraternization in concentration camps and among former inmates after their liberation. Otherwise, the only relevant item I have seen was a Russian propaganda pamphlet describing the aid some Russian prisoners gave to the advancing army in the capture of a Silesian industrial town.
So all we have is the comparison of personal experiences and fragmentary testimony, unquestionably very inadequate evidence. My own impressions were these: The PWs and foreign workers generally lived in a world apart from German society. For Russians, Poles, and most others from enemy Eastern European countries, the isolation was fairly complete. Almost all who were not on farms lived in camps under semi-military regulations, which they usually left only for work or some sort of official business. Rural workers stayed on their respective farms and, except for a few domestic servants, lived in barns. They were all barred from places of commercial entertainment, rarely visited friends, were even prevented from travelling to church. Their hostility toward Germans, per se, was marked, and was, to a great extent, reciprocated by the Germans. This attitude has continued after the war among the thousands of Polish DPs remaining. Jack Porter’s discussion in a recent Labor Action article of the inability of Polish and German Socialists living in the same town to meet together was a dramatic example.
The slave workers and PWs from Western Europe (France, Italy, etc.) usually had more privileges, including more freedom of movement. Their rations (except for PWs) often approximated those of the Germans, though they conspicuously lacked the added tidbits the latter generally acquired by black market operations, barter and gifts from soldiers. They very frequently worked side by side with German workers at similar jobs. But the distinction between them and the Germans was ever present. Most striking was the usual monopoly of air raid shelters by Germans, hardly a minor item. Under these conditions and with the violent nationalism engendered by the war, fraternization outside of the concentration camp, was rare and superficial. Despite their fundamentally common interests, the German and foreign worker failed to unite against their common oppressor, the Nazi regime. Without that unity, any significant revolt was out of the question.
It should be pointed out that those to whom the anti-Nazis of all nationalities in Germany looked for leadership – the Allied and Stalinist propagandists – helped maintain that division. Their anti-German chauvinism significantly encouraged mutual distrust. There naturally was no call for revolt from them. This should amaze no one with any political acumen, but it was from them that instructions were awaited. The Stalinist armies did at least ask for assistance from Russia in Germany in aiding their advance, and, according to their official accounts, valuable help was frequently given. The Western armies, however, took no chances. Their official broadcasts over Radio Luxemberg had one theme even for foreign slave workers in Germany: “Get out of our way.”
Possibly some better evidence might reveal many examples of conspicuous large scale fraternization. I certainly hope so. But meanwhile I think it imperative for anyone writing or even thinking about events in Germany during the war years to give the problem serious consideration.
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