WW2 GERMAN NAZI HOLOCAUST FORCED LABOR OST PATCH Ostarbeiter FROM FOREIGN EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE WORKERS
| Price(USD): | $150.00 |
WW2 GERMAN NAZI HOLOCAUST FORCED LABOR OST PATCH Ostarbeiter FROM FOREIGN EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE WORKERS
VERY RARE AND HIGHLY HISTORICAL ITEM.
A MOST ADD TO ANY HOLOCAUST - CONCENTRATION CAMP COLLECTION !!
Ostarbeiter (meaning "Eastern worker") was a Nazi German designation for foreign slave workers gathered from occupied Central and Eastern Europe to perform forced labor in Germany during World War II. Deportations of civilians conducted since the beginning of war, reached unprecedented levels following Operation Barbarossa of 1941.
The Ostarbeiters were apprehended from the newly formed German districts of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, General Government Distrikt Galizien, and Reichskommissariat Ostland which comprised the territories of German occupied Poland as well as formerly Soviet occupied Poland since 1939, and the Soviet Union itself. According to Pavel Polian over 50% of Ostarbeiters were formerly Soviet subjects originating from the territory of modern-day Ukraine, followed by Polish women workers, approaching 30%.[2] Among the Eastern workers were ethnic Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, Russians, Tatars, and others.[3] Estimates of the number of Ostarbeiter range between 3 million and 5.5 million.[2] By 1944 most new workers were very young, under the age of 16, as those older than that were usually conscripted for service in Germany; 30% were as young as 12–14 years of age when they were taken from their homes.[2][4] The age limit was dropped to 10 in November 1943.[2] Since about half of the adolescents were female, Ostarbeiter were often the victims of rape and tens of thousands of pregnancies due to rape occurred.[5] Ostarbeiter were often given starvation rations and were forced to live in guarded camps. Many died from starvation, overwork, bombing (they were frequently denied access to bomb shelters), abuse and execution carried out by their German overseers.
