Polish forced labourers in Witten, 1940–1945

The scale of the forced labour in Witten
 

The Annen cast steelworks were not the only place where forced labourers were made to work: they were also used on farms, in various different trades and in other factories producing armaments, or even in private households. The majority of the forced labourers were the so-called “Ostarbeiter” (“workers from the east”), who made up around 50% of all the prisoners working in Witten.[10] The forced labourers in Witten also included Soviet and Italian prisoners of war.[11] A far smaller number of the forced labourers who were made to work in Witten came from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Czechoslovakia.[12] 

A short time after the invasion of Poland, Polish civilian workers and prisoners of war were deported to Witten as labourers, and were mainly put to work on local farms.[13] The majority of the Polish forced labourers in Witten were civilians. The latest research has uncovered evidence of at least 391 Polish forced labourers who were made to work in different areas of industry in the area now covered by the town of Witten.[14] In addition, the names of 71 other Poles have been identified, who came to Witten on the first transport train in 1944, and who were made to work at the AGW factory. In the memorial volume for the victims of forced labour in Witten written by the historian Klaus Völkel, reference is made to 700 Polish civilian forced labourers as the lowest estimate.[15] Since Polish forced labourers were often made to work in private households due to their increased use on farms, we can assume that the real figure is higher.

Of the verified fatalities among the forced labourers in Witten, 51 of the victims came from Poland.[16] By the end of the war, approximately 5% of the total number of forced labourers in Witten had died.[17]