Guide

Forced labourers in the Reich

For families of Poles taken to work in the Reich – in factories, mines and on farms – after street round-ups, on labour office orders or after expulsion from their homes. Workers were taken from occupied Poland from 1939, and after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising nearly 150,000 people were sent from the Pruszków camp to forced labour or to concentration camps. By cautious estimates, in spring 1945 there were more than 7 million foreign workers in Germany, over one and a half million of them Poles; after the war many spent months or years in displaced persons' camps.

How to search

1. 01Start with family papers: a German work book (Arbeitsbuch), work card (Arbeitskarte), insurance receipt card (Quittungskarte) with contribution stamps, letters and photographs from the workplace, and any post-war repatriation documents. The employer's or farm's name, the town and the years of work are the key to everything that follows.
2. 02Next, search the Arolsen Archives online collection. It is the largest body of records on civilian forced labourers in the Reich (including some 4.2 million items in the Kriegszeitkartei card index) and on displaced persons after 1945; it holds almost nothing on forced labour inside the occupied countries. Search by surname, first name, maiden name, place and date of birth.
3. 03Also check the IPN database straty.pl, which has a separate category for forced labourers and records the employer, place and dates of work. If the relative is not there, the family can add them through the questionnaire on the site.
4. 04Then write to the IPN's Second World War Victims Information Centre. The IPN Archive holds card indexes of forced labourers, among them from Brandenburg, Pomerania, Thuringia, Baden, the Hamburg area, Siemens plants in Berlin and the Kraków labour office. The form asks for the first name, surname, date of birth (an approximate year will do), the parents' first names and the place of residence during the war.
5. 05In parallel, send an enquiry to the Arolsen Archives through its form (also in Polish); the site gives an average reply time of 5 months and a maximum of 13. The compensation claims that forced labourers filed with the Polish-German Reconciliation Foundation between 1992 and 2007 often describe workplaces in detail; according to reports from 2012 the foundation's archive was being taken over by the Central Archives of Modern Records (AAN, Milanówek branch), so that is where to ask about these files.
6. 06For background, read other labourers' accounts: the eyewitness archive of the Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre in Berlin and the online interview archive 'Forced Labor 1939–1945'. The Berlin centre does not trace individuals outside Berlin and refers such enquiries to Arolsen.

Where to search

• Online searchArolsen Archives – online archive and enquiries ↗The main collection of records on civilian forced labourers in the Reich and on displaced persons after 1945; part of the scans can be searched online by name. For the rest, use the enquiry form (also in Polish); there are almost no records on labour inside the occupied countries.collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search
• Archive / collectionSecond World War Victims Information Centre (IPN Archive) – forced labourers' card indexes ↗Card indexes of Polish forced labourers from several regions of the Reich, individual factories and labour offices, as well as labour office files and work books. Families ask through the 'Prześlij zapytanie' (send an enquiry) form, by e-mail or by post.ofiary.ipn.gov.pl/ofi/z-archiwum-ipn/pracownicy-przymusowi/kartoteki-robotnikow-pr
• Online searchPersonal Losses and Victims of Repression under German Occupation (IPN) ↗IPN name database of victims and repressed people under German occupation, with a separate category for forced labourers (type of work, employer, place and dates). Search by surname, parents' first names, place and date of birth.straty.pl/szukaj-osoby.php
• Archive / collectionNazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre, Berlin ↗An eyewitness archive of interviews, letters, photographs and documents from former forced labourers, and a library. As a rule it does not answer enquiries about individuals or places of work outside Berlin, and refers them to Arolsen.ns-zwangsarbeit.de/en
• Online search'Forced Labor 1939–1945. Memory and History' archive ↗Nearly 600 recorded interviews with former forced labourers from 26 countries, with transcripts, photographs and short biographies (Freie Universität Berlin and partners). Access after online registration; a source of testimony, not a search for particular individuals.zwangsarbeit-archiv.de/en

We checked the addresses and holdings on these institutions' own websites. Their rules can change, so check their current pages before sending a request.

Read in the chronicle

• 1945Eisenhower's appeal to the GermansOn 31 March 1945 Eisenhower called on Wehrmacht soldiers to stop fighting and on forced labourers to leave the factories and railway junctions.
• 1943Compulsory labour in the ReichSauckel's decree of 27 January 1943 required German men aged 16–65 and women aged 17–45 to register for work in the defence of the Reich.
• 1944The surrender of the Warsaw UprisingOn 2 October 1944 an agreement ending the Warsaw Uprising was signed at Ożarów. The Home Army received combatant rights; the city's people were expelled.
• 1939The annexation of Polish lands and the General GovernmentOn 26 October 1939 Hitler’s decrees took effect. Western Poland was annexed to the Reich and central Poland became Hans Frank’s General Government.
• 1945The encirclement of the RuhrOn 1 April 1945 the US First and Ninth Armies met at Lippstadt. Model's Army Group B – 320,000–370,000 men – was trapped in the Ruhr Pocket.
• 1945The siege of Breslau beginsOn 13 February 1945 troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front closed the ring around Breslau (Wrocław). The siege of Festung Breslau lasted until 6 May.
• 1945The flight from East PrussiaAround 20 January 1945 a mass flight of civilians began from East Prussia. Koch had long banned evacuation, so the wagon columns left too late, in bitter frost.