Language:
English
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
29 (2001) 65-107
Keywords:
Organisation Todt (Germany)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
In 1941-42, 350 Jews from four labor camps under the auspices of Organisation Schmelt in Upper Silesia were disguised as employees of Organisation Todt and sent to the eastern front for work on rehabilitating the Soviet railway system. Based mainly on survivors' accounts, reconstructs the story of this work detail. It is difficult to ascertain which German office initiated the deployment of Jewish forced laborers for railway work near the frontline. Nonetheless, in the fall of 1941, the Jewish slave laborers were collected in the Gross-Masselwitz camp near Breslau and, after receiving Todt uniforms, were sent to Sebezh (Pskov region, Russia). Many of them died due to the harsh conditions: the hard work, frost, and typhus. In March 1942, the survivors were returned to Silesia. Subsequently, most of them perished in Gross-Rosen and Auschwitz.
Note:
See also in Hebrew
,
Appeared in Russian as "Евреи под началом организации Тодта на оккупированных советских территориях (октябрь 1941-март 1942 года)" in "Яд Вашем; исследования" (2010) 275-311.
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