Language:
English
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
36,2 (2008) 45-71
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
World War, 1939-1945 Conscript labor
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Economic aspects
Abstract:
The rich deposits of high quality oil shale in Northeastern Estonia and Germany's acute and ever-growing need for oil brought about the establishment of a network of forced labor camps in Estonia during World War II. With the growing shortage of manpower, the Germans from summer 1943 began bringing Jews as a work force to the labor camps at the Estonian shale mines and oil refineries - first from Lithuania and Latvia, later also from Greater Hungary and France. The percentage of Jewish workers grew in 1943-44; they were exploited by both Baltic Oil Ltd. and Organization Todt at fortification works. The imminent German retreat from Estonia in 1944 raised the question of whether Jewish workers should be evacuated or should work to the last hour. In September 1944, when evacuation began, a large part of the ca. 9,000 Jewish workers was murdered by the SS in the Klooga camp and elsewhere. Argues that German economic interests ensured the survival of a majority of Jewish slave laborers in Estonia until their evacuation. Thus, in the specific case of Estonia, "survival through labor" rather than "extermination through labor" took place.
Note:
English and Hebrew.
,
Appeared in Russian as "Бизнес выживания: ООО 'Балтийская нефть' и лагеря принудительного труда для евреев в Эстонии" in "Яд Вашем; исследования" (2010) 313-341.
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