Hitler’s Slaves: Life Stories of Forced Labourers in Nazi-occupied Europe
I got this book through inter-library loan and was so blown away by it that I ordered my own copy, even though it’s expensive.
It is difficult to find first person accounts of Ostarbeiters. Most died at the hands of the Nazis. The bulk of the Ukrainian and Russian slave labourers who somehow managed to survive were “repatriated” to the Soviet Union, where they were sent to Soviet concentration camps for a slow death or shot outright for the crime of being captured by the Nazis.
This book is chock full of personal interviews with a number of Ukrainian and Russian Ostarbeiters, as well as Italian, French, Polish and Czech slave labourers. Also Jewish and Gypsy concentration camp labourers.
It is a treasure trove. Anyone interested in the untold stories of World War II should read this book.
