4. Use and abuse of forced labour Flashcards
As the First Architect of the Reich, extensive use of stone in his architectural designs were to suite?
Hitler’s vision of a thousand year Reich to ensure that the buildings would last, reinforcing Hitler’s Nazi ideal
What does Historian Fest state?
he “turned Hitler’s words to stone”.
What did his architectural pursuits mean?
his projects required labourers from concentration camps to be involved in intensive labour
Speer’s success as Armaments Minister can largely be attributed to?
the use of forced labour and the exploitation of foreign workers and prisoners of war
who did Speer avert his blame to?
his deputy, Sauckel
A french worker, Jean Michel, described the sight of Dora camp as?
The missile slaves, from France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Russia, Poland,[And many more] toiled eighteen hours a day”.
what does quote from Jean Michel reveal?
his expanding national power into bordering occupied countries
Although Speer did order some improvements at Dora (Nordhausen), the visit is significant because ?
undermines Speer’s claim that he had no knowledge of the conditions under which prisoners were kept
Quote of Speer stating he never visited concentration camp?
“In all my activities as Armament Minister I never once visited a labour camp, and cannot, therefore, give any information about them”
what happened at Mauthausen concentration camp ?
given VIP tour/visit
the manufacture of armaments and weapons were at the centre of the ?
the war effort
why did Speer use his influence?
in order to ‘access’ workers from foreign sources
where were the workers/slaves kept?
sub-camps that were systematically placed by Speer near important armament production sites, where the forced labour of the prisoners was needed
A prime example of Speer’s significant contribution to his international history was his?
use of Russian prisoners of war in his factories
why was use of Russian prisoners of war in his factories significant?
violated the principles of the Geneva Convention which outlawed the use of prisoners of war in forced labour situations.
why was commitment and use of the forced labour in the regime so significant ?
because of the way this facet of the war stained Germany and how it shadows his architectural success
What does both Van der Vat and Sereny point out?
that Speer visited Mauthausen Camp near Linz in March 1943 and also the Dora camp in December 1942 with existing documentation. Van der Vat called it an ‘SS factory’, while Sereny described it as a ‘concentration camp-cum- labour camp’
In historiography what phrase often used in order to describe the sub-camps?
the phrase ‘extermination through work’
Bullock state about terrible conditions?
states that ‘they slept on the ground in terrible underground factories’
