There were various forms of forced labor under National Socialism. Many people had to perform hard labor under precarious conditions.
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Stemwede under National Socialism
Forced labor
Many camps were set up in the German Reich during the Nazi era. "Human material" for the camps was procured at home and abroad by means of compulsory conscription, coercive measures and acts of violence. Even supposedly "voluntary" workers were strictly "controlled" or "monitored", and accommodation was often precarious.
In the Dielingen/Wehdem and Levern offices at this time, there were Hitler Youth and BDM labor camps, camps for the compulsory Reich Labor Service (RAD), a Nazi training camp (regional leadership school), civilian labor camps for Polish forced laborers, Eastern labor camps for Soviet forced laborers and prisoner of war camps. In addition, "purges" were carried out to transfer undesirables to labor education camps, concentration camps and extermination camps. Forced laborers were deployed in local businesses or on farms.
In 1944, almost 200 Eastern workers - from infants to adults - lived in the Levern district alone.
Stemwede under National Socialism
A fugitive worker
On December 18, 1942, the civilian worker Iwan Losctyn appeared at the home of an Oppendorf farmer. He said he wanted to visit his parents, who were housed and employed there as forced laborers. According to his own statement, Losctyn had left the labor camp of a colliery in Castrop-Rauxel without permission. He could not stand the work there and preferred to work on the farm with his parents. On January 14, 1943, the Gestapo decided that Losctyn had breached his contract and had to be arrested and transferred to the Bochum police prison by collective transport. On January 31, 1943, he was handed over to the transport leader at Lemförde station by the gendarmerie sergeant from Oppenwehe.
On February 1, 1943, the Oppendorf farmer asked the district director to send the civilian worker back to him. "He had (...) rarely had such a hard-working and otherwise useful worker." The mayor wrote to the Gestapo that he had no objections in principle "if Losztyn returned to the farmer after serving the prison sentence imposed on him" for the unauthorized change of location. There is no evidence of a return to Oppendorf.
Stemwede under National Socialism
Wilhelm in the RAD
Wilhelm was born on October 3, 1912 as the only son and heir to a farmer's farm in Sundern, Amt Levern. On February 2, 1933, he applied for a police clearance certificate because he had to do his compulsory service in the RAD. This labor service was compulsory for young men in the Nazi state. He completed his Reich Labor Service in Oppenwehe. There, the RAD workers were primarily deployed under military drill to drain the Oppenwehe moor and make it usable for agriculture. Medical care in the camp was poor and illnesses were only treated late. For example, a bacterial infection in Wilhelm developed into an inflammation of the middle ear. Wilhelm was transferred to Lübbecke Hospital on August 27th, as his illness had progressed so far that an operation was necessary. Wilhelm died as a result of this middle ear infection. As he had not yet acquired a German Labor Front entitlement at the time, a death grant was not paid out.
Contemporary witnesses about forced laborers
from "Zwischen Fahnenspruch und Dreschkasten", © Medienwerkstatt Minden-Lübbecke e.V. on behalf of the municipality of Stemwede
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