Arbeiten in Hitlers Europa : die Organisation Todt in Frankreich und Italien 1940-1945

Anyone who asks about forced labor in Hitler's Europe has to talk about the Organization Todt (OT). As the largest construction organization in the Nazi state, it carried out important military work in all German-occupied areas and employed local workers and companies on a large scale. How did this mobilization succeed? How did the incentives relate to coercion, what were the working and living conditions? Fabian Lemmes answers these questions for occupied France and occupied Italy. The OT meant hundreds of thousands of forced labor, but often also the choice of the lesser evil. Lemmes shows that the mobilization would not have been possible without the collaboration of local administrations and companies and that it worked quite well despite the alleged administrative chaos of the Nazi polycracy. Originally published as the author's thesis (Ph. D.--Florenz) under the title: "Arbeiten für das Reich". 770 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm