Recruitment of Labor in Polish Territories for Forced Work in the Reich during the Nazi Occupation

Abstract

This article offers an in-depth analysis of the Nazi German policy of forced labor recruitment in occupied Polish territories during World War II. The background of the study is the Third Reich’s growing militarization, which, in preparation for war, increasingly relied on foreign labor—especially skilled workers—to sustain its war economy.
The primary aim of the study is to examine the methods used by the Nazi authorities to recruit labor in Poland, the administrative structures responsible, the scale of deportations, and the forms of Polish resistance to this policy. The author draws on a wide array of sources, including German and Polish archives, official statistics, eyewitness testimonies, and scholarly literature.
The research shows that approximately 2.8 million people from the prewar Polish territories were deported to the Reich for labor. The vast majority of these deportations were coercive and marked by brutal methods such as street round-ups and police terror. Only a small percentage (a few percent) of departures were voluntary, usually driven by economic hardship or social pressure. Despite extensive efforts, Nazi authorities failed to meet their recruitment quotas, largely due to widespread passive and active resistance among the Polish population.
The article concludes that the forced labor policy was a central element of Nazi exploitation but ultimately fell short of its goals due to the scale of social resistance. The Polish population, though under extreme oppression, managed to mount a collective form of self-defense against one of the most repressive aspects of the German occupation.