Who produced the brochure and in what context?

The brochure “Europe is Working Germany – Sauckel mobilises the labour reserves” is a propaganda document published in the spring of 1943.

Written by Friedrich Didier at the behest of Joseph Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, it presents the work of the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment, Fritz Sauckel. The pamphlet was intended to convince the German population of the usefulness of the greatly expanded use of foreign forced labour in the German Reich. It was also translated into several languages and used to recruit workers from occupied and allied countries.

What can we see?

The title, Sauckel’s foreword and Didier’s introduction refer to the Nazi claim that the German Reich was at war with the Soviet Union and the Western Allies to defend Europe against an alleged “Bolshevik” and “Jewish-capitalist” threat. Foreign workers, it was claimed, were therefore contributing to the defence of Europe by working in Germany’s war industry.

What does the brochure reveal about Nazi forced labour and what should we take account of when dealing with propaganda media in educational work?

Propaganda was a central element of Nazi policy and self-representation. They used posters, pamphlets and other propaganda media to manipulate people and evoke certain ideas and emotions.

Propaganda also played an important role in forced labour. The text and photographs in the brochure glorified the work of Sauckel’s agency, justified the use of forced labourers and whitewashed their living and working conditions. Propaganda photographs show civilian forced labourers on supposed day trips and enjoying parties in their free time.

Racist and antisemitic imagery plays a central role in the brochure. Photographs and captions, for example, echo and reinforce the racist image of simple and unclean people from the East who are now being educated in German order and cleanliness. Propaganda media give us an insight into how the Nazis justified their policies and the explanations they offered to those who saw themselves as part of the German “Volksgemeinschaft”, the “community of the People”.

What do we not see?

The reality of forced labourers' lives and the violent methods used to recruit them are not shown in propaganda media. The propaganda purpose of the brochure and the racist and antisemitic Nazi imagery it contains make a critical assessment and confrontation with the texts and photographs urgently necessary.

Cover of the brochure “Europe Works in Germany – Sauckel mobilises the labour reserves”, 1943 © Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit
Cover of the brochure “Europe Works in Germany – Sauckel mobilises the labour reserves”, 1943 © Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit
In order to prevent abuse, we have decided not to show the entire brochure here or offer it for download. It is available on request from the library of the Documentation Centre Nazi Forced Labour.
In order to prevent abuse, we have decided not to show the entire brochure here or offer it for download. It is available on request from the library of the Documentation Centre Nazi Forced Labour.

Literature

Herbert, Ulrich: Fremdarbeiter. Politik und Praxis des „Ausländer-Einsatzes“ in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches. Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz, 1999, chapter „‘Europäische Arbeiter gegen den Bolschewismus‘ – die Propaganda-Offensive nach Stalingrad“, pp. 275-283.