Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Map of Poland
- 1 From “Ethnic Cleansing” to Genocide to the “Final Solution”: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, 1939–1941
- 2 Nazi Policy: Decisions for the Final Solution
- 3 Jewish Workers in Poland: Self-Maintenance, Exploitation, Destruction
- 4 Jewish Workers and Survivor Memories: The Case of the Starachowice Labor Camp
- 5 German Killers: Orders from Above, Initiative from Below, and the Scope of Local Autonomy – The Case of Brest–Litovsk
- 6 German Killers: Behavior and Motivation in the Light of New Evidence
- Postscript
- Index
3 - Jewish Workers in Poland: Self-Maintenance, Exploitation, Destruction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Map of Poland
- 1 From “Ethnic Cleansing” to Genocide to the “Final Solution”: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, 1939–1941
- 2 Nazi Policy: Decisions for the Final Solution
- 3 Jewish Workers in Poland: Self-Maintenance, Exploitation, Destruction
- 4 Jewish Workers and Survivor Memories: The Case of the Starachowice Labor Camp
- 5 German Killers: Orders from Above, Initiative from Below, and the Scope of Local Autonomy – The Case of Brest–Litovsk
- 6 German Killers: Behavior and Motivation in the Light of New Evidence
- Postscript
- Index
Summary
Historians of the Holocaust have generally accepted that the Nazi regime gave a fundamental priority to racial ideology over economic utility in carrying out the Final Solution. Perhaps the most succinct and emphatic statement in this regard was the cryptic message of December 18, 1941: “In principle, economic considerations are not to be taken into account in the settlement of the [Jewish] problem.” It is my purpose not to dispute but rather to qualify this axiom of Nazi Jewish policy through an examination of the German exploitation and destruction of Jewish labor in Poland.
I will argue for four points. First, Nazi policy toward the use of Jewish labor in Poland differed in both time and place. Conclusions drawn from a single camp or single phase of occupation are generalized only at the risk of considerable distortion. The story is a complex one. Second, in the German use of Jewish labor in Poland, economic considerations were taken seriously by many Germans but only within and not as a challenge to the parameters set by political and ideological factors. Third, even within these ideological parameters there was no consensus among the Germans over the use of Jewish labor, and productive utilization of Jewish labor often faced opposition and sabotage from both local and higher authorities. In 1942–43, Himmler himself was the driving spirit behind the destruction of Jewish labor, apparently finding “destruction through labor” an unsatisfactory policy in most circumstances.
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- Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers , pp. 58 - 88Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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