“Labor Jews”

The National Socialists initially referred to those Jews who were conscripted into forced labor in the German Reich from the end of 1938 as “Labor Jews”. The term was later also used for those persons who were not directly murdered in the concentration and extermination camps, but were selected and exploited as laborers. For this purpose, the National Socialists established their own forced labor camps for the Jewish population in the German Reich and in the occupied territories. Jews forced into ghettos in the Generalgouvernement were also obliged to perform forced labor outside the ghettos. Due to the extreme working conditions, the death rate among Jewish forced laborers was particularly high. Many were also killed when they were no longer able to work due to exhaustion, hunger and disease. The “Labor Jews” also included the “Special Commandos” in the concentration and extermination camps, whose task it was to search the clothes and belongings of the murdered, and to take jewelry and dental gold from the corpses.