“Eastern Workers”

The National Socialists referred to civilian forced laborers from the territories of the Soviet Union occupied as of June 22, 1941 as “Eastern Workers”. After initial attempts to recruit volunteers, the forcible deportation of some 2.8 million people to Germany very soon followed. More than half of them were women, whose average age was below 20. Whole families, many children and old people were also abducted. They had to visibly wear a badge with the inscription “OST” (east) on their clothes and were exposed to particularly bad conditions of work and accommodation. “Eastern Workers” formed the largest group of civilian forced laborers. After liberation, many of them were discriminated against or persecuted in the Soviet Union for alleged collaboration.