'Slave labor' id booklet, the Arbeitsbuch fur Auslander...

[seahawk11]

Just getting off the BDM thing for now. This might a bit of a tangent, though I think this qualifies as a 'woman in the Reich'.
The Germans brought in over 7 million people from conquered territories to work for their industry. They were issued Arbeitsbuchs (work books) just like a German worker would, though a picture of the worker is affixed in the Auslander Arbeitsbuch. This particular young woman was from the Ukraine, and worked in an agricultural capacity from 1942 until shortly after the end of the war.
Incidentally, this is the very first id book/card/ausweis I ever bought.
Best,
Tony
[email protected]

[seahawk11]

This book is interesting in that the identity photos the Germans issued very rarely show any hats, headgear, or covering of any type.

[Vikki]

Tony,

Thought you might like to see the "business pages" of one of mine, whose holder was very similar in background to the woman in yours.

This Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer is also one of the first female identity documents I bought. Note the "OST" insignium on her lapel.

~FV

[seahawk11]

That IS a nice id book...the OST patch is definetely a plus...and she is just a kid!
Nice work.
Tony

[Vikki]

Thanks! Glad you like it. Yes, she is young, and looks even younger in the picture than she actually was---only 18 when the book was issued in 1944, although she’d been working as a Landarbeiterin since a year before, when she was 17.

Below is a similar document, an Arbeitskarte für ausländische Arbeitskräfte (Workcard for Foreign Labour). At one time, at least, it appears to have been part of a larger document, from the staple holes on the folded edge and the bits of different paper still glued to that side. But it would have been used in conjunction with an Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer; the insert references the holder’s Arbeitsbuch number, and the pre-printed “A” on that line is the series used in Workbooks for foreigners. And even with the extra border for the staples, the document has been folded in half and fits almost perfectly inside an Arbeitsbuch.

It’s a shame that the details of the open document came out so small in the scan, because in addition to the holder’s details, the instructions on the right page are interesting. They state that the Karte is good for either agricultural work (with a green [bordered] slip, as in this case) or industrial work (with a gray slip). Below that, in eleven languages, is the notation that this Arbeitskarte is good exclusively for work for the employer listed on the opposite page, and is no longer valid if the holder leaves that post.

[RTFREY]

This is an additional post to another on the Foreign Workers Book.

It shows a nice photo of the OST [ East ] patch on the womans Right Breast. This patch, or sometimes a badge does not appear on all ID photos.

Her name was Olena Lisjuk, who was born in KIEV, and worked as a spinner in a German flax mill [ J.A.Kluge ] located in Czechkoslavakia.

[Matt Gibbs]

Incidentally can we just clarify if these are for "slave" labourers or volunteer workers who, in order to make money and get a job, went to work for the internal economy of the "new" greater Reich..?
ttfn

[Siegfried Wilhelm]

I doubt any of these people wanted to be where they were, and would just as soon have been left alone.
Also I doubt Albert Speer got his twenty years in Spandau for his generous employment benefits package.
These are not Germans, but citizens of other countries who were transported to the 'New Greater Reich' in not the best of circumstances.
There is a multitude of personal accounts published that bear this out.
Slave, conscript, forced labor, or whatever, can sometimes be a fine point to those enduring such. I would assume that if they were paid they could not be exactly called 'slave'...but when considering the consequences of any attempt to 'quit' and go somewhere else, I wonder.

SW~