Portal on Forced Labour in the National Socialist State

The prisoners of war, the Italian military Internees and the majority of the Western European forced labourers were not considered in the eligibility requirements of the German Foundation Law. Germany enforced the compliance with the principle of German legislation on compensation in such kind that for the verification of an etitlement of benefits, primarily the legal status of victims, was supposed to prevail and that the severity of the harm suffered should only be a secondary criterion when fixing the amount of payments to be made.

Prisoners of War

Prisoners of war would only receive payment if they had been detained in a concentration camp and - irrespective of their status otherwise - would be covered by the victim category A of the Foundation Law. They could only receive any benefits according to category B, when they were transferred from their POW status in the so-called civil status.

Italian "Military Internees"

This concerned the group of Italian POWs (Military Internees) comprising of approximately 500,000 men. They were soldiers of the Italian army, who refused to fight side by side with the Germans following Mussolini’s overthrow and the armistice agreed between Italy and the Allied in summer 1943. Their transfer into the civilian status in autumn 1943 was adjugded legally ineffective in a report commissioned by the Federal Government.

Western European Civilian Forced Labourers

Western European forced labourers were being excluded from benefits when they had not been deployed under conditions of detention. The reason was that forced labourers from the Western European states were normally not exposed to any racist discrimination and not held prisoner in camps. The substitutional clause that applied to Eastern European forced labourers, who had performed forced labour and who had been held prisoner in a detention camp or who had to live under comparable extremely bad living conditions, did not lead to an eligibility for benefits in category B. In category A (internment in a concentration camp or ghetto) they received the same benefits as all others eligible for benefits.