In an interview, historian Susanne Meinl provides insight into her research into forced labor in Pullach.
Pullach
– Historian Susanne Meinl has already written about the Nazi model settlement in Pullach and the people who were persecuted for anti-Semitic reasons in the community. She has been working on a third book for the Pullach series for three years - the subject is the forced laborers who were used here. She recently presented her research results at the community center, and the book “Foreign Hands Work” will be published in the fall. In an interview with the Münchner Merkur, Susanne Meinl gives insight into her research.
Forced labor did not only affect the prisoners of war who were deployed everywhere.
No, women and men who were recruited through the Reich German employment offices also performed “unfree labor”. Those affected were literally deported, hundreds of thousands from the Soviet Union from 1942 alone.
There were also volunteers who hoped for a better life here.
They were specifically recruited in France, among other places; Nazi propaganda promised good accommodation and pay. Word soon got around in the countries of origin that this was not the case in reality. Workers from the eastern regions had to put their wages into eastern workers' savings accounts, which they could no longer access. There was hardly any vacation either.
One of those who recruited forces particularly mercilessly was Cajetan of Spreti.
He was a notorious SA leader, very violent, head of the employment offices in Kempten and Freising. The people on his recruiting committees were merciless human hunters.
How many forced and foreign workers were in Pullach?
It is difficult to give figures; many, such as Soviet prisoners, were not registered. I assume 2000 plus x for the years 1940 to 1945. Some were only accommodated in Pullach and worked elsewhere, others worked in Pullach but slept in Solln. Soviet workers also came here via the work detachments of the Moosburg prisoner of war camp.
What do you know about the countries of origin?
Most came from the Soviet Union, especially from Ukraine. Ukrainians were popular, they were willing and they didn't cost much. There was also a camp with around 100 French people in the industrial park in Höllriegelskreuth on the Isar. Czechs helped build the imperial settlement. The Reichsbahnmeisterei Großhesselohe even forced Soviet children and old people to work. Almost all nations from Europe were represented.
Not everyone, it can be assumed, were treated equally.
Scandinavians were considered a Germanic brotherhood, at the other end of the scale were Poles, Russians and Ukrainians. In between, the Greeks, for example, were seen as lazy and rebellious. Russian officers also had to do unfree work; 200 to 240 were employed at Häusler in Baierbrunn.
Where else were the people deployed?
At Linde, a quarter to a fifth of the workforce consisted of forced laborers; large 'requirements', as the companies in question were called in Nazi official German, were also the Electrochemical Works, now United Initiators, and the Isarwerke in Höllriegelskreuth. Richtberg also lived from forced labor in Baierbrunn, but foreign workers were also forced to work on farms and in private households.
Were the forced laborers visible to the people of Pullach?
Not only that, but you could see that they weren't feeling well. In the imperial settlement they asked for work after work in exchange for a bowl of soup. And: The barracks were everywhere, and forced laborers had also been quartered in the Rabenwirt hall since 1941 at the latest.
Your research has confirmed that there was an external concentration camp command in Pullach.
Everything points to this, we have three statements from different sides. A French worker reported in his diary about prisoners in striped work clothes who had to load coal; a Linde worker had observed prisoners defusing unexploded bombs. Some of the records are in the municipal archives.
Are there any other results that surprised you?
It was also not known that there was a prisoner of war camp in the industrial park.
They do not rule out the possibility that there is a mass grave of children in the area.
I am particularly moved by the fate of the forced laborer babies, as they could not survive. In the beginning, anyone who became pregnant was sent home, but that changed later. The rumor that the infants were buried on the Isar in Höllriegelskreuth has been around for a long time.
They also researched the horrific fate of a 15-year-old Ukrainian who was extradited to the Gestapo.
Nikolai Krotenko was probably accused of sabotage or was politically active. The result was an odyssey through various concentration camps; he was liberated in Gusen, then his trace was lost. We looked for offspring, but couldn't find any.
What made your research so complex?
I came across an incredible number of names that were difficult to follow up on. Not all relatives we were able to contact were interested in an exchange. I didn't get access to company archives, neither at Linde nor at United Initiators.