Ostarbeiter, Slave labor or volunteer? German occupied Latvia, Reichsarbeitsdienst & die Waffen SS

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Episode 108

This nice footage of the German advance in Latvia in July of 1941 goes well with the second part of the series on occupied Latvia. In part 1 we saw how conscription was initiated by the occupation authorities building Police battalions that would eventually be converted into front line Waffen SS formations. Here we will look at the process Latvian volunteers went through when joining the labor service, which was comparable to the German Reichsarteitsdient (logo). At the end of the video I’ve added raw footage of Riga just after the German’s entered so stick around, it’s worth it.

Before we jump into the content I’d like to respond to a chain of comments that were recently posted. If you’ve seen my videos you know that I use primary source documents that I translate and then show directly. A number of viewers asked why the Germans would write the report in English….and pointed out that the translated document’s paper looks old and so must be fake. Yes, it is fake. I should take this as a compliment to my Photoshop skills. I’d like to thank my Patreon supporters for making the purchasing of these documents possible. If you are not yet a supporter please consider becoming one.

Also, a Russian asked why I don’t differentiate between the words Russia and the Soviet Union or Russian and communist. This is a great question and I agree completely unfortunately he deleted his question before I had a change to answer. For example I don’t calculate the war in Ukraine to all Russians. They live under a fascist regime and most, including the poor conscripted soldiers, can do little about the situation. When I translate original sources I leave the words they way they are. The original authors didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand the nuanced differences.

This short clip showing a recruiting poster brings everything together. It states. Young men who were born between 1920 - 1922 from Ostland can volunteer for the Arbeitsdienst which was the German labor service. Labor service is honorable service. You can have the honor of joining the uniformed ranks of the Reichsarbeitsdienst in Germany and serving for a year. Applications are being accepted at your regional Occupational Headquarters from the 1st to the 31st of January 1942.

This propaganda film that was shown in theaters before feature films intended to excite young Latvians to join up for a year of labor service in Germany.

The narrative that all foreign workers in Germany were slave laborers is simply false. As common sense would dictate during the years when it seemed that Germany would win the war living and working in the economically advanced German society seemed an opportunity to many. As the war progressed and the prospect became less advantageous forced conscription became more common. Germany needed the workforce and if enough volunteers could not be found then they would be found. At the end of the war it made little sense for any of the Ostarbeiter, laborers from the east, to claim to be there voluntarily. The Soviets were less interested in these nuances and saw repatriated laborers as politically suspect.

As we can see the idea was to make the selection process look rigorous. To be accepted was an accomplishment worthy of strived for. There was no bait and switch, it was clear to all for which cause they’d be working.

Here we see him with his new salute wishing luck to those waiting in line to sign up.

Having been accepted as members of the few, the proud, they are given a pep speech by the representatives of the Reichsarbeitsdienst. They all look determined focusing on the serious matter at hand which just might have been staged for the camera. Their families look on proudly.

And now we see the stoic, determined stare of the new members You are either with us, or against us.

Rations for the 2-day train journey back to Germany are loaded into the boxcars at the strain station where friends, family members and girlfriends have gathered to bid farewell to the labor service volunteers. They had signed up for one year of service but as things turned out, it’s likely that many of them never saw each other again.