Labour Service and the System of Forced and Community Labour in Occupied Odesa (1941-1944)
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Abstract
The Romanian occupation regime is usually perceived in a rather formulaic way – extermination of Jews, looting and removal of valuables as trophies, cruel treatment of the civilian population and its devastating exploitation. Without denying all these standard aspects, one should try to understand that in reality the occupation authorities were not interested in the total destruction of the captured population. The population is the resource that should work and benefit the new owners. And if it does not meet active resistance, then the authorities must find a way to use it to get the maximum benefit. At the same time, it is necessary to minimize costs and create a system where such work will be profitable. At the same time, the population must be busy so as not to invent other things for themselves, and the minimum material security is just enough to prevent serious social explosions. It is this experience of the Romanian occupation authorities that is interesting to study, as one of the little-known pages of the history of the Second World War.
The Romanian occupation authorities in Transnistria, like any other occupation authorities that did not aim at the total destruction of the entire captured population, treated its adult part primarily as a resource. The conquered inhabitants of the new territories had to work and pay taxes. In addition, a system of forced and public works was formed to eliminate the consequences of hostilities: clearing rubble, barricades, destroyed buildings; restoring infrastructure; and building important facilities. We usually assume that prisoners of war, detainees, and the Jewish population of the ghetto before its destruction were involved in such tasks.
Using the example of Odesa, it becomes clear that the Romanians used such works as a way to engage the population in work for a minimum wage or food, which removed the need to feed the population of the occupied city for free and made it possible to normalise the life of a large city in a short time.
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