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[Seite: - 1 -] [An Article in the "Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland"] Chief Labor Leader Eisenbeck[1] writes in the "Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland"[2]: "When the wide plains of the former Polish and Russian possessions will be filled with settlers and `wehrhaften' (warriorlike) peasants, this territory will change its face. The spade of the Reich's Labor Service will contribute as strongly to the increase of output from the soil, the cultivating of virgin soil and brush, of waste and moor and the opening of the country through highways and commercial communication ... Norwegians, Flemings, Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Slovaks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Croats, Rumanians, all of these help to rebuild und build toward one another. They are united by the youthfulness of their peoples; peoples who have chosen the spade as a weapon of peace. They all participate in rebuilding their country and the whole of Europe. Out of this common task will spring a community of youth, which will fight Bolshevism. In the rebuilding and in their mutual fight, a new comradeship comes to life which will rejuvenate Europe and will lead it to a new future. "This is the spirit out of which the Call for Free Corps for the Eastern Front has been issued to the former Republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The Youth of these countries who followed the call in unexpected numbers pledge themselves to a new, young and virile Europe and take leave from the decadent senile peoples of Liberalism, Capitalism, Marxism and Bolshevism. These Youth have pledged themselves to the future of the European community and have joined the glorious example of Greater Germany. This decision is truly and verily the beginning of a new era for National Health, Peace and Prosperity for their peoples, whom they serve best in this way. They will devotedly work in the great German Reich for the peace under which all young nations will grow into a big community and will help to give, under the protection of arms, a contents and meaning to a new Europe." "More Men, more Machines". [An Article] by von Kestenholz[3] "Europe Kabel[4], Europaeische Wirtschaftszeitung" "We have at present (end of 1941) about 2,200,000 foreign laborers in Germany. They are composed of:
It is the question how large a labor reserve in Europe can be utilized by Germany. It is hard to make a correct estimate. A possibility of estimating is given in the unemployment figures. In the middle of 1941, there were unemployed:
[Seite im Original:] - 2- "That is 1,123,000. There are no new figures for Rumania, former Yugoslavia, Norway and Finland. If we estimate for these districts, 70,000, we will have about 1,200,000 people available. These figures do not include part-time workers which would increase the possibility for the labor forces immensely. Unemployment figures are not identical with available labor reserves. They give, rather, the minimum which is available. However, the transformation of the economy in some European countries into agriculture will demand more farm laborers there. But here will be also numerous workers who will be unemployed when industries in those sections are curtailed. At least these figures prove that outside the main European Axis countries, there is still a large labor reserve available. But there is not an unlimited amount of reserve forces, and one has to consider that the working standard of those coming from non-Axis countries will be rather lower than the normal standard in German industry. (We will not deny that we received from the South, West and North, a number of highly qualified laborers.) From Germany the very best men are at the front. We, therefore, take young people from Rumania, for example, and train them. "This means that to some degree the machine has to replace men. As new workers will use more time to get the same results as the former German workers got. Therefore, many processes will have to be automatic. New machines have to be built. The development will go this way: In addition to the emergency demand for weapons and implements of war which output has to be increased, a second field of concentration for production will be the building of factory machinery. Then it will be much easier to get along on the available labor forces." |