Overview

During World War II, 8 million people from abroad were forced to work in Germany, making up 30% of the workforce. By 1993, when a film on this topic was completed, there was little public awareness in Germany of this massive mobilisation of slave labour. The film explores the victims’ perspectives and the perpetrators’ motivations and methods, detailing how the system evolved from recruiting Italian volunteers to deportation, racist oppression, and slave labour. Director Wolfgang Bergmann used archive material from 10 countries and eyewitness accounts from 8 European states. Forced labourers were a visible part of German society, yet their legality and the guilt of those responsible were rarely questioned, even after Germany’s surrender. This chapter of history was largely repressed and forgotten. The film was made after the 1989 changes, during a time when xenophobic crimes were rising, with West German right-wing extremists gaining followers in East Germany.