Women’s History Month 2024: Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany 1939-1945

One of the goals of Women’s History Month is to make visible the women who have been forgotten or largely ignored over the centuries. It’s about acknowledging the unrecognized trailblazers who changed the world. It’s about digging into archives to reclaim lost stories. It’s about bringing to light the impact of local, national and international events on the lives of everyday women.​  One such event was the occupation of Poland by Germany during World War II and the policy of forcing the civil population (often at gunpoint) to leave their home country and work for the Germans in order to keep their war economy operating at full speed.

Polish women forced laborers digging peat in the area of Großmoor, Celle District,  Lower Saxony  Photo: AFPNP( Fundacja „Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie”) Visible on the woman in the back left of the photo is the required "P" patch on the left side of her apron which marked her as a Pole.

​Polish women had to leave their families, their children and husbands and sent to Germany to work in industry, agriculture and in various private sectors against their will and often throughout the entire war period. Many died there from tuberculosis, maltreatment and as "collateral damage" during the last days of the war. 

Graves of Polish forced laborers at the cemetery in Waltersdorf in the district of Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany that died in air raids in 1944.  Photo: AFPNP(Fundacja "Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie.”). The young woman on the left is wearing the required "P" patch.

​The end of the war brought liberation and freedom but many would never be the same again. May their story never be forgotten.

 Wearing the Letter "P" Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany 1939-1945.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9pOnS399Vw