Roza's Story
While people still like to debate if there was really a holocaust or not, I can tell you a true story, just as disheartening, and one I did not learn at school nor in my history class. No, there was no mention of an Ostarbeiter, "eastern worker", in any of my text books that I can recall, maybe because my schooling came at a time when Social Studies was on the rise or because I wasn't paying enough attention?
I have a friend I'll call Roza who is from the Ukraine. She is still tormented by the trauma of having been taken from her family at the young age of 16 by police to be used for slave labor in Nazi Germany. She is in her nineties now and still calls out for her mother in her sleep.
Ukrainian Collaboration with Nazi Germany took place in 1941. The Ukrainians were willing to team up with Germany in hopes of regaining their independence from Russia and Stalin. This led to the Ukraine being occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941-1944. During this time children were taken from the Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and others to fill Germany's labor needs. Most were 12-14 years old, some were only 10.
Roza tried to run away from the police when they came for her and her sister but was not fast enough to get away. She was stolen away from her parents, her home, and her country. Shipped off in a packed freight car that was headed for the unknown, no bathroom, no food, no nothing.
After arriving at a labor camp in Germany, the authorities changed her age to be two years younger than what she actually was, cut off her beautiful long auburn hair, forced her to shower, gave her a uniform with an OST patch, and forced her to work and live in a guarded camp. Some of the camps were owned by large companies who used privately paid police services to guard them.
The Ostarbeiters were given starvation rations, which consisted of a bowl of soup/broth and coffee. They were classified by German authorities as "sub-humans" so relations between Germans and Easterners were banned and made punishable by death…by Himmler. Those who tried to escape were either hanged where all could see or shipped off to a concentration camp. Many died from starvation, from being overworked, abuse, bombings and by execution for trying to run away. From the trauma, many ended up in psychiatric hospitals where they were abused, murdered, and used for medical experiments.
Roza told me that her sister who was pregnant died of starvation. Half of the adolescents were female, often the victims of rape which led to tens of thousands of pregnancies. Hundreds of Special Nazi Birthing Centers were created in order to dispose of their infants. They were either euthanized or killed on site.
She earned a small amount of shillings per month that could only be used in the camp to buy things she would need…food, clothing, and board. One day she was late for work by a couple of minutes and they took 1/5 of her months wage away for it. Some were even denied wages.
Roza said at the end of the war she was given a choice to go home or come to America. Her mother was gone, she had died from a broken heart a year after her children had been taken, Roza and her husband decided to come to America. Following the war 2.5 million liberated slave laborers returned home only to suffer social ostracism in their own towns and homes. Some had to go to "re-education" classes as well, while others committed suicide due to the discrimination.
In the year 2000, German government and thousands of German companies made a one-time payment of just over 5 billion to Ostarbeiter victims of the Nazi regime…about $2,000.00 per worker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostarbeiter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_collaboration_with_Nazi_Germany
www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\O\S\OstarbeiterIT.htm