ABSTRACT
In June 1943 Hans Frank, governor-general of German-occupied Poland, attended a farewell ceremony for Eberhardt Schongarth, outgoing commander of the security police in the area of Poland occupied by the Germans and known as the Generalgouvernement (G.G.). In the Federal Republic, too, connections between the Nazi policy of mass extermination and economic interests, in particular those of the German armaments industry, have moved into the forefront of public interest. The deployment of foreign labour was essential to maintain adequate levels of agricultural production in the war economy, but until the autumn of 1941 German industry had been less significant in this respect. Foreign forced labour had become the backbone of the German war economy. Its living and working conditions were governed by a large number of ordinances and decrees, and the workers were placed in a hierarchy according to racial criteria.
