ABSTRACT
Foreign labour was recruited and allocated to employers by the ministry of labour through its local employment offices and by the German Labour Front. In March 1939 an agreement was signed between Germany and Italy whereby Germany could recruit Italian workers. The Security Service was particularly concerned about the alarming increase in the incidence of sexual relations between German women and prisoners of war and foreign workers. Such was the reluctance of Poles to go and work in Germany that the General Government suggested that the best solution would be to transfer German factories to Poland. Fritz Sauckel insisted that, since Germany was involved in a life and death struggle, any means were justified to ensure that a sufficient supply of labour was provided for industry in the occupied territories. The treatment of Soviet prisoners of war is one of the most shameful aspects of the shameful history of Nazi Germany.
