@article{Pogorielov_2019, title={From Forced to Slave Labor: Ostarbeiters of Southern Ukraine and their “Tango with Death” in Concentration Camps of the Third Reich}, volume={1}, url={https://istznu.org/index.php/journal/article/view/123}, abstractNote={<p>On the basis of unpublished archival documents of personal origin (filtration files and memoirs of returnees), the main reasons for the incarceration of civilian forced laborers of Southern Ukraine in the Third Reich concentration camps and their daily existence in slavery are investigated. As a result, the author has come to the conclusion that the main prerequisites for the loss of civilian status and, as a consequence, the detention of Ostarbeiters in the Third Reich concentration camps were the following: belonging to the Communist Party in the past or having close relatives who were Soviet activists; anti-Nazi political activity during forced labor (participation in underground groups, oral agitation, etc.); unsuccessful attempts of individual or collective escape; aggressive behavior or individual disobedience to moral and physical humiliation (beating of masters, guards); systematic theft of groceries, things, etc. Due to the specifics of the investigated ego documents, the author has not been able to find information on the imprisonment of forced laborers for antisocial behavior (same-sex relations, prostitution, etc.), sexual relations between representatives of the “Aryan race” and Ostarbeiters, exercise of religions prohibited in the Third Reich, etc. However, there is no doubt such cases took place.</p> <p>The chances of the slaves to survive in the conditions of slave labor came to naught. Witnesses’ recollections reveal the anti-human regime of detention and physical exploitation of Ukrainian prisoners in the largest Nazi concentration camps, mass killings, mortality among people through exhaustion, diseases, etc. Some of our compatriots managed to get through the infamous concentration camps as well as death camps; they had to build top-secret facilities, witness the events the participants of which had been doomed to death by the Nazis. It was only through a happy coincidence that the rapid advances of the Soviet or Allied armies managed to save people.</p&gt;}, number={53}, journal={Zaporizhzhia Historical Review}, author={Pogorielov, A.}, year={2019}, month={Dec.}, pages={159-169} }