During the National Socialist regime, there were large workers’ barracks at the site of the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung estate, affiliated to the neighbouring Siemens-Schuckertwerke works (SSW). In the early 1940s, almost half of all workers at SSW were forced labourers. They included forced labourers from occupied territories in Eastern and Western Europe, prisoners of war, and from 1944, concentration camp inmates from Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen.
Like Siemens, hardly any business in Berlin went without using forced labour. It was the only way to maintain munitions production and civilian supplies in the war years.
Forced Labour Camp in the National Socialist period, SSW works
During the National Socialist regime, there were large workers’ barracks at the site of the Paul-Hertz-Siedlung estate, affiliated to the neighbouring Siemens-Schuckertwerke works (SSW). In the early 1940s, almost half of all workers at SSW were forced labourers. They included forced labourers from occupied territories in Eastern and Western Europe, prisoners of war, and from 1944, concentration camp inmates from Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen.
Like Siemens, hardly any business in Berlin went without using forced labour. It was the only way to maintain munitions production and civilian supplies in the war years.