#HolocaustMemorialDay 2 years ago I had the privilege of studying with Derek Nieman at the Cambridge University.
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#HolocaustMemorialDay Two years ago I had the privilege of studying with Derek Nieman at Cambridge University. One day at research masterclass he gave us a document, his grandfather's working contract with the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke, signed in Sept. 1943 by Derek's grandfather & his direct boss, Oswald Pohl. Derek has written a book, working through his family's, especially his grandfather's & grandmother's past, called 'A Nazi in the Family'. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/07/a-nazi-in-the-family https://www.bbc.com/news/education-42833644
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#HolocaustMemorialDay Two years ago I had the privilege of studying with Derek Nieman at Cambridge University. One day at research masterclass he gave us a document, his grandfather's working contract with the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke, signed in Sept. 1943 by Derek's grandfather & his direct boss, Oswald Pohl. Derek has written a book, working through his family's, especially his grandfather's & grandmother's past, called 'A Nazi in the Family'. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/07/a-nazi-in-the-family https://www.bbc.com/news/education-42833644
What I learned through that research was eye opening. How slave labour in the concentration camps was organised and marketed. How the slaves, Jews, political opponents, queer people and people not considered "good Germans" built a workforce for the Deutsches Reich, producing whatever the country at war currently needed. They worked under a structure I recognised from corporate structures today, including CEO, CFO, boss of the entire corporation (Pohl), bosses of the subordinate companies etc.
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What I learned through that research was eye opening. How slave labour in the concentration camps was organised and marketed. How the slaves, Jews, political opponents, queer people and people not considered "good Germans" built a workforce for the Deutsches Reich, producing whatever the country at war currently needed. They worked under a structure I recognised from corporate structures today, including CEO, CFO, boss of the entire corporation (Pohl), bosses of the subordinate companies etc.
It was through this research that I realised, that during WW2 they not only sent people to the camps to just murder and burn them to get rid of them. Some, of course, were killed on arrival, the weak ones, children too young or people too old to work etc. The rest of them were exploited, their workforce used for commercial profit – and burnt after they had been worked to death. In a company structure making the Nazis money.
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It was through this research that I realised, that during WW2 they not only sent people to the camps to just murder and burn them to get rid of them. Some, of course, were killed on arrival, the weak ones, children too young or people too old to work etc. The rest of them were exploited, their workforce used for commercial profit – and burnt after they had been worked to death. In a company structure making the Nazis money.
There is a documentation (in German) on Nazi economics, which is unfortunately already depublished on the German public broadcasting platforms, but still available on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkdKcf72rI
Please watch it, if you can. It's 51minuted well spent to understand what happened back then.
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There is a documentation (in German) on Nazi economics, which is unfortunately already depublished on the German public broadcasting platforms, but still available on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkdKcf72rI
Please watch it, if you can. It's 51minuted well spent to understand what happened back then.
The only little detail I could add to Derek's already vast research was that while his grandfather, showing he's a good German, signed his contract in latin writing, Pohl, obviously very confident in his position, signed in the old German handwriting (Kurrentschrift / Sütterlin), which had been banned in 1941.
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The only little detail I could add to Derek's already vast research was that while his grandfather, showing he's a good German, signed his contract in latin writing, Pohl, obviously very confident in his position, signed in the old German handwriting (Kurrentschrift / Sütterlin), which had been banned in 1941.
@viennawriter
I am sure many have this Nazi in the familily, but dont talk much about it. So in my fathers family. His mother, my Grammy, was in some hi-ranking Nazi position in Kiev at war time while her husband was fighting in France. There were silence from her part, only view stories from him as war prisoner were around. As I was older and interested to research about her past she had dementia and even was not able to regognize her sons. This story will never be written. -
@viennawriter
I am sure many have this Nazi in the familily, but dont talk much about it. So in my fathers family. His mother, my Grammy, was in some hi-ranking Nazi position in Kiev at war time while her husband was fighting in France. There were silence from her part, only view stories from him as war prisoner were around. As I was older and interested to research about her past she had dementia and even was not able to regognize her sons. This story will never be written.@jensens A pity you don't have original quotes from her. Maybe one day you'll find some old document or even a few that tell parts of her story like in Derek's case this working contract of his grandfather's. Sometimes it's a scavenger hunt from dusty files in an attic to some archive to a museum, old newspapers and back that makes a story unfold. It's not dead yet, unless you want it to be.
