Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Less Than Slaves: Jewish Forced Labor and the Quest for Compensation, by Benjamin B. Ferencz. 1979. Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London

Benjamin Ferencz: Unequal Justice is Evident For the Victims of the Third Reich

The author was one of the prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials. In this book, the author focuses on German corporations that had used forced laborers during the Nazi era and the efforts to secure monetary restitution for their experiences.

THE DELIBERATE SHORTCHANGING OF POLISH CLAIMANTS

Jews and non-Jews were in definite competition for compensation. The author comments, “No one on the Jewish side objected to Farben’s proposed payment to the non-Jewish claimants, but there was considerable objection to their doing so by subtracting the money from the amount that had been promised to the Jews.” (p. 48).

At other times, the Germans made up a victim hierarchy in which they would pay the Jews but find reasons to avoid paying the Poles. Ferencz writes, “Farben had refused to pay them on the grounds that Poles were not in Auschwitz because of their ‘race, religion, or ideology’ but because of their ‘nationality,’ and therefore they did not qualify as persecutees within the restricted definition of the German indemnification laws.” (p. 51).

Farben officials continued to dance around the issues to avoid paying the Poles. The author quips, “To drive the final nail in into the claimants’ coffin, it was argued that all Polish claims had been discharged by virtue of the Potsdam Reparations agreement. The Farben contention, in short, was that the claims of the Polish concentration camp inmates had been submitted too late, had been submitted too soon, and had already been paid!” (p. 57).

It was not only Farben that employed a double standard governing Jews and non-Jews. Krupp also initially wanted to compensate only the Jews. The author asks, “Why was there nothing from Krupp for the non-Jews?” (p. 103).

COMPENSATION FOR FORCED LABOR STRONGLY FAVORED THE JEWS

Ferencz (pp. 210-211) presents a table showing the 42 nations whose former forced laborers had finally received compensation from the following German corporations: I. G. Farben, Krupp, A. E. G., Siemens, and Rheinmetall. Of the 14,878 claimants paid, fully 5,295 were from Israel, a rate of 36%! Of course, this can only be a severe underestimate of the Jewish share of the “pie”, since many former Jewish laborers who got compensation did not live in Israel.

As a matter of fact, Jewish forced laborers got THREE TIMES the compensation, per person, as did non-Jewish forced laborers! See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/10/02/mutual-responsibility-jews-get-paid-and-other-victims-of-nazi-genocide-do-not-german-repentance-insincere-only-to-jews-jansen-and-saathoff/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/09/25/holocaust-industry-improprieties-compensating-forced-laborers-jews-get-paid-and-other-victims-of-nazi-genocide-do-not-facts-and-figures-practical-victim-hierarchy-active-victimhood-competition/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/09/20/compensating-forced-laborers-jews-get-paid-and-other-victims-of-nazi-genocide-do-not-facts-and-figures-spoerer-and-fleischhacker/

JEWISH INFLUENCE DRIVES FINANCIAL COMPENSATION

Benjamin Ferencz makes these revealing statements, “The Claims Conference…had a continuing relationship with the German government and was hesitant about doing anything that might jeopardize the larger Jewish interests. But B’nai B’rith, the largest Jewish fraternal order in the United States and one of the twenty-three member organizations of the Claims Conference, had half a million members who were deeply concerned about Jewish problems; this group could act independently and was willing to come to the aid of the concentration camp survivors by mobilizing American public and political support, even if that might create displeasure in certain German circles.” (p. 137). Other groups, of course, did not have the means of mobilizing American public and political support.

SLAVS AND GYPSIES, AS WELL AS JEWS, WERE UNTERMENSCHEN

From the beginning, Ferencz tries to dramatize the fate of the Jews with his catchy title. In actuality, many forced laborers, non-Jewish as well as Jewish, were “less than slaves”. Eventually, the author admits the inferior status of many non-Jews as well. He writes, “…the Nazi racial doctrines, which regarded Slavs, as well as Jews and Gypsies, as subhumans, was soon reflected in the treatment accorded the Polish and Russian workers. Three million Soviet prisoners of war died or disappeared while in German custody.” (p. 187).

WAS THERE EVER A NAZI POLICY OF EXTERMINATING JEWS (AND JEWS ALONE) THROUGH FORCED LABOR?

The goal of exterminating Jews through labor, though ascribed to the Nazis as a goal for Jewish forced laborers, is unsupported by the facts. Historians are not in agreement that the Nazis ever had an “annihilation through labor” policy aimed specifically against Jews. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/31/auschwitz-details-auschwitz-gas-chambers-first-for-non-jews-wannsee-demystified-forced-laborers-jewish-survivorship-auschwitz-spared-jews-holocaust-dominance-a-valid-issue-bartov/

In addition, the Nazis assigned Jews to many kinds of labor, just as they did non-Jews, and not only to the most arduous labor. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-exceptional-shoah-harmed-germany-a-myth-gruner/

NAZI USE OF JEWS FOR FORCED LABOR DID NOT END UP EXTERMINATING THEM

Quite a few Jewish laborers survived the experience just as surely as did quite a few non-Jewish laborers:

The author quotes Hans Frank (August 1943), “In one of his many pep talks to the German police units, Frank told them that that it was laughable to argue about methods. The main thing was that they had carried out the difficult and unpleasant duty imposed by Hitler to assure the Entjudung, the ‘De-Judification’ of Europe. It was surprising that almost three hundred Jews who had worked for Siemens at Cracow could be found alive and their claims approved.” (p. 125).

Nor was this an isolated instance. Ferencz continues, “Another place where Jews faced Vernichtung durch Arbeit–destruction through work–was at Bor, in Yugoslavia…the claims of nearly three hundred persons who had survived the grueling work at Bor.” (pp. 125-126).

Finally, the author comments, “Most of those thousands of Jewish concentration camp inmates who worked for BRABAG were ‘exterminated through labor,’ but over 500 survivors turned to the Claims Conference for help.” (p. 178).

The existence of so many Jewish survivors argues against Nazi Germany ever having an “annihilation through labor” policy against Jews. Consequently, the disparities between reparations received by Jewish- and non-Jewish forced laborers is based on a pretense!