The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945

In addition to utilizing labor units that were organizationally subordinate to camps, the most common of which being the work detachments (Arbeitskommandos), the Wehrmacht also deployed mobile prisoner of war (POW) labor battalions (Kriegsgefangenen-arbeitsbataillone, KrGefArbEin). Relative to the entire system of forced labor employed by the Nazis, these units occupied but a small corner of the wartime economy. For instance, only some 46,000 of the total 2.17 million POWs deployed by the Wehrmacht in July 1944 were in these mobile units, which the Germans often lumped together with the term “Construction and Labor Battalions (Bau- und Arbeitsbataillone, BAB).”¹ Their limited scale and usage makes these units a unique and less familiar chapter in the greater story of POW forced labor. The use of BABs and other POW mobile labor units began in late 1940 and continued until the end of the war in Europe. Since they used forced laborers held against their will for extended periods of time but do not fall into the category of a “camp” as defined in this encyclopedia, these units have all been treated in this one essay. This is also a necessity, as there were innumerable work sites and deployments and, because the surviving documentation is limited, only a small number can be described with any detail.

Before delving into the types of POW mobile labor battalions, some basic generalizations about these units can be described. They were most often divided into battalions numbering between 500 and 800 prisoners each and then into companies 100–200 people strong. Prisoners from many of these units—such as BABs—were rarely deployed in small teams but instead kept as entire companies or even battalions. The units were accommodated in a variety of facilities, ranging from actual POW or work camps to schools. They were kept behind barbed wire fences, guarded, and administered by the Wehrmacht. If they were to travel to a work site, they were escorted by Wehrmacht guards and returned to their lodgings at night.

The chief category of POW mobile labor units was the Prisoner of War Construction and Labor Battalion (Kriegsgefangenenbau- und Arbeitsbataillon, often abbreviated KrGefBau- u. ArbBtl, or, alternately, BAB). Other POW forced labor units were sometimes mistaken for these units due to the erroneous usage of the acronym BAB, making research into these units even more difficult. Many, but not all, units bore an abbreviation indicating that either Italians (it.) or Soviets (sowj.) made up the prisoner population.² These battalions were deployed starting in 1940, subordinate to German Defense Districts (Wehrkreise), and even specific POW camps—though for organizational purposes only. While the prisoners may have been transferred from POW camps, these labor battalions traveled to sites for work and were thus not billeted at a centralized detainment location. The Wehrmacht used any facilities on hand to quarter the POWs—in the case of Mannheim and many other locales, this often meant using schools. Only one company of each battalion was generally billeted in each location in these cases. There were also numerous examples of a school holding two companies at a time, but only rarely did the Wehrmacht billet three or more companies of POW mobile labor battalions in the same location.³ The accommodations for BABs (and most other POW mobile labor battalions) were fenced in with barbed wire. For battalions held in actual camps with fenced in barracks, the Wehrmacht tended to keep the entire battalion together, as in the case of BABs 2 and 22 deployed near Bremen.⁴ BABs were deployed across the Reich and occupied territories.

On average, BABs deployed between 500 and 700 men per battalion.⁵ This practice was based on a series of directives from the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) in 1940; one in November, for instance, ordered the creation of 24 BABs to be made up of 420 French and Polish workers and 180 “assisting” workers (Zuarbeiter) each.⁶ Work deployments varied for BABs. Unlike many of the other types of POW mobile labor battalions discussed later, BABs were rarely deployed in small numbers but instead kept as entire companies or battalions. They often worked on larger Wehrmacht work projects. On occasion they were deployed to serve other areas of the wartime economy. For example, a postwar investigation by the Bremen State Office of Criminal Investigations (Landeskriminalamt Bremen) listed that BAB 2 was billeted in a camp operated by the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront), and the battalion probably also conducted labor at this site as well.⁷

Since detailed documentation on the BABs did not survive the war, the paths of persecution for the POWs in these camps are difficult to reconstruct. However, postwar investigations, especially by the French and Belgian governments, shed light on specific units and specific victim groups. These reports give us an idea of how often these units were likely transferred to other sectors and what kind of work deployments they received. An investigation by the French Ministère des Prisonniers, Déportés et Réfugiés in September 1945 found that there had been approximately 560 POWs [End Page 515] in BAB 4, split up among three companies of between 180 and 190 men. When the BAB was established (some sources indicate this was in May 1940), it was deployed to Zeithain to construct the Stalag IV B subcamp (Zweiglager), Stalag IV B/Z. Later, in February 1942, these companies were regrouped in the Brux area, in the Sudetenland, in the vicinity of Stalag IV C, to construct a synthetic fuel plant. The French investigation reported that afterward, from September 1943 until September 1944, BAB 4 was set to clearing rubble in Hamburg. Starting in September 1944, BAB 4 was deployed to clear out a synthetic fuel plant in Rositz. Due to Allied bombing raids, BAB 4 ostensibly suffered heavy casualties at this deployment, after which the remnants of the battalion were resupplied with donations from the Red Cross via nearby Stalag IV F.⁸ An earlier Ministère des Prisonniers, Déportés et Réfugiés in May 1945 placed BAB 4 at Hamburg (specifically the barracks at Barmbeck, a nearby locality) in January 1945 with a strength of some 549 men, indicating that the battalion was either regrouped or filled out with replacement workers following the bombings at Rositz.⁹

A different category of mobile POW labor units bore a basically generic designation as a construction and engineering unit: the Prisoner of War Labor Battalion (Kriegsgefangenen Arbeitsbataillon, KrGefArbBtl). These units were different from the BABs, despite their names being so similar. KrGef-ArbBtls were created for somewhat specialized purposes in two main waves. The first wave, in September and October 1942, established units numbering 180 through 191. These were deployed to German-occupied Norway.¹⁰ An additional unit, KrGefArbBtl 192 appears to have been deployed to the southeastern theater in mid-1943.¹¹ Some wartime labor deployment records indicate that another series of these battalions was later established, numbered 202 through 206. These were also deployed to Norway alongside 180 through 190, beginning in August 1944.¹² These units likely performed labor in support of various attempts to prepare the coast for invasion by the Western Allies, such as building defensive positions as a part of the Atlantic Wall, digging roads, or (perhaps) extending the Norwegian rail network. The number of prisoners working in these KrGefArbBtls in Norway increased drastically starting in January 1943, from a deployment strength of some 4,700 to more than 27,000 by the end of the year, and then to 37,000 by the end of 1944. Most of these prisoners were Soviet soldiers, but there were a smaller number of Serbs—generally between 1,000 and 2,000. A curious detail about these units is that, when they originated in early 1943, they were only somewhat larger than the other POW mobile labor units, with some 6,200 men split between four battalions—roughly 1,550 men per unit. However, the 37,000 POWs deployed by the end of 1944 were then only divided among 14 battalions—more than 2,600 men per unit. It is likely for this reason that these battalions were consistently denoted as verstärkt (reinforced) in wartime documents; for example: “Verstärkte Kgf.-Arb.-Btle. Nr. 180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 190.”¹³

The second large-scale establishment of KrGefArbBtls came in April 1945. These units were created in order to strengthen the rapidly collapsing eastern front, but they saw very brief deployment due to the Nazis’ surrender in May. These KrGefArbBtls were numbered 1–10 and were deployed to locations including Neubrandenburg, Altengrabow, Teterow, Upper Silesia, and Waidhofen an der Thaya. Only a few KrGefArbBtls were created in other instances, as the BABs had been, on a seemingly more ad hoc basis. Again, these units were deployed to build defensive positions and for road work.¹⁴

The next category of POW mobile work units was the Prisoner of War Construction Battalion (Kriegsgefangenen-Baubataillon, BauBtl[K], or KrGefBauBtl). In most cases these units were composed solely of POWs, but, in a few exceptional cases, there were one to three POW companies added to a regular Wehrmacht Baubataillon—that is, companies of POWs were intermingled with companies of German soldiers. The majority of these units seem to have been deployed close to the fighting on the eastern front; as such, some were destroyed along with Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte) in the summer of 1944. Several KrGef-BauBtls were also deployed to Norway in the winter of 1942–1943.¹⁵

Yet another category of POW mobile labor units was the Prisoner of War Construction Engineer Battalion (Kriegsgefangenen-Baupionierbataillon, BauPiBtl(K), or KrGef-BauPiBtl). Though, there was a difference, in principle, between a construction and an engineering unit, these units bore both titles in their designations and seem to have been deployed for many of the same work assignments as the abovementioned labor units: general building and rubble clearance work in fighting sectors as well as building roads and defensive positions. KrGefBauPiBtls were established as early as August 1943 and as late as early 1945 and seem to have been deployed nearly exclusively to the Reich and Norway.¹⁶ Further complicating the task of researching the KrGefBau-PiBtls is the fact that many of them existed under this designation starting only at the end of 1944. For example, the units that had been referred to as Polish BABs 28, 30, and 41 from January 1943 were redesignated BauPiBtle(K) 28, 30, and 41 between October and November 1944. This nomenclature issue was more complex for Soviet Pioneer Battalions 1, 2, and 3, which were called such from January 1943 until September 1944, at which point they were lumped in with the abovementioned Soviet units as BABs. All six of these units were redesignated BauPiBtl(K)s between October and November 1944. As with many other POW mobile labor battalions, these generally deployed between 500 and 800 prisoners.¹⁷

Another category of POW mobile labor units was the Prisoner of War-Engineer Unit (Kriegsgefangenen-Pioniereinheit, KrGefPiKp, or PiBtl). Only one unit consisting exclusively of POWs seems to have been created—that of Legionowo, in present-day Poland—while the remaining three were regular Wehrmacht engineer battalions that incorporated individual companies of POWs.¹⁸ [End Page 516]

A small and limited group of POW mobile labor units was the Prisoner of War Labor Battalion (Engineers) (Kriegsgefangenen-Arbeitsbataillon [Pioniere], KrGefArb[Pi] Btl), a designation that was only given to three units. The first two were created on December 10, 1941, and deployed to Norway. The third and final KrGefArbBtl(Pi) was created on January 12, 1942, and was also deployed to Norway. All three units consisted of Soviet POWs.¹⁹

On June 14, 1943, the Wehrmacht established five Prisoner of War Harbor Labor Units (Kriegsgefangenen-Hafenarbeitsabteilung, KrGefHafenArbAbt), in Defense District VII, which were then assigned to the Commander of Construction Troops (Kommandeur der Bautruppen) 112 in Rome. In Italy, these units performed tasks in harbors such as the unloading and loading of supplies and general labor as needed. As of September 1, 1943, there were a total of 1,250 POWs assigned to the five KrGefHafenArbAbt, all of whom were British.²⁰ It seems that most, if not all, of these units were disbanded in early 1944.²¹

Some POW mobile labor units were composed of specialized laborers, such as the Prisoner of War Glazier Battalion (Kriegsgefangenen-Glaserbataillon, KrGefGlaserBtl). These units were created as early as the beginning of 1941 and were deployed primarily within the Reich, to repair windows in buildings after Allied air raids.²² These units generally deployed between 500 and 800 men, split into four companies.²³ Many of the POWs were French, but British, Polish, and Serbian prisoners were also part of these units. A postwar investigation concerning the use of a KrGefGlaserBtl by a single company revealed that it utilized 11 POWs from the 2nd Company of Battalion VI between October 1943 and April 1944. If it is correct to assume that this is almost certainly too few men to have made up an entire company, or even platoon, it seems that relatively small fractions of these battalions could be split off for work deployments that did not require an entire company. This report also provides some indication of standard deployment procedures for POW glaziers. It states that “the prisoners of war were brought by a supervisory post in the morning and retrieved again in the evening.”²⁴

The mission of the Prisoner of War Roofing Battalion (Kriegsgefangenen-Dachdeckerbataillon, KrGefDachdeckerBtl) was much like that of the Glazier Battalion: repair (in this case, of the roofs) of buildings that Allied bombing had damaged, mostly in the Reich. These units were also meant to be composed of specialized laborers of various nationalities drawn from POW camps. Establishment of KrGefDachdeckerBtls began in mid-1941.²⁵ As was the case with the glazier units, the POW roofing battalions numbered some 700–800 prisoners on average—again more numerous than the typical BAB unit.²⁶ They were also housed in whatever accommodations were available—schools or barracks, for instance—and guarded by the Wehrmacht. According to a 1947 investigation of KrGefDackdeckerBtl V by the International Refugee Organization (IRO), the battalion was deployed in groups of 2–10 men. The employers or businesses paid between three and five Reichsmarks per worker per day, but this payment was remitted from the business to the local administration and then to the Wehrmacht. The report does not specify whether the POWs received payment for their labor, or if the Wehrmacht retained the funds.²⁷

The German Air Corps also used POWs in mobile labor units, called Prisoner of War Construction Unit of the Air Force (Kriegsgefangenen-Baueinheit der Luftwaffe). These were divided into two main categories. By far the most common of these was the Air Corps Construction Battalion for Prisoners of War (Luftwaffen-Baubataillon für Kriegsgefangene, LwBauBtl[K]). These units were created from existing construction labor battalions within the Luftwaffe itself, and the German soldiers were then replaced with POWs. For organizational purposes, these units were each assigned to an Air Command District (Luftgau), which is reflected in each designation.²⁸ The second type of Air Corps mobile labor unit was the Air Force Main Construction Unit (Luftwaffen-Baustammabteilung, LwBauStammAbt), a designation that seems to have been established for a specific purpose and saw limited usage. Only four of these units were created in the winter of 1941–1942. They were deployed to Norway, and each consisted of Soviet POWs. The units were not created from an existing Luftwaffe construction unit, as the LwBauBtl(K) units had been, and were assigned to a guard detail indicated in the unit’s designation.²⁹

The use of POW labor by supply battalions was split into two categories. The Prisoner of War Supply Unit (Kriegsgefangenen-Nachschubeinheit, KrGefNschBtl/Kp, or NschBtl) was a regular army supply battalion that incorporated individual companies of POWs. Generally trying to keep each NschBtl at a strength of six companies, as many as four could have been made up of POWs. Supply units manned entirely by POWs did exist, but these were far less common.³⁰ These units performed labor surrounding the loading, unloading, distribution, and transportation of supplies for the Wehrmacht.