Description to come.Photo: Nordlandsmuseet
Between 1941 and 1945, approx. 140,000 people forcibly sent to Norway to work. Seen in relation to the population, Norway was the German-occupied country that received the largest contingent of forcibly recruited labour. 1
After lying unorganized for almost 70 years, the so-called Todt archive was made available for research in 2011. The archive contains 440 shelf meters of historical material and is kept in the National Archives in Oslo. This was the starting point for The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , together with historians from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, to initiate a major research project on Organization Todt and forced labor in Norway during the Second World War. The project is financed by the Research Council of Norway.
Utstillingen Grossraum er basert på forskningsprosjektet.
The overall research effort consists of seven individual research projects (sub-projects 1-7), of which three (1-3) have the status of main project and two (2, 3) are announced as PhD and postdoc grants respectively. Furthermore, the efforts consist of an international research project with many invited participants (subproject 8), a master's thesis project (subproject 9), a collective project for the project's core group (subproject 10) and a dissemination project (subproject 11). Sub-projects 1-7 and 10 represent empirical primary research, while sub-project 8 seeks to place the research results from 1-7 and 10 in relation to the international research front. In sub-project 8, specialists in the field are invited to participate. The aim is for Lemmes, Steen Andersen, Denkiewicz-Scepaniak, Marina, Solheim and Risto Nilssen to participate. The master's thesis project (9) is sought to be closely linked to the sub-projects 1-7, but it is difficult to predict the scope and nature. The dissemination project (11) is sought to be materially realized only after the overall research effort has been completed
The research initiative will run over four years, starting on 1 August 2011 and ending in July 2015.
It is organizationally anchored at the Department of History and Classical Studies (IHK), NTNU, which has an institutional collaboration with the Falstad Centre. The project leader will be Professor Hans Otto Frøland, who has extensive experience in leading research projects. Sandvik (5) and the two fellows (2, 3) will also have their daily work at the Chamber of Commerce, NTNU. In recent years, both the project manager and the institute have worked with the economy of the occupation and in that context have carried out preparatory studies, i.a. digitized parts of the OT archive. In the spring of 2011, Frøland will also organize an international workshop on the topic, regardless of the outcome of this application. Most of the master's students (9) will be linked to the department. In sum, the research initiative will have both strong professional management, a dynamic environment and a robust staff at NTNU.
The project fits strategically into IHK's focus on transnational history. The personal effort that IHK has put into the project preparations to date has been partly taken from the institute's Beyond Borders project. Transnational Movements through History (ISP-HIST).
Based on the recognition that the economic history of occupation is poorly developed in Norway, it has been a goal to contribute to the building of expertise in the field through binding, national research collaboration. Sub-projects 1-7 are therefore deliberately spread across several institutions in Norway. In total, the project group possesses the necessary professional and foreign language competence.
The participants in sub-project 8 will be deliberately recruited to add international expertise to the project. Sub-project 8 also functions as a continuous link in the research effort. Both at the start and end of the project, an international research conference on OT and forced labor will be organised. The start-up conference in autumn 2011 will be broadly designed to strengthen international contacts and bring in further perspectives. The closing conference in the summer of 2015, where a near-complete anthology (8) will be presented, will seek to put the results of the research effort into perspective. At both of these conferences, researchers who do not contribute to the anthology project are also invited. Along the way, annual work seminars are held in 2011 - 2015 for the participants in sub-project 8 (the "core group"). The master's students in sub-project 9 will also participate here. The work seminars ensure satisfactory research quality and progress.
Subproject 11 will be anchored at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , start in spring 2014 and be completed in July 2015.
The use of the source material calls for research ethical reflections. These are sources that may contain sensitive information and, moreover, information of value to people who are considering filing a claim for damages. The project will consistently apply the guidelines that the Falstad center and the HL center have adopted for their research activity.
The gender imbalance in the project's core group is sought to be compensated for by inviting female contributors in sub-project 8 and by looking for female applicants for the PhD and postdoc projects.
The project has no consequences for the external environment beyond travel by public transport. The research results have no environmental implications.
(Conservator Dr. Ketil Gjølme Andersen, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology , 2 full-time positions): The project will give an account of OT's overall efforts of forced laborers in Norway in an institutional perspective. At the center are the scale of the business, its organization and the reasons behind the central decisions. Economic rationality is at the centre. Knowledge is also sought about which actors on the Norwegian and German sides used the workforce, including OT's own construction projects. The institutional perspective also necessitates an understanding of OT's placement in the German occupation government in Norway, particularly the relations with the Wehrmacht and the Reichskommissariat. One objective is to establish criteria for assessing the economic significance of forced labour. The project will therefore be in continuous dialogue with sub-projects 2 and 3. The project will mainly use material from the OT archive, but it will also include a research stay at the Dokumentationszentrum, NS-Zwangsarbeit in Berlin. The center manages a large collection of sources on forced labor in the occupied territories. The analysis must include comparative perspectives and relate actively to international research literature. The results will consist of a monograph and an English-language anthology contribution (8).
(NN, call for PhD scholarships, three full-year positions): The sub-project will carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data contained in OT's forced labor register. The aim is partly to produce socio-economic and demographic knowledge about the composition of the group, partly to seek knowledge about how the various groups of forced laborers were valued economically and about the "price formation" of labour. For example, how were male workers assessed against female workers? How did occupation and age components come into play? Was the value of labor affected by ideological notions? Did "race" and nationality have economic implications? The scholarship holder will have a workplace at NTNU, but a stay at the Dokumentationszentrum, NS-Zwangsarbeit is required.30 Project leader Frøland (4) will be the main supervisor and Andersen (1) co-supervisor. NTNU finances the guidance costs. The result will consist of a doctoral thesis and an English-language anthology contribution (8).
(NN, call for postdoc grants, two full-time positions): The sub-project will analyze the close connection between OT and the Norwegian contractor industry. The industry seems to have employed the most forced labourers. In the Norwegian research literature, there are only scattered references to the "barracks barons" and the collaboration of the construction industry. The approach will therefore be both quantitative and qualitative. To what extent were forced laborers actually used in the industry. What attitudes were there to the use of such labor in the companies and in the trade associations? What was the incentive structure like and what were the companies' motives? Did the current attitude and behavior change after the national line of resistance became clearer from 1942? The qualitative analysis consists of uncovering the degree of coercion on the part of OT and the degree of voluntariness on the part of the companies. It is to be compared with the situation in Denmark on the basis of Steen Andersen's study. The source material is obtained from the OT archive, the Swedish National Fraud Archive and the Directorate of Compensation's archive, all located in the National Archives. Selected archives at industry and company level can be consulted. The scholarship holder will have a workplace at NTNU, but a stay at the Dokumentationszentrum, NS-Zwangsarbeit is required. The project will be in continuous dialogue with sub-projects 1 and 7. The results will consist of a monograph and an English-language anthology contribution (8).
(Professor Hans Otto Frøland, NTNU, six months' work) The sub-project will analyze the use of forced labor within the German light metal program in Norway. The large-scale light metal development in Norway was under Göring's control until Speer took over in 1942, and competed with OT for the use of forced labour. OT nevertheless participated in the development and was among those involved at Nordag's facilities in Årdal and Sauda, where forced laborers were used. What was the extent of this effort and how was it organized in the interaction between the rival bodies of the OT, the Vierjahresplan, the Reichsluftfahrtsministerium and the Reichskommissariat? The aim is to provide a quantitative overview of the forced labor and its organisation, analyze this in light of the institutional rivalry on the German side and assess its importance for Nordag's operations. The sources are obtained from OT's and Nordag's archives, Oslo, as well as from the Bundesarchiv, Berlin. In Berlin, at the same time, a shorter research stay is carried out at the Dokumentationszentrum, NS-Zwangsarbeit. The results will consist of an article in an international journal and an English-language anthology contribution (8).
(Førsteamanuensis Pål Thonstad Sandvik, NTNU, three months' work): The sub-project studies a specific German-owned company; the use of prisoners of war at Fosdalen Bergverk in Nord-Trøndelag. The company supplied iron ore to the German armaments industry, and gained increased strategic importance after deliveries from A/S Sydvaranger were hampered. After the war, a national treason case was brought against the company. How big was the effort of forced labour, what was the motivation for its use and how was it organised? The project is a close analysis of the incentive structure and the decisions to reveal the degree of coercion and voluntariness. The source material is obtained from the company archive and the national fraud archive in addition to the OT archive. The results will consist of an article in an international journal as well as an English-language anthology contribution (8).
(Researcher Dr. Rolf Hobson, Department of Defense Studies, six months' work) The sub-project analyzes the relationship between the Norwegian and German OT organisations. The aim is partly to uncover the institutional connection between Oslo and Berlin and the other OT centers in Kiev and Paris, partly to follow the transnational decision-making processes linked to the use of forced labor in Norway. The project will start from the Norwegian material, but will mainly obtain its data from German sources, primarily the Bundesarchiv and the Dokumentationszentrum, NS-Zwangsarbeit, both in Berlin. The results will be published in an article in an international journal as well as in an anthology contribution (8).
(Researcher Dr. Harald Espeli, BI School of Business, six months' work): The sub-project analyzes the role of forced labor in the court settlement after the war. It will examine to what extent and how crimes against forced labour, committed by Germans or Norwegians, were dealt with within the Norwegian justice system. The analysis is linked to findings in projects 1-5. The source material is obtained from the National Fraud Archive and the archives of the Attorney General and the Compensation Directorate. The results will be published in an article in an international journal as well as in an anthology contribution (8).
(Professor Hans Otto Frøland, NTNU, six months' work). The sub-project aims at an anthology in English edited by Andersen and Frøland. Here, the newly acquired research results in 1-7 are put into a comparative and transnational perspective. The editors will write a summary chapter. The anthology will contain contributions from all seven projects mentioned above. Furthermore, the aim is for it to contain contributions from Andersen, Lemmes, Denkiewicz-Szczepaniak, Soleim, Marina and Risto Nilssen. The purpose of the sub-project is partly to reach out to the international academic community with the newly acquired research results, partly to discuss the research efforts along the way in a comparative and transnational perspective. The sub-project must tie the other project activities together. An international kick-off conference, annual workshops and an international final conference are organised. Resource persons who have not been asked to contribute to the anthology will also be invited to the two conferences.
(Professor Hans Otto Frøland and associate professor Pål Thonstad Sandvik) The sub-project consists of gathering master's students into a "research group" at NTNU, which studies strategically selected issues of relevance to the overall research effort. Examples of topics: the use of forced labor in the construction of submarine bunkers in Trondheim, social-historical aspects of forced labour, the plight of women, compensation issues in Norway and Europe after the war, museological and exhibition technical issues. For the latter types of issues, the Department of Historical and Classical Studies will assist with guidance expertise from the Cultural Heritage Management and European Studies sections. The project's participants from outside NTNU will be drawn in as co-supervisors. NTNU finances all supervision costs.
(Combined research group: Andersen, Espeli, Frøland, Hobson, Sandvik) The sub-project consists of assessing the overall contribution of forced labor to the national economy, based on the estimates in What the War Cost Norway (1945) and the estimates that Norway submitted at the War Damage Compensation Conference in Paris. The realization of the sub-project is nevertheless uncertain, and depends on the data that is revealed during the course of the project. It will therefore not be realized until the end of the project anyway. The results could be an article in an international journal or in a historical journal.
(Conservator Dr. Ketil Gjølme Andersen, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology ): The sub-project is a preparatory exhibition project based on the recently developed research knowledge. A design and action plan is being prepared for a research-based exhibition project on OT's use of forced labor in Norway in collaboration with the HL-senteret and Falstadsenteret. The aim is for the museums/centres involved to commit to realizing the plans to become a traveling exhibition.
Theme and relevance
It was the occupying power that was behind the efforts of forced labourers, but Norwegian interests were also involved. When Norsk Hydro, together with its German allies, built light metal factories and power plants in Telemark, around 25% of the workforce were forced labourers. The facilities represented great value for Hydro after the war. The German-owned company Nordag used forced laborers in Årdal, a facility which after the war was used to build Årdal Verk.
Tvangsarbeidet er et marginalt tema i norsk historieforskning.2 Vi vet omtrent hvor mange tvangsarbeidere som oppholdt seg i landet, hvor de fleste kom fra og en god del om behandlingen de fikk. Sentrale problemstillinger er imidlertid uutforsket, og da særlig tvangsarbeidets økonomiske betydning. Spørsmålet var neglisjert i de første forsøkene på å beregne de økonomiske effektene av okkupasjonen og har siden ikke blitt adressert.3 Det økonomiske landssvikoppgjøret etter krigen viste samtidig at norske bedrifter opparbeidet store fortjenester under okkupasjonen. Det er derfor grunn til å adressere spørsmålet. Hvor viktig var denne arbeidskraften for å realisere tyskernes planer i Norge? Hvordan ble innsatsen organisert? Hvilken rolle spilte norske økonomiske interesser i utnyttelsen av tvangsarbeiderne?
Based on the hypothesis that forced labor had economic significance, the project will study the activities of Organization Todt (OT), which, alongside the Wehrmacht, was the central agency for the recruitment, organization and distribution of forced labour. At its peak, OT employed close to 30,000 forced laborers in Norway.
OT was established in 1938 as a paramilitary task force responsible for major construction projects. The organization was named after engineer Fritz Todt, who led OT until 1942. Before the war, OT built fortifications in Germany. Later, the area of responsibility was extended to the occupied countries.
At the start, OT used voluntary labour, but later in the war became increasingly dependent on various types of forced labour. The term forced labor was admittedly not used at the time, but is the collective term used by historians afterwards. It was partly about political prisoners and concentration camp prisoners, but the vast majority were prisoners of war and forcibly mobilized civilians, so-called Fremdarbeitern. Most were taken from the occupied areas in the east, but many also in the west. At its peak, the OT workforce numbered one million men, most of whom were forced laborers. The operation was coordinated from Berlin, but there were regional task forces all over the occupied area, including in Kiev and Paris. In 1942, Einsatzgruppe Wiking was established in Oslo with responsibility for Norway, Denmark and Finland. 4
When operations in Norway became particularly extensive, it was due to Hitler's assessment of the country's geopolitical role. He was long convinced that the Norwegian coast was a likely landing place for an allied invasion force and therefore ordered the construction of Festung Norwegen. This project, together with the construction of roads, railways, airports, power stations and industrial facilities, meant that OT quickly established itself as Norway's largest builder. OT was a power factor with influence over the economic input factors, not least labour.
Ved Riksarkivet har arkivet etter OT ligget uordnet i 65 år, men er nå endelig gjort tilgjengelig for forskning.5 Kildematerialet vil ikke bare kaste nytt lys over viktige sider av Norges okkupasjonshistorie, men også muliggjøre norske bidrag til den internasjonale forskningen om tvangsarbeidets politiske økonomi under 2. verdenskrig. Formålet er å avdekke tvangsarbeidets omfang, karaktertrekk og økonomiske betydning. Ikke minst skal det undersøkes i hvilken grad, hvorfor, og på hvilken måte norske aktører benyttet tvangsarbeidere.
The project will attract international interest solely because of the OT archive's unique source material. It will include researchers who currently manage the international research front within the subject area, and thus could join the research front. It will adopt a comparative and transnational perspective and thus seek to avoid the 'methodological nationalism' that has recently been directed at Norwegian historical research.
The project has extra relevance because the intensified "Krieg der Erinnerung" in Europe after the turn of the millennium (Welzer 2007). This concerns how the Second World War should be interpreted, and has confronted national basic narratives characterized by patriotic memory (Lagrou 2000) with more transnational and universalist perspectives. An expression of this tendency in Norway is that Norwegian participation in the extermination of Jews and in the war of extermination on the Eastern Front has been subject to historical research.
New knowledge and new perspectives have partly taken on a corrective function vis-à-vis Norway's heroizing basic narrative about the occupation - about Norwegian will to resist in the face of Nazism's supremacy. In particular, the Center for the Study of the Holocaust and minority views (the HL Center) and the Falstad Center have had an important function in this respect. Second only to the deportations of Jews, it is the fate of the foreign forced laborers that creates the clearest connection between Norway and the extermination policy of the Nazi regime.
Since it is still an open question what role Norwegian actors played in the exploitation of the forced labourers, the project is the first attempt to address the participation of Norwegians in the crimes. The project is therefore also suitable for challenging the national narrative. Precisely because new research-based knowledge can help correct this, the project includes a communication component in collaboration with the HL Center and the Falstad Centre.
The majority of those who perished on Norwegian soil during the occupation were not Norwegians, but foreign prisoners of war and forced labour. The project will provide a better understanding of the fate of the foreign forced labourers, and will connect to the didactic commemorative project Zwangsarbeit 1939-1945. Erinnerungen und Geschichte. 6
The research field internationally
At tvangsarbeidere også var ofre for en rasistisk utryddelsespolitikk, kommer tydeligst frem gjennom programmet Vernichtung durch Arbeit.7 Tvangsarbeidet var del av rettsoppgjøret i Nürnberg og Albert Speer, som ledet OT mellom 1942 og 1945, ble stilt til ansvar for sin medvirkning. Det gikk imidlertid lang tid før historikerne interesserte seg for fenomenet.
Ulrich Herbert (1985) etablerte tvangsarbeidet som empirisk forskningsfelt i 1980-årene. Han dokumenterte gjennom flere arbeider hvor viktig tvangsarbeidet var for tysk krigsøkonomi, som antagelig ville kollapset i en tidlig fase av krigen uten 10-12 millioner utenlandske arbeidere.8 Tvangsarbeid blir nå utforsket fra mange synsvinkler. Det foreligger studier av tvangsarbeid i regi av SS og en lang rekke bøker som viser hvordan tvangsarbeidere ble benyttet i tysk rustningsindustri, gjerne på foretaksnivå.9 Forskningen har også fått impulser fra debatten om Tysklands juridiske ansvar for tvangsarbeiderne. Debatten kuliminerte med ordningen som fra 2000 åpner for at tidligere tvangsarbeidere kan få erstatning.10 Alt dette har bidratt til at tvangsarbeid nå er en del av tysk bevissthet om andre verdenskrig.11 Herbert kunne i 2001 fastslå at forskningen på feltet hadde hatt en eksplosjonsartet utvikling. Han etterlyste imidlertid analyser av tvangsarbeidet utenfor Tyskland og dessuten nærstudier av OTs virksomhet.12
Herberts forskningsagenda er delvis fulgt opp. Det er grunn til å fremheve forskningsinnsatsen om tvangsarbeid i Østerrike13 og Sovjetunionen.14 Mens historikerne så smått har begynt å vurdere tvangsarbeidet i et europeisk15 og transnasjonalt16 perspektiv, er forskningsbasert kunnskap om OTs tvangsarbeiderinnsats likevel fortsatt et desideratum. Stadig gir den tidvis apologetiske boken til Franz Seidler den mest omfattende fremstillingen av OT.17 Det er riktignok kommet et par studier som åpner for komparative analyser av OTs bruk av tvangsarbeid. Scott Soo (2007) har studert OTs virksomhet i Bordaux. Fabian Lemmes (2009, 2010) har nylig studert OTs virksomhet i Italia og Frankrike, herunder OTs bruk av tvangsarbeidere i samarbeid med lokalt næringsliv. Også i Danmark har OTs tvangsarbeid blitt forskningstema. Steen Andersens (2005) studie av den danske entreprenørbransjen tar opp temaet, som han nå følger opp i et prosjekt om OTs bruk av tvangsarbeidere i Danmark.18
The research field in Norway
Verken OTs virksomhet i Norge rent allment, eller organisasjonens spesielle ansvar for bruken av tvangsarbeidere, er undersøkt av norske historikere. Større, sammenfattende analyser av tvangsarbeidet i en økonomisk kontekst foreligger heller ikke. I det hele tatt er den økonomiske okkupasjonsforskningen lite utviklet i Norge. Som påpekt av Harald Espeli (2010) står dette i sterk kontrast til situasjonen i Danmark. I Norge er feltet preget av bidragene til briten Alan Milward og tyskeren Robert Bohn. Milward (1972) er et pionerarbeid, men bygger på en problematisk forestilling om at det fantes en distinkt fascisisk modell for økonomisk organisering. I kontrast til Milward søker Bohn (2000) å redegjøre for okkupasjonsmaktens praktiske politikk. Begge arbeidene vil være orienteringspunkter for det planlagte prosjektet, men størst relevans har Bohns arbeid ved at det berører OTs tilblivelse og bruken av tvangsarbeidere.19 Norske økonomiske historikere har sporadisk behandlet tvangsarbeidet. Helge Ryggvik (2004) viser i sin studie av jernbaneverket hvordan tvangsarbeidet var en forutsetning for utbygging av Nordlandsbanen. Ketil Gjølme Andersen (2005) analyserer Norsk Hydros deltagelse i det tyske lettmetallprogrammet og viser hvordan selskapets norske ledelse søkte å sikre prosjektet tvangsarbeidere. Men generelt er tvangsarbeidet neglisjert også i nyere arbeider. For eksempel har Hans Otto Frøland (2008) studert aluminiumindustrien under okkupasjonen, men ikke drøftet tvangsarbeidets betydning. Også Espeli overser arbeidskraft i en fersk oversiktsartikkel om tyske-norske relasjoner på det økonomiske området.20
Utenfor økonomisk historie eksisterer det imidlertid forskningsbidrag om tvangsarbeidet. Birgit Kocks hovedfagsoppgave (1988) belyser skjebnen til sovjetiske, polske og jugoslaviske krigsfanger i Norge. Mange av disse ble satt til å arbeide for OT. Mer relevant er likevel polske Emilia Denkiewicz-Scepaniaks artikkel (1997) om innsatsen av polske krigsfanger og tvangsarbeidere i norske OT. Perspektivet følges opp av russiske Panikar Marina, som har undersøkt OTs bruk av sovjetiske krigsfanger i Norge.21 Det finnes to norske bidrag som spesielt tar for seg de sovjetiske krigsfangene, som var den tallmessig største fangegruppen i Norge. Det ene er Einar Steffenaks bok (2008), men det mest omfattende er Marianne Soleims doktoravhandling (2004). Solheim viser at krigsfangene ble brakt til Norge for å arbeide, men understreker samtidig at tvangsarbeidet ikke kan forstås utømmende ut fra en økonomisk logikk; også ideologiske forestillinger må trekkes inn.22 Ved Falstadsenteret arbeider Trond Risto Nilssen med en artikkel om de jugoslaviske krigsfangene i Norge og deres arbeid for å få erstatningsutbetalinger.23 De ferskeste bidragene er de utrykte masteravhandlingene til Michael Stokke (2008) og Anders Lervold (2010). Stokke sammenlikner arbeids- og leveforholdene for sivile franske og sovjetiske tvangsarbeidere og berører forholdet mellom OT og norske selskaper. Lervold viser hvordan OT spilte en stadig større rolle i Nordag, ikke minst som leverandør av tvangsarbeidere.
Einsatzgruppe Wiking: Research theme and issues
While OT workers were already represented in Norway in 1940 via the Reichsarbeitsdienst, for example in the construction of submarine bunkers in Trondheim, Einsatzgruppe Wiking was only established in April 1942. Wiking was then one of OT's seven task groups in Europe. The task forces were divided into regional Oberbauleitungen, which controlled various local Bauleitungen, which in turn controlled various Baustellen. Willi Henne, who had been in OT since 1938, became head of Wiking and later also Generalbevollmächtigter für die Bauwirtschaft in Norway. Just before OT created Wiking, Fritz Sauckel became Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz in German-controlled Europe. The position followed the Nazi regime's general decision in October 1941 to introduce forced labor on a large scale. Forced labor took hold from then on, also in Norway. Sauckel was sentenced to death in Nuremberg in 1946.
En unik kilde i OT-arkivet i Oslo er det sentrale registeret over samtlige tvangsarbeidere tilknyttet OT i Norge. Det dreier seg om 15 hyllemeter med kartotekkort, skrevet ut på den enkelte arbeider og ordnet etter opprinnelsesland.24 Kortene opplyser bl.a. om kjønn, alder, yrke, nasjonalitet og tidspunktet for innrullering i OT. At denne typen registre gjerne ble ødelagt i 1945, gir det norske materialet stor forskningsverdi. Stikkprøver viser at de fleste betegnelsene som var i bruk i Tyskland også ble benyttet i Norge. Arbeiderne ble klassifisert som Fremdarbeiter, Ostarbeiter, Kriegsgefangene, Häftlinge osv.25 Klassifiseringen var viktig for arbeidernes status og rettigheter, og er således i seg selv viktig kunnskap for ettertiden.26 Registeret gir mulighet for å avdekke fangegruppens demografiske sammensetning, men også mer kvalitative sosialhistoriske og økonomiske analyser. Det er avgjørende for den samlede prosjektinnsatsen at dette registermaterialet analyseres tidlig. Finansiert som forprosjekt av NTNU har prosjektledelsen satt i gang arbeidet med å studere dette materiale så vel kvantitativt og kvalitativt. Arbeidet vil videreføres gjennom delprosjekt 2.
Selv om prosjektets mål er å etablere kunnskap om tvangsarbeidets økonomiske betydning, vil det måtte anlegge et tydelig institusjonelt perspektiv. Wiking må forstås i lys av beslutningsprosesser både i Norge og Tyskland. Hvordan ble den omfattende virksomheten organisert? Hvilke personer var sentrale og hvordan ble de overordnede beslutningene tatt? Hvordan var forholdet til andre maktinstanser innenfor det tyske okkupasjonsstyret? Forskningen viser at bildet er komplekst. Wiking var formelt ikke en del av Terbovens Reichskommissariat, men direkte underlagt rustningsministeriet i Berlin, ledet av Todt og deretter Speer. Foruten å hente sin autoritet herfra var norske OT også utstyrt med fullmakter direkte fra Hitler. Hvordan bidro slike institusjonelle føringer til å definere OTs maktgrunnlag her i landet? I hvilken grad var for eksempel OT i Oslo i stand til å mobilisere støttestespillere i Berlin for å styrke sin stilling vis a vis beslutningstakere i Norge? Å analysere OT-systemets plass innenfor Det tredje rikets polykratiske maktapparat vil derfor utgjøre en viktig del av prosjektet. Dette institusjonelle perspektivet kommer tydeligst frem i delprosjektene 1 og 6. Delprosjekt 6 vil særlig konsentrere seg om hvordan de sentrale beslutningene i Berlin ble formidlet inn i det norske OT-systemet og den norske organisasjonens plass i forhold til de andre Einsatzgruppen.
OTs forhold til Reichskommissariat og Wehrmacht i Norge må studeres særlig inngående. Som Bohn og Soleim har vist, kom OT raskt til å utfordre begge disse instansene.27 Også OTs institusjonelt definerte dobbeltrolle må studeres: på den ene siden formidlet OT tvangsarbeidere til prosjekter i regi av andre myndighetsorganer, på den andre siden var OT selv blant de største avtagerne av denne arbeidskraften. Det innebar at organisasjonen både samarbeidet og konkurrerte med aktører som benyttet tvangsarbeidere. I tilfellet Nordag, selskapet med et hovedansvar for å bygge ut den krigsviktige aluminiumindustrien og som senest fra våren 1943 tok i bruk tvangsarbeidere, overtok OT den daglige ledelsen av selskapet. Å kartlegge OTs rolle i dragkampen om arbeidskraft i den norske krigsøkonomien vil stå sentralt i prosjektet. Som Herbert har understreket, vil denne typen kunnskap også kunne gi verdifulle bidrag til forståelsen av OTs funksjonsmåte.28 Problemstillingen behandles tydeligst i delprosjektene 1 og 4.
Companies that used forced laborers were invoiced by OT, which then transferred the amount to Germany. A central issue will be to establish criteria for assessing the economic significance of forced labour. From being part of a market-based pre-war economy, Norwegian companies during the occupation became part of a political economy where input factors were distributed centrally. How did the business world adapt to the availability of large amounts of cheap labor in the form of 140,000 forced laborers at a time when the civilian labor market tightened? What attitudes did the business community have towards using the workforce and what incentives worked for using it? Sub-projects 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 all provide the opportunity to generate new knowledge. It is also important to examine the income that forced labor generated for OT. OT's overall operating finances will be dealt with in sub-project 1.
Tvangsarbeidets praktiske organisering på mellomnivå studeres best gjennom en analyse av entrepenørbransjen. OT engasjerte gjerne tyske entreprenører som igjen engasjerte norske firmaer til mindre, avgrensede entrepriser. Den tyske byggevirksomheten skapte store fortjenestemuligheter for byggebransjen. Entreprenørbransjen har aldri vært systematisk undersøkt, men det er kjent at bransjen samarbeidet tett med okkupasjonsmakten og at tvangsarbeidere ble benyttet. Dette framgår også av kilder i OT-arkivet.29 Hvordan ble tvangsarbeiderne fordelt mellom de tyske og norske selskapene? Hvordan ble ansvarsforholdene og de økonomiske transaksjoner mellom partene ordnet? Hvordan ble bygge- og anleggsvirksomhet mobilisert for eller dratt med i OTs prosjekter? Hvordan ble beslutningene tatt i de norske selskapene? Hvor mye var resultat av tvang og hvor mye av frivillighet? Var det vanskelig å trekke seg ut av et samarbeid som var etablert før tvangsarbeid ble aktuelt eller var entreprisen inngått for å hente ut maksimal profitt således at moralske betenkeligheter ble skjøvet til side? Slike problemstillinger vil bli drøftet eksplisitt i delprosjektene 3 og 6. Sistnevnte drøfter i hvilken grad tvangsarbeid ble en del av rettsoppgjøret etter krigen. Under delprosjekt 9 vil masterstudenter studere utvalgte entrepenørbedrifter i Trondheimsregionen, hvor antallet steg kraftig under okkupasjonen.
Norway was the only Western European country with an import surplus in the clearing account with Germany. In addition, Germany made significant German investments in Norway outside of clearing. The forced labor entailed a massive transfer of labour. At the same time, the place of forced labor in the clearing accounts is unclear. Although it is difficult to quantify the total contribution of forced laborers to the national economy, a problematization of the question will be fruitful. This can be done based on the estimates of Aukrust and Bjerve in Hva virgen kostet Norge (1945). In that context, the importance of labor for various sectors will have to be assessed. It will also be interesting to discuss the extent to which the forced laborers affected the wage level in the labor market, which seems to have become less tight precisely from 1942. These macro questions will be dealt with in sub-project 10.
1 Brochmann og Tjelmeland 2003: 12.
2 Kf. ”Nye perspektiver på okkupasjonshistoria”, Temanummer, HIFO-nytt, nr. 2, 2008.
3 Aukrust og Bjerve 1945.
4 Soo 2007, Seidler 1987.
5 Opplyst av Vebjørn Elvebakk, som har hatt ansvar for å ordne OT-arkivet.
6 Kf. www.zwangsarbeit-archiv.de/index.html. Prosjektet er et samarbeid mellom Freie Universität Berlin, Deutsches Museum og Stiftung Erinnerung-Verantwortung-Zukunft.
7 Kf. diskusjonen i Soleim 2004: 9-12.
8 Boken finnes i engelsk oversettelse, Herbert 1997.
9 Siegfried 1988, Billstein 2000, Nicosia 2004. Siste bidrag er Heusler et al 2010.
10 Stiftung Erinnerung-Verantwortung- Zukunft. Kf. Eizenstatt 2003, Spilitis 2003.
11 Barwig 1998.
12 Kf. Schmidt: 2001: 409-411.
13 Freund, Perz og Spoerer 2004.
14 Poljan 2006, Poljan 2007.
15 Spoerer 2001.
16 Seidel og Tenfelde 2007.
17 Seidler 1987.
18 Andersen 2005.
19 Kf. Bohn 2000: 179-182, 376-380.
20 Espeli 2010.
21 Kf. Også Marina 2010.
22 Soleim 2004: 426-427, avhandlingen ble publisert i 2009.
23 Rissto Nilsens kildemateriale er dels fra Falstad fangeleir og dels undersøkelser som ble gjort av britiske styrker i 1945-46.
24 ”Einsatz von Kriegsgefangene”, register, OT-arkivet, Riksarkivet, Oslo.
25 Begrepet tvangsarbeid ble ikke brukt i samtiden, men er historikernes samlebetegnelse i ettertid.
26 Krigsfangene tilhørte en kategori som i utgangspunktet var beskyttet av folkeretten, men sovjetiske fanger ble likevel ikke innrømmet denne statusen før mot krigens slutt.
27 Bohn 2000: 180, Soleim 2004: 179-233, 429.
28 Kf. Schmidt 2001: 411.
29 Kf. også Ellingsen 1993.
30 Det vil bli søkt om støtte til utenlandsopphold på et senere tidspunkt.
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