Forced Laborers in Heidelberg

During the war years, thousands of prisoners of war and forced laborers—both men and women—were crammed into numerous makeshift accommodations and barracks in Heidelberg under mostly appalling conditions; the city archive records 27,000 individual cases. They were forced to work in factories, businesses, farms, and for the city of Heidelberg, often without pay or with minimal wages, inadequate food, and insufficient medical care. There were many deaths and executions for the slightest offenses. For example, a local resident, Mrs. Zambelli, witnessed the hanging of five forced laborers in the courtyard of the Fuchs wagon factory.

From the Heidelberg death register for 1944:

• Nikolai Ewdokimov, Eastern Worker, born on August 8, 1924, in Nowoderewnia/Russia, died on August 28, 1944, at 12:30 PM in Heidelberg-Rohrbach, Heinrich-Fuchs-Str. 92, cause of death: "asphyxiation"
• Alexei Bjelow, Eastern Worker, born on October 1, 1922, in Kusnezowa/Russia, died on August 28, 1944, at 12:30 PM in Heidelberg-Rohrbach, Heinrich-Fuchs-Str. 92, cause of death: "asphyxiation"
• Wassili Skorkin, Eastern Worker, born on January 1, 1925, in Ponorj/Russia, died on August 28, 1944, at 12:30 PM in Heidelberg-Rohrbach, Heinrich-Fuchs-Str. 92, cause of death: "asphyxiation"
• Anatolij Bachatschow, Eastern Worker, born on February 8, 1923, in Kiev/Russia, died on August 28, 1944, at 12:30 PM in Heidelberg-Rohrbach, Heinrich-Fuchs-Str. 92, cause of death: "asphyxiation"
• Pawel Chrebor, Eastern Worker, born on February 10, 1923, in Trostianez/Russia, died on August 28, 1944, at 12:30 PM in Heidelberg-Rohrbach, Heinrich-Fuchs-Str. 92, cause of death: "asphyxiation"

The death entries were made on August 29, 1944, based on the report of criminal employee Bernhard Kraus "from his own knowledge".

Eyewitness account by former employee of the Fuchs wagon factory, Mrs. Zambelli, about anti-fascist resistance in Heidelberg-Kirchheim and the execution of Ukrainian forced laborers on the premises of the Fuchs wagon factory:

In Heidelberg-Kirchheim, before and during the time of fascism, there were many politically conscious workers with communist and socialist leanings who actively resisted fascism by distributing anti-fascist leaflets in the Höllenstein area and at the Fuchs wagon factory. Of course, this distribution of leaflets took place entirely underground. The SA and SS left no stone unturned in their efforts to crush the core of the anti-fascist movement. Therefore, there was not a single day without house searches in all the workers' homes. A part of the workforce at the Fuchs wagon factory had always formed the core of the communist and socialist movement.

I remember it was around 1941/42 when there was a smaller Russian prisoner camp near the Kirchheim railway grounds. The Russian prisoners lived in small, dilapidated barracks and had to perform various tasks for the Nazis. The prisoners' food and treatment were so inhuman that it occasionally happened that the prisoners took food from railway wagons.

Such things, of course, were also reported to the Nazis, and so it happened that one morning, gallows were set up on the premises of the Fuchs wagon factory, and five or six bound Russians were brought forward. The gallows were positioned in such a way that they were hidden from public view as much as possible. Nevertheless, many workers at the Fuchs wagon factory saw exactly how the five or six Russians were hanged by the Heidelberg SA and SS.

The execution was carried out as follows: A young Russian (we called him "little Stalin") had to kick away the wooden boxes on which the Russians were standing. Mr. Fuchs, the factory director, made himself scarce that day so that no one could later say he knew about it all. Anyone who opposed the Nazis' methods would have faced a similar fate. Later, we were told that the Russian prisoners had drunk poison and died.

Source of the eyewitness account: "Damit nichts bleibt, wie es ist: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung in Heidelberg 1845 - 1949" ("So that nothing remains as it is: Documents on the history of the labor movement in Heidelberg 1845 - 1949").