Foreign Labour in Wartime Germany: the Gender Perspective

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Foreign Labour in Wartime Germany: the Gender Perspective

Organizer
SOMA-CEGES Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society, Brussels
Venue
Location
Brussels, Belgium
Country
Belgium
From - Until
16.12.2008 - 16.12.2008
Website
http://www.cegesoma.be
By
Vanhaelewyn, Mathieu

Most reference works implicitly or explicitly portray forced labour as a male question: young men and family men were coerced to leave family and fatherland to go and work for the enemy. For historians and the collective memory, women labour in Germany is considered exceptional and concerns mostly volunteers. In addition, the chronological scope is mainly limited to the Second World War – and more specifically 1942-1944.

With this colloquium the SOMA-CEGES is determined to open up the research on foreign labour in Germany during both World Wars. It wants to do so on three levels.

First of all chronologically, by studying the question from the First World War covering the whole of the Second World War including the long-term repercussions of the war experience on societies in their legal, cultural and societal dimensions.

Secondly, thematically, by approaching the question from a gender perspective. On this continuous thread, other little studied aspects of foreign labour in Germany (the question of underage workers, pregnancies,…) will attach themselves. Time and again the dichotomy voluntary/forced proved inadequate to look at the reality in all its complexity.

Finally, geographically, by looking at the employment in Germany of Belgian, French, Dutch and East European men and women, and by giving attention to the German facets.

Participants are requested to register in advance.

Please contact Mathieu Vanhaelewyn (mathieu.vanhaelewyn@cegesoma.be or +32(0)2 556 92 28), and transfer the amount of 15 € (or 10 € for students) into the SOMA-CEGES (Luchtvaartsquare 29 – 1070 Brussels) bank account 679-2004500-92 (IBAN: BE12 6792 0045 0092, BIC PCHQBEBB) with mention of “Foreign Labour” + participant’s surname before 5 December. No lunch included.

Programm

Moderator Morning Session: Machteld De Metsenaere (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

09.30 Welcome, Rudi Van Doorslaer (SOMA-CEGES)
Introduction - Forced Labour in 20th century Europe. A general survey and some remarks on the gender question, Ulrich Herbert (Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg)

10.30 Forced Labour and Gender during 1914-1918

The role of gender in the German employment policy concerning Eastern European Workers during the First World War, Christian Westerhoff (Universität Erfurt)
‘…infolge ihres liederlichen Lebenswandels unbrauchbar’. Women as a problem for the German Labour Policy in Belgium during the First World War, Jens Thiel (Humboldt Universität Berlin)

11.30 Discussion

Moderator Afternoon Session: Leen Van Molle (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

13.30 Recruitment, Work & Life in Germany during World War Two

Le départ des travailleuses civiles de France: choix et contraintes, Camille Fauroux (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Female Foreign Forced Labour in Germany, 1939-1945. The Example of the West-German Industrial Town of Neuss, Christoph Roolf (Heinrich Heine Universität)
Families in the Fatherland: Belgian Workers and Their Families in Germany, 1940-1945, Sharon Harrison-Harding (The University of Edinburgh)

14.30 Discussion

15.00 Coffee Break

15.30 The Aftermath: Reintegration and Memory in Post-war Society

‘A child went away, a man returned’. Dutch boys coming of age in the Arbeitseinsatz: World War II and its aftermath, Marloes van Westrienen (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
Female returnees and Belgian post-war Policies towards the War Victims,
Hannelore Vandebroek (SOMA-CEGES)
Memory and Silence: Ostarbeiterinnen in Belgium, Machteld Venken (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

16.30 Discussion

17.00 Conclusions: Dirk Luyten (SOMA-CEGES / Universiteit Gent

Contact (announcement)

Contact:
Mathieu Vanhaelewyn
Mathieu.vanhaelewyn@cegesoma.be
Tel: +32(0)2 556 92 28

http://www.cegesoma.be
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Published on
10.10.2008
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