Did Firms Profit from Concentration Camp Labour? A Critical Assessment of the Literature

URN to cite this document:: urn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-434946
DOI to cite this document:: 10.5283/epub.43494

Spoerer, Mark

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Date of publication of this fulltext: 27 Jul 2020 07:05

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This paper addresses the oft-raised question of whether German firms profited from con¬centration camp labour. Answering involves implicit or explicit normative assess¬ments. In a first step, I conduct a typical neoclassical labour market analysis in that I compare the rental fees that firms paid for concen-tra¬tion camp in¬mates with their (understandably low) labour produc¬ti¬vi¬ty. Contras-ting an oft-repeated assertion, it turns out that concentration camp labour was not generally "cheap" when com¬pa¬red with other forms of labour. We may doubt that financial aspects were still mattering for firms in 1944/45, though.
Yet, in order to assess the firms’ behaviour from a normative-ethical perspective, it is much more meaningful to ask whether they expected to profit from concentration camp labour rather than whether they practically did. This switch from an ex-post- to an ex-ante-perspective downscales the more complex matter of measuring profitability to a simple matter of choice: if a firm de¬li¬be¬ra¬te¬ly deployed concentration camp inmates, then it must have expected to profit from it in some way (note that the literature does not report cases in which firms deployed concentration camp inmates to improve their living conditions).
Therefore, in the second step, I employ a simple decision-theoretic instrument to model the decision-making process involving the firm and the armaments authorities. I take into account the probabilities of the relevant documents being passed down to and being accessible in the present; and the probabilities of the relevant documents finding a researcher making them public. Based on this framework I analyse the case studies reported in the literature to test for whether firms deliberately used concentration camp labour. Evidence suggests that there is only one case of a firm having likely been coerced into deploying inmates. Yet, there are 18 well-documented cases of privately-run firms taking the initiative on deploying inmates. Given that several 100,000 inmates were working for construction and armaments firms by the end of 1944, this is strong evidence that many German firms deliberately used concentration camp labour. Thus, they cannot abdicate their responsibility.

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