Polnische Hausgehilfinnen: Polish Female Forced Laborers Employed in German Households during the Second World War

• In Event: Gendered Experiences of Forced Labor during World War II: Polish and Polish-Passing Laborers in the German Reich

Abstract

Among the 2.2 million Poles subjected to forced labor under the Third Reich were predominantly young girls aged between 14 and 18, who toiled as Hausgehilfinnen—housemaids and nannies—in German households spanning from rural villages to bourgeois apartments and even the grand estates of German aristocracy. This paper will dissect the many factors that shaped servant labor as a distinct form of forced labor, shedding light on why many former Hausgehilfinnen came to harbor positive recollections of their time in servitude postwar. It will explore the peculiar advantages afforded by servant work, such as comparatively lighter duties and favorable working conditions, and also confront the harsh realities and disadvantages associated with domestic servitude, including the threat of sexual violence.

Author

• Marta Agnieszka Pawlińska, U of Warsaw (Poland)