The survival of forced laborers depended on where they were sent: to a military plant or to a village. One third of Ostarbeiters worked in agriculture, 45% worked in industry. In factories, Ostarbeiters were kept in special camps under strict guard. The exposition has a photograph showing an attempt by a German photographer to make a “collective portrait” of literally all of the occupants of the working camp at a large military enterprise in Salzwedel. This photo and other materials were submitted to the museum by Tetiana Konovalova (Bezugla).
Ostarbeiters were also isolated from Germans and other foreign workers and were paid symbolic wages. The standard of living of Ostarbeiters was low, while penalties were very severe, up to sending to a penal or a concentration camp. A guy from Obrazhievka, Stepan Sadovy, who worked at a powder plant in Bromberg, heard that his father was shot in July 1942 and vowed to revenge for his death. Together with his friend and fellow villager Ivan Varenyk, he began to organize small diversions and breakdowns, as well as to campaign. For this, Nazis sent both of them to a concentration camp. They went through Stuttgart and Buchenwald, they miraculously survived in the underground tunnels of Mittelbau-Dora, where in horrible conditions – without clear air or sunlight – prisoners manufactured the most advanced weapons of the Nazi Germany – the Fau-1 and Fau-2 missiles. Stepan Sadovy wrote about all of this in his memoirs.
Official statistics show that Ostarbeiters from the East had the highest percentage of women (51%) and the highest number of minors (almost 41% male and 60% female). Anna Tkach (Stepanenko) was deported at the age of 15 and friends Maria Pyschyk and Olexandra Verbitska were also just 15 when they were deported to Germany.
Anastasia Zaryazhko met her future husband, another forced laborer, Ivan Cis, in Berlin. Young people kept their sincere feelings not only during the war but carried them throughout their long married life.
- Tetyana Konovalova (Bezugla) in Salzwedel (Saxony-Anhalt). 1942.
- Postcard by Tetyana Konovalova (Bezugliy) from her friend Barbara, who was in forced labor in the city of Müsleringen (Ninburg / Weser County, Lower Saxony). 1943
- The inscription (in verse) on the postcard by Tetyana from her friend Barbara: Hello blue sky, hello blue clouds, hello Tanya, brown eye, I send you my greetings from far away!
- Ukrainian Forced Workers at the Ostarbeiter Camp in Germany. The photo was given to Tatiana Konovalova by her friend Olha. 1943. Caption on the reverse: “It was a year since we lived in Germany”
- Residents of the Shostka city and district at the Guzen military plant forced labor camp. Photo 1942 Pelagia Baranovska (born in 1920 in the village of Ivot) seated in the second row in the center. In June 1942, she was deported to Germany. She worked at a powder plant, which was a branch of Dynamite Cologne AG. After returning home, she lived in Shostka and worked at a sewing studio.
- Maria Pishchik (Kyrychok). Photo from her Ostarbeiter work card. 1942.
- Olexandra Verbytska (1st from the left) with her friends Valentyna and Maria Kyrychok and their cousin Larysa. Photo made in Shostka, [1941].
- Photos by Ganna Tkach (Stepanenko). In the photo, she is seated in the center. 1943
- Caption on the back of the photo by Anna Tkach (Stepanenko). Nazi Germany, June 6, 1943
- Ukrainian paper mill workers in Ruttenfurt. Anna Tkach (Stepanenko) is seated right. July 30, 1943
- Caption on the back of the photo by Anna Tkach (Stepanenko). Nazi Germany,
- Anastasia Zariazhko is forced worker in Berlin, 1943 Born in 1922 in the village of Bakumivka, Poltava region. In 1942 he was deported for forced labor in Germany. She worked in a kitchen in Berlin, where she cooked food for Soviet POWs.
- Ukrainian Forced Workers Ivan Tsys (left) with Comrade Alexei Borisenko. Berlin, 1945 Ivan presented this photo to Anastasia Zariazhko with the dedication: “Sweet Nastia! We met by chance … Friend and love each other sincerely. If the case separate us, you mast always be remembered for my sincere feelings for you. Ivan”
- Stepan Sadovy (left) with his friend. Bromberg, June 2, 1943 Photo taken a few months before Stepan’s arrest.
- Caption on the back of the photo by Stepan Sadovy: “To Boris Alexandrovich from Stepan Sadovy in memory of the days of the experience in Bromberg. 2.06.1943″
- Production of V2 (A4) in “Mittelwerk” near Niedersachswerfen in Thuringia: View into a storage hall for finished V2 tails (probably hall 35). Concentration camp inmates from concentration camp Mittelbau – Dora during assembly – 1944 Picture taken by Walter Frentz