I am interested in taking the resistance argument a bit further, does anyone have any information on forced labour "sabotage" of the German war effort?
I have read of organisation Todt workers doing things like adding extra sand to the cement during the construction of the Atlantic wall, however, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of concentration camp prisoners carrying out sabotage but I have yet to see and factual data about what they did or how effective it was.

Originally Posted by MontyB

I am interested in taking the resistance argument a bit further, does anyone have any information on forced labour "sabotage" of the German war effort?
I have read of organisation Todt workers doing things like adding extra sand to the cement during the construction of the Atlantic wall, however, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of concentration camp prisoners carrying out sabotage but I have yet to see and factual data about what they did or how effective it was.

I think it is difficult to find organized "sabotage" by KZ prisoners and POW. I guess they couldn't go all out with the sabotage without being caught. The stories I have read about such things are mostly about making defective munition. It might be a bad idea to use POW and KZ prisoners for making munition and/or other significant war supplies.

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

I think it is difficult to find organized "sabotage" by KZ prisoners and POW. I guess they couldn't go all out with the sabotage without being caught. The stories I have read about such things are mostly about making defective munition. It might be a bad idea to use POW and KZ prisoners for making munition and/or other significant war supplies.

Organised sabotage would have been very difficult to set up and manage "safely" but I guess what I am looking for is verified examples of resistance within the camps.

We have all read and seen movies such as Schindler's list which had examples but they are just movies and I have a feeling that a large number of "heros of the resistance" only emerged in 1946 once the shooting had stopped.

Originally Posted by MontyB

Organised sabotage would have been very difficult to set up and manage "safely" but I guess what I am looking for is verified examples of resistance within the camps.

We have all read and seen movies such as Schindler's list which had examples but they are just movies and I have a feeling that a large number of "heros of the resistance" only emerged in 1946 once the shooting had stopped.

The only thing I can think of is; there were cases of insurrections at Auschwitz and Treblinka. The one in Auschwitz occurred at one of the crematoriums and the one in Treblinka made it possible for some of the prisoners' to escape. It might be other "uprisings" at other camps. There was an uprising at the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, but neither of these insurrections had any impact on the German war effort.

I heard/read/saw on TV slave workers urinating on V2 guidance systems, even so, quite a few landed on London.

Originally Posted by BritinBritain

I heard/read/saw on TV slave workers urinating in V2 guidance systems, even so, quite a few landed on London.

When I began to take a closer look at this, I came across this story, even if it is anecdotal and it must be viewed with critical eyes. If this is true, the resistance by the forced labors saved lives.


https://forum.cartridgecollectors.or...or-story/13997

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

When I began to take a closer look at this, I came across this story, even if it is anecdotal and it must be viewed with critical eyes. If this is true, the resistance by the forced labors saved lives.


https://forum.cartridgecollectors.or...or-story/13997

I found that quite interesting.

If I remember correctly, the site where V2's were sabotaged was Mittelwerk, which was a German factory built underground in the Kohnstein to avoid Allied bombing. It used slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp to produce V-2 ballistic missiles, V-1 flying bombs, and other weapons.

One act of sabotage I seem to remember was in Singapore. The Japanese wanted a new road built from Tengah airfield to Bukit Timah, to hook up go the main route from the causeway to Singapore City. The workers employed built the road with a adverse camber on a number of bends in the road, apparently the Japanese could not understand why their trucks kept going off the road.

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

When I began to take a closer look at this, I came across this story, even if it is anecdotal and it must be viewed with critical eyes. If this is true, the resistance by the forced labors saved lives.


https://forum.cartridgecollectors.or...or-story/13997

An interesting read but I question the ability of a 20mm AAA round reaching a B-17 at operational height let alone 11 of them hitting the same aircrafts fuel tank with no ignition.
If we assume there is some truth to the story you would have to assume German quality control at that factory to be almost nonexistent, I would believe that sabotaging a few shells in a batch was possible but not all.
Alternatively, most German fighters used 20mm rounds and it is feasible that one of those could have hit an aircraft multiple times.

Originally Posted by MontyB

Alternatively, most German fighters used 20mm rounds and it is feasible that one of those could have hit an aircraft multiple times.

Had to be.

Have read that when the Germans built a new building at the FN plant the concrete floor was secretly re-enforced with Precision Instruments