Women in the Multiple Field of Tension: Everyday Wartime Life in East Prussia

Abstract

The article analyses the everyday life of civilians in East Prussia during the Second World War, with a special focus on the Klaipėda (Memel) region, a former territory of Lithuania, which was annexed by the German Reich in March 1939. Since the Wehrmacht recruited a large number of men in 1941 in the former Memel region, a great shortage of labour also arose in this northern part of East Prussia. At the same time, numerous labour camps were set up in the region, for both foreign and forced labourers, and prisoners of war. Foreign workers were employed in most agricultural enterprises, which were run by women, thus creating many sources of tension. The women were dependent on close cooperation with the workers, but had to keep a safe distance and report to the Nazi authorities, as well as to their men who were on the front line. The paper focuses on the situation of women who lived and worked in familiar surroundings during the war, but whose lives were nevertheless greatly influenced by the war.

Keywords

• Second World War
• East Prussia
• Memel/Klaipėda region
• the history of everyday life
• forced labour
• women in Nazi Germany