Wearing the Letter P: Polish Women as Forced Laborers in Nazi Germany, 1939-1945

Although the horror of the Nazi's use of men and women as forced laborers in Germany's industry including the farm industry is known, there has been little solid information available about the plight of the forced laborers from Poland--over a million men and more than half a million women including girls as young as 12 years old. Author Sophie Hodorowicz Knab in her magnificent tribute to her mother, Jozefa Zalewska Hodorowicz, spent 14 years researching the topic of Polish women forced into labor in Germany so that she could tell us the story of those brave Polish women and girls. As readers we are able to feel the first of many indignities forced on the Polish people when Poland was occupied by the German army in 1939. and all Poles were forced to wear the letter P on the right side of their clothes With the escalation of the war,, we share the terror or the Polish women when they hear the soldiers pounding on their doors telling that they are to report for work in 10 minutes. To refuse is to risk being sent to a concentration camp or their families sent to concentration camps.. We learn of the horror of the transit camps: crowded, cold, not enough food or water, no sanitation facilities, and brutal treatment by the German soldiers. No matter where the women were sent to work, they faced the same problems: cold, not enough food, working in terrible conditions without warm clothes or shoes. These conditions foster diseases, infestations, and sexual exploitation by their German supervisors. Perhaps the most horrific practice was the Germans insistence that the women, in order for them to return to work, surrender their babies to 'Homes for Children of Foreign Workers:' where the babies were starved to death. The author has described babies by name and birth weight and weight at death. We meet them as precious babies killed by withholding food. The world should learn of this terrible disregard of life. . Wearing the Letter P should be a must read for everyone concerned about human rights. The world did nothing to help the Polish women when they were suffering under the Nazis but now the author's meticulous research and inclusion of letters from the Polish women, has given a voice to the valiant Polish women forced to work for the German War machine. In honoring her mother, Sophie Hodorowicz Knab has honored all the women the Germans forced into slave labor in World War II.

Solid research compelled by the gaps in information the author's mother could not, would not, provide after experiencing the horrific ordeal. It reveals the traumatic experiences and holocaust of Catholic Poles during Nazi occupation, including systematic brutal murder of infants born to Polish forced laborers kidnapped or lured to Germany under false pretenses earlier in the war, then taken from the city streets and village hiding places (after the ruse was revealed and no one volunteered any longer) to suffer brutal slave conditions as an inferior slave race on German soil with disposable value, meaning no value. Women were preferred for docility; many were girls as young as 10, and reading accounts of their scalded innocence made me weep for my mother who was a kidnapped slave laborer largely shocked into silence about her experiences there. It is a documentation that argues Germany needs to provide reparations to Poland and its people, not only the German government but companies like Volkswagen and Krupps complicit in the brutal exploitation of slave labor for profits. The German holocaust of the Polish "race," especially, made trafficking Poles for economic gain the hidden holocaust during World War II. Both my parents were almost destroyed in Germany by the war's end as forced slave laborers. Poland deserves a public acknowledgement and apology from Chancellor Merkel and everyone in the current German government and the companies who bought the Polish slaves for this systematic holocaust of the Polish people which has been historically overshadowed by the Jewish holocaust. Nazi's hierarchy of racial value placed "dirty Polish swine" one notch above Jews in value worthy only of slave labor that should be brutalized to death. The treatment of babies taken from Polish mothers born in Germany, including a photo of one that looked like a corpse in a blanket included in the book showing the cold expression of the German "nurse" holding it, reveals that dehumanizing murderous attitude of German racial superiority and its systematic holocaust of Poles under the Nazi trafficking guise of "Work Will Set You Free."

There are more sides to every story than what you learn about in American school. Everyone knows about what happened with the Jews, but we are never taught about what happened to the Polish people. Most likely because they were "white". They say all whites have "privilege", that they can't be victims, yet all the while Poles were treated like slaves, put in camps, etc.

Excellent resource for a forgotten and little known piece of WWII history. More than a million Poles, mostly young women, were sent to Germany as slave labor for factories and farms. Conditions were harsh, Poles were considered subservient to the great German race, and forced to live separately and identified by wearing a Letter P to identify them as Poles. Separate and not equal was the rule. The author wrote the book she could not find. Her mother served as slave labor during WWII. The book is based on true letters and correspondence of several women, and a whole lot of research. It reads more like a reference that is backed up with historical research, than as a novel, though there is continuity of the same women throughout the book. As such, the book serves as a critical resource to document this history for present and future generations.

My initial order was a copy with the wrong content so I returned. I re-order and got a proper copy which was excellent.

I stumbled across this book whilst looking in to my family history. It is a well written account of forced labourers in Germany during WW2, with many first hand testimonies that bring to life those bitter experiences.I’d recommend it to anyone interested in that period of history or anyone looking for information about what their own relatives went through. I’d also recommend it to anyone who has little knowledge of this subject as it is often over looked. Incredibly powerful book, 5*.

Polish women constituted the largest cohort of women in occupied Europe sent to work in Germany as slave labourers. They had to wear a "P' sown on their clothing to identify themselves as Poles whom many Germans considered as dirty and inferior subhumans. Russian and other Slavic women shared the same conditions. They could not retaliate when insulted or even physically assaulted by a German. They had no rights. One woman recalls how a little German boy ran up to her and threw dirt in her face after calling her a 'dirty Polish pig'. Some German employers were humane but were by law not permitted to treat these women as equals. Some of them were punished after a nasty German neighbour reported them for according to these Polish or other Slavic women such dignities as allowing them to sit at the same dinner table during meal-time.The author has meticulously researched her material and obtained first-hand accounts from women who experienced slave labour conditions in Germany. Many of these women were mere teenagers when dragged away from their families to work in often appalling conditions for some very nasty German employers. People who are interested in all aspects of Nazi German crimes should read this book.

Despite the horrific details honouring these hero’s stories is what this book does

Still reading this just can't put the book down as both my parents were polish forced labourers as children aged 12 + 13 during ww2 have found this very informative and at times very upsetting to read as my parents could nt talk about itMy mother who is 90 next has only just been able to talk about it over the last couple of years helped me to understand the horror millions went through not just Jews everyone was persecutedMy father never spoke about it at all everA must read for for children of forced labour survivors makes you understand your parent's moreWell it has done for me