Workbook in Nazy Germany
Work books (Arbeitsbücher) were documents that were found everywhere in the German Reich from the mid-1930s onwards. All German workers were required to hand one in at their place of work. No one could be employed without a work book. Civilian forced laborers were also given a work book. Initially, this was the same as the work book given to Germans, but from May 1943 onwards, there was a separate work book for foreigners (Arbeitsbuch für Ausländer). Work books and the corresponding work book cards were used to manage and coordinate labor deployment (Arbeitseinsatz). The Nazis used this term to describe the state regulation of the labor market.
Staff at the local employment offices issued work books together with work book cards. Employers applied for work books and entered details about the respective job. They kept the work books of civilian forced laborers for as long as the laborers worked for them. If civilian forced laborers were assigned a new job, they were given back their work book to hand in to their new employer. Before they were given back their work books for this change, their employers sent their work books to the relevant employment office. Staff updated the work book cards held there accordingly. Sometimes, the employment office then sent work books directly to the new employers. The work books of civilian forced laborers who left the German Reich because they were sent back to their native countries due to illness, for example, had to be returned to the relevant employment office.
From as early as May 1935, German workers were increasingly required to keep a work book. From May 1941, all foreign workers were also required to keep a work book. Consequently, civilian forced laborers were given a work book as well. The General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment (GBA), Fritz Sauckel, introduced separate work books for foreigners in the “Decree on Work Books for Foreign Workers” of May 1, 1943. These were used until the end of the war.
References
https://eguide.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/details/work-book/
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