Did the Germans and Japanese have trouble with productivity, quality control or deliberate sabotage of items made by forced labour? Urging slave labourers to work harder or better for the good of the Reich might not have been the incentive it was for the Allies.
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Hi colm2481,
Thanks for the great question and and a very heartfelt welcome to the forum let me/us know should any queries arise.
Best Regards Chewie/Marc
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Welcome to the forums, colm.
Yes, there definitely was sabotage of all sorts not only in the occupied countries but eventually even in Germany, as they depended more and more on foreign slave workers as the war went on. A lot of it was subtle and (intentionally) difficult to trace, as this Jalopnik article reported:
… when France was occupied by the Germans in 1940, major French factories like Citroën were forced to produce equipment for the Nazis. Citroën president Pierre-Jules Boulanger knew he couldn’t just refuse to produce anything, but he also knew there’s no way in hell he’s going to just roll over and build trucks for a bunch of filthy Nazis. Pierre had a plan.
John Reynold’s book Citroën 2CV describes Boulanger’s sabotage efforts. Of course, he instructed workers to set a nice, leisurely pace when building trucks (likely Citroën T45 trucks) for the Wermacht, but that’s fairly obvious. What was brilliant was Boulanger’s idea to move the little notch on the trucks’ oil dipsticks that indicated the proper level of oil down just a bit lower.
By moving the notch down, the trucks would not have enough oil, but German mechanics would have no idea, because, hey, the little notch on the dipstick says its just fine. Then, after the truck has been used for a while and is out deployed somewhere crucial, whammo, the engine seizes up, and you’ve got a lot of angry, stranded, vulnerable Nazis, balling up their little fists and redly barking curses in German.
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There had been massive problems. Dr. Raths of the Panzermuseum explains them (and more) when he made the history of the Tiger 2 more transparent (in German, sorry):
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There are scenes showing or implying subtle sabotage of weapons or weapons systems by Jewish and other forced laborers in various movies made in the USA in the last 40 years, but I forget which ones at this point.
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“Schindlers List” was one of them.
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There is the movie about the Jewish counterfeiters who helped the Germans make British pound notes, but I forget if they were able to sabotage the enterprise . . . There is Heisenberg who was tasked to help Germany build atomic bombs and we do not really know if he erred on purpose or by accident or by the design of God, but Heisenberg made a critical miscalculation that rendered the whole enterprise impossible till after the war and the miscalculation was spotted, apparently. The Heisenberg can’t calculate problem reminds us a little of one of the Star Wars movies in which the chief architect or builder of the death star builds his thing with defects . . .
If I recall correctly, Heisenberg has miscalculated the ratios needed for nuclear fission to become self-perpetuating, resulting in the belief that the amount of Ur needed for a bomb of use would be dramatically beyond the ability/capacity of the Reich at the time.
Oh, here is a clip on youtube about the Norwegians making heavy water for the Germans defecting and then working with the British to stop the Germans from getting the heavy water . . .
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Thank you all for the replies. Very informative 