Forced laborers in the Polish coal mining industry 1945-1956

Coal mining industry was the most important branch of industry in Poland between 1945-1989. This essay analyses particular groups of compulsory workers, i.e. the German citizens of the Upper Silesia, Polish political prisoners, members of youth labour brigades "Sluzba Polsce" as well as the soldiers of the Military Mining Corps. This analysis refers to the words uttered by the Voivodeship Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party to the Vice Minister of Heavy Industry that production plans in the last decade were achieved mainly due to various kinds of forced labour and miners working on Sundays and during holidays. Apart from the number of employed workers, a reader can find information on working conditions such as: work time, medical care, and food. A problem of the particular groups of compulsory workers share in the total coal productions was also taken into account. Moreover, this essay presents the reasons and aims of forced labour. The main ones are as follows: the lack of man power in the post-war coal mining industry, education of young people according to the principles of communist ideology as well as isolation and elimination of the communist opposition. Archival materials and Polish literature are the main sources used to elaborate this essay; moreover unpublished work of Polish historians was used.