This study examines Ferdinand Porsche’s activities during the Third Reich. Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) was an engineer who became best known as the founder of Porsche AG, one of the most profitable car manufacturers in the world. Between 1933 and 1945, Porsche collaborated closely with the National Socialist regime in Germany. Prior to the start of the Second World War in September 1939, Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle on behalf of Adolf Hitler, and oversaw the factory dedicated to manufacturing the Volkswagen. During the Second World War, Porsche transformed the Volkswagen factory into an important site for armament production, and designed various military vehicles; with both undertakings, his company exploited involuntary workers. After the Second World War, Porsche was interrogated by American and British occupying forces and imprisoned by the French government. After his release from France in August 1947, he went on to design the first sports car displaying the Porsche marque and help build an automotive empire. This study emphasizes Ferdinand Porsche’s relationships to leaders of the National Socialist regime, namely Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring. Porsche utilized such relationships to further his personal interests. This study also considers the limited response of Porsche AG to this challenging history.

A escravidão foi abolida no Brasil em 1888, por lei imperial que rompeu o modo de produção fundamental que caracterizou o país por mais de trezentos anos. Entretanto, se não se pode mais tratar da existência de um sistema escravista, uma vez que ilegal, as raízes históricas deste sistema, tanto na hierarquização das relações de trabalho, como sua substituição por mão-de-obra livre, formam a base para o que hoje se denomina de escravidão contemporânea. A escravidão contemporânea não mais detém as figuras que caracterizaram o modo de produção dos períodos Colono-Imperial, como o tráfico e os castigos corporais: representa o aviltamento da condição humana do trabalhador livre que é submetido a condições de trabalho inaceitáveis ao patamar mínimo de dignidade. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo esclarecer quanto à caracterização do trabalho escravo contemporâneo, tal qual conduta que atinge a dignidade do trabalhador, como elemento de sua liberdade. O foco específico é análise da atuação do Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego, órgão do Poder Executivo, que atribui a si como meta institucional a erradicação do trabalho escravo contemporâneo. E dentro da análise da atuação ministerial, por intermédio de seus agentes, auditores fiscais do trabalho, apuraram-se as ações na produção do carvão vegetal, atividade que alia um ultrapassado meio de produção de insumo industrial à indústria pesada de base (Siderúrgica). / Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, by imperial law that broke the fundamental mode of production that characterized the country for more than three hundred years. However, if it is no longer possible treat the existence of a slave system, as illegal, the historical roots of this system, both in the hierarchy of labor relations, as its replacement for hand-free work force, form the basis for what today is called the Contemporary slavery. The contemporary slavery, no longer owns the figures that characterized the mode of production-Imperial Colonist periods such as traffic and corporal punishment: it is the debasement of the human condition of a free worker who is subjected to unacceptable working conditions at the minimum level of dignity. This paper aims to shed light on the characterization of contemporary slavery, such conduct which affect the dignity of the worker, in a way that is considered one of the face of his Liberty. The specific focus is analyzing the activity of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, Executive Branch agency, which assigns to itself as an institutional goal the eradication of contemporary slavery. And in the analysis of ministerial performance, through its agents,the labor inspectors, have found themselves the actions in the production of charcoal, an activity that combines an outdated means of production of industrial raw material base for heavy industry (Steel).

Researchers have described human trafficking as a complex, multi-layered crime. South Africa, including the Eastern Cape Province, is a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked people. However, a dearth of research on human trafficking exists in the province. Furthermore, traditional, modernist research using reductionist methods to investigate complex phenomena has proven unable to capture the complex interrelationships between the myriad of interrelated elements inherent in complex phenomena. In this qualitative study, I explore and describe the human trafficking system in the Eastern Cape via participants’ perspectives through a complex systems approach that consists of two complementary theories, namely Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development and complexity theory. The participants, who were knowledgeable about human trafficking in the province, were obtained through purposive and snowball sampling. Data collection took place through open-ended interviews with individual participants. I analysed the data according to Miles and Huberman’s data analysis process and Braun and Clarke’s thematic data analysis process. The findings demonstrate that the complex systems approach successfully facilitated the mapping and conceptualisation of an in-depth, multi-level picture of the complex interrelationships within and between multiple system components in the human trafficking system and its environment in relation to the Eastern Cape Province. Participants’ perspectives revealed two main themes, namely, the prominence of the nonlinear interactions between traffickers and trafficked persons in the holistic human trafficking system and the major obstacle regarding the lack of witness credibility for human trafficking prosecutions to be successful. Utilising complex systems theory to conduct further human trafficking research could assist counter-trafficking stakeholders with an alternative approach to generating effective planning and executing counter human trafficking strategies in a rapidly changing and increasing complex interconnected world.

During World War Two, approximately 400 to 450 Ausländerkinder-Pflegestätten, or foreign child-care facilities, were established across the German Reich as collection centers for the infants born to Polish and Soviet civilian laborers employed in the German war economy. My thesis examines two such foreign child-care facilities, the Volkswagen and Velpke children’s homes, where over 450 Polish and Soviet infants perished. Three themes provide the framework for an analysis of these two facilities: the conflict between two of the main goals of the Third Reich—racial cleansing and the exploitation of forced labor; the question of whether the establishment of the facilities and treatment of the children depended on orders from upper-level or local-level authorities; and the issue of whether the children’s deaths stemmed from intent to cause their deaths or indifference toward their fate. This thesis addresses the following questions: In terms of racial ideology and economic pragmatism, was one factor more significant in the establishment and use of the Volkswagen and Velpke children’s homes? Who, among upper-level and lower-level Nazi officials, ordinary Germans, medical professionals, and factory executives, was responsible for the children’s deaths? Were the children’s deaths intentional? What do these two facilities tell us about the other foreign child-care facilities that existed across the Third Reich? The research for this thesis draws upon two British war crimes trials held in Braunschweig and Helmstedt, Germany in 1946, the “Velpke Baby Home Case” and the “Rühen Baby Farm Case,” as well as records from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives in Washington, DC, the National Archives at College Park in College Park, MD, and digital records from the International Tracing Service Archives. Ultimately, this thesis highlights the connections between the three conflicting—and often opposing—themes. First, the trial records revealed that both facilities were exclusively established, managed, and operated by local-level officials and personnel. Second, upper-level Nazi authorities deemed alleged racial enemies a threat to the German “master race,” and were intent on enforcing a racial hierarchy in the German Reich; however, the local-level officials and staff responsible for these two children’s homes were far more concerned with maintaining productivity from the Polish and Soviet workforce, remaining indifferent toward the fate of the children at the homes. Third, while both the need for economic efficiency from workers and the belief in Nazi racial ideology influenced the establishment, management, and operation of the Volkswagen and Velpke children’s homes, there is minimal evidence that local authorities and personnel prioritized racial ideology over economics. Since both facilities were controlled locally, this thesis reveals that rather than putting racial ideological into practice and intentionally killing the children, local officials prioritized economic production. This left the fate of the children somewhere between extermination and child-rearing—between being left to die, murdered, or raised.

Throughout history, the media's rendering of slavery depicts vulnerable groups caught in a network of trafficking looking for a better life. Scholars of trafficking cite challenges in understanding the health care needs of domestic forced labor trafficking survivors in the United States. Seminal trafficking findings have shown that variations of trafficking affect the survivors' health after surviving trafficking. Therefore, in this qualitative, narrative inquiry I sought to understand how 8 survivors of forced labor trafficking, ages 25 years and older, described their health following trafficking beyond 5 years. The theory of social constructionism constituted the theoretical foundation, and the salutogenic model of health is the conceptual framework. The research questions for the study focused on understanding how adult survivors described experiences of entering and exiting trafficking, and their physical health, post-trafficking involvement. Criterion sampling facilitated identifying survivors of forced labor trafficking. Semi-structured interviewing guided the survivors' narrative storytelling. For analyzing the narratives, I used Braun and Clarke's Thematic Analysis strategy. The results of the pilot and main study showed that survivors suffer from an array of ongoing cognitive and general health concerns beyond surviving trafficking. The findings suggest that these ongoing health conditions influenced survivors' well-being beyond surviving trafficking. The results of the study may lead those in the medical field (e.g. health administrators) to identify other conditions influencing survivors' health after surviving trafficking.

Thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Hamburg, 2004. / Bibliographie p. 365-374. Index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [172]-181).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Erfurt, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-387).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Freie Universität, Berlin, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 5-40).

The thesis engages with a dynamic discourse on the human rights approach to human trafficking. Building on the traditional doctrine of human rights, the thesis demonstrates that human trafficking is not a human rights violation, save for a state involvement in it, either directly or through a failure to observe its positive obligations imposed by the existent human rights. In situations that do engage human rights law, the thesis defends an argument that conceptually, human trafficking falls within a domain of the right to be free from slavery, servitude and forced labour. This argument is grounded in both a doctrinal and a conceptual analysis. In particular, the thesis conducts a unique conceptual and legal analysis of Article 4 of the European Convention of Human Rights offering an original interpretation of the concept of exploitation in the context of practices associated with trafficking and 'modern slavery'. This type of inquiry is missing in the existent scholarship. The thesis also conducts a detailed analysis of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on positive obligations to protect vulnerable individuals arising out of 'absolute' rights. In addition to providing a complete analysis and classification of these positive obligations, the thesis draws attention to the important difference between the scope of the right and the scope of state responsibility in situations of private infringements of 'absolute' rights. Accordingly, the thesis demonstrates that whereas the prohibition contained in these rights is absolute for the state, positive obligations in situations of their infringements by private individuals are of a limited scope. The analysis of the jurisprudence of the Strasbourg Court is supplemented by a comprehensive discussion of the obligations established in the trafficking-specific instruments. The thesis explains how victim protection provisions contained in these instruments may inform human rights obligations, yet, it demonstrates that these do not represent such obligations on their own. This analysis provides a roadmap for practitioners and activists when arguing cases before the Strasbourg Court and domestically. In addition to this practical dimension, the thesis intends to provide an important contribution to the scholarship on human rights law, and on human trafficking specifically.