This order from the Field Commandant’s Office during the German occupation, issued on December 3, 1942, in the Donetsk Military District, serves as a telling testimony to the forced labor policy (Arbeitseinsatz) implemented by the Nazi administration in occupied Ukraine during World War II. Labor exchanges (Arbeitsamt) functioned as instruments of coercion, regulating the distribution and forced mobilization of labor, particularly for deportation to the Third Reich. Such decrees aimed to maintain total control over the population to sustain the German war economy amidst acute labor shortages. Non-compliance resulted in severe penalties, including fines, arrests and imprisonments which made this document a primary tool of pressure and fear. For the local population, these orders represented the loss of personal freedom and the constant threat of hard labor, deportation and family separation.
The document is a rectangular, yellowish sheet of paper with text printed typographically in black ink in Russian. The upper-left corner contains the official details of the occupation administration with the date positioned on the right. Centered at the top there is the title "ORDER," followed by the main text organized into numbered paragraphs. At the bottom there is the handwritten signature of a Senior Field Commandant holding the rank of Major General. The text of the document regulates the procedure for mandatory registration of all civilians aged 14 and older, regardless of gender, at Labor Exchanges, the conditions for performing labor service and measures of responsibility for failing to perform assigned labor duties.