травня

27

Nazi pilgrimage town forced to advertise for jobless foreigners because of its …

Filed Under EN 

  • Wunsiedel attracted hoards of Neo-Nazis visiting grave of Hitler’s deputy
  • Now town has had to fly in workers from Spain as population diminishes

By
Rosie Taylor


PUBLISHED:

12:30 GMT, 27 May 2013


|

UPDATED:

14:40 GMT, 27 May 2013

A small Germany town that was once a pilgrimage site for Neo-Nazis has been forced to recruit jobless workers from Spain to fill a labour shortage caused by its shrinking population.

Wunsiedel, on German-Czech border, was best known as the burial place of Adolf Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess.

His grave attracted Neo-Nazis who carried out annual marches in the town, which regularly conflicted with opposing anti-Nazi marches.

Pilgrimage: The grave of Rudolph Hess was a focal point for Neo-Nazis until marches were banned and his body exhumed and cremated

Pilgrimage: The grave of Rudolph Hess was a focal point for Neo-Nazis until marches were banned and his body exhumed and cremated

Although authorities banned the annual pilgrimage in 2005, the town’s population has been diminishing, in part because of a slow birth rate.

Now companies have started recruiting from countries in southern Europe which have been hit hard by the economic crisis.

Already 12 Spanish workers have been relocated after business owners from the town visited Galicia in Spain, where unemployment is around 25 per cent.

In contrast, fewer than 6 per cent of Wunsiedel’s 9,500 inhabitants are unemployed.

Bernd Birke, the owner of an electrical
firm in Wunsiedel, went on the trip in March 2012 to find workers willing to relocate to
Germany.

Hitler's deputy: Rudolf Hess was buried in Wunsiedel after he died in a Berlin prison in 1987 where he had served a life sentence for war crimes

Hitler’s deputy: Rudolf Hess was buried in Wunsiedel after he died in a Berlin prison in 1987 where he had served a life sentence for war crimes

He needed more trained electricians than he could find
at home but he did not expect the overwhelming response he got from the
unemployed in the Spanish town of Padron.

‘We went to Spain with a queasy feeling,’ said
Mr Birke. ‘Nobody had any kind of experiences with such a project, whether
it could be successful or not.’

But more than 200 people desperate to
find work gathered in Padron’s town hall and each vacancy received
several applications.

The plan to recruit workers in crisis-hit
Spain was hatched by Bernd Schoeffel, Wunsiedel’s deputy mayor after he remembered an incident about 30 years ago when ‘guest workers’
from Galicia filled a labour shortage in the local ceramic industry. 

He said the recent scheme had gone well and that 10 of the 12 Spaniards were still in the town.

‘The road was not straight, but our experiment is
successful,’ he said.

Local authorities bought and renovated a house for the Spanish workers to live in, and even put their names on the doors to ‘make them feel welcome’.

Spanish worker Angel Morales had spent months looking for work in his home country before he took up the offer to move to Wunsiedel.

He said: ‘This project was introduced to me, and it
seemed interesting because it is a way of learning another language,
another culture and another way of working.

‘And now I’m here. I am very happy, and happy to get to know
other people, another way of working, and at the moment I like it.’

Back home in Spain, his mother Mercedes said: ‘A few years ago nobody imagined this
could happen because the country was alright, there was work for
everybody.

Struggle: In crisis-hit Galicia the unemployment rate is around 25 per cent

Struggle: In crisis-hit Galicia the unemployment rate is around 25 per cent

‘Ours is a beautiful
country, a cheerful country, where everybody would love to have a job to
earn a living. But if that’s not what happens, then we have to go and
look wherever jobs are, that’s normal.’

Some townspeople have objected to foreign workers being brought in when there are still some unemployed Germans in the area, but company bosses insist they cannot find skilled workers locally.

Nazi Hess died in a Berlin prison in 1987 after served a life sentence for war crimes handed down at the Nuremberg tribunal.

He was buried in the town where his family had been on regular holidays at his own request.

Marches and demonstrations around the anniversary of his death on August 17 were a regular occurrence in the town until a crackdown by authorities in 2005.

Finally, in 2011, Hess’s remains were exhumed, cremated and scattered at sea.

The comments below have not been moderated.



  • Newest


  • Oldest


  • Best rated


  • Worst rated

Of course at one time (about 70-odd years ago) the Germans had no problems “attracting” people from all over (occupied) Europe to come and work for them.

Cell
,

London,
27/5/2013 18:52

Report abuse

Cannot wait to see up Arlington Cemetery dug up!

Mac II
,

Glasgow, United Kingdom,
27/5/2013 18:46

Report abuse

How long as Spain had electricians all the work I have seen involves a large drum of flex

chris read
,

salisbury,
27/5/2013 18:45

Report abuse

These Nazis were a weird-looking bunch. I mean most of them were just ugly.

Sandy Brown
,

London,
27/5/2013 16:33

Report abuse

Bring him back. or your a waste of oxygen.

Mac II
,

Glasgow, United Kingdom,
27/5/2013 15:57

Report abuse

“Qualified Spanish electricians ” Come and see their skilled work in the towns and villages around Malaga. You will be impressed .

horsehoof hearted
,

malaga, Spain,
27/5/2013 15:37

Report abuse

Isn’t this one reason for the difficulty in finding a place to bury the Boston Marathon Bomber’s body? I think it’s because some feared it might become an attraction.

Econ
,

Upstate NY, United States,
27/5/2013 15:13

Report abuse

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Comments