![]() The infantry divisions in the 9th Army had a total of 7,700 hiwis assigned plus an additional group of 6,000 attached laborers. In January 1943 the 9th German Army of Army Group Center included 39,400 Russians, either volunteers or conscripted. On March 18, 1943, the 715th Division in France used 800 black French prisoners, who volunteered to fill 800 vacancies as wagon drivers, grooms, laborers, and other noncombat positions. Other ethnic groups were also used as hiwis. In early 1943 the army replaced Germans with 200,000 hiwis and later an additional 500,000. The infantry division was assigned more than a thousand to perform supply duties, care for horses, and other noncombatant roles. Hiwis became part of the official table of organization of army units. On February 6, 1943, the Luftwaffe had 100,000 hiwis in construction and antiaircraft units, replacing Germans. ![]() They were widely used in the Replacement Army and railroad construction units for service duties to free men for the front. The volunteers were called hiwis, a contraction of the German term for volunteer helper. ![]() Faced with bad treatment and starvation and a distinct possibility of dying, an increasing number of Russian prisoners volunteered to work for the Germans in exchange for better food and conditions. The German prisoner of war camps, containing millions of Soviet prisoners, were a potential source of manpower. ![]()
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