GERMAN SOLDIERS AT WORK (RAD) SPECIAL EDITION

RAD (Ger. Reichsarbeitsdienst , i.e. the Reich Labor Service) is a German mass organization that initially conducts civil and military adaptation, and later performs auxiliary tasks for the Wehrmacht. The main initiator of RAD is Konstantin Hierl, who shortly after taking power by the Nazis in 1933, became secretary for labor in the Reichsarbeitsministerium and obtained approval for his idea from Adolf Hitler. Initially, the main goal of RAD was to shape loyal youth attitudes towards the state and use it as a virtually free labor force. When in 1935 the obligation to work for the RAD state was introduced in the Third Reich, it grew rapidly. It is worth adding that the organization carried out numerous work for the state, and its activities were aimed at eliminating the shortage of manpower noticed in Germany in the period 1935-1939. In the course of World War II, RAD became an auxiliary organization of the Wehrmacht, carrying out numerous construction and building works for it. It was the RAD units that constituted the main workforce in the construction of the Atlantic Wall and the Siegfried Line. The units delegated to the eastern front were primarily used to build and repair roads and railroads. It happened that they also came into combat contact with units of the Red Army. As an interesting fact, four infantry divisions were formed from RAD members in March 1945