Between 1943 and 1945 there were almost half a million Italian military internees working in the German arms industry. Their recruitment for this purpose represents the final major stage of National Socialist policy in the employment of foreign workers. On the basis of in-depth archive studies, oral and written inquiries and the relevant memoir literature, the volume provides a detailed survey of the social context in which these prisoners lived and worked. In so doing it casts light not only on decision-making processes in the ultimate stages of the National Socialist era but also on the effects disparate policies had on the lives of the affected group. The book appears doubly topical against the backdrop of the ongoing discussion about appropriate recompense for forced labor victims.