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P AH TI I IPERSONNELComposition of personnel107. Early periodt 1933/39 (Westwall Arbeiter/Frontarbeiter)($he purpose of IIIA is to review in broad outline thecomposition of OT personnel from the early stages of formation upto the present time. For a more detailed study of OT personnel,HIB should be consulted. For a detailed study of manpower, seePart IV and for recent developments, see IB.)The building organisation, which Fritz TODT evolved for thespecific task of rushing tine West Wall to completion and which wasso successful in that task that it became the construction arm ofthe Aimed Farces, has retained the basic characteristic of cooperationbetween the German Construction Industry and theGovernment to this day. The Construction Industry made theinvestment in the form of individual firms with their equipmentand clerical and technical staffs, including their executives.The Gezman Government, through the Wehrmacht, invested the manpowerand the building material, as well as the administrativestaffs controlling the entire OT personnel including fizms andaffiliated services, such as the N5KK-0T. This personnel carried(and stil l carries) a Dionstbuoh (pay and Identity book) and waspermitted to carry aims when the OT was put on a war footing inSept. 1939.When Fritz TQDT took over the task of completing the SiegfriedLine from the Army engineers in June 1938, he developed, in thespace of somewhat over two months, a building organisation of afrfli-P million men. This organisation consisted, in round figures,of 350,000 OeimanOT workers, 100,000 RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst orReich Labour Service) personnel and 100,000 Axmy Festungspioaier(Fortress Bngineer) personnel. Generally speaking, the RAPpersonnel performed the unskilled labour tasks, while supervisorytasks and the skilled construction work were entrusted to 0Tpersonnel. (Most of the workers consisted of the same personnelwhich had previously worked on the Reichsautobahnen (Reich HighwaySystem)).The 0T and RAD personnel were popularly known as "West WallArbeiter 1 * (West Wall Workers). Such material comforts as weredeemed over and above those essential for existence were providedfor them by the DAP (Deutsche Arbeitsfront or German Labour Front).In September 1939 the entire OT was put on a war footing. ItWas attached to the Wehrmacht as "Wehrmachtsgefolge" (Armed ForcesAuxiliary). The administrative control continued to be exercisedby the General Inspektor fur das Deutsche Strassenwesen (inspectorateGeneral for German Roadways) until some time in 1941 whenOT-Zentrale (OTZ) KffiLIN took over that function. With the outbreakof war, the term Frontarbeiter (Front zone worker) wassubstituted for the earlier designation Westwall Arbeiter. Thesignificance of this new designation was twofold: