Until they were deported to ghettoes, concentration camps or extermination camps, thousands of Roma and Sinti had to do forced labour in special "gipsy camps" on Austrian territory. And at least 130,000 men and women were selected by the Nazis from among the German army's POWs as slave labourers. The biggest groups of these came from Poland, the Soviet Union, France and Yugoslavia. They were employed in many industries, especially in agriculture and the building industry. After Italy left the war in September 1943, a not yet exactly known proportion of the about 600,000 Italian military personnel interned by the Germans were brought to Austria. They were forced to work here with virtually no legal status.

The biggest group of forced labourers had the status of civilian workers of foreign nationality. They came from all countries within the German Reich's sphere of influence and, as has been stated, were subject to widely different working and living conditions.