'Peter-Sendungen' was the German programme to transport materials for the construction programmes of the Organisation 'Todt' in the German-occupied territories of central and eastern Europe (1939/44).

Notorious for its use of slave labour in World War II, the Organisation 'Todt' was the civil and military engineering agency named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior figure in the Nazi regime, and was tasked with the planning and implementation of a huge diversity of engineering and construction undertakings within Germany before the outbreak of war, and after September 1939 within Germany and German-occupied territories between France in the west and the USSR in the east, and between Greece in the south and Norway in the north.

The efforts of the Organisation 'Todt' fell into three phases. Firstly, there was the pre-war period (1933/38) in which Todt’s primary office was that of Generalinspektor für das deutsche Strassenwesen (inspector general of German roads) and his primary responsibility the construction of the Autobahn network. The organisation was able to draw on 'conscripted' (i.e. compulsory) labour from within Germany, through the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich labour service).

Secondly, there was the period from 1938 to February 1942, when Todt died in a aeroplane crash. During this period Todt was named Reichsminister für Bewaffnung und Munition (Reich minister for armaments and munitions) in 1940 and the projects of the Organisation 'Todt' became almost exclusively military. The huge increase in the demand for labour created by the various military and paramilitary projects was met by a series of expansions of the laws on compulsory service, which ultimately obligated all Germans to effectively unlimited compulsory labour for the state. Un 1940/42, more than 1.75 million Germans were conscripted for labour, and during the same basic period the Organisation 'Todt' began to place increasing reliance on Gastarbeitnehmer (supposedl guest workers), Militärinternierte (military internees), Zivilarbeiter (civilian workers), Ostarbeiter (eastern workers) and Hilfswillige (supposedly volunteer) prisoner of war workers.

Thirdly, there was the period from 1942 to the end of the war in May 1945 after Albert Speer had succeeded Todt in office and the Organisation 'Todt' was absorbed into the very much enlarged Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion (Reich ministry for armaments and war production).

Some 1.4 million labourers were in the service of the Organisation 'Todt'. In overall terms, a mere 1% were Germans rejected from military service and 1.5% were concentration camp prisoners; the rest were prisoners of war and conscripted labourers from occupied countries. All were effectively treated as slaves, and very large numbers did not survive the work or the war.

The Autobahn concept did not originate with the Nazis but had its beginnings in the efforts of a private consortium, the Verein zur Vorbereitung der Autostraße Hansestädte-Frankfurt-Basel, founded in 1926 for the purpose of building a fast highway between northern Germany and Basel in Switzerland. With a decree establishing a Reichsautobahnen project for an entire network of highways, issued on 27 June 1933, Adolf Hitler made it a vastly more ambitious public project and that responsibility rested on Todt’s shoulders. By 1934, Todt had succeeded in elevating his role to that of one near cabinet rank. Todt was also an extremely capable administrator and had, by 1938, built more than 1,865 miles (3000 km) of high-speed roads. The Autobahn project became one of the show pieces of the Nazi regime. In that period Todt had also put together the administrative core of what would properly speaking become the Organisation 'Todt'.

Initially, the Autobahn project relied on the open labour market as a source of workers. Germany was at this time still recovering from the effects of the 'great depression', and as a result there was no shortage of labour. As the economy recovered and the supply of labour became a more serious issue, the Organisation 'Todt' was allowed from 1935 to to draw on conscripted workers from within Germany through the Reichsarbeitsdienst. By a law of 26 June 1935, all male Germans between the ages of 18 and 25 were required to perform six months of state service. In this period the work was paid at a rate slightly greater than that of unemployment support. However, the working conditions of the labour force would change drastically for the worse over the course of the following 10 years.

Todt’s organisation had no official name until Hitler, in a rather careless manner, did so shortly after coming to power in 1933, and in 1938 Todt founded the Organisation 'Todt' proper as a consortium of the administrative offices which Todt had created during the course of the Autobahn project, private companies as subcontractors and the primary source of technical engineering expertise, and the Reichsarbeitsdienst as the source of manpower. Hitler appointed Todt as the plenipotentiary for labour within the second four-year plan, undermining Herman Göring’s position, and investment in civil engineering work was greatly reduced. Between 1939 and 1943, in contrast to the period from 1933 to 1938, less than 620 miles (1000 km) of roads were added to the Autobahn system as construction emphasis was shifted to military efforts, the first major project being the 'Westwall' (the Siegfried Line) built opposite the French Maginot Line and serving a similar purpose. In 1941 Todt and his organisation were further charged with an even larger project, the construction of the 'Atlantic Wall', to be built on the coasts of occupied France, the Netherlands and Belgium. Included with this project were the fortification of the British Channel Islands, which were occupied by Germany from 30 June 1940.

The vast increase in the demand for labour created by the 'Westwall' and other programmes could be met only by a series of expansions of the laws on compulsory service, which ultimately obligated all Germans to unlimited compulsory labour for the state: between 1938 and 1940, 1.75 million Germans were conscripted into labour service. Both the Organisation 'Todt' and the Reichsarbeitsdienst were of a paramilitary nature in their structure and appearance, with elaborate sets of chevrons, armbands and epaulettes, and other insignia for the display and recognition of rank. Much greater numbers of prisoners of war and other forced labourers were employed as increasing numbers of Germans were conscripted into the army.

Todt died in an air accident on 8 February 1942, shortly after a meeting with Hitler in East Prussia. Todt had become convinced that the war on the Eastern Front could not be won and thought himself independent enough to say as much to Hitler. As a result, there has been some speculation that Todt’s death was a covert assassination, but this has never been substantiated. Todt was succeeded Albert Speer.

Despite the death of its namesake, the Organisation 'Todt' continued to exist as an engineering organisation and was allocated many more tasks. At the beginning of 1943, in addition to its continuing work on the 'Atlantic Wall', the organisation also undertook the construction of launch platforms in northern France for the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket. In the summer of that year, following the increasingly defensive course of the German war effort, the organisation was further charged with the construction of air-raid shelters, the repair of bombed buildings in cities within Germany, and in 'Riese' with the construction of underground refineries and armaments factories.

At the administrative level the Organisation 'Todt' was effectively absorbed into Speer’s armament and war production ministry from 1943. Speer’s concerns, as Germany began to a suffer drastic loss of production capability as a result of materials and manpower shortages as well as by Allied bombing, covered over almost the entirety of the German war-time economy. Speer managed to increase production significantly, at the cost of a vastly increased reliance on compulsory labour.

By the end of the war, compulsory state service for Germans had been reduced to six weeks of perfunctory military training and all available conscript German manpower diverted to military units and direct military support organisations. From the beginning of 1942 at the latest, their place was increasingly taken by prisoners of war and compulsory labourers from occupied countries. Foreign nationals and prisoners of war were often known as Fremdarbeiter (foreign workers). In 1943 and 1944 these were further augmented by concentration camp and other prisoners. Beginning in the autumn of 1944, between 10,000 to 20,000 half-Jews (Mischlinge) and persons related to Jews by marriage were conscripted into special units.

By the end of 1944, of approximately 1.4 million labourers in the service of the Organisation 'Todt' all but 2.5% were prisoners of war (most of them Soviet) and conscripted labourers from occupied countries.