Braunschweig, 1944-19451 Karl Liedke
Destruction Through Work: Lodz Jews in the Büssing Truck Factory in Braunschweig, 1944-19451 Karl Liedke By early 1944, the influx of foreign civilian workers into the Third Reich economy had slowed to a trickle. Facing the prospect of a severe labor shortage, German firms turned their attention to SS concentration camps, in which a huge reservoir of a potential labor force was incarcerated. From the spring of 1944, the number of labor camps that functioned as branches of concentration camps grew by leaps and bounds in Germany and the occupied territories. The list of German economic enterprises actively involved in establishing such sub-camps lengthened and included numerous well-known firms. Requests for allocations of camp prisoners as a labor force were submitted directly by the firms to the SS Economic Administration Main Office (Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt, WVHA), to the head of Department D II – Prisoner Employment (Arbeitseinsatz der Häftlinge), SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Maurer. In individual cases these requests landed on the desk of Maurer’s superior, SS-Brigaderführer Richard Glücks, or, if the applicant enjoyed particularly good relations with the SS, on the desk of the head of the WVHA, SS-Gruppenführer Oswald Pohl. Occasionally, representatives of German firms contacted camp commandants directly with requests for prisoner labor-force allocation – in violation of standing procedures. After the allocation of a prisoner labor force was approved, the WVHA and the camp commandant involved jointly took steps to establish a special camp for prisoner workers. Security was the overriding concern; for example, proper fencing, restrictions on contact with civilian workers, etc.
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