Permanent exhibit - Room 14
Forced labour and Death in concentration camps
Forced labour in the concentration camps was intrinsically linked with the systematic murder of the Jews. The deployment of Jewish prisoners as labourers was intended to annihilate them.
From spring 1942 onwards labour shortages meant that more and more concentration camp prisoners were forced to work in the war economy. Unbearable working conditions, particularly when constructing production sites, resulted in the death of a large number of prisoners. At the Auschwitz concentration camp above all the dead were mostly replaced by Jews who had been deported from German-occupied countries.
The concentration camps fell under the remit of the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS (WVHA), founded on 1 February 1942 and run by Oswald Pohl. Under the control of Heinrich Himmler, the WVHA had an important role in the German war economy. It also arranged loans of concentration camp prisoners to private firms. The SS initially tried to expand its economic activities using prisoner labour and to found production sites near the concentration camps. However, Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments, managed to implement his own concept of bringing the prisoners to industrial enterprises. This led to the creation of a large number of satellite camps.
The SS ruled the concentration camps with a regime of brutality and terror. Yet prisoners attempted resistance in many different ways, putting their lives at risk in the process.
The liberation of the concentration camps began in summer 1944 with the approach of the Red Army. Liberation was preceded by the liquidation of the camps, a process during which prisoners were shot, deported to other camps or forced to go on death marches. The mass murder was only halted by the military defeat of Germany.
Department D of the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS (WVHA-D) was responsible for assigning concentration camp prisoners as forced labourers. Industrial companies who exploited prisoners as labourers also had an influence on their living and working conditions. The deployment of Jewish concentration camp prisoners as forced labourers followed the principle “Vernichtung durch Arbeit” (annihilation through labour). The lives of the prisoners depended on whether they were able to work. With insufficient provisions, physical and psychological torture and the constant threat of selections, they fought to survive from one day to the next.
In 1942, the need for labour for the armaments industry increased further. The National Socialist leadership viewed the prisoners as a major pool of forced labour for this purpose.
With the liquidation of the camps in Eastern Europe, tens of thousands of Jewish prisoners were moved to concentration and subcamps located further to the West.
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Entry made by the SS doctor in the register of deaths of the Mauthausen concentration camp, 14 June 1941 The listed causes of death include "suicide by electrocution", "acute cardiac difficulties" and "pneumonia". The frequent entries stating "Cause of death: suicide by falling into the quarry", or changed to " Notes: suicide by falling jumping into the quarry" reflect the harsh working conditions faced by the prisoners. Jewish prisoners in particular were assigned to work brigades in the concentration camps and made to carry out physically gruelling forced labour, mostly in intolerable conditions. |
Excerpt from the order sent by Oswald Pohl, Head of the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS (WVHA), to the Head of Department D, all camp commandants and all labour supervisors, 30 April 1942:
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“4.) The camp commandant is responsible for deploying labourers. The labour concerned must be exhausting in the true sense of the word so as to achieve the highest possible output.”
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“We had to line up for a roll-call, which appeared to herald one of the notorious selections. Once again, the anxious question lay in the air: would it only concern the emaciated and weak among us – those deemed the Muselmänner (“living dead”) in camp jargon – or were we all going to be sent to the gas chambers? We were told to strip naked and to form several rows outside in front of the block. (…) It later emerged that we had not been driven to the front of the block for a selection but that simply another deployment of labour awaited us.”
Jiri Kosta published his memoirs under the title “Never Give Up. A Life between Fear and Hope”
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Buna factory of the company I.G.-Farben, under construction as the camp complex Auschwitz III (APM Oswiecim) |
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Photo from a series taken to mark Himmler’s visit to Auschwitz on 17 and 18 July 1942
I.G.-Farben was a conglomerate of major German chemical companies, including Bayer, Hoechst and BASF. It chose Auschwitz in Upper Silesia as the location to produce synthetic rubber (Buna). |
Excerpt from a letter from Pohl, Head of the WVHA, to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler regarding a meeting with Reich Minister Albert Speer; Re: war production and bombing damage, 16 September 1942
“In this way, Reich Minister Prof Speer hopes to achieve the rapid deployment of an initial 50,000 Jews who are fit for work. They will be assigned to individual firms with available accommodation.
The labourers required for this purpose will primarily be drawn from those in Auschwitz who were selected for Ostwanderung (migration to the East) so that the output and development of existing firms are not disturbed by constantly changing labourers.”
“Ostwanderung” here meant killing by gas.
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Decree circulated by Department D II of the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS (WVHA) to all concentration camp commandants with the subject: Jewish prisoners, 3 October 1942
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“The Reichsführer SS wants all concentration camps located in the Reich to be made free of Jews. The Jews in these camps are thus to be transferred to Auschwitz or Lublin. I would ask you to inform me of the number of Jews in the concentration camps on Reich territory by the 9th of the month. Please make a particular note of any of these prisoners who are assigned to tasks which do not allow them to be transferred immediately.”
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After most Jews had been deported from the German Reich, Himmler’s aim was to also declare the concentration camps and prisons “free of Jews” (judenfrei). Relatively few Jews were detained by the SS in the German Reich. All of the at least 1,560 prisoners were deported to Auschwitz and probably murdered on arrival.
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Concentration camp prisoners carrying out outside work for the construction of facilities for the Krupp firm in Auschwitz, 1942-1943 (USHMM Washington D. C.) |
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KZ prisoners working in the Bobrek subcamp of Auschwitz, around 1944 180 prisoners from France, Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union, including 35 Jewish women, were forced to work in this factory building belonging to the Siemens Schuckert plant. |
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