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DEST
German Earth and Stone Works (german: Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH, ) was an SS-owned company created to procure and manufacture building materials for state construction projects in Nazi Germany. DEST was a subsidiary company of ''Amtsgruppe W'' (''Amt. W'') of SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (WVHA). Both ''Amt. W'' and the WVHA were headed by Waffen-SS generals Oswald Pohl and Georg Lörner. The headquarters for DEST was located in Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, a small town in Austria where Gusen II, a subcamp of Mauthausen, was built in 1944. History ''DEST'', founded on April 29, 1938, in Berlin, was administered by the ''VWHA'' for the purpose of procuring building materials and organizing slave labor and overseeing quarry operations. The Sachsenhausen (1936), Buchenwald (1937), Flossenbürg (1938), Mauthausen (1938), Natzweiler-Struthof (1939), Gross Rosen (1940) and Neuengamme (1940) concentration camp sites were chosen because of their proximity to soi ...
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Flossenbürg Concentration Camp
Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flossenbürg and near the German border with Czechoslovakia. The camp's initial purpose was to exploit the forced labor of prisoners for the production of granite for Nazi architecture. In 1943, the bulk of prisoners switched to producing Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes and other armaments for Germany's war effort. Although originally intended for "criminal" and "asocial" prisoners, after Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, the camp's numbers swelled with political prisoners from outside Germany. It also developed an extensive subcamp system that eventually outgrew the main camp. Before it was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945, 89,964 to 100,000 prisoners passed through Flossenbürg and its subcamps. Around 30,000 ...
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Granitwerke Mauthausen
''Granitwerke Mauthausen'' was one of the names used by the DEST company (''Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke'') for its branch based in Sankt Georgen an der Gusen and which exploited the slave manpower confined in certain subcamps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp system: Gusen I, Gusen II, Gusen III, and Mauthausen. The quarries of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, the same as all of the others that were managed by ''Granitwerke Mauthausen'', were notorious for the terrible working conditions, which claimed thousands of lives. The management office of ''Granitwerke Mauthausen'' was installed from 1940 to 1945 in Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, which was also called St. Georgen Business Office of Group W of the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA). The Sankt Georgen group grew steadily from the years 1938 to 1945 to become the largest operation of the DEST. The Sankt Georgen DEST operation included the following camps: *Gusen Kastenhof (which included the three quarries ...
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Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp
Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further Subcamp (SS), subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. The three Gusen concentration camps in and around the village of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, St Georgen/Gusen, just a few kilometres from Mauthausen, held a significant proportion of prisoners within the camp complex, at times exceeding the number of prisoners at the Mauthausen main camp. The Mauthausen main camp operated from 8 August 1938, several months after the German annexation of Austria, to 5 May 1945, when it was liberated by the United States Army. Starting with the camp at Mauthausen, the number of subcamps expanded over time. In January 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates. As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen and it ...
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Gusen Concentration Camp
Gusen was a subcamp of Mauthausen concentration camp operated by the SS () between the villages of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen and Langestein in the Reichsgau Ostmark (currently Perg District, Upper Austria). Primarily populated by Polish prisoners, there were also large numbers of Spanish Republicans, Soviet citizens, and Italians. Initially, prisoners worked in nearby quarries, producing granite which was sold by the SS company DEST. Conditions were worse than at the Mauthausen main camp due to the camp's purpose of extermination through labor of real and perceived enemies of Nazi Germany. The life expectancy of prisoners was as short as six months, and at least 35,000 people died there from forced labor, starvation, and mass executions. From 1943, the camp was an important center of armaments production for Messerschmitt and Steyr-Daimler-Puch. In order to expand armaments production, the camp was redesignated Gusen I, and additional camps, Gusen II and Gusen III, were buil ...
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Companies Involved In The Holocaust
This list includes corporations and their documented collaboration in the implementation of the Holocaust. List Gallery File:Zyklon B labels.jpg , Zyklon B used at Dachau concentration camp. "Poison Gas! Cyanide preparation to be opened and used only by trained personnel" is found at the center of both labels. They were shown at Nuremberg Trial. File:Destroyed Magirus-Deutz furniture transport van Kolno Poland 1945.jpg , A destroyed Magirus-Deutz Gas van found in 1945 in Koło (Kolo), Poland, not far from the Chełmno extermination camp. File:Prigionieri a Chelmno.jpg , Prisoners in Chełmno (northern Poland), before getting into the gas van. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-638-4221-06, Produktion von Messerschmitt Bf 109.jpg , War production of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter plane with slave labour. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1980-005-07, Montage des Messerschmitt-Jägers.jpg , Assembly of the Messerschmitt fighter plane, 1944. File:Furnace room in crematory II.jpg , ...
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Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe
''Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe'' (german: for 'German Economic Enterprises'), abbreviated DWB, was a project launched by Nazi Germany in World War II. Organised and managed by the Allgemeine SS, its aim was to profit from the use of slave labour extracted from the Nazi concentration camp inmates. Holding company for SS industries In July 1940, Oswald Pohl (acting on the advice of and ) set up DWB as a holding company for the majority of SS-owned enterprises in order to offset the profits of other SS companies with the losses of German Earth and Stone Works's unsuccessful brickworks at Oranienburg I (Sachsenhausen concentration camp), reducing the taxes due. DWB was a holding company for more than 25 SS industries. Oswald Pohl, the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (known by its German initials as WVHA) was also the chief officer of DWB. Georg Lörner, another high WVHA official, was another incorporator. Through stock ownership DWB controlled a ...
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SS Main Economic And Administrative Office
The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (german: SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt; SS-WVHA) was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects of the (a main branch of the ; SS). It also ran the concentration camps and was instrumental in the implementation of the Final Solution through such subsidiary offices as the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and SS camp guards. Economics of the Holocaust In June 1939 SS-''Obergruppenführer'' Oswald Pohl became chief of both the ''Verwaltung und Wirtschaft Hauptamt'' (VuWHA) and the ''Hauptamt Haushalt und Bauten'' ("main bureau or/nowiki> budget and construction", part of the ''Reich'''s Ministry of the Interior). He oversaw all SS "construction projects and building enterprises" through these offices. Pohl also worked with Walther Funk, Reich Minister of Economics (german: Reichswirtschaftsminister), to oversee financial aspects of the Final Solution, the most deadly p ...
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Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War and was still in service at the end of World War II in 1945. It was one of the most advanced fighters when it first appeared, with an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. It was powered by a liquid-cooled, inverted-V12 aero engine. It was called the Me 109 by Allied aircrew and some German aces, even though this was not the official German designation. It was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser who worked at Bayerische Flugzeugwerke during the early to mid-1930s. It was conceived as an interceptor, although later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter-bomber, day-, night-, all-weather fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and reconnaissance ...
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Neuengamme Concentration Camp
Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, the Neuengamme camp became the largest concentration camp in Northwest Germany. Over 100,000 prisoners came through Neuengamme and its subcamps, 24 of which were for women. The verified death toll is 42,900: 14,000 in the main camp, 12,800 in the subcamps, and 16,100 in the death marches and bombings during the final weeks of World War II. Following Germany's defeat in 1945, the British Army used the site as an internment camp for SS and other Nazi officials. In 1948, the British transferred the land to the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which summarily demolished the camp's wooden barracks and built in its stead a prison cell block, converting the former concentration camp site into two state prisons operated by the Hamburg authorities f ...
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Sankt Georgen An Der Gusen
Sankt Georgen an der Gusen (also ''St. Georgen an der Gusen'' and ''St. Georgen/Gusen''; lit.: "Saint George's town on the Gusen River") is a small market town in Upper Austria, Austria, between the municipalities of Luftenberg and Langenstein. , the town had 3,779 inhabitants. History The town traces back to the 1600s, descendants of settlers like the Stettner and Hödlmayr families moving southwest near Perg and throughout Upper Austria. During World War II the town was selected to be the DEST-business administration center for exploiting slave labour in the quarries and later the industries of the Gusen concentration camp, a subcamp of the nearby Mauthausen concentration camp. In early 1944 the town became the site of " Gusen II", the most brutal sub-camp of Mauthausen. In roughly 40.000 m² of tunnels and caverns dug beneath St. Georgen for the Messerschmitt company a huge and most modern underground assembly plant for Messerschmitt Me 262 fuselages was operated until ...
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Oswald Pohl
Oswald Ludwig Pohl (; 30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. As the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, he was a key figure in the Final Solution, the genocide of the European Jews. After the war, Pohl went into hiding; he was apprehended in 1946. Pohl stood trial in 1947, was convicted of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to death. After repeatedly appealing his case, he was executed by hanging in 1951. Early life and career Oswald Pohl was born in Duisburg-Ruhrort on 30 June 1892 to blacksmith, Hermann Otto Emil Pohl, and his wife Auguste Pohl (née Seifert); he was the fifth of eight children. His parents were financially secure, and he attended a ''Realgymnasium'' where he studied classical Greek and Latin texts. From what Pohl claimed, he always wanted to study science but his father did not have the means to send him straight to university. In 1912, ...
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Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent states, Berlin is surrounded by the State of Brandenburg and contiguous with Potsdam, Brandenburg's capital. Berlin's urban area, which has a population of around 4.5 million, is the second most populous urban area in Germany after the Ruhr. The Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions. Berlin straddles the banks of the Spree, which flows into the Havel (a tributary of the Elbe) in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree, Havel and Dahme, the largest of which is Lake Müggelsee. Due to its l ...
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