Forced labor in Nazi concentration camps
Forced labor was an important and ubiquitous aspect of the Nazi concentration camps which operated in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe between 1933 and 1945. It was the harshest and most inhumane part of a larger system of forced labor in Nazi Germany.
Origins
Traditionally, prisoners were often deployed in penal labor performing unskilled work. During the first years of Nazi Germany's existence, unemployment was high and forced labor in the concentration camps was presented as re-education through labor and a means of punishing offenders. Nazi propaganda idolized work, in contrast to the view of work as punishment. Prisoners in early camps were forced to perform economically valueless but strenuous tasks, such as farming on moorland. Other prisoners had to work on constructing and expanding the camps. German state governments complained at being required to pay the upkeep of the camps, which was eventually taken over by the SS with costs reduced by forcing inmates to work. At Dachau, two streams of labor developed, one for punishing but less economically valuable labor, while a parallel system of workshops developed where prisoners performed economically valuable labor in much better conditions.The Four Year Plan of 1936 led to a shortage of labor, as free workers were diverted to projects related to German rearmament. By the end of 1937, full employment was reached outside the camps, and in particular there was a shortage of labor for construction work. A significant increase of the use of prisoner labor for productive tasks resulted in 1937 and 1938. SS chief Heinrich Himmler also used the labor shortage as a reason to expand the concentration camp system in the prewar period, despite other Nazi leaders such as Hermann Göring disagreeing with the expansion. The businesses were initially overseen by the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS office. In 1938, mass roundups of so-called "work-shy" and "anti-social" individuals brought another 10,000 prisoners into the camps. The desire to exclude these people from the German national community was complementary to the goal of exploiting their labor. These roundups coincided with and were fueled by the demand for prisoner labor to obtain building materials for Nazi architecture. Hard labor was a fundamental component of the concentration camp system and an aspect in the daily life of prisoners.
Building materials
The initiative for the foundation of SS companies dealing in building materials from concentration camps originated in 1937 with regional SS officials in Thuringia, especially the state's Interior Minister. German Earth and Stone Works was an SS-owned company founded on 29 April 1938 for the exploitation of prisoner labor in the concentration camps for the production of building materials. Soon organized under the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, DEST had four main priorities for developing the economy of concentration camps: stone quarrying, brick production, street construction, and the acquisition of other enterprises for the above purposes. Although technically a private enterprise, its members were also, as SS officers, accountable to the SS hierarchy. Throughout DEST's history, Nazi architect Albert Speer's office for the reconstruction of Berlin was the most significant investor and customer of DEST's products, signing various contracts large and small for building materials. Before World War II, DEST's quarries were profitable, while its brickworks operated at a loss. By the beginning of the war, four of the six concentration camps were producing or preparing to produce building materials. The production of building materials continued to expand until 1942, and the SS scaled back on building materials in 1943–1944 in order to focus on arms production.Brickworks
Bricks were the SS's entrance into the construction industry, justified by the demand for bricks by the GBI for the Führerbauten, as private industry was only able to fill 18 percent of the GBI's demanded 2 billion bricks annually. On 1 July 1938, SS chief Heinrich Himmler and Speer came to an agreement by which the GBI promised to buy 120 million bricks annually for the next ten years, with the SS receiving an advance payment of 9.5 million Reichsmarks. This granted DEST the funding it needed to invest in the concentration camp industries. A ceremony on 6 July marked the ground-breaking on what was planned to be the world's largest brickworks, from Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Construction of a brickworks in Buchenwald also began during mid-1938. Delivery of bricks was supposed to start in October, but that did not occur due to problems with the Sachsenhausen brickworks, and the GBI renegotiated the contract to pay less than the 9 million Reichsmarks promised.In August 1938, the SS acquired a brickyard in Hamburg, which would be the site of Neuengamme concentration camp, founded in 1940. The bricks from Neuengamme were contracted for by the city of Hamburg for use in Nazi construction projects. Bricks were an important building material due to the Four Year Plan's restrictions on the use of iron. Except for Neuengamme, whose clay deposits were superior, the concentration camp brick production was not of high enough quality for use in façades and were instead used for structure. The SS brick industry was not as successful or economically productive as the quarries.
Quarries
and Mauthausen were established in 1938, their sites specifically chosen for their proximity to granite quarries whose stone was to be used for monumental Nazi architecture projects. Of the prewar concentration camps, Flossenbürg was the one that was most significant and consistent in producing income for DEST. For example, it produced of stone in 1939, almost three-quarters of the total production that year. The largest buyer of Flossenbürg granite was Albert Speer's office for the reconstruction of Berlin. Within this project the largest and most significant orders were for Wilhelm Kreis' Soldiers' Hall project, beginning in 1940. Increasing amounts of stone were used for road building; 15% in 1939 but 60% the next year.Natzweiler and Gross-Rosen main camps were also established near quarries in 1940. The Natzweiler quarry was unprofitable but acquired anyway because Speer hoped to use its red granite to build the Reich Chancellery. In 1941, DEST established Oranienburg II, a stone processing facility near Sachsenhausen where prisoners cut stone for Nazi building projects in Berlin. Stonemason programs were established at Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen and Natzweiler, for selected inmates to learn stonecraft from civilian experts. Those who passed the course enjoyed better treatment. Stone from the concentration camp quarries was used for construction of the camp, the Reichsautobahn, and various SS military projects, but later on it was destined for the monumental German Stadium project and the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. In the quarries, prisoners labored in particularly brutal conditions, causing many deaths.
Workshops
From the late 1930s, workshops were started in the concentration camps where prisoners were forced to produce various products. SS Commercial Operations of Dachau produced clothing, shoes, and carpentry for the nearby SS troop training center. They were under the indirect control of the SS finance apparatus led by Oswald Pohl and August Frank until transferred directly to the training department in late 1935. Miscellaneous ventures in the late 1930s included a bakery in Sachsenhausen which was to produce 100,000 loaves a day for the camp and the Waffen-SS. In May 1939, the SS company German Equipment Works was set up to oversee the concentration camp workshops. In 1940–1941, the variety of items produced was reduced, such that the workshops focused on supplying furniture to the SS and to resettled ethnic Germans. At the end of 1941, the company had plants in Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz. A different company, Gesellschaft für Textil und Lederverwertung, oversaw the concentration camp workshops that supplied the SS with clothing.Construction
From the earliest days of the camp system, prisoners were employed in constructing and expanding camp infrastructure to reduce costs.Municipal projects
The contract between DEST and the city of Hamburg also provided for the use of Neuengamme prisoners to work on levees and canals.Ideas of using concentration camp prisoners for mobile construction brigades dated to 1941, when the idea was first proposed by the SS-WVHA to develop Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. The bombing of Lübeck on 28/9 March 1942 marked the beginning of area bombing of German cities, which caused significant destruction. Deployment of forced labor to repair the damage was initiated by local bureaucrats; German historian Karola Fings notes that the demand "points to general acceptance of the concentration camps". In September 1942, Himmler recommended using concentration camp prisoners for the fabrication of window and door frames and producing brick tiles in the Neuengamme brickworks. At the same time, he authorized the formation of SS construction brigades, detachments of concentration camp prisoners who operated in bomb-damaged cities for clearing debris and repairing damaged buildings. Prisoners in these brigades lived and worked in plain sight of the German population.