English Translation

147 forces are summarized in the Lapidary formulation used by the Nazis "killing work". For example, at construction sites or in the quarrys the life of a forced worker had poor value and was easily replaceable by Soviet prisoners of war, Jews or political opponents. It was a premeditated system to squeeze the last thing out of prisoners before they let themselves die and replace themselves with others, as an example can serve the concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora. When construction works started there in 1943 at a huge underground plant for V2 production, prisoners were hunted at an unbearable pace. In January 1944 the plant was prepared and "fresh prisoners" were put into production, the original, completely exhausted, were tortured to death at other construction sites. The same fate was later exhausted prisoners in production. This cynical procedure cost the life of a third of the 60,000 prisoners deployed by the Mittelbau-Dora. March 1945, the mass execution of 60 prisoners accused of "sabotage" with their hands on their backs, a piece of wood in their mouth, which was held in the back of the rear iron wire to prevent possible screams, had to run for execution on the double. The SS members and capes demanded that all prisoners attend the executions, while the carnival band, dressed as circus clowns, was winning the march. Very similar conditions were held in IG Farben, Auschwitz, where a neighboring extermination camp was responsible for the continuous supply of prisoners. (394) Since 1944, the German security authorities have been intensively engaged in considerations about the possible uprisings of forced workers. When the command structures collapsed in the west at the beginning of 1945, the Gestapo offices were empowered to intervene immediately and brutally and without a request for RSHA's approval in Berlin to introduce special measures. So, along with the Dortmund Police President and the government president of Arnsberg, the county leaders from Westgalen-Sud planned to shut down all 30,000 forced workers in the mines and then flood the pits. (395)