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
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. 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
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands.
The grew from th ...
generals
Oswald Pohl and
Georg Lörner.
The headquarters for DEST was located in
Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, a small town in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
where Gusen II, a subcamp of Mauthausen, was built in 1944.
History
''DEST'', founded on April 29, 1938, in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
, 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
, known for =
, location =
, built by =
, operated by =
, commandant =
, original use =
, construction =
, in operation = Summer of 1940 – 14 February 1945
, gas cham ...
(1940) and
Neuengamme (1940) concentration camp sites were chosen because of their proximity to soil suitable for making bricks, or due to the close proximity of a brickworks factory or stone quarry.
''DEST'' was widely successful in the exploitation of slave labor, most of whom were Jews, in the quarries. Human labor was used cruelly, becoming one of the main tenets of
war crime charges in the
Nuremberg Trials. The director of the program, ''SS-Obergruppenführer''
Oswald Pohl, who was stationed in Berlin, was sentenced to death for war crimes in 1947 in Nuremberg, and executed in 1951.
In 1943, ''DEST'' changed its focus from stone industry to armaments. From this time the organization played a key role, helping the SS to enter some key war industries. This was underlined by its industrial park at
St. Georgen and
Gusen that made the SS a key supplier of aircraft fuselages (
Bf 109,
Me 262), carbines and machine guns to companies like
BFW BFW may refer to:
* Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG, later Messerschmitt AG, German aircraft manufacturer
* Bleed from Within, Scottish heavy metal band
* Boiler feedwater
{{disambiguation ...
,
Messerschmitt
Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in part ...
and
Steyr-Daimler-Puch. To run its business with the inmates of the Gusen and Mauthausen concentration camps, ''DEST'' operated its headquarters of ''
Granitwerke Mauthausen'' between 1940 and 1945 in the town of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen which was its biggest and most important "Werkgruppe" (industry group).
[St. Georgen – Gusen – Mauthausen: Concentration Camp Mauthausen Reconsidered By Rudolf Language: English ]
See also
*
Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe
References
External links
The St. Georgen/Gusen headquarters of Granitwerke Mauthausen
{{Authority control
Defunct companies of Germany
Economy of Nazi Germany
The Holocaust in Austria
1938 establishments in Germany
Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1938
Companies involved in the Holocaust
SS Main Economic and Administrative Office