The Blechhammer ( en, sheet metal hammer) area was the location of
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 ...
chemical plants, prisoner of war (POW) camps, and
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of e ...
camps (german:
Arbeitslager
''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially dur ...
Blechhammer; also Nummernbücher). Labor camp prisoners began arriving as early as June 17, 1942,
and in July 1944, 400–500 men were transferred from the
Terezin family camp to Blechhammer. The mobile "pocket furnace" (german: Taschenofen) crematorium was at Sławięcice.) and Bau und Arbeits Battalion (BAB, en, Construction Battalion) 21 was a mile from the Blechhammer oil plants and was not far from
Kattowitz
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most populo ...
and
Breslau.
[ Blechhammer synthetic oil production began April 1, 1944 with 4000 prisoners, with the slave labor camp holding these prisoners during April 1944, becoming a satellite camp of the dreaded Auschwitz extermination camp, as '' Arbeitslager Blechhammer''.
]
Chemical plants
Two plants in the area, Blechhammer North (south of Sławięcice) and Blechhammer South at Azoty ( from the labor camp)[ were nicknamed "Black Hammer" by Allied bomber aircrews. The facilities were approximately apart with each occupying a 3,000 × 5,000 ft (914 × 1524 m) area in open country. Similar to the Gelsenberg plant, the Blechhammer plants used ]bituminous coal
Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the coal seam, ...
[ in the ]Bergius process
The Bergius process is a method of production of liquid hydrocarbons for use as synthetic fuel by hydrogenation of high-volatile bituminous coal at high temperature and pressure. It was first developed by Friedrich Bergius in 1913. In 1931 Bergius ...
to synthesize Ersatz
An ersatz good () is a substitute good, especially one that is considered inferior to the good it replaces. It has particular connotations of wartime usage.
Etymology
''Ersatz'' is a German word literally meaning ''substitute'' or ''replacement' ...
oil.United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
considered Blechhammer one of the four "principal synthetic oil plants in Germany", and after the Fifteenth Air Force
The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...
had dropped 7,082 tons (14,164,000 lbs; 6,424 tonnes) of bombs on Blechhammer, the Blechhammer plants were dismantled post-war
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...
by the Soviets.[
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:
:
]
Evacuation
In March 1945 the POWs were evacuated. One camp went to Regensburg,[ BAB 21 went to Landshut)]Bergen Belsen
Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentra ...
[ (about 20% died en route). Some small groups did manage to escape (see František R. Kraus).
The "7 Company" was the guard battalion for Blechhammer, and the 1945 Belsen Trial convicted Blechhammer staff members Karl Francioh and Ansgar Piche.
]
Camps
The Blechhammer complex contained a number of POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of ...
Camps:[Beattie, Trevor (ed.) (2011). ''Captive Plans: The Pow Diary of Reg Beattie''. .] and by a Czech survivor, journalist František R. Kraus.
See also
*Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
Following the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic was annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under the German civil administration. The rest of Nazi- ...
*Monowitz concentration camp
Monowitz (also known as Monowitz-Buna, Buna and Auschwitz III) was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (''Arbeitslager'') run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of its existe ...
* Oil Campaign of World War II
*Territorial changes of Poland after World War II
At the end of World War II, Poland underwent major changes to the location of its international border. In 1945, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Oder–Neisse line became its western border, resulting in gaining the Recovered Territories f ...
References
External links
{{Authority control
Auschwitz concentration camp
History of Lesser Poland
Oil campaign of World War II
Nazi war crimes in Poland
Reich Security Main Office
World War II prisoner of war camps in Germany