Topf and Sons
Encyclopedia
J.A. Topf and Sons was a German
engineering company, which designed and built the incineration furnaces (Crematoria) used by the Nazis at concentration and extermination camps during the Holocaust
; including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Belzec
, Dachau
, Mauthausen
and Gusen
. In total, Topf built 66 cremation muffles at various camps; of which 46 alone operated at Auschwitz.
in Buchenwald, Topf and Sons were contacted by Nazi party officials seeking an answer for dealing with the large numbers of dead left in the wake of this outbreak. Topf & Sons placed a mobile incineration oven at the camp’s disposal. The device was comparable to an oven type used in agriculture for the incineration of animal carcasses and already in the company’s product range. This mobile incinerator was later replaced with a permanent construction, which was both larger, and more efficient; being able to handle twice the previous incinerator's load. After 1939, and the demonstration or "proof of concept" that the firm could design an incinerator which would handle large numbers of corpses, Nazi officials further contracted Topf and Sons to provide similar incineration furnaces for the Belzec, Dachau, Mauthausen, Gusen and Auschwitz Concentration Camps. While the firm could argue following the outbreak in Buchenwald that they did not know what their incinerators were being used for, after numerous visits to Auschwitz and Dachau, such an argument quickly falls by the wayside. In fact, Kurt Prüfer, the original designer of the ovens stated during his interrogation by Russian officials: "I have known since spring 1943 that innocent human beings were being liquidated in Auschwitz gas chambers and that their corpses were subsequently incinerated..." Furthermore, he goes on to note that he himself visited Auschwitz no less than five times, during the construction and operation of the incinerators, saying when asked "Five times. The first time [was] the beginning of 1943, to receive the orders of the SS Command, where the incinerators were to be built. The second time [was] in spring 1943 to inspect the building site. The third time was in autumn 1943 to inspect a fault in the construction of a chimney. The fourth time [was] at the beginning of 1944, to inspect the repaired chimney. The fifth time [was] September-October 1944 when I visited Auschwitz in connection with the intended relocation [from] Auschwitz' of the retorts, since the battle front was getting nearer. They were not relocated because there were not enough workers..."
where he would stay until his death in 1952. Ludwig Topf, the firm's chief officer at the time of the war, committed suicide
in 1945, leaving a suicide note full of excuses and claims of his own innocence. His brother, Ernst-Wolfgang fled to West Germany and was put on trial by the Americans. He managed to talk his way out of criminal charges, maintaining that he did not know the intention for the incinerators; and placing all the blame on his brother Ludwig, and Prüfer. He went on to set-up another incinerator company that survived until 1963 when it went bankrupt.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
engineering company, which designed and built the incineration furnaces (Crematoria) used by the Nazis at concentration and extermination camps during the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
; including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Belzec
Belzec
Bełżec is a village in Tomaszów Lubelski County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Bełżec. It lies approximately south of Tomaszów Lubelski and south-east of the regional capital Lublin.During World War II it was the site of the Nazi Bełżec...
, Dachau
Dachau
Dachau is a town in Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants...
, Mauthausen
Mauthausen
Mauthausen is a small market town in Upper Austria, Austria. It is located at about 20 kilometers east of the city of Linz, and has a population of 4,850 .During World War II, it became the site of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex....
and Gusen
Gusen
Gusen is the name of the biggest and most brutal Nazi concentration camp complex on Austrian territory. Originally called "Mauthausen II", the camp consisted of three camps and toward the end of the war, was annexed to Mauthausen concentration camp...
. In total, Topf built 66 cremation muffles at various camps; of which 46 alone operated at Auschwitz.
Early history
Topf & Sons was founded in 1878, in Erfurt, as a customized incinerator and malting equipment manufacturer. The firm was close to the Ettersberg hill, later the site of Buchenwald concentration camp. With the expansion of cremation in Germany as a burial rite in the 1920s, the firm's ambitious chief engineer Kurt Prüfer pioneered retorts which complied with the strict government regulations set forth in 1934 on preserving the dignity of the body. Naked flame could not come in contact with the coffin, and cremation was to be smoke and odor free.Holocaust involvement
In 1939, following a massive outbreak of TyphusTyphus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
in Buchenwald, Topf and Sons were contacted by Nazi party officials seeking an answer for dealing with the large numbers of dead left in the wake of this outbreak. Topf & Sons placed a mobile incineration oven at the camp’s disposal. The device was comparable to an oven type used in agriculture for the incineration of animal carcasses and already in the company’s product range. This mobile incinerator was later replaced with a permanent construction, which was both larger, and more efficient; being able to handle twice the previous incinerator's load. After 1939, and the demonstration or "proof of concept" that the firm could design an incinerator which would handle large numbers of corpses, Nazi officials further contracted Topf and Sons to provide similar incineration furnaces for the Belzec, Dachau, Mauthausen, Gusen and Auschwitz Concentration Camps. While the firm could argue following the outbreak in Buchenwald that they did not know what their incinerators were being used for, after numerous visits to Auschwitz and Dachau, such an argument quickly falls by the wayside. In fact, Kurt Prüfer, the original designer of the ovens stated during his interrogation by Russian officials: "I have known since spring 1943 that innocent human beings were being liquidated in Auschwitz gas chambers and that their corpses were subsequently incinerated..." Furthermore, he goes on to note that he himself visited Auschwitz no less than five times, during the construction and operation of the incinerators, saying when asked "Five times. The first time [was] the beginning of 1943, to receive the orders of the SS Command, where the incinerators were to be built. The second time [was] in spring 1943 to inspect the building site. The third time was in autumn 1943 to inspect a fault in the construction of a chimney. The fourth time [was] at the beginning of 1944, to inspect the repaired chimney. The fifth time [was] September-October 1944 when I visited Auschwitz in connection with the intended relocation [from] Auschwitz' of the retorts, since the battle front was getting nearer. They were not relocated because there were not enough workers..."
Post-war epilogue
In the final year of the war, Kurt Prüfer was detained by the Americans for a few weeks before being released. At that time he was arrested by the Soviets, interrogated, and then sent to a GulagGulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
where he would stay until his death in 1952. Ludwig Topf, the firm's chief officer at the time of the war, committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in 1945, leaving a suicide note full of excuses and claims of his own innocence. His brother, Ernst-Wolfgang fled to West Germany and was put on trial by the Americans. He managed to talk his way out of criminal charges, maintaining that he did not know the intention for the incinerators; and placing all the blame on his brother Ludwig, and Prüfer. He went on to set-up another incinerator company that survived until 1963 when it went bankrupt.
External links
- http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/topf/
- http://topf.squat.net/
- http://www.topfundsoehne.de/cms-www/index.php?id=75&l=1