Organization Schmelt - also known as Dienststelle Schmelt or Schmelt camps - was a Nazi organization established in 1941 that built networks of forced labor camps that mainly employed Jewish prisoners in Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia and the Sudetenland.[1] It was primarily managed and led by the “Special Representative of the Reichsführer-SS for the Foreign National Labor Task in Upper Silesia” and SS Brigade Leader Albrecht Schmelt.[1] Throughout its brief history, Organization Schmelt managed several large scale industrial projects, such as the Reichautobahn (RAB) and rearmament production.[2] Until mid-1943, when most of its economic objectives were met, many Schmelt camps were integrated into larger concentration and extermination camp systems as part of the acceleration of the Holocaust and Final Solution.[3]
Quick Facts Nickname, Formation ...
Organization Schmelt|
German concentration camp located south of the town of Gross-Rosen in Lower Silesia (Poland) where Schmelt camps operated within a larger network of Nazi forced labor camps |
Nickname | Schmelt Camps |
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Formation | October 1940, first camps established in 1941 |
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Founder | SS Heinrich Himmler |
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Dissolved | Mid-1943 - 1944 |
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Purpose | Jewish Forced Labor Camps - part of the Holocaust and Final Solution |
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Headquarters | Sosnowiec, Poland |
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Origins | Organization Schmelt was established and lead by Nazi Germany during World War II to expropriate Jewish labor |
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Region | Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia and the Sudetenland. |
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Methods | 50,000 Jewish forced laborers in over 160 camps |
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Special Plenipotentiary of the SS-Reichsführer,
Chief Police Commander for Labor of Non-German Nationals in Upper Silesia | Albrecht Schmelt |
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Key people | Ober-Inspektor Hanschild, Heinrich Lindner, Fridrich Kuczynski , Bruno Ludwig, Hauptsturmführer Knoll |
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Affiliations | Generalegovernement, Reichsautonbahn |
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