The aircraft industry, coordinated by the Ministry of Aviation headed by Hermann Göring, used a particularly large number of concentration camp inmates for forced labour. Until the very last days of the war, thousands of them were killed in underground projects.

The Heinkel factories in Oranienburg were the forerunners for using concentration camp inmates in the aircraft industry. Bosch and Daimler also build a subcamp near Berlin where Luftwaffe engines and supplies were manufactured.

In 1939, the Bosch subsidiary Dreilinden Maschinenbau GmbH (DLMG) build a new factory in Kleinmachnow; forced labourers were employed starting in 1941, and concentration camp inmates as of 1944.

Hermann Göring was also commissioner of the Four Year Plan and, therefore, played a key role in planning the deployment of forced labourers.

Built in 1936, the building was later home to the GDR House of Ministries and thus became the target of the demonstrations on June 17, 1953.

More on the aircraft industry in the tour “Forced Labour was Everywhere”, stop 11