On the Origin of German Wealth (III)

The contours of the Schaeffler group's Nazi past are known in the meantime, though the company's official founding year is still given as 1946.[1] It is known that Wilhelm Schaeffler took over a textile factory in 1940 in, what was then the Silesian town of Katscher (and today Kietrz, southern Poland). The factory's former Jewish owner was forced to flee in 1933. Schaeffler, soon thereafter entered the arms production and made his fortune producing for the Wehrmacht and for Germany's war of annihilation in Eastern Europe. This much is no longer in dispute. Still disputed is whether Schaeffler had business ties to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Evidence indicating this to be the case was published by german-foreign-policy.com at the beginning of February.[2]

Poland Camp

New details have been uncovered in reports on the Nazi run "Poland Camp" in Katscher. "Poland Camps" were generally camps that were established in the former Silesia, to hold persons classified as "unreliable" by German officials - because they, in the aftermath of World War I, were in favor of Silesia becoming part of Poland, or because they were known anti-fascists or because they refused to let themselves be inscribed in the "German folk list" to avow their "Germanness". Most "Poland camps" were located near the southern border of what had been Upper Silesia. The conditions in the "Poland camps" were reputed to be exceptionally hard, usually including forced labor.

200 Children

Such a "Poland camp" was also set up in Katscher in August 1942. In a conversation with german-foreign-policy.com, the journalist, Grażyna Ginter, who has been studying the Nazi background of the Schaeffler group, affirmed that alone for the period between August 1942 and April 1944, the directory of "Poland Camp Nr. 92" lists 1,762 inmates. She says that also children were imprisoned in Katscher. Ms. Ginter explained that in the course of repressive measures in August 1943 ("Action Oderberg") numerous families were arrested and family members separated. Germans sent the parents to concentration camps and deported their approx. 200 children to a camp in Pogrzebien.[3] From there, they were then transferred to other camps - among them "Poland Camp Nr. 92" in Katscher. This is how the 6 yr. old Józefa Posch-Kotyrba came to Katscher. She survived and recently explained how in the camp, youth and adults alike, had to perform forced labor in the large Katscher factory - the Schaeffler AG.

Human Hair

Somewhat later, in February 1943, 20 yr. old Halina Stanko was brought - with the German Reichsbahn railroad - to the "Poland camp" in Katscher.[4] Upon arrival, her parents were forced to work at Schaeffler's and Halina Stanko, in the summer of 1944. She recounted in a news magazine how together "with dozens of other prisoners" and "under armed escort" of German guards, they were brought to the factory grounds every morning.[5] Ms. Stanko remembers that there had been a special entrance to the rug and yarn production. "At the time, we heard that they were using human hair." More people in Kietrz remember that human hair was being used in the Schaeffler factory. A woman living in the vicinity of the factory related that, after the war, her father-in-law was named director of the textile factory. In 1946 he found bales of hair in the factory warehouse. It was human hair.[6]

Processed Into Yarn

This corresponds to the report given by the former technical director of the Schaeffler textile factory. In May 1946 Heinrich Linkwitz testified before the prosecutor in Gliwice that in 1943 two railway cars, loaded with human hair, had arrived in Katscher - each with a payload of 1.5 tons. The hair was processed into yarn at Schaeffler's. According to Linkwitz, it was not possible to process the entire stock by the end of the war.[7]

Excised

Why it could prove difficult to go beyond witness testimony and circumstantial evidence, to find proof of Schaefflers suspected business ties to Auschwitz, can be gleaned from the observations of the journalist, Grażyna Gintner. Ms. Gintner reported to german-foreign-policy.com that she was given access to the Schaeffler AG company files in the archives of the Polish city of Opole. But she realized that there was nothing to read on the period that she was researching. All relevant pages had been neatly excised from the volumes.[8] Confronted with a growing amount of evidence of ties to the Auschwitz death camp, even the historian Gregor Schöllgen, who, under contract of the family enterprise, has been doing research into the family history, has had to backtrack on some of his decisive denials. According to the findings of his Polish colleagues, "there is a trail leading to Katscher, and there are indications that these lead to the Schaeffler factory" admitted Schöllgen.[9] Yet the dispute over the origin of the hair that can be viewed in Block 4 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, is taking place almost completely behind closed doors. The Schaeffler Group has yet to make a statement that goes beyond a simple denial of any type of contact.

Please read also our Interview with Grażyna Gintner as well as further information on the topic: On the Origin of German Wealth, On the Origin of German Wealth (II), Indizien and Konsequent beschwiegen.

[1] Unternehmensgeschichte; www.ina.de
[2] see also On the Origin of German Wealth and On the Origin of German Wealth (II)
[3] see also Polenlager
[4] see also our EXTRA-Dossier Elftausend Kinder
[5], [6], [7] Spur nach Auschwitz?; Der Spiegel 12/2009
[8] see also Polenlager
[9] Spur nach Auschwitz?; Der Spiegel 12/2009