The Nazis built a concentration camp near the town of Natzweiler, about 31 miles south of Strasbourg, on a hill in the Vosges Mountains. Natzweiler-Struthof was one of the smallest concentration camps. It was apparently established after Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect, who had been on an inspection tour of recently occupied France and had noticed that there was granite deposits in the Natzweiler area. The Deutsche Erd-und Steinwerke GmbH AKA “The German Earth and Stone-Works Ltd”,reacted to Speers promptings and by autumn 1940 had launched a project to quarry the granite, with the work to be done by prisoners. The commandants of Natzweiler were these people:
Egon Zill – 1942-1943
Hans Huettig – 1942
Friedrich Hartjenstein - 1944
Heinrich…show more content… Hence, by the end of 1943, the prisoners in the main camp numbered some 2,000.Most were employed in arms production, and at no time were more than 500 prisoners put to work in the quarries, a project that turned out to be costly.In the summer of 1943 several sheds were erected in the quarry area, serving as workshops in which prisoners were employed overhauling Junkers aircraft engines. In the same area, deep tunnels were made underground to provide space for subterranean factories that would be safe from bomb attacks from Allied aircraft. The camp was really only for political prisoners, both from France and Germany and farther. The inmates had to do forced labor in a nearby quarry. But this camp was not just known for the hard forced labor and the holding of political inmates this camp was known as one of the most vicious camps, Because the did wickid “Medical Experiments”, and these were mostly conducted in 1943. Other experiments were conducted , including the gassing of prisoners in attempt to research possible antidotes to the poison gas phosgene.(A chemical weapon used in world war one). On other occasions specially selected jews were sent to the camp to be gassed in order to obtain a skeleton collection for the Anatomical Institute Of Strasbourg University. But
