The Oberschlesische Hydrierwerke AG (OHW) and the Auschwitz Subcamp of Blechhammer, 1939-1945]

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The project aims at investigating for the first time the history of the Oberschlesische Hydrierwerke AG (OHW) Blechhammer, thereby drawing on archival sources that have only recently become accessible. In 1939, the Reich Office for Economic Development commissioned the foundation of the Four Year Plan concern with the participation of a number of hard coal companies. The plant, intended to produce synthetic fuel within the framework of the Third Reichs mineral oil programme, was situated in Blechhammer near Kandrzin (1934-45 Heydebreck), today Kedzierzyn. During the construction phase started in 1939/40, up to 20,000 forced labourers, POWs and prisoners, among them between 4,000 and 6,000 Jews, had to work on-site. The plants forced labour camp for Jews set up by Organisation Schmelt in 1942 was turned into a satellite of the Auschwitz concentration camp in April 1944. The research project is going to analyze the concerns role in the industrial region of Upper Silesia within the larger context of the Third Reichs war economy. Of particular interest will be the intertwining of the industry with the Nazi policy of Germanization, which also became manifest in city planning, as well as the exploitation of so-called foreign nationals (Fremdvölkische), mainly Poles and Jews, as labourers, inextricably linked to the plants integration into the structures of the Auschwitz labour and extermination camp. Methodologically, the project will equally encompass aspects of the entangled histories approach and a thick description of camp life. ]