Центральное строительное управление войск СС и полиции (г. Аушвиц)

The Construction Office of the Waffen-SS and Police at Auschwitz (Oświęcim), subsequently renamed the Central Construction Office of the Waffen SS and Police, was created in 1940 with the commencement of construction of the concentration camp. Here, in October 1941, construction began on a prisoner of war camp. In 1943, the Auschwitz concentration camp was divided into three independent camps: Auschwitz I (the main camp), Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and Auschwitz III, subsequently renamed the Monowitz concentration camp. The Central Construction Office of the Waffen-SS and Police at Auschwitz was in charge of constructing installations within the concentration camp and around it; construction was carried out by means of camp prisoner man-power. The Construction Office was under the command of the Silesia Construction Inspectorate and Office Group II of the SS Economics and Administrative Main Office (WVHA) in Berlin. The head of the Central Construction Office of the Waffen-SS and Police at Auschwitz was SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Bischoff; he was succeeded in this post in 1943 by SS-Obersturmführer Werner Jothann, who, working in this office, had risen from rank-and-file SS man to office chief. A significant portion of the installations in the concentration camp were constructed under contracts concluded by the Central Construction Office of the Waffen-SS and Police at Auschwitz with proxy firms, which took an active part in the construction and equipping of camp installations and the use of practically gratis prisoner labor. Among these firms were Anhalt (Berlin), Friedrich Boos (Köln-Bickendorf), Karl Brandt (Halle), Deutsche Bau AG (Breslau), Industrie-Bau AG (Bielitz), Huta (Kattowitz), and others. The firm Topf und Sohne (Erfurt) took a notable part in constructing and outfitting the camp's crematoria and barracks. All of these firms used the labor of internees and prisoners of war, as well as of persons captured from and brought back from the occupied territories of the Soviet Union and other countries of Europe, to produce armaments, ammunition, and equipment for the Wehrmacht.