Forced labour at Topf & Soehne

Like almost every company in Erfurt, Topf & Soehne employed numerous forced labourers as well as prisoners of war.

picture: assembly hall in the 1940s

They were accommodated in several barracks that were located to the south-east of the production hall. The barracks were arranged in a U-shape, a guard barrack was placed in the middle. The visible remains of the buildings are from later than 1945, but supposedly they were build up on the ground of a former barack.

Very little is known about the living and working conditions of these people. Probably most of them had to work in the two production barracks that were built up to the south of the production hall. Several military goods (parts of airplanes and shells) were manufactured there.
During the war Topf & Soehne employed 750 to 800 people. More than 40 percent of these were forced labourers. Early in 1944 Topf & Soehne employed 18 french prisoners of war, 27 female forced labourers and 284 male forced labourers. They came from Russia, Italy, France and Belgium.