Whatever it takes

Underground armaments factories

"It had transformed from being an isolated tunnel with an entrance at the foot of the hill behind large bushes, where I had spent the first few days labouring, into a huge hall. There is where you either work yourself to death or slack off and do nothing at all; there is no in-between"
 

Underground armaments factories

In 1943, the overwhelming dominance of the Allied air forces over the German Luftwaffe became increasingly obvious. As Allied bomber units at the time were also capable of attacking German production sites during the day, the Nazi leadership had to resort to relocating the armaments factories underground – in mines, shafts, tunnels, caves and bunkers. In autumn 1943, the relocation of the manufacturing facilities for the V2 rocket began, transferring to the Kohnstein mountain not far from Nordhausen in the Harz mountains. The majority of this construction and redevelopment work had to be done by the prisoners of the concentration camps through forced labour and under inhumane conditions.

In February 1944, the so-called Jägerstab was established in Berlin to better coordinate, ensure and increase the production of German fighter aircrafts. Their underground relocation program was overseen by Hans Kammler, the chief of Office Group C (construction) at the Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt of the SS. Kammler established various special SS offices to implement the relocation plans. The SS-Sonderinspektion I was headed by Bernhard von Glisczynski and set up at the hotel Großer Kurfürst at Porta Westfalica. It was also in charge of the underground relocations in Lengerich, Hannover-Ahlem and Helmstedt-Beendorf.

The first sites of the relocation project at Porta Westfalica were the underground sandstone quarries on each side of the Porta Westfalica gorge, which had been dug up in the 19th century. A total of five underground factory sites were planned in Hausberge, Barkhausen, Dehme and Dützen and also subsequently partially constructed. In addition to this, there was a Frontreparaturwerk, a service facility for aircraft engines above ground in Lerbeck, as well as smaller underground projects that had been part of the larger relocations.