Gustav Braun was operations director of Topf and Sons. He was a close confidant of the company owner, Ludwig Topf, and also reported to him directly. He was in charge of all of the company’s production activity.
Sometimes Braun would deputise for Ludwig Topf, if he and his brother (and co-owner of the company), Ernst Topf, were out of town for longer periods.
The following departments, offices and units came under Gustav Braun’s jurisdiction as operations director: production planning office, assembly department, standards office, dispatch department, materials warehouse and operations.
Topf and Sons started carrying out construction and outfitting work for the concentration camp crematoria in 1940.
The commissions for these works always came from the responsible organs of the SS, specifically, the SS construction management units at the Buchenwald, Gross-Rosen, Mauthausen, Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps.
These commissions were included in the company’s general production plan, which was drawn up by the planning office together with Gustav Braun.
As operations director, Braun would work with the planning office to set the timescales for carrying the commissions out, depending on the company’s production capacity at the time. He therefore always knew which organs of the SS the company had accepted commissions from, and what kind of commissions these were. He arranged whatever was necessary to ensure the commissions were carried out on time.
The Topf company carried out these commissions in the following way: the factory manufactured the required equipment, supplies and parts. These were then sent to the relevant concentration camp by the dispatch department. Foremen and workers were sent from the assembly department to carry out the construction and assembly work on site, i.e. in the concentration camps.
These works were carried out with Braun’s knowledge and on his instructions – company operations, assembly and dispatch all reported to him directly.
Normally, the Topf company only built cremation furnaces in the concentration camps I named above; it was only in Auschwitz that the company was involved in setting up four gas chambers alongside the crematorium.
The following equipment and parts were manufactured in the Topf factory for the named crematoria: mountings, ventilators, steel floors for the cremation chambers. In addition, the company’s turning and metalworking workshops produced cast-iron doors for the cremation chambers/muffle furnaces, as well as iron grids.
It was Braun who ensured the production of these parts and fittings, since he was directly responsible for the work done in the workshops.
At this point, the interrogator turns his attention to Braun, and asks him to confirm his position at Topf and Sons, and whether he knew that the company was carrying out work in concentration camps on behalf of the SS. Braun replies:
I found out about it, quite by chance, in 1940, in the course of a conversation with one of the Topf and Sons’s fitters. I’d asked him where he was working and he replied that he was building crematorium furnaces in the Auschwitz concentration camp, along with senior engineer Prüfer.
The second time, I was informed by workers in the dispatch department, which was under my authority. It happened like this: one day in 1940, I went into the dispatch department and saw several SS men there. When I asked what they were doing there, the department manager responded that they were negotiating the dispatch of building materials to the Buchenwald concentration camp, since the company’s senior engineer, Prüfer, was building a cremation furnace there.
In general terms, I knew as operations director that the company was building cremation furnaces, but I didn’t know where or for what purposes – I wasn’t interested in that.
The interrogator then asks Prüfer to respond to Braun’s statement. Prüfer claims that Braun is lying:
Braun’s claim that he didn’t know who Topf and Sons were building cremation furnaces for, and for what purpose does not correspond to the truth. As operations director, Braun was informed about the furnaces and almost all the construction work on the cremation furnaces in the concentration camps was carried out with his knowledge.
As evidence for this I would like to make clear the following facts:
1. In 1940–41, two cremation furnaces for the Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps were assembled in the Topf and Sons factory, with Braun’s direct involvement. Braun personally designated a location in the factory where the furnaces were to be assembled, and assigned workers to carry out the assembly work on these furnaces. In addition, individual parts (metal racks) and fittings for these furnaces were manufactured in the factory workshops on Braun’s instructions. Once the furnaces had been assembled, they were delivered – on Braun’s instructions – one to the Dachau concentration camp, the other to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
2. In autumn 1940 or early 1941 (I can’t remember the exact date), an SS man from Berlin visited the company to find out why one of the cremation furnaces was not yet ready and on schedule, as well as to inspect the assembly work on the furnace. As a result of this visit, company boss Ludwig Topf called a special meeting to discuss the construction of this furnace. In addition to L Topf and the SS man, this meeting was attended by both Braun and myself, and Braun actively participated in the discussion of the deadlines for construction of this cremation furnace for the SS. On the instructions of the SS organs in Berlin, the company dispatched this furnace to the concentration camp at Mauthausen.
3. As company operations director, Braun held a meeting with the factory foremen every morning after breakfast to review the work plans for the day. Thus Braun was not only aware that parts and equipment were being manufactured in the factory workshops for cremation furnaces that would be used in concentration camps, at these meetings he himself issued the instructions to the factory foremen to produce the necessary parts or equipment within the specified time frame.
4. In autumn 1942, I personally agreed the delivery of an eight-muffle cremation furnace to the Auschwitz concentration camp for Crematoria IV and V – the parts of which had been manufactured for the Berlin SS organs and deposited in the factory warehouse. Braun assigned a worker to help me check that all parts for these furnaces were present; and he instructed the dispatch department to send these cremation furnaces to the Auschwitz concentration camp, which they did.
5. In the course of 1941 and 1942 I approached Braun several times in his capacity as operations director with the request to send specialist workers to the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps so that they could carry out a series of works relating to the construction of the cremation furnaces in these camps. In each case, Braun approved the request and assigned me the required specialists for the work in Auschwitz and Buchenwald…
6. As company production director, Braun was involved in every last detail of the work being done in the factory workshops, and also in the departments and offices that reported to him. He was interested in everything they did and would check their work. It is therefore impossible that he did not know what was being produced in the factory or where it was going to be sent.
Prüfer’s statement is so clear and well-argued that it can only have been agreed in advance with the Soviet authorities. Having marshalled this evidence, the interrogator then tells Braun:
The statements of the prisoner Prüfer during this head-to-head encounter are sufficient proof that the construction and outfitting carried out by the Topf company in the concentration camp crematoria was not only done with your knowledge, but also with your direct participation. Drop your stubborn denials and tell us the truth.