I would like to thank the Thuringia State Archive in Weimar, which houses the archive for Topf and Sons, as well as the Buchenwald Memorial and the Auschwitz Memorial, for making documents and photos available to me.
For German readers interested in a detailed history of Topf and Sons, I recommend Annegret Schüle’s book Industrie und Holocaust: Topf & Söhne – Die Ofenbauer von Auschwitz, which is a definitive text based upon the Topf and Sons archive. Annegret is also the director of the Topf and Sons memorial in Erfurt, and I appreciate the time she spent discussing this book with me, and for connecting me with Hartmut Topf.
I would also like to thank Rüdiger Bender, a trustee of the memorial in Erfurt, and the very first person to speak to me about Topf and Sons. Rüdiger was always willing to connect, and reconnect, with me over several years to discuss his project – and I have always been struck by his political passion and determination to make the story of Topf and Sons a relevant one in today’s world.
This book has been a particularly difficult and time-consuming project, and so I have to thank my mother in particular for stepping in so often and helping to organise the rest of family life so that I could pursue it. I also have to thank my father and many others for believing in this book from the beginning, as well as Gaia Banks at Sheil Land, and Olivia Beattie and Bernadette Marron at Biteback Publishing for supporting with all the practical steps that turned it into a reality.
INDEX
A
Adolphe Sturcke Bank 1
Albrecht, Ursula 1
Arndtheim, Arthur Solus 1
Auschwitz-Birkenau (concentration camp) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
corruption in 1
crematorium of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
expansion of 1
gas chambers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
personnel of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Red Army Liberation of (1945) 1, 2
Sonderkommandos 1
testing of Zyklon B gas 1, 2, 3
Austria 1
Gusen 1
Vienna 1
B
Bartels, Adolf 1
Bartels, Herbert 1
BASF 1
use of forced labourers 1
Bauhaus movement 1
Bayer 1
use of forced labourers 1
Beer, Gunther 1
Belgium 1, 2
Bełżec (extermination camp) 1, 2
Benary, Ernst 1
Bera, Franz 1
Berlin Cremation Society Flame (magazine) 1
Berta, Hanni 1, 2
Berta, Tante 1
Beyer and Co 1
Bischoff, Karl 1, 2, 3
von Bismarck, Otto 1
Blackbourn, David 1
BMW 1
Brasse, Wilhelm 1
Braun, Gustav 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
background of 1
death of (1958) 1
family of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
indictment/interrogation of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Braun, Hans
family of 1
Braun, Udo 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
family of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Brazil 1
Bredehorn, Bernhard 1, 2
Broad, Perry 1
Brockert, Max 1
Buchenwald (concentration camp) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
construction of 1
crematoria of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
liberation of 1
opening of (1937) 1
Buchenwald Memorial 1
Buchroder, Wilhelm
dismissal of (1944) 1
Building Trades School 1
Bunese, Heinz 1
Büschleb, Johanne 1, 2
C
Catholicism 1
Central Land Judicial Administration Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes 1
Chelmno (extermination camp) 1
Christianity 1
conversion to 1
Jehovah’s Witnesses 1
Protestantism 1, 2
Commerzbank 1, 2
Cremation Act (1934) 1
provisions of 1
Croatia 1
Czechoslovakia 1, 2
D
Dachau (concentration camp) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
crematorium of 1, 2
personnel of 1, 2
Deutsche Bank 1, 2
Didier-Werke 1
Document Centre for the Prosecution of Nazi and War Crimes 1
Dresdner Bank 1
E
Eduard Lingel AG 1
Ehrlich, Franz 1
Eichmann, Adolf 1
Eicke, Theodor 1
Erdmann, Paul 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Erfurt Chamber of Commerce 1, 2
Erfurt Chamber of Industry and Trade 1, 2
Erfurt People’s Cremation Society members of 1
Ertl, Fritz 1
Ettersberg (concentration camp) 1
European Cremation Congress of Dresden (1876) 1
European Cultural Centre 1
F
Faurisson, Robert 1
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) 1, 2, 3
West Berlin 1
Feininger, Lyonel 1
Fels, Hans 1
First World War (1914–18) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Battle of Arras (1914/1915/1917/1918) 1
Battle of Passchendaele (1917) 1
Battle of Verdun (1916) 1
Battle of the Maurasian Lakes 1
Battle of the Somme (19160 1
Eastern Front 1
Treaty of Versailles (1919) 1, 2
Western Front 1
Florian 1
Forster-Nietzsche, Elisabeth 1
France 1
Nazi Occupation of (1940–44) 1
Paris 1, 2
von Freytag-Loringhoven, Mathilde Freiin 1
Frick, Wilhelm 1
G
G. Pohl, Trade Group Berlin 1
Gellinick, William 1
German Communist Party (KPD) 1, 2
German Democratic Party 1
German Democratic Republic (East Germany/GDR) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
East Berlin 1
Erfurt 1
Stasi 1
German Labour Front 1
German Weapons and Ammunitions Factories AG 1
Germany 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Arnstadt 1
Bankruptcy Court 1
Berlin 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Black Forest 1
brewing industry of 1
Brilon 1
Chamber of Industry 1
Chemnitz 1
Cologne 1
Daberstedter Feld (Sorbenweg) 1
economy of 1
Erfurt 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
Ettersberg 1
Falkensee 1, 2, 3
Fall of Berlin Wall (1989) 1
French occupation zone of 1
funeral customs of 1, 2
Gaberndorf 1
Gotha 1, 2
Hamburg 1
Hannover 1, 2
Heilbronn 1
Hirnzigenweg 1
Kassel 1
Krämpferstrasse 1
Leipzig 1
Munich 1, 2
Nohra 1
Nuremburg 1, 2
Oldenburg 1
Prussia 1
Recklinghausen 1
Reichstag 1
Reunification (1990) 1, 2
Rostock 1
Rubensstrasse 1
Soviet occupation zone of 1, 2, 3
Spandau 1
Stuttgart 1
Sudetenland 1
Thuringia 1
Weimar 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Wiesbaden 1, 2
Wilhelm-Busch-Strasse 1
Zwickau 1
Gestapo 1, 2, 3, 4
Gildemeister, Otto 1
Girndt, Max 1
Glass, Erika 1
Glucks, Richard 1
von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Gommlich, Hellmuth 1
Grabner, Maximilian 1
Great Depression 1
Greece 1, 2
Green Party 1
Groening, Oskar 1
Gross-Rosen (concentration camp)
crematoria of 1
personnel of 1