Editing German Earth and Stone Works (section)

{{Short description|German SS company during WWII}}
{{Redirect|DEST|other uses|Dest (disambiguation){{!}}Dest}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-269, KZ Mauthausen, Häftlinge im Steinbruch.jpg|thumb|right|[[Wiener Graben]] quarry at [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen]]: the "Stairs of Death"; prisoners were forced to carry granite blocks, some weighing up to {{cvt|50|kg|lb|-1}} up 186 steps.]]
'''German Earth and Stone Works''' ({{langx|de|Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH}}, {{abbr|DEST}}) was an [[SS]]-owned company created to procure and manufacture building materials for state construction projects in [[Nazi Germany]]. DEST was a subsidiary company  of ''Amtsgruppe W'' (''Amt. W'') of [[SS Main Economic and Administrative Office]] (WVHA). Both ''Amt. W'' and the WVHA were headed by [[Waffen-SS]] generals [[Oswald Pohl]]  and [[Georg Lörner]].

The headquarters for DEST were located in [[Sankt Georgen an der Gusen]], a small town in [[Austria]] where Gusen II, a subcamp of Mauthausen, was built in 1944.<ref>St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen – ''Concentration Camp Mauthausen Reconsidered''. BoD, Norderstedt 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-8334-7610-5}}</ref><ref>Business and industry in Nazi Germany By [[Francis R. Nicosia]], Jonathan Huener Publisher: Berghahn Books; illustrated edition (March 2004); {{ISBN|1-57181-654-2}}, {{ISBN|978-1-57181-654-2}}.</ref><ref>United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT). NMT 4 U.S.A. vs. Pohl ''Et.'' ''Al.'' Harvard Law School Library, Nuremberg Trials Project.[http://www.nuremberg.law.harvard.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301181535/http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/ |date=2010-03-01 }}</ref>