Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Krupp
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===World War II=== Krupp received its first order for 135 [[Panzer I]] tanks in 1933, and during World War II made [[Panzer IV|tanks]], artillery, naval guns, armor plate, munitions and other armaments for the German military. [[Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft]] shipyard launched the [[cruiser]] [[German cruiser Prinz Eugen|''Prinz Eugen'']], as well as many of Germany's [[U-boat]]s (130 between 1934 and 1945) using preassembled parts supplied by other Krupp factories in a process similar to the construction of the US [[liberty ship]]s. In the 1930s, Krupp developed two 800 mm [[railway gun]]s, the [[Schwerer Gustav]] and the [[Dora (artillery)|Dora]]. These guns were the biggest artillery pieces ever fielded by an army during wartime, and weighed almost 1,344 tons. They could fire a 7-ton shell over a distance of 37 kilometers. More crucial to the operations of the German military was Krupp's development of the famed [[88 mm gun|88 mm]] anti-aircraft cannon which found use as a notoriously effective anti-tank gun. In an address to the [[Hitler Youth]], [[Adolf Hitler]] stated "In our eyes, the German boy of the future must be slim and slender, as fast as a greyhound, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel" (''"... der deutsche Junge der Zukunft muß schlank und rank sein, flink wie Windhunde, zäh wie Leder und hart wie Kruppstahl."'') During the war Germany's industry was heavily bombed. The Germans built large-scale night-time decoys like the [[Krupp decoy site]] (German: Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage) which was a German decoy-site of the [[Krupp steel works]] in [[Essen]]. During World War II, it was designed to divert Allied [[airstrike]]s from the actual production site of the arms factory. Krupp Industries employed workers conscripted by the Nazi regime from across Europe. These workers were initially paid, but as Nazi fortunes declined [[forced labour under German rule during World War II|they were kept as slave workers]]. They were abused, beaten, and starved by the thousands, as detailed in the book ''[[The Arms of Krupp]]''. Nazi Germany kept two million French POWs captured in 1940 as forced laborers throughout the war. They added compulsory (and volunteer) workers from occupied nations, especially in metal factories. The shortage of volunteers led the Vichy government of France to deport workers to Germany, where they constituted 15% of the labor force by August 1944. The largest number worked in the giant Krupp steel works in [[Essen]]. Low pay, long hours, frequent bombings, and crowded air raid shelters added to the unpleasantness of poor housing, inadequate heating, limited food, and poor medical care, all compounded by harsh Nazi discipline. In an affidavit provided at the Nuremberg Trials following the war, Dr. Wilhelm Jaeger, the senior doctor for the Krupp slaves, wrote: {{Blockquote|Sanitary conditions were atrocious. At Kramerplatz only ten children's toilets were available for 1200 inhabitants...Excretion contaminated the entire floors of these lavatories. The Tatars and Kirghiz suffered most; they collapsed like flies [from] bad housing, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, overwork and insufficient rest...Countless fleas, bugs and other vermin tortured the inhabitants of these camps..."<ref>{{cite book|last=Shirer|first= William L. | title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich | location=New York | publisher=Simon and Schuster, Inc. | year=1959 | page= 949}}</ref>}} The survivors finally returned home in the summer of 1945 after their liberation by the allied armies.<ref>Françoise Berger, "L'exploitation de la Main-d'oeuvre Française dans l'industrie Siderurgique Allemande pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale," [The Exploitation of French Labor in the German Iron and Steel Industry During World War II], ''Revue D'histoire Moderne et Contemporaine'' (2003) 50#3 pp 148-181</ref> Krupp industries was [[Krupp Trial|prosecuted after the end of war]] for its support to the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi regime]] and use of forced labour.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)