I.G. Farben
IG Farben was a large German chemical and pharmacuetical conglomerate. The cartel was formed in 1925 after merging together six other companies. After its establishment, it became the largest company of its kind in Europe. During the Second World War, the company actively collaborated with the Nazis to aid the German war effort, and made use of concentration camp slave labour. In 1945, the company was seized by the Allies and put on trial during the subsequent Nuremberg Trials.[1]
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Involuntary pharmacuetical experiments
Before the National Socialist party came to power, the German pharmaceutical industry constituted an international reference as far as the development of new medicines was concerned. During World War II, I.G. Farben participated in numerous operations associated with the criminal activities of the Nazi regime. With regard to medical and pharmacological research projects, I.G. Farben became involved in experimental programmes using patients from the Nazi regime's euthanasia programmes and healthy subjects recruited without their consent on whom various pharmacological substances were tested. Some of these activities came to light as a result of the one the famous Nuremberg Trials in 1947, which saw executives and scientists from I.G. Farben brought to justice for, among other offenses, forced experimentation with drugs.[2]
Auschwitz
The history of the founding of the Auschwitz extermination camp is connected with the initiative by IG Farben to build its third large plant for synthetic rubber and liquid fuels. The new camp was to be located in Silesia, beyond the range of Allied bombers at the time. The final decision for the location was made in December 1940/January 1941 and fell on the flat land between the eastern part of Oświęcim (Gr. Auschwitz) and the villages of Dwory and Monowice. The decision was justified by the favorable geological conditions, access to railroad lines, water supply (the Vistula), and the availability of raw materials: coal (the mines in Libiąż, Jawiszowice, and Jaworzno), lime (Krzeszowice), and salt (Wieliczka). Furthermore, the belief that it would be possible for the firm to employ prisoners from the nearby Auschwitz concentration camp may in fact have been decisive in the choice of the project.
IG Farben put the pieces of the deal in place between February and April 1941. The company bought the land from the treasury for a knock-down price, after it had been seized from its Polish owners without compensation; their houses were vacated and demolished. At the same time, the German authorities expelled the Jews from Oświęcim (resettling them in Sosnowiec and Chrzanów), confiscated their homes, and sold them to IG Farben as housing for company employees brought in from Germany. Some local Polish residents were dispossessed in the same way. Finally, IG Farben officials reached an agreement with the concentration camp commandant on hiring prisoners at a preferential rate of 3 to 4 marks per day for the labor of auxiliary and skilled construction workers. In a letter to his colleagues about the negotiations, IG Farben director Otto Ambros wrote that “our new friendship with the SS is very fruitful.”[3]
