J.A.Topf & Sohne Letter

Authors

Object ID

2016.1.42

Object Name

Letter

Date

3-16-1944

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Typewritten letter with ‘Abschrift!’ underlined at top, ‘J.A. Topf & Sohne’ handstamps at top and bottom.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Topf & Sohne politely request of the military detachment in Erfurt that due to a staff shortage and an “inability to find a suitable replacement,” the services of Specialist Benno Glicenstein, a Jew, are required in his role as a “construction-fitter,” and that until they are assigned a suitable replacement in the form of a foreigner or prisoner of war they will need to keep the Jew. Topf and Sons was an established, venerable engineering firm located near Erfurt, which - under the Third Reich - profited from supplying crematoria to the SS and their concentration and extermination centers: e.g., Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec and Mauthausen. There were 46 crematoria at Auschwitz alone. The chief engineer of the Topf furnaces was Karl Prufer. In 1942, as the Nazis were experiencing the need for murdering Jews on an industrial scale, engineer Fritz Sander received a patent for a continuously operating incinerating oven “for mass use.”

Dimensions

7 1/2 x 7 1/2"

Keywords

Topf and Sohne, Topf and Sons, Crematoria, Benno Glicenstein

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"J.A.Topf & Sohne Letter" (1944). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2016.1.42.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1302