The Polish memorial in Menden – dedicated to the victims of forced labour under the National Socialist regime

The scale of the relocation of industry underground
 

“Schwalbe I” (“Swallow I”) was the first “U-Verlagerung”, i.e. an armament production facility that was transferred underground, in which a refinery plant was planned that would complete the entire production cycle in order to generate synthetic fuel.[7] On 27 July 1944, on orders from Reich Commissioner for Emergency Measures (Reichskommissar für Sofortmaßnahmen) Edmund Geilenberg, a secret meeting was held in the “Grünes Haus” (“Green House”) of the Rhenish-Westphalian lime works (Rheinisch-Westfälische Kalkwerke), at which it was decided that work on the construction of “Schwalbe I” should begin immediately.[8] Around 60 specialists, including mining experts, geologists and engineers, were invited to attend the meeting, where they discussed how the “Emil I” quarry could be expanded to house an National Socialist armament production facility. Responsibility for the construction works was transferred to the Rhine-Ruhr task force of the “Organisation Todt”, a paramilitary construction battalion.[9]

In order to be able to realise this ambitious construction project, various companies from the region were drawn in and large numbers of German and foreign workers were recruited as forced underground labour. According to current research, over 8,000 labourers were put to work on “Schwalbe I” and housed in several camps close by.[10] The labour force was made up of concentration camp prisoners from different European countries and civilian workers from Germany and abroad who were recruited to work on the project by the local building companies.[11] However, there were also German labourers and skilled workers were forced to work on the construction project in the Hönnetal valley.[12] Currently, it is not known whether prisoners of war from the Stalag VI A camp in nearby Hemer were also used; to date, according to Hassel and Klötzer, no evidence has been found to support this idea.[13] Overall, within the space of just a few months, it is thought that around 600,000 cubic metres of limestone was removed from the “Emil I” quarry.[14] The heavy, sometimes life-threatening tasks, such as conducting detonations in the mine tunnels and removing the exposed rock, together with violent treatment and harassment by the SS, the guards and the leaders of the operation, led to a high number of casualties. Today, still, the identification of all of the victims has remained impossible – partly because their deaths were not always documented.[15] The monument in the cemetery in Lendringsen is dedicated to the memory of some of these victims and bears a list of 132 names of those who died as a result of the forced labour, including 33 of Polish origin (Fig. 1).