Who was the founder of Topf and Sons?
Who was the founder of Topf and Sons?
Topf & Söhne) was an engineering company, founded in 1878 in Erfurt, Germany by Johannes Andreas Topf (1816-1891). It made heating systems and brewing and malting equipment, and later, silos, chimneys, incinerators for burning municipal waste, and crematoria.
Who was the competitor of Topf and Sons?
The company not only made crematoria ovens, it also made ventilation systems for the gas chambers at Auschwitz II–Birkenau. Topf & Söhne’s main competitor in making concentration camp ovens was the Berlin firm de:H. Kori GmbH, founded in 1887. At its peak Topf & Söhne was the largest company of its type in the world.
What did Topf and Sons make in World War 1?
Originally, it made heating systems and brewing and malting equipment. Later, the company diversified into silos, chimneys, incinerators for burning municipal waste, and crematoria. During World War I it made weapons shells, limbers (carts for carrying artillery) and other military vehicles.
Where did Topf and Sons build the crematoria?
As well as building the crematoria ovens at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, it also made them for Buchenwald, Mauthausen-Gusen camps, Mogilev ghetto, and the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. It also made an oven for Dachau concentration camp, but the other four ovens there were made by H. Kori.
What kind of ovens did Topf and Sons make?
Topf and Sons. It also made an oven for Dachau concentration camp, but the other four ovens there were made by H. Kori. In all, Topf built 25 crematoria ovens, which had a total of 76 incineration chambers (called ‘muffles’), for concentration camps. H. Kori built 42 single chamber ovens at various camps.
Where did Kurt Prufer and Topf and sons go?
By January of 1945, the end was near, but even in the final days Kurt Prüfer and Topf and Sons planned to recreate the killing system at Auschwitz at Mauthausen camp in Austria where they relished the prospect of fully taking control on an entire “extermination center.” The story of Topf and Sons proves that words matter.