Working in the Camp

Not only companies, but also private people turned to the "SS Hinzert Special Camp at Hermeskeil" - as the mail address read - and requested the transfer of prisoners as a source of cheap labour. This primarily involved wood transports, construction and excavation work, employment in agriculture or in gardens. Prisoners from the concentration camp regularly worked in the agricultural sector in the surrounding localities of Hinzert, Pölert, Rascheid, Geisfeld or Reinsfeld.

Prisoners also had to do work on behalf of companies within the camp.  Rubber rings for anti-tank mines were produced in the camp for the company Romika. Or the Hitler Youth, Jungbann 391 Hermeskeil, asked in June 1942 whether the objects required for their sports area could be made by prisoners.

Prisoners also had to work in various shops (as tailors, shoemakers, cabinet makers, painters, etc.), in washrooms, in wardrobes, in the garden and also in the SS garage. Prisoners especially dreaded work in the woods, in the so-called Wagenkommando (transport group), and at the lumberyard.