Susanne Barth, Ph.D. candidate, Carl-von-Ossietzky-University of Oldenburg, Germany
Ms. Barth is working on a dissertation project called “The Oberschlesische Hydrierwerke AG and the Auschwitz Subcamp of Blechhammer, 1939-1945.”
Blechhammer was a large complex of labor camps belonging to the synfuel plant Oberschlesische Hydrierwerke AG, established in 1939-1940 in Upper Silesia. Nearly 50,000 forced laborers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe, including prisoners of war and at least 5,000 Jewish concentration camp prisoners, were confined to this place. In April 1944, the camp for Jews at Blechhammer was turned into a subcamp of Auschwitz. This research project investigates the plant’s ideological function and its cooperation with the Auschwitz extermination camp, while at the same time trying to reconstruct the daily life and suffering of prisoners at Blechhammer. Of particular interest will be individual survival strategies and mutual contacts between concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war or forced laborers. The role played by a group of Jewish artists formed at Blechhammer will be especially examined in this context.
Apart from her native German, Ms. Barth speaks English and French and has a working knowledge of Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian. She is planning to study Polish as well. Her dissertation advisor is Prof. Dr. Hans Henning Hahn.