WW2 German Nazi rare uniform bevo cufftitle swastika OT Organisation Todt
WW2 German Nazi rare uniform bevo cufftitle swastika OT Organisation Todt
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WW2 German Nazi rare uniform bevo cufftitle swastika OT Organisation Todt
Organisation Todt was a civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi. The organisation was responsible for a huge range of engineering projects both in Nazi Germany and in occupied territories from France to the Soviet Union during World War II. It became notorious for using forced labour. From 1943 until 1945 during the late phase of the Third Reich, OT administered all constructions of concentration camps to supply forced labour to industry.
The OT was not given an official name until Hitler bestowed one soon after coming to power during 1933.[6]: 5 During 1938 Todt initiated the Organisation Todt proper as a consortium of the administrative offices, which Todt had established in the course of the Autobahn project, private companies as subcontractors and the primary source of technical engineering expertise, and the Labour Service as the source of manpower. He was appointed by Hitler as a plenipotentiary for labour for the second four-year plan, decreasing Göring's role. Investment in civil engineering work was reduced greatly.[citation needed]
Street round-up of random civilians to be deported to Germany for forced labour; Warsaw's Żoliborz district, 1941
Between 1939 and 1943, in contrast to the period from 1933 to 1938, fewer than 1,000 km (620 mi) of roadway were added to the Autobahn network. Emphasis was shifted to military efforts, the first major project being the Westwall (known in English as the Siegfried Line) built opposite the French Maginot Line and serving a similar purpose. Correspondingly, Todt himself was named Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions in 1940. In 1941 Todt and his organisation were further charged with a project even larger, the construction of the Atlantic Wall, to be built on the coasts of occupied France, the occupied Netherlands, occupied Belgium, occupied Denmark, and occupied Norway. Included with this project were the fortification of the British Channel Islands, which were occupied by Nazi Germany from 30 June 1940 to 9 May 1945. The only camps on British soil operated by the OT were in the Channel Islands; two of these OT camps were given to the management of the SS from March 1943 converting them into the Alderney concentration camps.
Fritz Todt died in an aeroplane crash on 8 February 1942, soon after a meeting with Hitler in East Prussia. Todt had become convinced that the war on the eastern front could not be won and thought himself independent enough to say as much to Hitler. As a result, there has been some speculation that Todt's death was a covert assassination, but this has never been substantiated.
