DUPONT: Yes, he was a doctor. The internees were used for the hardest
labor; in the Laura mines, working in the salt mines as, for instance,
in the Mansleben-am-See Kommando, clearing up bomb debris. It must be
remembered that the more difficult the labor conditions were, the
harsher was the supervision by the guards.
The internees were used in Buchenwald for any kind of labor; in earth
works, in quarries, and in factories. To cite a particular case: There
were two factories attached to Buchenwald, the Gustloff works and the
Mühlbach works. They were munition factories under technical and
non-military management. In this particular case there was some sort of
rivalry between the SS and the technical management of the factory. The
technical management, concerned with its output, took the part of the
prisoners to the extent of occasionally obtaining supplementary rations
for them. Internee labor had certain advantages. The cost was
negligible, and from a security point of view the maximum of secrecy was
ensured, as the internees had no contact with the outside world and
therefore no leakage was possible.