1939 – 1945 / Second World War

With the start of the Second World War in September 1939, Germany shifts to a war economy. I.G. Farben is also embedded into this self-sufficiency and compulsory system, especially with its synthetic products nitrogen, rubber and gasoline. During the war, many male employees are drafted. They are replaced by female conscripts, prisoners of war, and forced laborers especially from occupied countries in Eastern Europe. Moreover, prisoners of concentration camps are put to work at I.G. Farben’s Buna plant in Auschwitz, now Poland, commissioned by order of the German army high command in 1940.