Glossary

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Max Faust (1891–1980)

 a  Arnest Tauber, a former Monowitz prisoner, stated: “The I.G. Farben did not only have knowledge of the atrocities which were taking place, but it took an active part in them. I personally saw how Chief-Engineer Faust beat several prisoners with [a] club because the moving of loaded wagons in road construction did not function as he desired. I know that it was Chief-Engineer Faust, because I inquired for [sic] his name.”

(Arnest Tauber, affidavit, May 3, 1947, NI-4829. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, PDB 75 (e), pp. 111–115, here p. 113.)
 
 b  On the occasion of Heinrich Himmler's second visit to I.G. Auschwitz, Faust noted in his weekly report: “July 18. Visit from the Reichsführer SS with a big entourage, including Obergruppenführer Schmauser und Obersturmbannführer Höss, to whom the Reichsführer SS personally conveyed his promotion to Obersturmbannführer. The Reichsführer was greeted by the undersigned at the Feierabendhaus. Then we drove to the powerhouse and, from the vantage point of the high-rise bunker, gave our high-ranking visitor an overview of the entire plant, explaining the complex as a whole by using a site plan prepared for this purpose. The Reichsführer asked about the prospective start-up dates, which were given as May to August 1943. Here he asked why these dates could not be moved up by increased deployment of manpower. We pointed out to him the difficulties regarding acquisition of manpower and materials. When he asked why the mining facility had not yet been begun, we replied that we had not yet received a final mandate from the Heereswaffenamt. To his question about the reason for this, we replied that this eluded our knowledge, and that the Heereswaffenamt probably had not yet been able to decide on this, also because of the difficulties in obtaining materials. The Reichsführer directed one of his adjutants to make a note of the matter.
Further, the Reichsführer asked whether we—now that 3 Buna plants were already operational—could not erect our manufacturing buildings in each case again, using the same plans. We replied that this already had occurred in part, but that, on the other hand, operational improvements had also necessitated changes in the structural designs. He said that if time was lost as a result, it was preferable to build more quickly, using the same plans, and accept certain handicaps in manufacturing. Special attention was paid to the ready-mixed concrete construction method, which he recommended to Obersturmbannführer Höss for emulation in the SS's concentration camps. Upon his departure, the Reichsführer promised us all possible support and asked us to report any shortages.”
(Excerpt from Wochenbericht [weekly report] No. 60/61 for the period July 13–26, 1942, sgd. Faust, NI-14551. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 1991, reel 033, pp. 353–355, here p. 354. (Transl. KL))
 
 c  In the Wollheim lawsuit, Faust testified that “the IG was not responsible for the housing, feeding, clothing, in short for the determination of the personal affairs of an individual prisoner; instead, this was exclusively the business of the SS. Any success in procuring one benefit or another for the prisoners in the course of the work in Auschwitz cost the management months of negotiations with the SS every time.”
(Max Faust, hearing of witness, December 4, 1952. HHStAW, Sec. 460, No. 1424 (Wollheim v. IG Farben), Vol. I, pp. 164R–172R, here p. 165. (Transl. KL)) 
 
 d  In the Wollheim lawsuit, Faust had this to say about the “costs” of a prisoner: “Because the vast majority of the deployed prisoners were working not for the IG but for outside firms, and the ratio here was about 20:80, we naturally had to invoice the outside companies for the workers' wages and, in addition, pay the RM 3 or RM 4 to the camp. Besides, we had expenses 1) in the form of building the entire camp, 2) in the form of maintaining the camp, 3) in the procuring of foodstuffs. For these reasons we invoiced the firms 55 pfennig per hour for an unskilled laborer and 65 pf. per hour for a skilled worker.” (Then he also gives a real comparison with the standard wage: RM 1.20 to 1.30 per hour.)
(Max Faust, hearing of witness, December 4, 1952. HHStAW, Sec. 460, No. 1424 (Wollheim v. IG Farben), Vol. I, pp. 164R–172R, here p. 168R. (Transl. KL))

Max Faust was born on April 5, 1891, in Frankfurt am Main. He studied civil engineering and took a job at BASF in Ludwigshafen in 1922. He worked there in BASF’s construction division, and in 1936 he was promoted to senior engineer. Faust joined the NSDAP in May 1933. In 1941, he was made an authorized signatory at BASF. Starting in January 1940, he worked as a site manager for I.G. Farben near Breslau in Silesia, initially during the building of Farben’s third Buna plant in Rattwitz, which was discontinued in the summer of 1940, and then during the construction of the secret nerve-gas plant of I.G. Farbenindustrie in Dyhernfurth.

 

In January 1941, Max Faust paid his first visit to the construction site in Auschwitz-Monowitz and wrote a positive expert opinion on its suitability for I.G. Farben’s purposes. During this visit, he also learned of the existing Auschwitz concentration camp. In June of the same year, Faust took on the task of construction management for the Auschwitz plant. The official plant manager of I.G. Auschwitz, Otto Ambros, entrusted Faust with the handling of day-to-day operations and made him his on-site representative. In this capacity, Faust led the negotiations with the camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Rudolf Höss, on the use of prisoners from that camp at the I.G. Farbenindustrie construction site. In the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg, Faust testified that he once had seen a prisoner shot by an SS man and “on various occasions, exhausted prisoners sitting around or lying down.”[1] He was aware of mistreatment of the prisoners by I.G. Farben employees; after the war, former prisoners accused him of having beaten prisoners himself.  a  During Heinrich Himmler’s visit on July 18, 1942, Faust personally explained to him the progress of the construction work for the plant.  b 

 

After the war, in the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg, Faust stated in his defense that he had opposed the use of prisoners for business reasons, because they “did far less work than ordinary laborers” and “besides, the mistreatment made a bad impression on the German and foreign [sic] workers.”[2] Max Faust had visited the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp three times and observed that “things were taking place there that the SS had reason to conceal.”[3] However, he did not see I.G. Farben as obligated to worry about the prisoners – from whom the firm profited, mind you, by further hiring them out to subcontractors at many times the original price  c   d . Along with plant manager Walther Dürrfeld, he was the last to leave the I.G. Auschwitz construction site on January 23, 1945, and in the period that followed he was busy with the winding-up of the plant. After the war, he testified in Nuremberg on May 8, 1948, in the Wollheim lawsuit on December 4, 1952, and in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial on March 11, 1965. He died in Ludwigshafen on June 19, 1980, as an I.G. Farbenindustrie AG retiree.

(SP; transl. KL)



Sources

Excerpt from Wochenbericht [weekly report] No. 60/61 for the period July 13–26, 1942, sgd. Faust, NI-14551. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 1991, reel 033, pp. 353–355.

Max Faust, affidavit, August 7, 1947, NI-9819. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 2349, reel 035, pp. 883–890.

Max Faust, hearing of witness, May 8, 1948. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prot. (d), reel 059, Vol. 39, pp. 14263–14319.

Max Faust, hearing of witness, December 4, 1952. HHStAW, Sec. 460, No. 1424 (Wollheim v. I.G. Farben), Vol. I, pp. 164R–172R.

Max Faust, hearing of witness, March 11, 1965, Auschwitz Trial, StA Frankfurt am Main, 4 Ks 2/63. In: Der Auschwitz-Prozess. Tonbandmitschnitte, Protokolle und Dokumente. DVD-ROM. 2. Ed. Fritz Bauer Institut / Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, eds. Berlin: Directmedia, 2005.

Arnest Tauber, affidavit, May 3, 1947, NI-4829. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, PDB 75 (e), pp. 111–115.

 

Literature

Wagner, Bernd C.: IG Auschwitz. Zwangsarbeit und Vernichtung von Häftlingen des Lagers Monowitz 1941–1945. Munich: Saur, 2000.

[1] Max Faust, affidavit, August 7, 1947, NI-9819. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 2349, reel 035, pp. 883–890, here p. 887. (Translated by KL)

[2] Faust, affidavit, August 7, 1947, p. 887.

[3] Faust, affidavit, August 7, 1947, p. 888.