Schömberg

About ten kilometres northeast of the city of Rottweil, the Germans established a factory in December 1943 that was part of a program called Operation Wüste. The programme aimed to produce synthetic fuel from oil shale. A total of ten Werken and seven camps were established that were connected to Werken. It was in these camps that the slave workers were housed when they were not working in the factory. All seven camps were subordinated to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. Schömberg was named Wüste werk 9 and about 800 prisoners from different parts of Europe were used as slave workers during the camp’s existence. The camp was closed in April 1945 and the remaining prisoners were forced to leave on Death marches eastwards.