Topf and Sons

Common card · No. 288594

J. A. Topf and Sons (German: J. A. Topf & Söhne) was an engineering company, founded in 1878 in Erfurt, Germany by Johannes Andreas Topf (1816–1891). Originally, it made heating systems and brewing and malting equipment. Later, the company diversified into silos, chimneys, incinerators for burning municipal waste, and crematoria. During World War I, it made weapons shells, limbers (carts for carrying artillery) and other military vehicles. In World War II, it also made weapons shells and aircraft parts for the Luftwaffe. J. A. Topf and Sons was the largest of 12 companies that designed and built crematorium ovens for concentration and extermination camps during the Holocaust, planned and carried out by the Nazi regime from 1935 to 1945. It also made ventilation systems for the gas chambers at Auschwitz II–Birkenau. Topf & Söhne's main competitor in making concentration camp ovens was the Berlin firm H. Kori GmbH, founded in 1887. At its peak, Topf & Söhne was the largest company of its...

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