Editing Luftwaffe (section)

===Forced labour===
{{see also |Jägerstab|Luftwaffe guards at concentration camps|Companies involved in the Holocaust}} 
[[File:Concentration camp prisoners at Messerschmitt factory.png|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Concentration camp prisoners forced to work at a [[Messerschmitt]] aircraft factory]]
In 1943 and 1944, aircraft production was moved to concentration camps in order to alleviate labour shortages and to protect production from Allied air raids. The two largest aircraft factories in Germany were located at [[Mauthausen concentration camp|Mauthausen-Gusen]] and [[Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp|Mittelbau-Dora]] concentration camps.{{sfn|Dobosiewicz|2000| page=194}} Aircraft parts were also manufactured at [[Flossenbürg concentration camp|Flossenbürg]], [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Ravensbrück concentration camp|Ravensbrück]], [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp|Gross-Rosen]], [[Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp|Natzweiler]], [[Herzogenbusch concentration camp|Herzogenbusch]], and [[Neuengamme concentration camp|Neuengamme]].{{sfn|Vajda|Dancey|1998|p=118}}{{sfn|Uziel|2011|pp=180, 185}} In 1944 and 1945, as many as 90,000 concentration prisoners worked in the aviation industry, and were about one tenth of the concentration camp population over the winter of 1944–45.{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|p=45}}{{refn|In January 1944, [[Messerschmitt]] and contractors were using 7564 concentration camp prisoners, [[Heinkel]] and subsidiaries employed a further 9724, and [[Junkers]] used 1571.{{sfn|Vajda|Dancey|1998|p=118}} Heinkel used forced labor at [[Mielec concentration camp|Mielec]]{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=870}} and the Mauthausen subcamps Wien-Floridsdorf,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=958}} Hinterbrühl,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=959}} and Schwechat.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=962}} Junkers had factories at [[Wiener Neudorf]] (also a subcamp of Mauthausen);{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=955}} and operated factories at Buchenwald subcamps Mühlhausen,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=396}} Stempeda{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=999}} and Harzungen.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=984}}|group=N |name=production}} Partly in response to the Luftwaffe's demand for more forced labourers to increase fighter production, the concentration camp more than doubled between mid-1943 (224,000) and mid-1944 (524,000).{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|p=44}} Part of this increase was due to the deportation of Hungarian Jews; the {{lang|de|[[Jägerstab]]}} programme was used to justify the deportations to the Hungarian government. Of the 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported between May and July 1944, about 320,000 were gassed on arrival at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and the remainder forced to work. Only 50,000 survived.{{sfn|Bauer |1994|pp=155–156}}{{sfn|Buggeln|2014|pp=46, 48}}

Almost 1,000 fuselages of the jet fighter Messerschmitt Me 262 were produced at Gusen, a subcamp of Mauthausen and a brutal labour camp,<ref name="gusen">{{cite web |title=Messerschmitt GmbH Regensburg |url=https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Gusen/The-Concentration-Camp-Gusen/Forced-Labour/Messerschmitt-GmbH-Regensburg |website=www.mauthausen-memorial.org |access-date=28 July 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728071224/https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Gusen/The-Concentration-Camp-Gusen/Forced-Labour/Messerschmitt-GmbH-Regensburg |archive-date=28 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Bartrop|Dickerman|2017|p=427}}<!--262 production at Leonburg,{{Sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1042}} Neckarelz I and II, p. 1046, Kaltenkirchen, 1152; Luftwaffe munitions at Lubberstedt 1157--> where the average life expectancy was six months.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gusen |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006144 |website=www.ushmm.org |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=28 July 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708075648/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006144 |archive-date=8 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1944, one-third of production at the crucial [[Regensburg]] plant that produced the Bf 109, the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter arm, originated in Gusen and Flossenbürg alone.<ref name="gusen"/> [[Synthetic oil]] was produced from [[shale oil]] deposits by prisoners of Mittlebau-Dora as part of [[Operation Desert]] directed by [[Edmund Geilenberg]] in order to make up for the decrease in oil production due to Allied bombing. For oil production, three subcamps were constructed and 15,000 prisoners forced to work in the plant. More than 3,500 people died.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=969, 1012–3}} [[Vaivara concentration camp]] in [[Estonia]] was also established for shale oil extraction;{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1292}} about 20,000 prisoners worked there and more than 1,500 died at Vaivara.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=1294}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1991-061-17, Niedersachswerfen, Produktion von V1 - V2.jpg|thumb |Manufacturing of [[V-1 flying bomb|V-1]] cruise missiles and [[V-2 rocket|V-2]] rockets in the [[Mittelwerk]] tunnels resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 people.]]

Luftwaffe airfields were frequently maintained using forced labour. Thousands of inmates from five subcamps of [[Stutthof concentration camp|Stutthof]] worked on the airfields.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=1426, 1479}} Airfields and bases near several other concentration camps{{refn|Buchenwald,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=352}} Dachau,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=527}} Flossenbürg,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=652}} Gross-Rosen,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=702}} Herzogenbusch,{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=820}} and [[Hinzert]]{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=834}}|group=N}} and [[Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany|ghettos]]{{refn|Krewo ghetto,{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1078}} Baranowicze ghetto,{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1166}} and Stołpce ghetto{{sfn|USHMM|2012|p=1288}}|group=N}} were constructed or maintained by prisoners. On the orders of the Luftwaffe, prisoners from Buchenwald and Herzogenbusch were forced to defuse bombs that had fallen around Düsseldorf{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=336}} and Leeuwarden respectively.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=820–1}}

Thousands of Luftwaffe personnel [[Luftwaffe guards at concentration camps|worked as concentration camp guards]]. Auschwitz included a munitions factory guarded by Luftwaffe soldiers;{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=222}} 2,700 Luftwaffe personnel worked as guards at Buchenwald.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=291}} Dozens of camps and subcamps were staffed primarily by Luftwaffe soldiers.{{refn|See [[Luftwaffe guards at concentration camps]] for a full list.|group=N|name=camps}} According to the ''[[Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos]]'', it was typical for camps devoted to armaments production to be run by the branch of the {{lang|de|Wehrmacht}} that used the products.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|p=955}} In 1944, many Luftwaffe soldiers were transferred to concentration camps to alleviate personnel shortages.{{sfn|USHMM|2009|pp=1016–7}}