Arming the Luftwaffe

During World War II, aviation was among the largest industrial branches of the Third Reich. About 40 percent of total German war production, and two million people, were involved in the manufacture of aircraft and air force equipment. Based on German records, Allied intelligence reports, and eyewitness accounts, this study explores the military, political, scientific and social aspects of Germany’s wartime aviation industry: production, research and development, Allied attacks, foreign workers and slave labor, and daily life and working conditions in the factories. Testimony from Holocaust survivors who worked in the factories provides a compelling new perspective on the history of the Third Reich.

Daniel Uziel has worked at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and for the Israeli Air Force and the German Foreign Office. He spent a year as a research fellow with the U.S. National Air and Space Museum and has written a book on propaganda and the Wehrmacht and several articles on World War II aviation history, the Germany army and the Holocaust.

Daniel Uziel
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 312
Bibliographic Info: 59 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6521-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8879-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v
Introduction      1

1. The Aviation Industry at War      7
2. The Aviation Industry and the Air War      51
3. Reorganization of Aircraft Production      71
4. From Technological Expertise to Slave Labor      144
5. On the Production Lines—Daily Life in the Factories      194
6. The “People’s Fighter” as Case Study of a Late-War Program      236

Conclusion      263
Chapter Notes      269
Bibliography      293
Index      299

“Uziel, has meticulously researched the rise of German Air Force aircraft production from its creation in 1935 to it final days in April 1945”—Military Review.