The Netflix show Five Came Back: The Reference Films consists of twelve government-sponsored propaganda films. The first episode is Nazi Concentration Camps is about the well-known and appalling conditions the Allies found when they liberated the camps.
At Bergen-Belsen – referred to as Belsen in the film – the crematoria ovens were marked by their manufacturer’s industrial nameplate: J. A. Topf & Söhne. Perhaps driven by profit, perhaps forced by the government, only a small percentage of their profits came their crematoria; however, German defeat led to post-war infamy.
Fortunately/unfortunately, their factory in Erfurt was in the Soviet Zone – the future East Germany – duly nationalized, and continued to exist for a couple of years post-German reunification. Ernst Topf relocated to West Germany and founded a new Topf & Söhne, but the notoriety was too much for long-term success. The Erfurt administration building has been converted into a museum.
If nothing else, Topf disproved P.T. Barnum‘s quote There’s no such thing as bad publicity; apparently the Holocaust is a worthy exception.
