Fritz Todt

Fritz Todt ([fʁɪt͡s tɔt]; 4 September 1891 – 8 February 1942) was a German construction engineer and senior political figure of the Nazi Party. In 1938, he founded Organization Todt (OT), a military-engineering organization that supplied German industry with forced labor, and he served as Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition in Nazi Germany early in World War II, directing the entire German wartime military economy from that position. An engineer by training, Todt served in the Luftstreitkräfte during World War I and was a recipient of the Iron Cross. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1931. Steadily rising through the ranks, Todt became Inspector General for German Roadways after Adolf Hitler came to power. In that capacity, he was responsible for the construction of the German autobahns. Todt also directed large-scale engineering projects such as the construction of the Westwall (Siegfried Line) and the Atlantic Wall. In 1940, he was appointed Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. During the war, OT made extensive use of upwards of 800,000 slave laborers from German-occupied territories. Todt's agency can be linked to the Holocaust as SS personnel collaborating with OT murdered many of the forced laborers (especially Jews) on the pretext of eliminating security risks or as a component of the Nazi genocidal programme. Todt was killed along with four other people in February 1942 near Wilhelmsdorf when his aircraft crashed en route from Rastenburg to Berlin-Tempelhof. He was succeeded as Reichsminister and head of the OT by Albert Speer.