from forced labor in its punitive units. When it came to exploiting the working potential of the Jews, this eventually amounted to "annihilation through labour," according to historian David Cesarani. As a commodity of the WVHA, inmates were deliberately worked to death, even when it conflicted with production. This practice was a compromise between Nazi ideological imperatives and the practical needs of a militant Nazi state. Concentration camps were constructed at Auschwitz, Lublin (Majdanek), and Stutthof to facilitate a "vertically integrated construction and building supply enterprise" under the administrative oversight of the WVHA. Expansion of the concentration camps and the satellite network was so rapid over such a vast area—with camps hastily opening and closing—that even the WVHA had a difficult time keeping count of them. The catalyst for the expansion of SS construction initiatives stemmed from Hitler's megalomania, namely, his plans to erect massive German cities and monuments (masterminded by the young architect Albert Speer) as the Reich subsumed more and more territory. Himmler was likewise inspired by these plans, which were designed to expand SS production and "boost the status of the SS". To accomplish the job of carrying out the Führer's vision, Pohl expanded the WVHA, creating the East German Building Supply Works (Ost-Deutsche Baustoffwerke GmbH; ODBS) along with the German Noble Furniture Corporation (Deutsche Edelmöbel GmbH) with the aide of Dr. Emil Meyer, an officer in the Allgemeine-SS and prominent figure within the Dresdner Bank. Slave labor for private companies, included Heinkel and BMW, firms that produced aircraft and aircraft engines; the chemical giant, IG Farben, which manufactured rubber, synthetic fuels, synthetic explosives, pharmaceuticals, and one of its subsidiaries even produced Zyklon B; Junkers aircraft; Krupp steel; one of Germany's foremost aircraft manufacturers, Messerschmitt; the metal and tubing firm Salzgitter AG, which was part of Reichswerke Hermann Göring; the electrical engineering company, Siemens-Schuckertwerke; Apollinaris mineral water; Allach porcelain; and DEST (building material and armament), among others. To facilitate this integration, the number of slave laborers the WVHA had available increased steadily from 21,400 in 1939, to upwards of 524,286 by August 1944. Another enterprise that fell under the purview of the WVHA—and one Albert Speer was keen on as well—was the construction works at Dora-Mittelbau, the underground complex where the V2 rockets were assembled. This enormous subterranean facility near Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains was completed in a mere two months using camp labor supplied by