Gestapo. 1936 – Jewish business owners were dispossessed, like for example the Gebr. Alsberg. 1938 – During Kristallnacht, the synagoges in most Ruhr towns were destroyed, such as the Alte Synagoge in Dortmund. The construction of the Old Synagoge in Essen is so robust that it proves impossible to blow it up without damaging the surrounding buildings – therefore the building remained standing, although its interior was desecrated and burnt out. 1938 – In Drewer Mark in Marl, the Chemischen Werke Hüls is founded. It is largely a subsidiary of IG. Farben. During the Third Reich, synthetic rubber, Buna, was produced there for tyres. Slave labor was also used for production. 1939 – The Second World War began on 1 September. 1943 – Allied Bombing of the Ruhr destroys over 65% of houses in several cities, such as Dortmund and Duisburg. In Essen more than half the houses are destroyed. Thousands of people lose their lives. The centres of towns along the Hellweg zone lie almost completely in rubble. 1943 – On 18 May, the Möhne Dam is bombed and breached by 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (see Operation Chastise). A flood wave races along the valleys of the Möhne and the Ruhr. Over 1,000 people lose their lives. The town of Neheim-Hüsten (now a part of Arnsberg) is hit hard and the Himmelpforten Monastery is completely swept away. Most of the reported fatalities were foreign forced labourers and prisoners of war. By October the dam had been repaired and general industrial production in the Ruhr had recovered by about the same time. The following year, the Dortmund-Ems canal is breached by 617 Squadron. 1943 – During the Tehran Conference, it was already clear enough how important the Allies considered the Ruhr area for the new ordering of Germany after the war. Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed placing the region under international administration, independent of other German states. 1944 – The Morgenthau-Plan is discussed in the USA. This would have made the Ruhr area an international zone administered by the United Nations, and would have set up separate North German and South German states. Industrial installations were threatened with dismantling as part and parcel of a prohibition on re-industrialization. 1945 – The fighting in the Ruhr Pocket/Ruhrkessel results in about 105,000 dead. 1945 – On 11 April, the arms manufacturer Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was placed under