The business enterprise was founded in May 1939 and was in operation until 1943. About 15,500 concentration camp prisoners died at DAW due to heavy work loads imposed by the contractor and the inhuman working conditions "calculated not just to cripple their bodies but also to plunge them into a state of perpetual terror."[1] DAW operated several businesses in the Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz concentration camps, where forced labor was used.