In September 1941 Schwarz was transferred to Poland and posted to the administrative office of the Auschwitz concentration camp. His initial duties included working as adjutant to the camp's commandant, Rudolf Höß. Schwarz also served as director of the camp's Work Assignment Department (Abt. IIIa) and held the position of Lagerführer (camp leader) for Auschwitz's central administration area.
Central to the role Schwarz played as commandant was the provision of slave-labourers to the nearby Buna Werke, a synthetic rubber factory owned by the German chemical company IG Farben. Other German corporations, such as Siemens and Krupp, also received slave labour from Monowitz. The brutal working conditions which prevailed at Monowitz during the period Schwarz served as commandant resulted in a large number of deaths among the inmate population, with estimates ranging between 10,000 and 35,000 prisoners who were believed to have died in the labour camp itself or in the gas chambers located at neighbouring Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Following the evacuation of Auschwitz complex on 18 January 1945, Schwarz was initially slated to take over command of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp and the associated V-weapons production facility of Mittelwerk, but was passed over for this post in favour of Richard Baer. Instead, Schwarz was appointed commandant of the concentration camp of Natzweiler-Struthof, serving there until the end of the war.
^Today's Best Military Writing: The Finest Articles on the Past, Present, and Future of the U.S. Military by Walter J. Boyne Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (26 August 2004) Language: English ISBN0-7653-0887-8ISBN9780765308870
