Between 1942 and 1943 the Nazis conducted experiments in occupied Poland attempting to cultivate Kazakh dandelion, a rubber producing plant originating in Central Asia. Botanical and chemical examination of Taraxacum kok-saghyz were conducted in the agricultural research institute in Puławy and in the experimental research unit of KL Auschwitz, where laboratory and field work was carried out by female inmates, mostly botanists and agronomists. Polish farmers were forced to plant the Kazakh dandelion over thousands of acres of fields by the occupation authorities, whilst prisoners of labour and concentration camps, including wom - en and children, were forced to carry out arduous cultivation work. Polish patri - ots used every opportunity to sabotage such cultivations. This paper presents this little-known episode of the occupation reality, based upon recollections of labora - tory staff, farmers and children. At the same time, an attempt was made to embed this story in the context of contemporary technological, economic and military advancements.
