The colossal extent of slave labour used by modern-day German blue-chip companies to get rich during the Third Reich has been laid bare by the nation's top business magazine. WirtschaftsWoche has published a league table illustrating the Nazi past of top German firms like Bosch, Mercedes, Deutsche Bank, VW and many others, which involved the use of almost , slaves.
The league table follows revelations earlier that Audi, which was known as Auto Union during the Nazi period, was a big exploiter of concentration camp supplied slave labor, using 20, concentration camp inmates in its factories. Slave labour: Jewish slave workers in striped uniforms work in a Nazi ammunition factory near Dachau concentration camp during World War II.
Old and young: The league table follows revelations earlier that Audi, which was known as Auto Union during the Nazi period, was a big exploiter of concentration camp supplied slave labor, using 20, concentration camp inmates, such as this young boy, in its factories. Many of the companies listed by WirtschaftsWoche have already had internal reckonings with their Nazi past. In , the dynasty behind the BMW luxury car marker admitted, after decades of silence, to using slave labour, taking over Jewish firms and doing business with the highest echelons of the Nazi party during World War Two.
Nazi favourite: Hitler speaks at the opening ceremony of the Volkswagen car factory in Fallersleben, Germany, in Volkwagen used 12, slave labourers under the Nazis. Gabriele Quandt, whose grandfather Guenther employed an estimated 50, forced labourers in his arms factories, producing ammunition, rifles, artillery and U-boat batteries, said it was 'wrong' for the family to ignore this chapter of its history.
But BMW were not the only German firm to profit from the sudden influx of slave labour. Daimler, which owns Mercedes, admitted as far back as that it had employed 40, forced labourers under appalling conditions during the war enabling it to reap massive profits. Electrical giant Bosch used 20, slaves while steelmaker ThyssenKrupp used a staggering 75, VW, builder of the 'People's Car' that morphed postwar in the VW Beetle, e mployed 12, slaves in the most terrible of conditions at its plant in Wolfsburg.
