BBC News, 18
October 2013
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August Oetker has welcomed the new research into his company's history during the Nazi period |
Company
chairman August Oetker was speaking ahead of a new book that studies the
history of the family's links with the Nazis.
His father,
Rudolf-August Oetker, was a member of Adolf Hitler's Waffen SS.
Rudolf-August
Oetker ran the company, based in Bielefeld, northern Germany, after World War
II and died in 2007.
"My
father was a National Socialist," August Oetker said in an interview with
Die Zeit newspaper.
"He
didn't want to talk about this time. He said, 'children, leave me in
peace'."
He said his
father, who had joined the Nazi party in the 1930s, had been influenced by his
step-father, Richard Kaselowsky, who was a staunch supporter of Hitler and ran
Dr Oetker before him.
Mr Oetker
said he welcomed the publication next week of the book Dr Oetker and National
Socialism, written by a German historian and funded by the company.
"I
feel now we know the facts, now the fog has lifted," he said.
Over the
decades, many German companies have come under pressure to come to terms with
their links to the Nazis and their actions during the 1930s and 1940s.
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