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| An unrelated file photo showing industry in Germany in 1952. Photo: AFP |
More than 70 years after the end of World World II, one of Germany's richest families has admitted to its dark links with Adolf Hitler's regime.
Spokesman
of the Reimann family, Peter Harf, told Bild am Sonntag of plans to give 10
million euros to charity after learning of their elders' support for the Nazis
and their company's use of forced labour during the war.
"Reimann
senior and Reimann junior were guilty. The two entrepreneurs have both passed
away, they belonged actually in prison," said Harf.
Albert
Reimann senior died in 1954 and his son in 1984.
The company
they left behind, JAB Holding, is today a behemoth that owns household brands
ranging from Clearasil to Calgon.
With wealth
estimated at 33 billion euros, the Reimann family is believed to be Germany's
second richest.
Harf said
the family began digging into their dark past in the 2000s, and in 2014 decided
to commission a historian to produce a thorough study into their ancestors'
ties to Nazism.
The family
plans to make public a full account when the book by the historian, Paul Erker
of Munich University, is finished, said Harf.
Quoting
letters and archival documents, Bild am Sonntag said Reimann senior was a
willing donor to Hitler's SS as early as 1931.
His company
was in 1941 deemed a "crucial" firm in the war, as it produced items
for the Wehrmacht and the armaments industry.
In 1943,
the company was using as many as 175 forced labourers, and employed a foreman
who was known for his cruel treatment of the workers.
Harf, who
confirmed the conclusions drawn by the Bild report, said there had been no
known efforts to provide any compensation to the forced labourers.
"But
we have since talked about what we can do now," he said.
"We
want to do more and donate ten million euros to a suitable organisation."
Many of
Germany's biggest companies have over the decades confronted their Third Reich
history.
Among them
is Volkswagen, which used concentration camp internees and prisoners of war as
slave labour in its factories during WW2.
In 1938,
Hitler himself laid the foundation stone for the first Volkswagen factory in
Wolfsburg in northern Germany, tasked with building an affordable car for all
Germans -- which would go on to become the iconic Beetle.
One of Germany's richest families has admitted to its dark Nazi links and has donated millions to charity after learning of their elders' support for Adolf Hitler and their company's use of forced labour during WW2https://t.co/zcTduM6M4r pic.twitter.com/R2b1Dh0hZB— AFP news agency (@AFP) 24 maart 2019
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