Death camp industries still thriving today!
During World War II, millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), Poles, other Eastern Europeans, and people of other nationalities and religions were forced to work under inhuman conditions in the Nazi industry as slave labourers.
Many did not survive, and became part of the Nazi Holocaust.
A total of 8 to 12 million slaves worked for the Nazi war machine.
The average slave worked for about 7,000 hours over a two year period.
It may surprise you to learn that the following companies used slave labour during World war II:
- Agfa
- Allianz (Allianz insured the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as other death camps)
- BASF
- Bayer
- BMW
- Daimler Benz (Chrysler)
- Dresdner Bank (now part of the Allianz group)
- Ford Werke A.G (Ford Motor Company based in Cologne)
- Fred Krupp (now part of ThyssenKrupp)
- Hoesch Krupp (now part of ThyssenKrupp)
- Hoechst
- Siemens (The crematorium ovens at Buchenwald concentration camp bear the Siemens label).
- Volkswagen (One former slave worker said of Volkswagen: “They wanted you to be an animal. They didn’t care if you fell down sick. They sent you to the death camp. There were always more to take your place.” VW also had a “dying room” at its main plant where women slave labourers were forced to leave their newborns to expire.)
“Without IG Farben, WWII would not have been possible!”
During World War II, the IG Farben chemical company manufactured the deadly Zyklon B gas that was used to kill millions of victims in Nazi gas chambers.
Agfa, BASF, Bayer and Hoechst which were part of the IG Farben company still thrive today. The IG Farben building is now part of the University of Frankfurt.
Günther Quandt was a German industrialist who founded an industrial empire that today includes BMW and Altana (chemicals). Eight of the hundred currently richest Germans are among his descendants.
In 1937 Hitler appointed him to the position of Wehrwirtschaftsführer, (Leader of the Armament Economy), a title given to industrialists who played a leading role in the Nazi war economy.
Günther’s second wife Magda became Joseph Goebbel’s wife. Adolf Hitler was as a witness at their wedding.
Today the Quandts are multi-billionaires, although it is difficult to put an exact figure on their wealth. They do not give interviews and are very publicity shy.
Two of the current board members of BMW are members of the Quandt family:
- Susanne Klatten (the richest woman in Germany)
- Stefan Quandt (96th richest person in the world)
The Children of the Holocaust
The children of the holocaust suffered and died while companies and individuals built massive empires during the Nazi era.
Having built their empires ….. they now continue to add to them.
Next time you see an Agfa, Allianz, BMW, Bayer, BASF, Hoechst, Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, or VW logo …. spare a thought for the countless millions who died during the holocaust while working as slave labourers for these companies.
(If this is what it takes to become a millionaire/billionaire ….. I’m glad I’m not rich.)
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Paddy
My husband and father-in-law played a part in war. Jack in WW11 and his father in WW1, neither had much choice in the matter. Jack carried the physical effects of war for the remainder of his life without fuss or complaint. Is Elly responsible for any action that either of them took while under orders all those years ago? Should the fact that Jack served his country have prevented me in my choice of soul-mate?
Paddy you are fortunate to come from and live in a neutral country, yet your fellow countrymen in the armed forces are on duty as I write, in some major war torn areas of our world. They did not choose to be there, the Powers that be – Government Ministers, whose successors are the same people that you complain about on a daily basis, sent them.
Those who fought and those who gave their lives in WW11, no matter what side, were sons, husbands and fathers. They did not choose to be there, the ‘Powers that Be’ – Government Ministers sent them. Government Ministers make the decisions and demands on the people and on all the companies over whom they had control. Some factories stopped normal production to produce munitions for war!
Government Ministers whether Hitler, Stalin, Tony Blair or George Bush signed the papers taking their fellow country men to war. They are the people responsible for planning or not planning the course of war and how to deal with people, and not the companies forced to produce the goods of war.
The allies may have won WWII which you talk about, but they STILL sell munitions and aircraft of war to countries around the world ruled by dictators.
Nobody can change the past, not even God! We may never forget the past, but we need to concentrate on the here and now and the future.
I agree Grannymar …. but the industries above should do more to reconcile with their respective pasts.
Billionaire families/companies have made made their fortunes from the suffering of millions.
They should never be allowed to forget that …. neither should we forget their behaviour in the past.
How would you suggest they do that Paddy?
Major companies of today’s world are doing just the same. The Corporations selling armaments, the medical companies producing medications, and there are many more besides. The idea in the UK of putting people on Statins simply because they ‘might’ be at a risk of heart problems is crazy. If we saw the real background to this decision we would find that it is all governed by Mr Greed! Alas I know the bad side of Statins to my cost.
I don’t know Grannymar … but they can’t/shouldn’t brush aside the memories of the countless millions who were gassed, burned or thrown thrown into mass graves.
A company may be ‘respectable’ today but that doesn’t mean they should wipe away their past.
What happened was horrific …. and the ‘big’ companies of the day participated in it.
They are now the ‘big’ companies of today …. their foundations made more secure as a result of their actions during the Nazi era.
No war is justifiable …. the countless millions who were killed weren’t even soldiers ….
I accept that the past cannot be dwelt upon but I do think that our past has to be acknowledged.
The ‘big’ companies only worried about the past when there was talk of compensation …..
As usual I’ll sit on the fence. I agree we should not forget but we should move on. These aren’t the only companies still thriving on the profits of pain. Union Carbide are still a problem in India to name just one.
What a horrible video, but important to watch.
I agree with Grannymar in terms of the soldiers. My own Grandad served in the RAF and had he not tripped getting onto a plane and broke his ankle, he would have been shot down and died in one of those death camps with the rest of the crew. They carry out orders and nothing more, but how many of them were asked to gun down innocent women and children?
The Holocaust and indeed genocide as a whole is different. The scale of it is something I hope we never see again. I agree with you Paddy when you suggest companies make some sort of reparation.
I don’t condone the war in Iraq in the slightest, but it’s interesting how quickly people forget that the Iraqi’s suffered similar conditions under Saddam, albeit it in a slightly smaller number. They estimate genocide of well over a million during his regime. The same goes for Rwanda. People complain how the West didn’t intervene there, but if they had intervened, there would be the same carry-on there is now about Iraq. No one wins.
Unfortunately war is a tragic reality of humanity, but genocide and war are not the same thing. War is a sad necessity - something that in the past guaranteed us the freedom we cherish today - but genocide most certainly is not.