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26 October 2005
MUNICH – German carmaker BMW detailed Wednesday how it became part of the Nazi system, employing forced labour and concentration camp inmates in its factories during the Second World War.
The company has led efforts by German industry to make amends, spearheading the huge Remembrance fund that paid lump-sum compensation to survivors in Israel and all over Europe in recent years.
It and MTU, the aircraft engine company that grew out of the former BMW aero-engine arm, jointly commissioned a historian, Constanze Werner, to study the corporate record during the Nazi era. She worked on the topic for six years.
Her book, “War Economy and Forced Labour”, was published Wednesday, and joins other studies of how BMW helped the Nazis arm Germany.
“The book describes the process by which BMW got steadily more involved with the Nazi regime and its crimes, to the point where it deliberately employed forced labour and concentration camp inmates,” Werner said.
The Nazis press-ganged people from France, Poland and other nations to work in German factories at low pay in bad conditions.
DPA
Subject: German news