BMW Family Admits Using Nazi Slave Labor
The family that owns BMW has admitted to using slave labor during World War II.
Some 50,000 forced laborers are estimated to have worked in the factories of Guenther Quandt, producing arms for the Nazis, a study showed.
Gabriele Quandt, grandson of Guenther Quandt, told the German newspaper Die Zeit that it was “wrong” for the family to ignore this chapter of its history.
An independent study by Bonn-based historian Joachim Scholtyseck, commissioned by the family, concluded that Guenther Quandt and his son Herbert helped bolster the Nazis, according to the newspaper. The three-year study was commissioned following public outrage after a German television documentary made the accusation; the documentary had access to the company’s files from the Third Reich period.
Guenther Quandt is also accused taking over Jewish-owned companies during the war, with the blessing of the Nazis.
The Quandt family bought shares of BMW 15 years after World War II.
Guenther Quandt became a Nazi Party member on May 1, 1933. He died in 1954.
The family still owns a majority of shares in the luxury car maker.
