When the Nuremberg trials began, our prosecutors tried to bring to justice not only the direct criminals of the Reich like Goering or Frank. Prosecutors from the USSR also wanted to condemn corporations that arose in the war and used the slave labor of prisoners of concentration camps. In response, Western comrades (even then we were not comrades at all) began vying to convince the Russians that private property is inviolable, that the owners of the companies had no choice, as if they did not compete in Nazi tenders, and so on and so forth. Naturally, even then, many Western "allies" did their best to hide their ties with the Nazis, especially after the general publication of photos and film materials from concentration camps. In short, none of the oligarchs who profited from the war were put up against the wall.
So who managed to hide under the carpet to save their reputation? No, we will not cite as an example the Krupp factories or the "Bavarian Motor Plants", which, to please the Nazis, even switched to the manufacture of weapons and jet engines. We will not even rake up the biography of Hugo Boss, who was not only a “weaver” of the Reich uniform, but also rose on Nazi orders, because before Hitler's rise, he almost went bankrupt, and himself personally joined the Nazi party to fix the shaky business. We will try to illuminate those who have climbed the deepest under the carpet and managed to be covered with the saving dust of time.
German stormtroopers quench their thirst.
Let's start with an aperitif, i.e. with drinks. In 1940, when the Second World War was already in full swing, the United States finally pulled up and banned the supply of syrup for "Cola" to the German factories of the American company. Therefore, Max Keith, head of the German divisions of Coca-Cola, created a new product based on existing ingredients - apple cake from cider and whey from cheese production. The resulting yellowish drink was named "Fanta" (from the German word "Fantasie"). Of course, the taste of that "Fanta" was far from modern.
Max Kite's sales skyrocketed. Throughout the war, Max calculated profits, kept all the factories of the Coca-Cola company, and in 1960, Cola, which returned to the German market, bought the rights to release the popular Fanta.
Well, let's continue our run through the German deli. In the second half of the 19th century, Julius Maggi founded a brand of dry soups and food spices in Switzerland. The company soon opened in the German town of Singen. The rise to power of the Nazis was a terrific business expansion opportunity for Maggi. they managed to get a contract for the supply of semi-finished products to the Wehrmacht. Not a contract, but a dream - millions of permanent and always hungry customers who simply do not have a chance to choose the menu.
And how can it be without sweets! Just before the war, the growing Nestlé company, very far-sightedly for itself, created an independent, only on paper, branch in the United States, capturing markets. In this way, the company reduced the risk of imposing sanctions and other unpleasant prohibitions on it related to their trade with the Reich. As a result, the outbreak of the war did not affect sales in any way. The company traded in food products both with the Axis countries and with the countries allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. Naturally, such double-dealing did not bring honor to the desk. In addition, according to some reports, representatives of the company in Switzerland even sponsored the Nazis in 1939 in order to get such a "charity" a contract for the supply of chocolate, coffee and concentrated milk. By the end of the war, Nestlé had become a real corporation, covering almost all continents.
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Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken.
After a strong dinner, the Nazis, despite Hitler's negative attitude towards tobacco smoking (he called it revenge of the Indians against whites), still liked to drag out once or twice. And then the company Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken enters the scene. For this office, the rise of the Nazis to power came in handy: it became almost a monopolist on the German market. In 1930, Jewish tobacco suppliers, mired in crisis, left the market. They are immediately replaced by Reemtsma. Already in June 1932, the head of the company, Philip Reemtsma, was awarded a meeting with the elite of the future Reich, and in 1933, after meeting with Goering and certain "gifts" from the tobacco industry, the office received carte blanche.
In 1939, the representatives of Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken received the official status of the heads of the association of companies working for the needs of the front. Moreover, without a twinge of conscience, this company used forced labor of prisoners, including child labor. And, by the way, the scale of the exploitation of second-class people by these businessmen is truly amazing. Even in Crimea, on tobacco plantations, they used the local population, driven to work by occupation and famine. The brand is now owned by Imperial Tobacco.
In addition to pharmaceutical giants like Ciba and Sandoz or Bayer (the chairman of the latter company in 1956, Fritz ter Meer, was generally a Nazi and experimented on people in Auschwitz), they had "relationships" with the Nazis and even seemingly innocent firms, for example, cosmetics … For example, the Beiersdorf company, which owns the Nivea brand, was highly valued by the Nazis for using exclusively natural natural beauty of Germans and German women in their advertising campaign, as well as a truly Aryan script. For the sake of truth, I must note that the very head of the company, Jacobson, in the world of new competition due to the name of the place was not found. He hastily fled from the Nazi country to the Netherlands back in the 30s.
Otto Beissheim. To the left of Hitler.
And now, of course, shopping. The seemingly modern Metro Group also has its own naphthalene skeletons in the closet with Nazi symbols and a satanic glint in their eyes. As you know, Metro was founded in Germany in 1964 by several citizens, including a certain Otto Beisheim. The company itself simply did not have time to work for the Reich, but Citizen Otto noted himself in this field in full. Otto was born in 1924 in the family of the estate manager, but the heart of the young boy did not lie in the village life. And in 1941 he was able to join as much as the SS division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler". I don't think it's worth explaining that the confused boys and politically illiterate jerks in such a structure were not kept from speaking at all. As a result, by the end of the war, Otto was captured by the Allies. By the way, he never gave an interview to the press, apparentlyhe feared, out of his old habit, "ziganut".
The old man Otto Beisheim.
Not far from the creator of Metro, another founder of an equally large company left, which has prevented finances from stagnating in the pockets of ordinary people with his ideas for more than a dozen years. This is IKEA. The founder of the company, the dear old Swede Ingvar Kamprad, also did not remain indifferent to the fate of Europe when Hitler was forging a "new order". As it became known only in 1994 from the letters of the Swedish Nazi and friend of Ingvar Per Endal, Kamprad was a member of the Swedish Nazi party from 42nd to 45th. And he did not just participate in the sabbaths of young "dreamers", but raised funds for the party and even recruited supporters. That's what I understand - "idea"!
Founder of IKEA Ingvar Kamprad.
So we got to the clothes. The two largest corporations for the production of sportswear and footwear, Adidas and Puma, were founded by very specific brothers. First, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler started together at the Gebrüder Dassler firm, which flourished at the time the Nazis rose to power. Both brothers in 1933 join the Nazi party and become its ardent members, even serving in Hitler's army for some time. But the memory of the Europeans is like the fish Dory from the famous cartoon, therefore in the Herzogenaurah Adolf Dassler there is already a monument to Adolf Dassler, and they themselves are a symbol of commercial and "sports" success.
On the left is a caricature of the Dassler brothers' squabbling, and on the right is a monument to Adolf Dassler.
And this is just a drop in the sea of companies for which money does not smell. American banking structures, auto manufacturers of the Old and New Worlds, pharmaceuticals, etc. were tied to the Nazis. No, this does not mean at all that it is necessary to immediately start a "crusade" against companies known for their ties with the Nazis (I am afraid that some of these companies will forever remain in the shadows). This means that the absence of a trial over them back in 1945 does not leave us even a ray of hope that the whole nightmare with slave labor and business on blood will not happen again. Indeed, in 45, the magnates were practically given an indulgence.
Author: East Wind