Latest news with #NaziCrimes
Russia Today
09-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
German companies acknowledge responsibility for Nazi rise to power
Dozens of Germany's most prominent enterprises have acknowledged their responsibility for allowing Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler to rise to power. In a letter published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the corporations, including Siemens, Uniper, and Volkswagen, have admitted that their forebearers' greed and silence contributed to Nazi crimes. 'The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 would have been unthinkable without the failure of the decision-makers of the time in politics, the military, the judiciary, and the economy,' the collective statement marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe said. Many German companies 'contributed to consolidating the Nazi rule' and were 'complicit' in the Third Reich's crimes as they were solely driven by the desire to make profit, the document added. The list of signatories included a total of 49 brands, including Adidas, Bayer, and BMW, as well as several major German banks, Deutsche Bahn, and Lufthansa. The companies stopped short of taking direct responsibility for the crimes of their predecessors and said instead that they 'assume responsibility for making the memory of the crimes of the Nazi era visible.' 'In 1933 and beyond, too many remained silent, looked away,' the companies said, adding that this past silence 'imposes responsibility… for the past, the present and the future' upon them. The companies vowed to 'stand against hatred, against exclusion, and against anti-Semitism' and called for the 'achievements' made by the EU after the end of the Cold War to be protected. The murky Nazi-era history of the biggest German corporations and families that largely control them has repeatedly appeared in the media. In 2022, former Bloomberg journalist David de Jong released a book titled 'Nazi Billionaires', which detailed the ties of companies such as Porsche, Volkswagen, and BMW to the Third Reich. According to the book, Germany's biggest automakers are still controlled by families that profited from Nazi rule. Some of their holdings include American brands ranging from Panera Bread to Krispy Kreme, in addition to luxury hotels across Europe. 'Businesses and many families in Germany were never really de-Nazified,' de Jong said at the time, adding that companies are only transparent when they are no longer controlled by the families of former Nazi collaborators.
Russia Today
08-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
German companies assume responsibility for Nazi rise to power
Dozens of Germany's most prominent enterprises have assumed responsibility for allowing Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler to rise to power. In a letter published in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the corporations, including Siemens, Uniper and Volkswagen, have admitted that their forebearers' greed and silence contributed to Nazi crimes. 'The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 would have been unthinkable without the failure of the decision-makers of the time in politics, the military, the judiciary, and the economy,' said the collective statement marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the WWII in Europe. Many German companies 'contributed to consolidating the Nazi rule' and were 'complicit' in the Third Reich's crimes as they were solely driven by the desire to make profit, the document added. The list of signatories included a total of 49 brands, including Adidas, Bayer and BMW, as well as several major German banks, the national railway operator Deutsche Bahn, and the Lufthansa airlines. The companies stopped short of taking direct responsibility for the crimes of their predecessors and said instead that they 'assume responsibility for making the memory of the crimes of the Nazi era visible.' 'In 1933 and beyond, too many remained silent, looked away,' the companies said, adding that this past silence 'imposes responsibility… for the past, the present and the future' upon them. The enterprises then vowed to 'stand against hatred, against exclusion, and against anti-Semitism' and called for the 'achievements' made by the EU after the end of the Cold War to be protected. The murky Nazi-era history of the biggest German corporations and families that largely control them has repeatedly appeared in the media. Back in 2022, former Bloomberg journalist David de Jong released a book titled 'Nazi Billionaires', which detailed the ties of companies such as Porsche, Volkswagen, and BMW to the Third Reich. According to the book, Germany's biggest automakers are still controlled by families that profited from Nazi rule. Some of their holdings include American brands ranging from Panera Bread to Krispy Kreme, in addition to luxury hotels across Europe. 'Businesses and many families in Germany were never really de-Nazified,' de Jong said at the time, adding that companies are only transparent when they are no longer controlled by family of former Nazi collaborators.
Russia Today
08-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Poland drops demand for WW2 compensation from Germany
Poland will no longer demand reparations from Berlin for the crimes committed by the Nazis in the country during the Second World War, the country's prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Wednesday after talks with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Warsaw. Calls for Germany to pay compensation resumed under the previous Polish government led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ruled the country between 2015 and 2023. In 2022, Warsaw estimated that Berlin would need to pay 6.2 trillion Polish zloty (around $1.5 trillion) for the damages inflicted by the Nazi occupation. When addressed on the issue during his joint press conference with Merz, Tusk replied by saying: 'Has Germany ever compensated for the losses, the tragedy of the Second World War in Poland? No, of course not.' 'I am a historian… I could talk for hours about what this bill looks like. It was never repaid, but we will not be asking for it,' he stressed. Merz also insisted that 'the legal issues related to possible reparations have been resolved.' However, he added that 'this does not mean that we cannot talk about joint projects and common ideas about how we see a future together.' Ties between the two EU nations had been strained under previous German Chancellor Olaf Scholz due to disagreements on reparations, migration and other issues. Despite acknowledging responsibility for the Nazi crimes, Germany had refused to pay reparations to Poland, arguing that the matter was resolved when Warsaw waived its right to restitution in 1953 under a deal with East Germany. According to Berlin, the compensation issue was definitively settled by the 1990 treaty on German reunification. The German invasion of Poland in 1939 marked the beginning of the Second World War. The country remained under Nazi occupation throughout the conflict, being liberated in 1945 by the Soviet Army and local forces.
