On its 100th anniversary in March 2016, the German automaker BMW issued an apology for its involvement in World War II and expressed its “deep regret” for providing Nazis with vehicles and employing slave labor.
On March 16, 1916, the Bavarian Motor Works, also known as Bayerische Motoren Werke, was established in Munich. BMW created the engines for Nazi fighter aircraft like the Focke Wulf FW190 during World War II. The high-performance BMW engines, which replaced the original Mercedes engine, gave German aircraft an aerial advantage over the British and French.
The business claimed that during the National Socialist era of the 1930s and 1940s, BMW AG only served as a supplier to the German arms industry. Forced workers, criminals, and prisoners from concentration camps were hired to help with the production of BMW aero engines as demand escalated.
According to the business, BMW “with the release of a book titled “BMW – A German History,” became the first industrial company to start a public discussion on this period of its history. BMW joined the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” foundation, which was established in 1999 to provide compensation to former forced laborers.
The Quandt family, who acquired a controlling stake in BMW after the war, further taints the company’s past. Following the publication of a study it had commissioned from historian Joachim Scholtyseck, the Quandt family admitted involvement in Nazi crimes in 2011. The study showed that Gunther Quandt and his son Herbert were responsible for using slave labor, acquiring Jewish businesses, and doing business with the highest levels of the Nazi party.
Gunther Quandt acquired the bulk of the stock in AFA, a business that made batteries for the German military, in 1923. In 1933, he joined the Nazi Party, and four years later, Hitler gave him the role of Wehrwirtschaftsfuhrer, or head of the armed economy.
By using the Nazi effort to “Aryanize” Jewish-owned businesses, Gunther was able to purchase businesses. He then employed an estimated 50,000 slave laborers in his factories that made weapons such ammunition, rifles, artillery, and U-boat batteries. Herbert served as the director of an AFA subsidiary in Berlin that employed Polish women who had been relocated from Auschwitz as well as other female slave laborers.
the author Ray Massey “German automaker BMW apologizes for its involvement in the Second World War and expresses “deep regret” for giving the Nazis automobiles and exploiting slave labor, according to the Daily Mail.
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BMW, a German automaker, acknowledged on Monday that it had “deep regret” for the “enormous suffering” that it had contributed to during World War II by utilizing Nazi slave labor.
BMW AG worked exclusively as a supplier to the German arms industry under the National Socialist dictatorship of the 1930s and 1940s, according to the manufacturer, which made the regretful admission at a celebration in Munich commemorating the illustrious automaker’s 100th birthday.
BMW used Nazi slave labor to provide airplane and motorbike parts for the Nazi war effort during World War II.
Gunther Quandt, the owner of BMW, and his son Herbert reportedly made friends with Hitler and benefited from the Holocaust by receiving enterprises that had been taken from Jews who had been transported to death camps.
“Forced laborers, criminals, and prisoners from concentration camps were hired to help with the production of BMW aviation engines as demand rose. It is still really regrettable how much pain this resulted in and how many people were forced to work “The automaker, whose business name is Bayerische Motoren Werke, or Bavarian Motor Works, said.
Officials claimed that they are continuing efforts that were started in 1983 to confront the organization’s troubled background.
According to a statement from the firm, “BMW AG became the first industrial corporation to launch a public discourse about this chapter of its history with the release of a book entitled “BMW – Eine Deutsche Geschichte (BMW – A German History)”.
The BMW Group has aggressively promoted tolerance, respect, and understanding of other cultures ever since the 1990s.