Buzz
Several businesses that backed the Nazis before and during World War II are still active today. Although many such companies exist, each remains a significant entity both within and outside Germany. Some played a role in the war by producing weapons and equipment, while others profited from forced labor.
While these corporations assisted the Nazis in various ways, not all acted voluntarily. Many were coerced into compliance, a factor that should be weighed when evaluating their actions during WWII. However, those that exploited slave labor undeniably crossed a moral boundary.
Listed alphabetically, these ten companies, which supported the Nazis in different capacities, are still in operation today.
10. Associated Press
The Associated Press, a symbol of journalistic integrity today, had a controversial role in the years leading up to WWII, as it supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In the 1930s, the AP struck a deal with the Nazis to remain operational in Germany, becoming the only major news agency allowed to report from Hitler’s Third Reich after others were expelled.
To retain its access, the AP formed a cooperative relationship with the Nazis, agreeing to avoid publishing any critical content about the regime. This included hiring reporters sympathetic to the Nazis and disseminating their propaganda, some of which targeted Jews with harmful and false accusations.
When the AP’s wartime activities were exposed, a spokesperson stated to The Guardian, “AP denies any claims of intentional ‘collaboration’ with the Nazi regime. The reality is that the AP, along with other foreign news organizations, faced severe pressure from the Nazi regime from 1932, when Hitler rose to power, until the AP was expelled from Germany in 1941.”
9. Audi
Audi, renowned globally as a premier German luxury car manufacturer, has a dark history. During WWII, operating as Auto Union, the company collaborated with the SS to utilize concentration camp prisoners for production. A 2014 report revealed that Audi exploited over 3,700 enslaved workers from seven SS-operated labor camps.
Beyond exploiting concentration camp prisoners, Audi also utilized an additional 16,500 forced laborers from Zwickau and Chemnitz who were not taken from camps. In Bavaria, another 18,000 workers were employed, with approximately 4,500 losing their lives while working for the company. During WWII, nearly 20% of Audi’s workforce consisted of concentration camp inmates, most of whom were Jewish.
Furthermore, individuals deemed disabled or unfit for work were sent to concentration camps and executed. In response to these revelations, Audi acknowledged that its current leadership was unaware of the full scope of its past. The company established a fund in the early 2000s to provide compensation to Nazi-era forced laborers and their descendants.
8. Bayer
Bayer, now a global leader in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, has a starkly different history from its modern operations. During the 1930s and 1940s, Bayer was part of the IG Farben conglomerate, which actively supported the Nazi regime. With ethical and legal constraints removed by the Nazis, Bayer conducted drug experiments on unwilling subjects in Dachau, Gusen, and Auschwitz concentration camps.
Throughout much of the war, Bayer operated a chemical factory in Auschwitz, where human experiments were conducted at the Birkenau women’s camp hospital. Bayer scientists deliberately infected patients with diseases like diphtheria and tuberculosis. In addition to these unethical practices, the company also employed over 25,000 forced laborers.
Bayer’s role in the Holocaust was revealed in 1999 after a lawsuit implicated the company. The legal action alleged that Bayer officials bribed Nazis to secure access to concentration camp prisoners for inhumane medical experiments. The lawsuit named figures like Dr. Koenig and Dr. Mengele as beneficiaries, linking Bayer to the infamous “Angel of Death” and the atrocities committed by Nazi collaborators.
7. Chase National Bank
Today, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., stands as one of the largest global consumer and commercial banks. However, before WWII, Chase National Bank engaged in dealings with the Nazis through a program involving the sale of a special currency called the Rückwanderer (Reborrowing). Chase sold these to German-American citizens, though the transactions were far from transparent.
The Nazis utilized Chase to sell Rückwanderers to Americans at reduced rates, funded by currency confiscated from Jews and refugees escaping Nazi persecution. Chase’s involvement helped the Nazi regime accumulate over $20 million ($427 million in 2024), and this was just one of several controversies surrounding the bank.
Chase further assisted the Nazis by preventing the French from accessing their U.S. accounts, enabling the Third Reich to evade American sanctions. Additionally, the head of Chase’s Paris branch actively obstructed Jewish access to funds and property, aiding the Nazis. These actions were uncovered when the FBI declassified records detailing Chase’s activities during WWII.
6. Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank (DB) stands as one of the globe's foremost commercial banks, serving as a key financial steward for Germany. During the tumultuous era leading up to and throughout WWII, DB played a crucial role in aiding the Nazis to maneuver through international sanctions and military expenditures. The bank was deeply entwined with the Nazi regime, purging all Jewish employees from its ranks. Among its wartime activities, DB was complicit in confiscating Jewish properties and transferring them to the Nazis.
As Nazi influence expanded across Europe, DB capitalized on the situation by commandeering banks in nations such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Poland. Moreover, the bank was instrumental in laundering gold looted from European Jews, thereby financing the Nazi military campaigns. The extent of DB's wartime atrocities gained global scrutiny during its attempted merger with an American corporation.
Upon the exposure of these actions, Rolf-Ernst Breuer, the bank's chairman at the time, expressed profound remorse, stating, 'We deeply regret the suffering and injustices inflicted and... we recognize the bank's ethical and moral obligations.' A particularly egregious act by Deutsche Bank was its provision of loans to the Nazis, funded by stolen Jewish gold, for the construction of the IG Farben plants and the Auschwitz concentration camp.
5. Ford & General Motors
General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor Co., both American corporations, are often not associated with malicious activities during WWII. While they produced military equipment for the U.S., their overseas subsidiaries dominated 70% of Germany's auto market by 1939.
These subsidiaries mirrored their parent companies' actions but aligned with the Nazi war machine. They retooled factories to manufacture war materials and exploited a vast slave labor force, predominantly Jewish, to operate their facilities.
Opal, a GM subsidiary, manufactured trucks and aircraft for the Nazis. Post-liberation, U.S. Army reports revealed Ford's German operations as a key supplier of military vehicles to the Nazis, implicating the parent company in complicity. Both GM and Ford claimed they lost control of their German plants in 1941, denying any responsibility.
4. IBM
IBM, an American tech giant, pioneered early computers during WWII, utilizing punch card technology. In 1933, IBM supplied the Nazis with 2,000 punch card machines, which were instrumental in creating 1.5 billion index cards for the regime.
This represented a groundbreaking application of early computing technology, but the Nazis employed it for a sinister purpose. Rather than tracking military supplies, IBM computers were used to generate cards that meticulously documented the enslavement and execution of Holocaust victims. These cards monitored Jews and other marginalized groups across Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe, enhancing the efficiency of the Nazi genocide machine.
IBM found itself both directly and indirectly complicit in the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population. The Nazis relied on IBM's so-called 'Death Calculators' to calculate how many Jews could be removed from ghettos daily for transport to concentration camps. IBM's Polish subsidiary, Watson Business Machines, played a role in the liquidation of Poland's Jewish community, leaving the company deeply implicated in these atrocities.
3. Volkswagen
While many are aware that Volkswagen designed the VW Beetle for Hitler, the company's contributions to the Nazi war effort extended far beyond this. As the war began, Volkswagen shifted its focus to military production, a common practice at the time. However, its actions during WWII went beyond mere war production, crossing numerous ethical boundaries.
The opening of Volkswagen's Fallersleben plant coincided with the outbreak of war, leading to the manufacture of various military vehicles. VW also produced the V-1 flying bomb, making its factory a prime target for Allied forces. Compounding this, Volkswagen relied heavily on slave labor, with forced workers comprising around 70% of its workforce, numbering in the thousands, to produce its vehicles and weapons.
The laborers were provided by the Schutzstaffel (SS) from nearby concentration camps, enduring inhumane living conditions. Investigations revealed that the company allowed infants to perish under horrific circumstances during WWII. In 1998, Volkswagen established a $12 million reparations fund (equivalent to $23 million in 2024) to compensate victims of its wartime actions.
2. Porsche
Although Porsche officially became a company in 1950, its origins trace back to its founder, Ferdinand Porsche, who designed vehicles for Hitler before WWII. When the war began, Porsche shifted its focus to producing tanks and off-road vehicles for the German military.
Porsche's wartime success stemmed from Hitler's admiration for Ferdinand Porsche and the company's reliance on slave labor. Enslaved workers, forced to live in squalid, rat-infested conditions with little food, were used to manufacture cars, trucks, and tanks.
Porsche amassed significant profits during this period, laying the foundation for its global reputation. However, the forced laborers who suffered and died in its factories received little compensation after the war. While Porsche contributed €2.5 million to a German reparations fund, it has never fully acknowledged its role in the Holocaust. Ferdinand Porsche avoided prosecution, but his legacy remains tarnished by his wartime actions.
1. Mercedes-Benz
During WWII, Germany relied on numerous manufacturers to support its war efforts, and Mercedes-Benz, then known as Daimler-Benz AG, was among them. The company collaborated closely with the Nazi regime, with several Nazis on its board. Once the war began, Daimler-Benz emerged as a key producer of armaments for the Nazis. While this alignment was somewhat expected, the methods of production raised significant ethical concerns.
To meet the demands of the Nazi war machine, Daimler-Benz, like many other companies, exploited a vast workforce of enslaved laborers. These individuals were primarily Jews, along with prisoners of war and other groups persecuted by the Nazis. Daimler-Benz even 'leased' its enslaved workers to other firms for profit, actively participating in the Nazi slave trade.
After the war, Daimler-Benz openly acknowledged its role in Nazi activities and joined the 'Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future' initiative. In 1988, the company contributed $12 million to a fund managed by the West German Red Cross, aimed at providing reparations to former slaves and their families.
