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Business Pioneers that Had Quite the Disturbing Background

Khalid Elhassan December 8, 2021 36 min

Coco Chanel, circa 1960. Encyclopedia Britannica

Business Facts - Slave workers at a BMW plant in WWII — Slave workers at a BMW plant in WWII. Sara’s Children

9. A Business Empire That Profited Greatly From the Third Reich

Research on BMW’s Nazi-era history led to a 1200-page report, which concluded that “[t]he Quandts were linked inseparably with the crimes of the Nazis … The family patriarch was part of the regime“. Among other things, the Quandts profited from the Nazis’ “Aryanization Program”, which confiscated Jewish property and turned it over to Germans approved by the new regime. BMW’s owners took advantage of their friendship with Hitler and their excellent Nazi connections and took over dozens of businesses that were seized from Jews and handed over to the Quandts.

So instrumental was BMW and the Quandts to the Third Reich’s military that Hitler Named Gunther Quandt a Wehrwirtschaftsführer, or “Leader of the Defense Economy”. In WWII, at least 50,000 slave workers from concentration camps toiled in BMW and Quandt family enterprises to manufacture weapons and fulfill armaments contracts. Many of the slave laborers died from the inhumane work conditions. Some from avoidable accidents, some from neglect, some were starved, and others were executed for workplace infractions.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.