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by Answer Rabbit on April 19th, 2006

Answer Rabbit

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I have heard that the Mercedes-Benz company was involved with the Nazis during WWII. Is this true, and did Mercedes have to make any type of amends?

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Answers. 7 helpful answers below.

  • by Glenn Blaylock on April 19th, 2006

    Glenn Blaylock

    Most, if not all, German companies were involved with the Nazis during that period. That is the nature of despotic regimes. Either you join them or you don't do business. It is a very tough position in which to be put. Either you cooperate or you disappear into the system that is set up to deal with enemies of the state. Because of this I don't condemn the German people or companies in general for what happened during WWII. There really is no point to such condemnations and they would just serve to keep the wounds of that era from healing. I don't praise them either. The people whom I condemn are those that knowingly took part in the atrocities that were committed by that regime. The hunt for them should not stop until we are sure that they have all been caught and/or have died. On the other hand, I will praise people like Oskar Schindler who did everything that they could to protect the innocent and thwart the Nazis.

    Has Mercedes-Benz paid reparations for its involvement, I don't know. Should they? Maybe. Reparations are definitely owed to the survivors of the Holocaust. However, the question of just who owes the reparations is much less clear, especially as those that are actually responsible for the Holocaust are just about all dead. Sooner or later we have to put that part of history behind us and move on.

    Now in writing this, don't think that I want what happened back then forgotten. That is the last thing that I want. If we forget what happened, then we also forget the lessons of that era and are in danger of repeating it. In fact, I think that there are too many people today that have forgotten. I see similar patterns emerging in other parts of the world and marvel at how short our collective memories are. That, however, is a discussion for another question.

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  • by oregon on April 19th, 2006

    oregon

    During the Second World War, Mercedes-Benz is known to have exploited more than 30,000 forced workers and prisoners of war, some of whom would eventually strike, and be sent to concentration camps. This working force soon became essential to the production capacity of the company after 1941, and was a key to the construction of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe and war machine.

    Many people still think they need to make amends. When Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler, there was even an effort to protest Chrysler due to Daimler-Benz's exploitations.

    There is a book written about Mercedes-Benz (then called Daimler-Benz) involvment with the Nazi's during WWII called "Daimler-Benz in the Third Reich". I looked on Amazon.com and it sells for $45.00.

    Here's a link to an academic paper titled "Reflections on Intergenerational Justice". It mentions Daimler Benz's use of slave-labor and discusses how to make amends.

    http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:XOnPKzQ21LgJ:www.ciaonet.org/wps/stj02/stj02.pdf+daimler+benz,+needs+to+make+amends&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=7

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  • by Carpino on August 29th, 2009

    Carpino

    This question is a little more involved than other responders have considered. The question of whether Mercedes was involved with the Nazis, well as another respondant pointed out, all German businesses were involved with the regime, they had to be. However, their involvement was not just suppying cars to Hitler and trucks to the Wehrmacht.

    The entire German motor industry thrived during the war and huge fortunes were made largely on the back of the cheap labour costs afforded to them by taking advantage of concentration camp, slave labour.

    Conditions were generally horrendous, and those on day release from a camp, would be no better treated in the factories, sometimes flogged and beaten and if they died, no one was going to ask any questions. VW recently admitted that their factories had a dying room, where if pregnant slave labourers gave birth, their babies would be put in there and left to die. Oskar Schindler was an exception, that's why he was celebrated.

    The Quandt family (One of germany's richest) who own a large stake in BMW and did since before the war, have always tried to stay out of the limelight, have never admitted their use of slaves, nor joined the German Government's slave labourer's compensation scheme. They were recently subject of a documentary on German television which was aired without prior notice for fear that they would try and stop it from showing,which examined their wartime activities. Members of the family who did comment said things like "We are not responsible for the actions of our fathers" though they are the beneficiaries.

    Other companies who benefitted from slave labour are more surprising. Take the Ford Motor Company for example. Henry Ford had always been a big fan of and friend of Hitler and was awarded the Great Cross of the German Order of the Eagle by him in 1938. Although Ford admit that slaves were used in their factories, they claim they had no control over these factories, though it has been asserted that the US parent company, stayed in control through their operation in neutral Sweden. The biggest indication, is that when Ford officially resumed control of their German factories, key wartime managers kept their jobs. Class action law suits have been filed against Ford in the US.

    The one issue you have to think about is not whether they had no choice in taking slave labour, (but companies then as now usually jump at the cheapest option, which is why we see so much outsourcing nowadays)but how they treated their slave labour once inside their plants. If they behaved inhumanely that was their decision, just as it was Oskar Schindler's decision to do the opposite.

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  • by More2Be on August 29th, 2009

    More2Be

    http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/23/books/books-of-the-times-daimler-benz-and-its-nazi-history.html

    http://www.benzworld.org/forums/general-mercedes-benz/1427769-historically-there-relationship-mercedes-benz-nazi.html

    It would have been hard NOT to support the Nazi regime at the time. There are similarities now. For example, observe how highly profitable Chrysler and GM dealerships are being shut down if they did not contribute to the Obamba campaign. Scary, yes?

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  • by Nada Normal on May 13th, 2008

    Nada Normal

    when operating in a state of war you do what the leadership tells you to do, or else - i don't see anything different with benz that halburton & lockheed are not doing today just that halburton makes 1,000 times as much

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  • by Durden on August 29th, 2009

    Durden

    Man.. if you're being offend of all the company who was involved with nazi, you'll be shocked because many of this company exist these days: Volkwagen (the beatle was a Adolf Hitler commands for a cheap car to the german people), the soft-drink Fanta are the coca-cola of the nazi Germany, IBM have (rumored) sold system to keep the log of prisoners on nazi camp.. so many company involved.. and the end of the war don't stop them to make profits.. this phenomena are not exclusive to Germany but also in Japan, Italy, ...

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  • by Anonymous on November 13th, 2007

    Anonymous

    The $11 million that was supposedly paid (to whom?) is hardly "reparation" for being a crucial aid and support of the murder of FAR MORE THAN 6 million human beings by nazi trash!! What an insult to the victims and to humanity!!!

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