October 27, 2005
A book presented on Wednesday in Munich by German carmaker BMW details how the company became part of the Nazi dictatorship. BMW employed large numbers of forced laborers and concentration camp inmates in its factories during the World War II. The book, written by an independent historian, is part of BMW's effort to face up with a dark chapter of its past. Seven years ago, the company led efforts by German industry to set up a compensation and remembrance fund which since has paid out around US$ 5 billion to former slave and forced laborers. BMW and MTU, the aircraft engine company that grew out of the former BMW aero-engine arm, jointly commissioned the historian Constanze Werner, to study the corporate record during the Nazi era. Her book "War Economy and Forced Labor" describes the process by which BMW got increasingly involved with the Nazi regime and its crimes.
