I saw on Dateline lastnight that VW AG, Audi's parent company, was dreamt up by Hitler and used to create many of the German military vehicles in WWII. According to the report, millions of Jews were inslaved in the VW factories, and even tortured and killed inside the factories. VW AG has even set up a 12 million dollar "I'm sorry" fund for the Jews that were inslaved in these factories. Any comments?<p>John

This was brought up a few months ago. This summer a lawsuit was brought against VW by one of the former "workers" (slave). I believe most other German automakers were named in the suit also, but VW was the main company named because this was the factory where this person was forced to work.<p>I really don't have any comments about the whole thing, it happened about the time my father was born. And we have no idea what the envioronment was like then. Did VW and other manufactures willingly take the slave labor? If they refused would they be shot and killed? We have no way of knowing. <p>Matt<p>

Audi (Auto Union, etc.) strode this Earth long before VW bought it. This purchase occured long after Adolf and Eva had their underground barbecue in the face of the advancing Allies.<p>The recrimination of VW for alleged crimes against humanity is par for the course in today's victim-obssessed culture. It's a no-win situation for a company who is pinned by the media with the sins of its officers from a half-century earlier. VW may feel some sense of remorse for crimes committed in complicity with the Nazis, but the cold fact is that it's less expensive to set up the compensation fund than to battle for its reputation. It's a little like settling out of court.<p>Should Mitsubishi pay reparations for the havoc it's war wachines brought to China and the Pacific?

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(the following is a synopsis of a book I read that was published about 30 years ago called Small Wonder)<br>*****************<br>VW was actually dreamt up by Ferdinand Porsche(father of the guy who started the sports car company and grandfather to the current head of VW) but Hitler very much liked the idea. VW as a company didn't even really exist until after WWII. The Wolfsburg factory was built before WWII(barely) but production of the Beetle was put on hold due to the war. The factory was essentially government owned and VW was a socialistic venture. <p>Porsche was, to some degree, in charge and was forced to both accept slave laborers and to produce military vehicles. Porsche actually lobbied Hitler for better treatment of the slave laborers. His reasoning was that if they weren't reasonably healthy, they wouldn't be productive. They were probably better off than they would have been in other places. Some of them even stayed and worked in the plant after liberation. <br>******************<br>I'm not sure how true this book's portrayal of the actual events is, but I didn't see any reason why the author should have been biased one way or the other. I do believe that any survivors should be compensated but the question is by who or what company? VW(not even known as Volkswagen) was essentially government owned at the time all this happened. This is well documented and it's also well documented how VW started after liberation. The US Army offered to give the plant to either Rover or Ford niether of whom wanted it. The US Army then found a person who had been an executive at some German company to try and build VW into something.<p>The gist of all this is that VW, while culpable, seems less so than companies like MB and BMW who were full-fledged companies at the start of the war. VW is probably named because of their size.<p>Of course, there's also a lawyer involved who stands to make a lot of money.

When I brought this up several weeks ago, I was hounded! Although I still dislike the fact that I like and own products from a company that once was involved with Nazis, what am I going to do about it?<p>-henri

If you want to be PC, consider how many American companies you buy products from that were founded by Slave Owners. Or can we not buy Italian cars because of what the Roman Empire did? What's the statute of limitiations on these things?

<br>$0.02,<br>-K.

(nt)

<br>Give it up, yes the Beetle was created by Hitler. I still see plenty around. History is for lessons learned, not avoiding the present by living in the past. You can't accuse a son of his father's crimes. VW may have some monetary liability as a corporation, but other than that it has no relevance to the company as it operates today. I would be interested to see whether they can be held accountable today for something that was sanctioned by the state at the time.<p>To imply that VW is in any way the same kind of company as it was back then is to say that no German has gotten past that era and moved on. Corporations embody liability, not evil. People are good or evil, corporations are groupings of people and people change.

The attorney is the same one that got the big money from the Swiss banks, he mage HUGE $$$ for that one and has now found another target. How much do you think the real victims stand to gain after this guy gets his fee. Maybe Africa will sue the cotton and tabacco companies for stealing its best and brightest. This is all about one attorney and the $$$ he stands to make.

Some historians have estimated that well over a million slaves probably died in the slave trade. The Dateline show is typical of the crap journalism on today. They just love to keep beating the same horses over and over. I don't even like to watch mainstream TV anymore. What ever happened to real journalism? They replaced old Walter and his likes with a bunch of idiots.

No way possible. VW was created by Hitler using the resources of Audi to build an economical car for the masses which wouldn't burn the precious and scarce resources of post WW-1 Germany.<p>Remember your politics of post WW-1 Germany and the Facist state's hatred of unions. Auto Union? I know this union is the fusion of several auto makers but just the name alone would not have been the product of Adolph Hitler.