Two historians have investigated the role of the biscuit manufacturer Bahlsen during the Nazi era. Now the family is commenting on the results.
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To produce biscuits and other foodstuffs during the Second World War, the family-run company Bahlsen used far more forced laborers from Poland and Ukraine than previously known. This is the key finding of a historian’s report presented on Tuesday. “If we count everyone who was a forced laborer at Bahlsen during the war years, we get several times more,” study author and historian Manfred Grieger from the University of Göttingen told “Capital”. Previously, the range of 200 to 250 forced laborers was often mentioned, but according to Grieger, 785 workers are known by name today.
The Bahlsen family had to be made aware of this truth. “We were not aware of many details of the company’s history and the truth is that we did not ask. As a family, we did not ask the obvious question of how our company was able to survive the Second World War.” This is how the Bahlsens commented on the results of the investigation in a press release.
The story that everyone in the Bahlsen family wanted to believe
For decades, the family had said that they had done nothing wrong by using forced labor. In 2019, company heiress Verena Bahlsen caused a storm of indignation when she said: “We paid the forced laborers the same as the Germans and treated them well.” The Bahlsens subsequently apologized and commissioned historians Manfred Grieger and Hartmut Berghoff to investigate what the situation was really like with the forced laborers and the Nazi involvement. They opened their archives to the scientists for this purpose. The two historians talk in detail about their findings in an interview with “Capital”. Their report “The History of the Bahlsen Company. Biscuits – War – Consumption 1911-1974” will be published on August 21.
“The research results show that our ancestors and the people who were active at the time took advantage of the system during the Nazi era. Their main motivation seemed to be to continue running the company under the Nazi regime, which had dire consequences,” says the Bahlsen family in a statement. “The truth about what happened at the time is uncomfortable and painful.” The company wants to promote a living culture of remembrance, including with a traveling exhibition on the subject of forced labor.
In the 1990s, some forced laborers sued Bahlsen. At the time, however, the court ruled that the claims were time-barred. In 2000 and 2001, the company transferred 1.5 million D-Marks to the German business foundation initiative, which used the money to compensate forced laborers. “This is disproportionate to the suffering of these people. Now it is too late; Germany has failed here,” says historian Berghoff.
Source: Stern
