https://finance.yahoo.com/news/german-family-11m-hearing-extent-122037169.html
German family to give $11M after hearing extent of Nazi past [Associated Press] David Rising, Associated Press Associated PressMarch 24, 2019
BERLIN (AP) -- One of Germany's richest families, whose company owns a controlling interest in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Panera Bread, Pret a Manger and other well-known businesses, plans to donate millions to charity after learning about their ancestors' enthusiastic support of Adolf Hitler and use of forced laborers under the Nazis, according to a report Sunday.
In a four-page report, the Bild newspaper reported that documents uncovered in Germany, France and the U.S. reveal that Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr. used Russian civilians and French POWs as forced laborers.
Family spokesman Peter Harf, who is one of two managing partners of the Reimann's JAB Holding Company, said recent internal research confirmed Bild's findings.
"It is all correct," he told the newspaper. "Reimann senior and Reimann junior were guilty ... they belonged in jail."
The father and son, who died in 1954 and 1984, did not talk about the Nazi era and the family had thought that all of the company's connection to the Nazis had been revealed in a 1978 report, Harf said.
But after reading documents kept by the family, the younger generation began to ask questions and commissioned a University of Munich historian in 2014 to examine the Reimann history more thoroughly, Harf said.
The expert presented his preliminary findings to the Reimann children and grandchildren, as well as Hanf, several weeks ago, he said.
"We were all ashamed and turned as white as the wall," he said. "There is nothing to gloss over. These crimes are disgusting."
In addition al Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Pret a Manger, the Luxembourg-based JAB Holding Co. has controlling stakes in Keurig Green Mountain, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee Co., Panera Bread and other companies.
Many German companies have acknowledged using slave laborers during the Nazi era and have conducted their own independent investigations.
In 2000, the German government approved a 10 billion mark (about 5.1 billion euro) fund to provide compensation, with half the money coming from companies like Bayer, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen, and AEG.
Bild reported that even before the Nazis came to power, the Reimanns donated to the paramilitary SS.
During World War II, the company used forced laborers in its industrial chemicals company. It was not clear how many were used overall, but Bild said in 1943, 175 forced laborers were being used, about 30 percent of its workforce.
In addition to Russian and other Eastern European civilians, the company used French prisoners of war — about whom Reimann Jr. complained in a letter to the Ludwigshafen mayor in 1940 that they weren't working hard enough.
After the war, the two were investigated by the occupying Allied powers and initially banned by the French from continuing their business activities but then had the judgment overturned by the Americans, Bild reported.
Harf said the family would donate 10 million euros ($11.3 million) to a not-yet-determined charity as a gesture, and once the historian's report is complete, it would be released to the public.
"The whole truth must be put on the table," he said.
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How dare you, JL !
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How far back can we guilt people?
I need reparations from the Romans....8^)
This is a really complex topic to me. I get the sentiment. And point blank, if you have the $ and feel disturbed by things your family or business (both in this case) did to people in the past... Investing in that group some how may be of benefit. Maybe.
Gflight said something important. How far back? People may do something evil at a point in history, and while one could, with the power of history, look back and say "you should have known better"... You dont really know that. What's normal in a given time frame, even if it's evil, is still viewed as normal - at that moment that population is not developmentally ready to see the issue. Literally can not see it. You can explain it, but if they are not developmentally ready, it wont matter.
So do private people or governments need to "pay" reparations (basically what this is) for things done 30-40-100 + years ago? At what point do we slide from direct liability to acknowledging there are to many forces at play to be able to literally "pay off" the sins of the past.
I mean, in this case, whatever. It is the family's money, they feel its what they want to do, so cool. Go for it.
But if it was the government, that would start to seem odd or out of sorts to me.
That said, any craving in my brain to eat a donut has possibly been permanently removed thanks to that calendar...
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To The Top Tuesday, 'cause I know all you CF'ers want another glimpse of my "rodeo girls."
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For the normal human , Morality is innate. We have to learn to discriminate and abuse our fellow man. We have to be willing to accept what runs counter to our gut feeling of what is right.
Unfortunately, most of our species are cowardly and subdue those feelings for the perceived necessity of self preservation.
If you don't believe that , ask yourself if you would kill one " innocent " person to save 2 others. 3 , 4 , 5 ? How many would justify murder? If you struggle with the number at which you would act, you are moral. Innately. Because logic starts at 2 for 1.
Should we repay past injustice ? Yes. Where is the cutoff ? When the heart tells the mind that, that is not related to this. Do we make reparations for past injustice already? Yes we do . We are paying for those who have been kept down or otherwise burdened with a disadvantage already , through social programs and Laws that protect the well being of our people and we extend those practices into the world as best that we can.
Should the German Family pay what is a burden in their heart? Absolutely and God bless them for it. Should they be forced to ? No. We don't need to regulate morality. Only Immorality.
