German auto giant recognises its Nazi past

Study of Continental’s past loyalty to Hitler’s regime is ‘an opportunity to face up to our responsibility’

CONTINENTAL, the German car parts supplier and tyre manufacturer, was a “pillar of the Nazi war economy” and made extensive use of concentration camp slave labour, a study has found.

Inmates at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp were forced to run 11 hours a day in snow and ice to test Continental’s rubber-soled shoes. Those who fell were shot and many were worked to death.

Continental also used female concentration camp prisoners who were forced to manufacture gas masks amid toxic fumes in temperatures in excess of 35C (95F) for 12 hours a day.

These are among the findings of an unflinching study commissioned by Continental into the company’s own history during the Third Reich.

“For a long time, Continental avoided a real analysis of its role in the Nazi era,” said Prof Paul Erker, of Munich University. And it is one of the last, “but by no means the last”, major German companies to face up to their “history during the Nazi era”.

Prof Erker spent four years studying Continental’s company archives to produce the detailed 850-page study.

Among his findings is that Continental, today one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, was a “backbone” of the Nazi war economy.

“Continental was one of the Third Reich’s most important suppliers of car and aircraft tyres and tank tracks,” he writes. Continental was one of the first big German companies to embrace the Nazi regime in 1933.

Willy Tischbein, chief executive at the time, pledged Continental’s support for the Führer. Swastika banners were hung at the company headquarters, board members and middle management were ordered to join the Nazi Party and Jewish staff were purged. During the latter years of the Second World War, Continental began to use forced and slave labour.

The study also examined four other companies that were independent at the time but have since been taken over by Continental. In the case of one, Teves, Prof Erker found evidence of resistance to the Nazi regime. Alfred Teves, its founder, protected Jewish workers and employees who were members of opposition groups.

Elmar Degenhart, Continental’s chief executive, said: “We commissioned the study to gain more clarity about our darkest chapter. The study is a consciously chosen opportunity for us to face up to our responsibility and create a better future.