Rich German family gives millions to help survivors of Holocaust

One of Germany’s richest families is giving millions to support Holocaust survivors with critical needs as it seeks to atone for its use of forced labour during the Nazi era and its enthusiastic support of Adolf Hitler.

The Reimann family owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and other international brands.

Its JAB Investors company announced that €5 million (£4.2m) will go to the Jewish Claims Conference in New York to distribute to elderly Holocaust survivors around the world.

Another €5m is going towards finding and supporting the forced labourers used by its predecessor under the Nazis.

An additional €25m will be provided annually to Holocaust education and promoting democratic values to fight the rise of populist nationalism.

The family established the Alfred Landecker Foundation in Berlin to oversee the efforts, named after a German Jew who was killed by the Nazis and – remarkably – whose grandchildren have a combined 45 per cent stake in JAB.

“To confront this was quite an emotional wake-up call for the family,” David Kamenetzky, board chairman of both the foundation and JAB Investors, said.

The €5m dedicated to the Claims Conference’s existing emergency assistance programme will be distributed through some 200 welfare agencies over the next three years, said Greg Schneider, executive vice-president of the conference.

“It will have a huge impact on the lives of the poorest Holocaust survivors around the world,” Mr Schneider said.

This year, some 10,500 survivors, average age 83, were helped through short-term financial crises by the programme in 34 countries.

The additional funding will allow for increased payments, or some 3,000 more survivors to receive assistance, with the Claims Conference and partner agencies taking on the administrative costs themselves.

The announcement comes after the Reimann family earlier this year released initial details from a report it had commissioned on its own Nazi past.

Luxembourg-based JAB, worth some €20 billion, grew out of Benckiser, an industrial chemicals company run by Albert Reimann Sr and Albert Reimann Jr, both Nazi Party members who died in 1954 and 1984 respectively.

Today, in addition to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Pret A Manger, the conglomerate has controlling stakes in the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Keurig Green Mountain, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee Co, Panera Bread and other companies.