Nazi Allies: Nestlé and Dr. Oetker and Their Involvement in the War

After talking about the involvement of giants like Ford and IBM with the Nazis, we here at Mega Curious today will reveal to you a little about the lucrative relationship between two major food companies and the Third Reich: Nestlé and to Dr. Oetker.

We recall that they were not the only companies in this industry to profit from Adolf Hitler: as we commented in a previous article on Nazi Allies (which you can check here), Germany was Coca-Cola's largest consumer outside the US when World War II began.

However, when the Americans joined the conflict, the Atlanta headquarters suspended the shipment of ingredients to the German subsidiary. To circumvent the situation - and continue to quench the thirst of the avid Germans and fill their pockets with money - the branch solved the problem by developing a new refreshment: Fanta. Now, how about we go with the chocolates and cake mixes?

The bitter side of chocolate

The Germans were not just fans of soft drinks, but also of chocolate, and Nestlé made a lot of money during the war - and with the Third Reich. According to the staff of Business Pundit, in 1939, the food maker financially helped the Nazi Party in Switzerland, which eventually earned her a lucrative chocolate supply contract for Germany.

During World War II, the Swiss company maintained a close relationship with several Third Reich bigwigs, including Adolf Hitler himself. Thus, the manufacturer, which already had subsidiaries in Nazi-occupied countries, began to take advantage of the possibility of using forced labor on its production lines.

In addition, in 1947, Nestlé acquired a factory in Germany - Maggi - in which it not only employed thousands of POWs in the production of its products, but kept track of everything that was happening and did nothing about it. . There are even rumors that the company would have used candy bars to lure Jews to the wagons that transported them to concentration camps.

According to an article in The Independent news portal, a few years ago the Swiss group's head office publicly assumed moral responsibility for wartime activities and made a settlement with Holocaust survivors and Jewish organizations, paying compensation of 25 million Swiss francs ( or about R $ 73 million). In addition, Nestlé stated that it expected subsidiaries operating in Germany and Austria to make voluntary donations.

Dr. Oetker

The famous company of cake mixes, desserts and other food products was also involved with the Nazis. Founded in Germany in 1891, according to the DW portal, Dr. Oetker maintained close ties with the Third Reich before, during and after World War II, and who revealed it was the company's current president, August Oetker, great-grandson. of the founder of the company.

Dr. Oetker's own commissioned investigations into her own past revealed that Rudolf-August Oetker, father of the company's current president and chief executive officer from 1944 to 1981, was not only affiliated with the Nazi Party but donated real fortunes to the Schutzstaffel leader - or SS -, Heinrich Himmler.

August and Rudolf Oetker

According to Dr. Oetker's findings, in addition to joining the Nazi Party, Rudolf voluntarily joined the Waffen-SS - a Schutzstaffel arm - in 1941 and provided armed guards to the concentration camps. He was probably influenced by Richard Kaselowsky, his stepfather, who was a fervent admirer of Hitler and was in charge of the company before Rudolf took control.

According to the staff at The Local, according to the analysis of company documents, it also emerged that Dr. Oetker, like many other companies of the time, employed slave labor and that Rudolf evidently knew everything. .

The information that was raised during the investigations was revealed to the public in 2013 and turned into a book titled “Dr. Oetker and National Socialism ”- or“ Dr. Oetker and National Socialism ”, written by German historians and funded by the company.

Check out other stories about Nazi Allies:

  • Nazi Allies: See who contributed and profited from the horrors of war
  • Nazi Allies: IBM and its involvement with the “Final Solution”
  • Nazi Allies: IG Farben and its "Chemical" Relationship with Evil
  • Nazi Allies: Ford and the anti-Semitic ideas that inspired Hitler
  • Nazi Allies: the Beetle and its emergence thanks to Adolf Hitler