US automobile giant Ford apparently resorted to the use of forced labourers from the Auschwitz death camp. This emerges from a document revealed in Poland at the weekend. The company denies any connection with Auschwitz, although it admits that its branch in Cologne employed forced labourers.
The Nazi document in question had hitherto been held in the Russian State archives in Moscow, where some papers were taken from Auschwitz after the camp was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. The document lists more than 400 companies that had some connection with the Auschwitz camps complex, but does not specify the nature of the link.
The Auschwitz Museum director said at the weekend that the link between Ford and Auschwitz may have taken any of a number of forms: use of forced labourers, supply of products by the company or mere correspondence. However, according to the BBC, the document clearly indicates that Ford used prisoners from Auschwitz as forced labourers.
Ford recently admitted to using forced labourers in its plants in Cologne, but reiterated the claim that it had no control over what was done in plants in Germany after war was declared between Germany and the United States. The company denies any link with the Auschwitz camps complex.
IG Farben announced this weekend that it was setting up a 3 million mark fund for the compensation of forced labourers used by it mainly in the Auschwitz complex. IG Farben was the manufacturer of the Zyklon B gas that was used in the gas chambers, and used more than 83,000 forced and slave labourers, mainly in the Auschwitz complex.
Published by Israel's Business Arena August 22, 1999