Nazi "Krupp cannon"
Krupp is the largest heavy industry company in Germany, mainly focusing on steel industry. 1933 After the Nazis came to power, Krupp Arsenal became the center of German rearmament. Krupp won the first order of 135 "No.1 tank" in 1934, and produced a large number of tanks, cannons and other weapons and equipment for the German army in the following years 1 1. The two giant train guns "Gustav" and "Dora" developed by it are the largest cannons in the history of world war, which can project 7 tons of artillery shells 37 kilometers away.
The book Krupp's Arms says that during World War II, Krupp hired many workers from all over Europe through the Nazi regime. These people were paid at first, but they soon began to be abused. The relationship between Krupp and Nazi can be seen from Hitler's words. He once said in a speech: "German boys must be slender, as fast as greyhounds, as tough as leather and as hard as Krupp steel."
The situation of Volkswagen is similar to that of Krupp. 1938 On Hitler's 49th birthday, Volkswagen sent a "1 van" to please the dictator. After the outbreak of World War II, Volkswagen quickly turned its civilian production line into military, providing a large number of various vehicles for the German army. Some historians estimate that 80% of Volkswagen's wartime employees were slave workers.
Siemens is concentrating on building the factory.
Siemens, founded in 1847, is naturally bound to have customs. Before Hitler came to power, it was said that Siemens had secretly funded the Nazi Party. Some analysts believe that Krupp, France (chemical and pharmaceutical companies) and Siemens together destroyed the fragile Weimar Republic by funding the Nazi Party. After Hitler came to power, especially during the war, Siemens expanded rapidly, established more factories and participated in the "Nazi" of the German economy. Senior management of Siemens praised Nazism on many occasions, and Friedrich Shang Lu, vice chairman of Siemens' board of directors, was a stubborn Nazi. Hitler committed suicide after 1945.
Affected by the situation, from 1938, Siemens implemented a "racial policy" within the company to separate Jewish workers from German workers. Later, due to the outbreak of the war, the lack of labor made the Siemens leadership very headache, so they turned their attention to the concentration camp.
According to the data, France is the first German company to set up a factory in Auschwitz concentration camp. In the 1940s, Siemens gradually built factories in some notorious concentration camps and surrounding areas. Many concentration camp workers produced electrical equipment for Siemens in the morning and were poisoned in the gas chamber built by the company in the afternoon. According to statistics, by 1944, more than150,000 of Siemens' more than 200,000 employees were prisoners in concentration camps.
Be closely watched by MI5.
The secret files released by MI5 on 20 10 show that due to the close relationship between Siemens and Nazi "Third Reich", a large number of Siemens employees were closely monitored by British intelligence agencies in 1930s and 1940s. MI5 suspects that Siemens' branches around the world helped achieve the diplomatic and war goals of the Nazi regime.
As early as 1935, a report of MI5 claimed that the Nazis were spying in Palestine and Egypt under the guise of Siemens, and the report worried that Siemens was also conducting similar activities in other parts of the world. 1936, the Nazi regime publicly issued an appeal: "During the war, every German man and woman, including those Germans abroad, must serve the motherland." This is even more worrying for British intelligence agencies.
1939 Before the outbreak of World War II, MI5 paid special attention to Siemens' activities in Britain. A branch of the company, Siemens Schuchet Factory, has a factory in west London, which MI5 documents describe as a "fanatical Nazi branch". Siemens engineers are also targets of British intelligence agencies. It is said that these engineers have been traveling all over Britain, but "no one knows where they have gone". After the war broke out, according to 1939 Trade with the Enemy Act, Siemens UK branch was forced to close down.
British intelligence agencies are also worried about Siemens' activities in the Far East. At the end of 1939, MI5 informed British intelligence personnel in Singapore: "According to various sources, the Germans are undoubtedly using some large industrial and commercial enterprises to cover up their espionage activities, especially Siemens and Bayer." After World War II, Siemens was investigated for its wartime behavior. Some Siemens board members committed suicide or were taken away by the Soviet Red Army.
However, it is worth mentioning that during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, john rabe, an employee of German Siemens Company in China, together with a dozen foreign friends, established the Nanjing wartime security zone in Nanjing, China, protecting about 250,000 China civilians.