Bertelsmann admits Nazi past

A commission set up by the firm found Bertelsmann rode the rise of the Nazi party to restructure itself from a religious and school book publisher to supply millions of anti-Semitic texts.

"Bertelsmann published a variety of papers and books that clearly had anti-Jewish bias," Independent Historical Commission (IHC) Chairman Saul Friedlaender, an Israeli historian, told a news conference.

The IHC found Bertelsmann had targeted the youth market with its "Exciting Stories" series and the "The Christmas Book of the Hitler Youth" annual which pushed its sales up 20 fold.

The IHC said the company's "legend" that it was a victim of the Nazis was a lie.

Faking it

The Nazis shut down the company in 1944, but probably because of war shortages rather and not because of subversive texts, it said.

"In 1945, the legend that C. Bertelsmann was closed down because of resistance to the Nazis smoothed the way for the occupation authorities promptly granting the firm a new licence to publish," the report said.

The Commission found that Bertelsmann made "indirect" use of Jewish slave labour in Latvia, and Lithuania but not at its German headquarters.

The then head of the company, Heinrich Mohn, also made donations to the SS, Hitler's special forces and concentration camp guards.

"True, he never joined the Nazi party, but his membership in the SS patrons' group signalled his readiness for a political arrangement," the report said.

The company had close ties to the Nazi regime, particularly the Propaganda Ministry, and printed 19 million books during World War II, making it the largest publisher for the German army.

The company immediately issued a statement apologising for its wartime activities and false corporate history.

"The values of Bertelsmann then are irreconcilable with the company today. The company is now a global player in the media industry," Tim Arnold, the corporate secretary of Bertelsmann told the BBC's Today programme.

Sorry

Bertelsmann chairman Gunther Thielen said the company accepted the commission's findings.

"I would like to express our sincere regret for the inaccuracies the Commission has uncovered in our previous corporate history of the World War Two era as well as for the wartime activities that have been brought to light," he said in a statement.

Mr Thielen said all the material used for the 800-page report would be made publicly available.

Bertelsmann used its "revised" history when it took over the biggest US book publisher Random house in 1998.

The commission of four historians was set up in the fallout of the takeover after media reports on Bertelsmann's Nazi past.

About 6,000 German companies are contributing to a 5.1bn euro ($5bn) settlement with hundreds of thousands of Nazis slave labourers.

Other companies, such as Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank have also set up commissions into history during the Third Reich.