I recently was in the BMW museum and they actually had a whole section dedicated to their Nazi past and how they want to never do that again. Do with that what you will but at least they're not shoving it under the carpet.
American here. What is this “slavery” you speak of?
I didn't know either, so I consulted some textbooks from Florida. Turns out, it was a long-term internship program that the New World set up to help out the uncivilized savages from Africa.
As I understand it, it was a physically demanding program, and most of those who participated didn't make it to the end, but those who did gained life skills that would continue to impact not only them, but generations of their dependents.
Some, especially teachers in Florida who wish to keep their jobs, might say it was the very first Affirmative Action program. When you look at it that way, we should be proud of this part of our heritage.
I wish the UK would do the same. At least in the US they learn a bit about slavery - here in the UK we learn nothing about the British Empire and its atrocities. No wonder we have statues of slave traders everywhere.
I know there is regional variation on how the slave trade is taught, but when I was in school we had numerous, extended, and graphic discussions on the horrors of the slave trade starting from elementary school and extending into college.
Without doxxing yourself could you give an idea of where you went to school? I went to public school in the south and other than being mentioned I didn't learn much about slavery in school. I mean we learned about the underground railroad and generally knew about the slave trade and that being a slave was about the worst thing humanly possible. But other than getting whipped they didn't talk about much of the torture or punishments they'd went through. Civil rights I remember being discussed more in depth than slavery but when I was a kid I attributed it through the fact that most of my teachers remember the civil rights movement from when they were my age. Sorry I'm high so I'm rambling now.
I’m not surprised about your experience though. I have also lived in the south and many of the southern states are still feeling the effects of decades of extensive lobbying on education by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
They DoC has historically pushed a narrative about slaves being happy and content overall, cared for by empathetic masters who valued their well-being. There are many monuments still standing glorifying the wartime deeds done by “loyal” and happy slaves. It’s really insidious.
That's actually very missleading, like most involved companies they tried everything to hide it till the shitstorm got too big and the damage to their image was smaller that way so we shouldn't give them any credit for that whatsoever!!!
I feel a little more sympathetic to them for the Nazi stuff than for any current shit they pull.
I have to wonder, had they said no, what the German state would have then done to them. Essentially any state can require a company to produce wartime goods.
That's true, but just because the business that does sell out is more successful, doesn't mean we can't and shouldn't buy from the businesses that didn't sell out. Obviously they will be harder to find because they tend to be more local and/or niche (you gotta be, if you want to survive against businesses with no morals), but we all need to be doing what we can.
Of course with cars, there's little we can do because all the privately owned companies tend to be making multi-million dollar cars. But for things like food, clothing, etc, there are often alternatives to the big name brands. You just have to look for them.
Same as Hugo Boss made SS uniforms, a lot of german people and companies at the time just went along. Even if they didnt wholeheartedly swallow the propaganda, even if they quietly hated the Nazi regime, they saw those that spoke out beaten, killed or straight up vanish. Some of the companies willingly stuck their heads in the sand and just went along because they knew that to resist was to mark yourself, and to cooperate was to profit.
That is atrocious. According to that account, there is proof that they willingly participated in the Holocaust in exchange for profits, and not a single one of them faced justice.