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The dark history behind the Choco Leibniz biscuit empire has been revealed after a report shed new light on its links to forced labour during the Nazi era.
The Bahlsen family has acknowledged the “painful” past of their company, which has produced the iconic biscuits since 1891, following intense scrutiny in recent years.
The family commissioned two historians to conduct a review of their relative’s conduct in Nazi Germany after heiress Verena Bahlsan, 31, sparked furore in 2019 by suggesting forced labourers were treated well.
The findings, published this week, have concluded the family had openly supported the Nazi party and furthermore benefited from forced labour policies under its rule.
The family have acknowledged the firm’s history on their websites, admitting that the company “did take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by National Socialism”.
It went on to confirm that the Bahlsen brothers were Nazi party members and at times “supported the SS financially”.
They also confirmed their company employed more than 800 forced labourers from various European countries, mostly women from Poland and Ukraine.
The forced labourers also included war prisoners from France, Italy and other countries. The family said these people were forcibly recruited, made to work many more hours, provided less food, paid significantly lower wages and had limited opportunities to go outside.
In a statement published to the Lorenz Snacks website, another food company founded by the family in 1999, the family the findings of the review had “shaken us to the core”.
“What happened under the responsibility of the brothers Hans, Werner and Klaus Bahlsen were terrible injustices and cannot be excused by anything,” it read.
“What the Bahlsen brothers did during the Second World War contradicts everything we stand for, our principles and our deepest personal convictions.”
It added: “We stand together for a united Europe, for democracy, freedom and respect for human rights - wherever we operate. Hans, Werner and Klaus Bahlsen did not. They arranged themselves with the criminal Nazi regime and they profited from the war economy during the Second World War. And they were never held accountable for any of this.”
An independent team of historians researched the company’s past from 2019 to 2024 and has now published their 6000-page review in a book.
The research was commissioned after Verena Bahlsan, whose father owns the Bahlsen company, was accused of being “oblivious to history” and downplaying the suffering of hundreds of its workers.
Ms Bahlsan apologised for her comments which she made when asked about the company’s past exploitation of forced labourers by German newspaper Bild.
“That was before my time, and we paid the forced labourers exactly as much as German workers and we treated them well,” she said.
The biscuit heiress was also criticised for boasting about her wealth and spending habits. At a marketing conference around the same time, she told delegates: “I’m a capitalist. I own a quarter of Bahlsen, that’s great. I want to buy a sailing yacht and stuff like that.”
Following the publication of the article, Lars Klingbeil, secretary general of the centre-left Social Democrats, told Bild: “If you inherit such a large estate, you also inherit responsibility and should not come across as aloof.”
She later left the company to pursue her own projects in 2022.
