German cosmetics firm Weleda has announced this week that it will review its links to Nazism by conducting a new investigation. As reported by Europa Press and the newspaper Distribución y Actualidad, German historian Anne Sudrow documents in her research relationships between former employees of the brand and the National Socialist regime.
Weleda has been accused again this September about the role the company took during Nazi Germany. The company has already proactively requested an "independent and complete" report on its activities from the Society for Business History ('Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte').
In the same press release, the company explained that "we strongly condemn the atrocities of National Socialism. Fascism, anti-Semitism, racism or extreme right-wing ideologies have no place in our company," explained CEO Tina Müller.
At the time, Anne Sudrow published a study describing the close personal relationships between Weleda and the SS. Sudrow's documents indicated that former Weleda employees held positions at the Dachau concentration camp and the company supplied products to the camp, including a cream likely used in human experiments.
Weleda acknowledged in its history that it had supplied a cream to the SS, but it was not clear whether it was used in experiments on humans or whether that was the intention of SS physician Sigmund Rascher.