Choco Leibniz biscuit heiress apologises over Nazi remarks

Vera Bahlsen, 25, says comments about family firm’s use of forced labour were ‘thoughtless’ amid calls for boycott of brand

Vera Bahlsen, 25, had said her family firm Bahlsen 'did nothing wrong' in its use of forced labourers during the Nazi era (AFP/Getty)

The heiress of a German biscuit empire has apologised for saying the firm “did nothing wrong” in its use of forced labour during the Nazi era.

Vera Bahlsen, whose father owns the Bahlsen company that makes some of Germany’s most famous biscuits including Choco Leibniz, had been accused of being “oblivious to history” and downplaying the suffering of hundreds of its workers.

But after the backlash following her comments, including a call for a boycott of Bahlsen biscuits, the 25-year-old businesswoman admitted her comments were “thoughtless”.

Bahlsen employed around 200 forced labourers between 1943 and 1945, many of whom were women from Nazi-occupied Ukraine.

The controversy began last week when Ms Bahlsen was asked about the company’s past exploitation of forced labourers by German newspaper Bild.

In response, she said: “That was before my time, and we paid the forced labourers exactly as much as German workers and we treated them well.”

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.”

The Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre in Berlin tweeted that there was “a great knowledge gap for family members of the Bahlsen family”.

They wrote: “The issue of Nazi forced labour is often still a blind spot in the collective memory.”

And historian and writer Felix Bohr told Der Spiegel magazine that although Ms Bahlsen couldn’t change her company’s past, “she must face up to its historical responsibility” and criticised her “obliviousness to history”.

Meanwhile, Twitter users called for a boycott of the Bahlsen brands.

In a statement released on Wednesday apologising for her remarks, Ms Bahlsen said: “It was a mistake to amplify this debate with thoughtless responses. I apologise for that.

“Nothing could be further from my mind than to downplay national socialism or its consequences.”

Ms Bahlsen added that she recognised the need to learn more about the company’s history. “As the next generation, we have responsibility for our history. I expressly apologise to all whose feelings I have hurt,” she said.

The biscuit heiress has also been criticised for boasting about her wealth and spending habits.

At a marketing conference last week, 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.”

Bahlsen voluntarily paid 1.5 million deutschmarks (about €750,000) in 2000-2001 to a foundation set up by German firms to compensate 20 million forced labourers used by the Nazis.

But former forced labourers have failed to obtain compensation from Bahlsen in individual lawsuits, with German courts citing statute of limitations laws.

A number of private companies used forced and slave labour during the Nazi era, including BMW, Daimler-Benz and the Friedrich Krupp Ironworks.

Additional reporting by Reuters