Continental study exposes big role in Nazi economy

A study commissioned by Continental showed that the German auto supplier played a big role in the Nazi regime's war economy, using about 10,000 slave laborers to make and test gas masks, military tires and other products.

According to the research by historian Paul Erker, the company employed concentration camp inmates, some of whom died. Erker, who has written a book about his findings, said the laborers were forced to work underground and live in inhumane conditions during the later years of World War II.

"The study shows that Continental was an important part of Hitler's war machine," Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart said at a news conference last week to present the findings.

Continental was founded in 1871 by Jewish bankers. It had many Jewish executives when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, but they were all forced out over the next five years.

After the war ended, Continental CEO Fritz Könecke claimed to be a Nazi resister and avoided punishment, Erker said. Könecke, who died in 1979, was later CEO of Daimler.

Continental and Volkswagen are among German companies that paid reparations totaling about $5 billion to former slave laborers, starting in the 1990s.

"Business has a responsibility to help preserve democracy," Degenhart told reporters, saying the study would help create training programs to fight racism and promote social responsibility.