61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

At Lonza, the Board Committee knew about the use of foreign workers by
November 1941 at the latest, and Alimentana, the parent company of Maggi
in Singen, must also have known that foreigners were being used. At Nestlé,
the Board of Directors learnt of the construction of a «wooden hangar for use as
accommodation for Eastern workers» 30 and «barracks to accommodate Eastern
workers». 31 But knowledge about the use of forced labour was not limited to
the management of companies which had subsidiaries in the area of the Third
Reich. When a group of Swiss industrialists – including Ernst Bally and Emil
G. Bührle – visited companies in the Württemberg region in October 1942,
they reported:
«We were struck by the number of Russian female workers e.g., in the
Mercedes shoe factories. Wieland-Werke AG in Ulm has just completed
premises for 500 Russian workers who are being expected. In the
Schoch’sche Werke, the visitors were able to see about 20 to 30 Russian
women who had just arrived.» 32
Whilst it can hardly be assumed that many Swiss people knew of the dreadful
circumstances under which many of these people had come to Germany, it had
become public knowledge in Switzerland by 1944 at the latest that forced
labourers and prisoners of war had to live and work in inhuman conditions. In
the edition of «Die Nation» dated 23 March 1944, the Schaffhausen anti-fascist
Carlo Daeschle reported in revealing detail on the situation of foreign workers
in Germany, addressing both the exploitation of the forced labourers and their
often inhuman treatment. 33 The question still arises, however, as to whether the
situation of the foreign workers attracted any notice at all on the Swiss side. For
all the companies examined in more detail by the ICE, it appears that they were
informed about the fact that foreigners were used, but did not think of getting
involved in the detailed arrangements, provided that they were even interested
at all in the living and working conditions of the forced labourers and prisoners
of war. Thus for example, the management of Georg Fischer AG indicated to
the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF) its «willingness [...] not
to interfere with the management [of the Singen works] as regards personnel
management according to National Socialist ideology. Nor has it done so to
date.» 34 Most companies did not have to deal with the complex question of
forced labourers and prisoners of war – if at all – until after the end of the war
when their German managers had to submit to denazification and plant
members were called to account for the maltreatment of foreign workers.
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