Jewish Concentration Camp Survivors Are Guests at Volkswagen In Wolfsburg

WOLFSBURG, GERMANY – April 7, 2009: On their way to take part in this year’s remembrance ceremony at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorial, four former concentration camp prisoners and their relatives accepted an invitation from Volkswagen AG. During their visit to Wolfsburg, they intensified their contacts with the Corporate History Department of Volkswagen AG and found out more about Volkswagen’s corporate responsibility, both in a historical context and with reference to present-day corporate social responsibility.

The party of visitors lead by Ornan Lev-Ary was welcomed by the Group Head of External Relations, Dr. Gerhard Prätorius. "Shedding light on the extent of involvement in the NS forced labor system and drawing consequences is an integral part of the company’s social responsibility. Volkswagen’s policy of corporate social responsibility translates into a comprehensive sustainability strategy at sites all over the world." Dr. Manfred Grieger, Head of the Corporate History Department, informed the group from Israel about the latest building blocks in the company’s culture of remembrance, which now also includes study programs for managers and foremen at the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. "We are delighted to have this opportunity to meet with Jewish concentration camp survivors and to prove to them that this is a place where we preserve their experiences and their memories."

Ornan Lev-Ary, Pinchas Arnon, Jonel Aurel Florian and Eliezer Farkasch were deported with other Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz in May 1944 before being transported to the former armament factory on Mittellandkanal in a group of 300 concentration camp prisoners. Housed in a converted pithead bath, they were forced to assemble "V1" bombs in Hall 1 in June/July 1944. They were then transferred to an underground factory in Lorraine, and suffered at several camps before they were freed by British troops in Bergen-Belsen. Once they had convalesced, they moved to Israel.

During their stay, the group visited the modern car making plant and was taken on a guided tour of present-day Wolfsburg. Mayor Günter Lach greeted the guests from Israel in the town hall on behalf of the city.

Bernd Wehlauer, Deputy Chairman of the Group Works Council of Volkswagen AG, underscored the importance that labor representatives at Volkswagen attach to remembrance and historical responsibility.

"We don’t consider this chapter closed, we want to build our future on knowledge and not on denial." Wehlauer is also a member of the foundation council of the International Youth Meeting Center Auschwitz: "Our apprentices join together every year with young people from Poland to preserve the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau."