Weleda launches a request for claims for a Nazi camp test

Weleda, the natural cosmetics company, launches a survey of its ties to the Nazi concentration camp after claiming that the produced anti -freezing cream it produced was tested by prisoners.

A report by the historian Anne Sudrow claims that the Swiss company ordered raw materials from a garden in the Dachau camp. He also made a cream to prevent the hypothermia that an SS doctor said to have used in human experiments.

Weleda said a separate report in 2023 did not establish evidence that Sigmund Rasher had tested the cream on prisoners kept in freezing conditions for hours.

The company said it had condemned the “atrocities” of the Nazi regime and acknowledged that the new findings “may not have been fully studied in previous research.”

Dahau, near Munich, is the first concentration camp created by the Nazis in 1933.

It is estimated that 200,000 people were closed there and over 40,000 were killed there before his release in 1945. Some of these deaths were attributed to medical experiments.

In his book, ordered from the memorial site of the Dachau Concentration Camp, D -Sudrow outlines the link between Weleda and SS – the elite force of the Nazi Party, founded by Adolf Hitler.

The allegations include Weleda to be associated with experiments on up to 300 prisoners from the concentration camp between August 1942 and May 1943, according to the German magazine News Der Spiegel.

Weleda’s cream was intended to be used to treat hypothermia in German soldiers, and D -R Rasher wanted to know if the product could slow the medical condition at freezing temperatures.

Up to 90 prisoners were killed during their tests when they were forced in ice baths, Der Spiegel reported.

A 104-year-old company, which is known for its range of skin care products, said it was committed to “transparently researching our history”.

He awaits the results of his new investigation, conducted by the German Corporate History Society (GUG), to be published in early 2027.

Tina Müller, CEO of Weleda, said: “We condemn the atrocities of National Socialism in the strongest possible conditions.

“Fascism, anti -Semitism, racism or right extremist ideology have no place with us.” Never again “expresses its position. That is why we are engaged in a complete reassessment of our history.”

The company said it provided the historians “full access to the company’s archives” to carry out its survey in 2023 in the history of the company.

The same was provided to G -jj Sudrow for her work, including access to “Protocol of the Nazi Age Administrative Board,” Weleda added.

Acknowledged Welda GUG’s previous reportWhich was ordered by the skin care brand and published last year, “has not yet been created to look at all detailed aspects.”

The document outlines that Weleda has requested plants from the Dachau Camp Garden – where working prisoners have worked – but have never been delivered.

It also stated that Dr. Rasher had ordered 20 kg of Weleda’s anti-freezing cream as part of his “cold experiments”, but there was no evidence that the company was informed that it was used on the prisoners of the concentration camp for these purposes.

The company was founded in 1921 by the Austrian academician and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who created the doctrine of anthroposophy, which – – According to the encyclopedia British – is “a philosophy based on the prerequisite that human intelligence has the ability to associate with spiritual worlds.”

He also headed System of Steiner Schools And after his death in 1925 he left a huge job, covering everything from homeopathy and biodynamic farming to alternative medicine and the purpose of life.