Europe

German Reinmann Family Gives $11 Million to Charity After Finding Out Ancestors Supported Hitler

REPARATION

Germany’s super-rich Reinmann family members were horrified to learn the extent their ancestors had supported Hitler’s regime.

RTS2EILM_ghqjf1
REUTERS/Nacho Doce

Germany’s ultra rich Reinmann family, which owns controlling interest in Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Panera Bread and Pret a Manger among other companies, have pledged $11 million after a magazine uncovered their family’s Nazi past, according to the Associated Press. A trove of documents uncovered in Germany, France and the United States were published in an expose in the German magazine Bild, which led the younger generation of the Reinmann family to come to terms with their ancestor’s support of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany. The report showed that patriarch Albert Reimann Sr. and his son Albert Reimann Jr. “used Russian civilians and French POWs as forced laborers during World War II.” Peter Harf, who speaks for the family, confirmed the magazine’s report. “We were all ashamed and turned as white as the wall,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “There is nothing to gloss over. These crimes are disgusting.”

Read it at Associated Press

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.