There is no “glossing over” how the German conglomerate that now owns iconic American glazed Krispy Kreme donuts once made its dough — on the blood and forced labor orchestrated by the Nazi party, it conceded on Monday following a popular German tabloid’s published account.
‘We were ashamed and white as sheets. There is nothing to gloss over. These crimes are disgusting.’ Peter Harf, the Reimann family’s spokesman and a managing partner of JAB Holding Co.
The Bild am Sonntag newspaper report of the Nazi ties to the Reimann family and its JAB Holding Co. was confirmed by spokesman and company executive Peter Harf, and reported in English on the Deutsche Welle media site.
Krispy Kreme Donuts Inc. was sold to a unit of JAB Holding for about $1.35 billion in 2016, a deal that took the donut maker with southern U.S. roots private.
JAB, owned by the Reimann family that’s worth an estimated €33 billion, had been aggressively buying up food, retail and consumer products companies in recent years, including several in the U.S. Its portfolio includes the roughly $13.9 billion acquisition of single-serve coffee machine maker Keurig Green Mountain in late 2015. Dr Pepper Snapple is counted among its brands, as well as Panera Bread, Peet’s Coffee and personal products Calgon and Clearasil.
As for the reported World War II-era atrocities, the Bilt article said Russian civilians and French prisoners of war were exploited as forced laborers in the family’s factories and private villas.
“[Albert] Reimann Sr. and [Albert] Reimann Jr. were guilty. The two businessmen have passed away, but they actually belonged in prison,” Harf went on to say.
The father-son duo were known anti-Semites and donated to Adolf Hitler’s paramilitary SS force as early as 1931.
Senior and Junior, who died in 1954 and 1984, respectively, did not talk about their Nazi past, according to Harf. The family believed a 1978 report had revealed all of the company’s ties to the Nazis but more discoveries have been pursued by younger generations. Present-day Reimanns have said they will donate $11 million (€9.7 million) to an as-yet-to-be-named charity in response to the infamous link.
