BLACKLIST TAINTED BY THE NAZIS

Bertelsmann

The world's largest book publisher insisted for years that it had opposed the Nazi regime, but a new company history says that it benefited from the use of Jewish slave labour and exploited the war so that it could grow from a small provincial firm into the biggest supplier of literature to Hitler's troops.

Deutsche Bank

Germany's largest financial institution became implicated in the expropriation of Jewish-owned enterprises during the Nazi dictatorship.It was not until 1999 that Deutsche Bank admitted its involvement in funding the construction of Auschwitz, the concentration camp where 1.5 million people died.

Degussa

Degussa, one of Germany's oldest companies, admitted in 1997 that it had probably been involved in melting down gold taken from Jewish concentration camp victims. Degussa was under international pressure to admit its part in the affair after years during which it proclaimed its innocence. The precious metals company has also paid compensation to about 500 Auschwitz prisoners reported to have worked for it in a tyre factory.

Siemens

In 1998, the company expressed "deepest regret" for the use of slave labour - an estimated 50,000 workers - to build underground and electronics factories for the Nazi war effort. The company claims, however, that it was forced to do so by the Nazis to fulfil wartime production goals.

Daimler

Daimler was one of the first companies to commission an independent history of its wartime activities, opening its archives to historians in the early 1980s. It has voluntarily paid out more than £6m in compensation to former slave workers, and has initiated contacts with hundreds of former forced labourers.

Volkswagen

The history of Volkswagen's involvement in the Nazi regime was published in 1996 after the company commissioned independent research. Its findings give details of how Hitler commissioned the Beetle and then ordered the building of Kraft durch Freude Stadt - Strength-through-Joy Town - to house the workers. The production lines were staffed with Jewish inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp.