text 4

poster
exhibition
june 2000 

The Crane under the Swastika

Lufthansa, the ╗Servant of the People and the Stateл, such was the honorary title of the company in Nazi Germany. On the backdrop of its complicity in the exploitation and murder of many forced laborers, Lufthansa swiftly joined the compensation fund for forced laborers of the German industry. Lufthansa had every reason to do this as inconspicuously and quiety as possible. After all, a public discussion on an international level about its participation in the crimes of the National Socialists could lead to the public image of the company being damaged.

The Lufthansa was involved in the war preparations of the Nazis. Since it was founded in 1926 the airline company has participated in the planning and implementing of armament programs. When the Nazis came to power, increased efforts were spent on developing a Luftwaffe fit for war. Hermann GЎring and his Secretary of State in the Reich's Aviation Ministry Erhard Milch, the director of Lufthansa, were the main persons responsible for the secret building up of the German Luftwaffe. The civilian planes of the Lufthansa were planned for use as so-called emergency bombers from 1933 on. On the order of the ╗F№hrerл the Lufthansa 1936 sent planes for Franco's troops in the Spanish civil war. At the beginning of the ╗Sudeten Crisisл, Lufthansa planes with SS teams were ready to intervene in the case that the occupation of ╗Sudetenlandesл would meet resistance. These ╗peace interventionsл were substantially increased after the official beginning of the war. Lufthansa crews participated in military operations and secret commando operations. From the beginning of the war on the workshops of the Lufthansa worked exclusively for the Luftwaffe. Early on, the first prisoners of war and civilian ╗foreign workersл were forced to work in these war-relevant shops.

In M№nchen 248 prisoners of war had to work for the Lufthansa. In L№beck the Luftwaffen equipment office maintained three camps for 480 civilian ╗foreign workersл. In Echterdingen near Stuttgart, 247 Dutch forced laborers were employed at the airport for the maintainance of the planes. In 1942 another 477 Russians were deported to this camp. The forced laborers from the Lufthansa camps have been waiting for 55 years for an adequate compensation.

The discussion on the involvement of the Lufthansa in the crimes of the Third Reich failed not least because the company refused to open its archive to historical research.

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