Photo Gallery Porsche's Dark Past
The VW Bug was one of the most successful cars of all time. During the war, however, both Volkswagen and the company Porsche, both started by the same family, benefitted greatly from their closeness with the Nazi party. Porsche has yet to adequately investigate its past under the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler examines a model of the Volkswagen together with the car's designer Ferdinand Porsche, on the left.
Porsche long insisted that it only employed 10 to 20 forced laborers during the war. A new book, however, alleges that the company may have had as many as 300. Here, Hitler inspects one of the first VWs. Ferdinand Porsche is in the middle without a hat.
Ferry Porsche, in the back, and his father. The Porsche clan was able to carryover profits made under the Nazis into post-war Germany.
