Prior to the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Bertelsmann announced that a committee responsible for researching the company's history had found that the publisher altered wartime accounting records and most likely used some of 50 Jews working at a Lithuanian printing plant as slave labor. Originally, the company had asserted that it suffered for publishing books banned by the Nazis. In fact, the company developed from a small publisher of religious books into a large company by printing popular fiction for German soldiers.
In a letter to Bertelsmann employees, chairman Gunter Thielen said, "On behalf of the company, I would like to express our sincere regret for these [historical] inaccuracies as well as for the wartime activities that were brought to light." Thielen added that the company's wartime actions, particularly the publication of books with objectionable content, "in no way reflect what our company and the Bertelsmann Foundation stand for today."
In the letter, Thielen announced that Random House's German subsidiary will publish the report in book form this week, while an English-language edition book will be published later this year. In addition, Thielen said, the archives of the company's corporate history will be opened to the public in Munich (the city where the Historical Commission was based) through March 31, 2003; after that, it will move to Bertelsmann's Gutersloh offices, where it will remain open to the public.
