Krispy Kreme Owners Make Massive Donation to Atone for Nazi Family History

The same company also owns Panera Bread and Pret A Manger

The German family that effectively owns Krispy Kreme and Panera is set to donate around $11 million to charity, following media revelations about the family’s historic Nazi ties. Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr. profited from forced labor during World War II, and made donations to Hitler’s SS, according to reports in German newspaper Bild. The family had reportedly been conducting its own investigations into its past at the same time as the newspaper. A spokesman for the company said that they wholly agreed with the reports that the company enriched itself using French prisoners of war and Russian civilians for forced labor. He said that Reimann Jr. and Sr. (both of whom have been dead for decades) belonged in jail, adding that “these crimes are disgusting.”

There’s a direct line between the company that profited from those crimes and the present-day business interests of the Reimann children and grandchildren: the family’s company, JAB Holdings, has been in continuous operation since the early 1800s, and owns controlling stakes in Krispy Kreme, Panera, Pret A Manger, Peet’s Coffee, and various other food and beverage companies. JAB and the Reimanns are hardly the first to investigate historic Nazi ties: many other German companies, like Volkswagen, have willingly conducted their own research and attempted to atone.

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