The Volkswagen Group’s remembrance work is a core element of its corporate culture. It reflects the Group’s critical engagement with its own history, particularly its role during the National Socialist era and the use of forced labour. Memorial sites, commemorative events, partnerships and a range of initiatives contribute to keeping the memory alive and to reinforcing responsibility for the present and the future.
On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2024, the Volkswagen Group paid tribute to the victims of National Socialism. In addition, the social media campaign “We are all someone.” features seven short video portraits of former forced labourers of the then Volkswagenwerk GmbH. Like many other young people at that time, they were deployed involuntarily as teenagers in the National Socialist war economy during World War II.
In the early 1960s, the first Italian migrant workers arrived in Wolfsburg, recruited by the Volkswagen plant to meet the growing demand for labour. Many stayed, built families and became an integral part of the city and the company. In a series of eyewitness interviews, Italian migrants and their descendants share insights into their lives, careers and family histories. Their stories reflect individual experiences as well as key chapters of Volkswagen’s corporate and contemporary history.
