Weleda launches inquiry into Nazi camp skin test claims

Weleda, the natural cosmetics company, has launched a study into its links to a Nazi concentration camp following claims an anti-freeze cream it produced was tested on prisoners.

A report by historian Anne Sudrow alleges that the Swiss company ordered raw materials from a garden in the Dachau camp. It also made a cream to protect against hypothermia which an SS doctor allegedly used in human experiments.

Weleda said a separate report in 2023 found no evidence Dr Sigmund Rascher tested the cream on prisoners kept in freezing conditions for hours.

The firm said it condemned the Nazi regime’s “atrocities” and acknowledged the new findings “may not have been fully explored in previous research”.

Dachau, near Munich, was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933.

It is thought about 200,000 people have been imprisoned there and more than 40,000 died there before its liberation in 1945. Some of those deaths have been attributed to medical experiments.

In her book, commissioned by the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Ms Sudrow outlines the relationship between Weleda and the SS – the Nazi Party’s elite force founded by Adolf Hitler.

The claims include Weleda’s cream was used on up to 300 concentration camp prisoners for experiments between August 1942 and May 1943, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

It was intended to treat hypothermia in German soldiers and Dr Rascher wanted to know whether the product could delay the medical condition in freezing temperatures.

During his tests up to 90 prisoners had died when they were forced into pools of water and ice blocks.

The 104-year-old company, which is known for its Skin Food range of skincare products, said it was committed to” transparently researching our history”.

It expects the results of its new investigation, conducted by German body Society for Corporate History (GuG), to be published in early 2027.