VW Brazil’s security aided torture under dictatorship, say historians
Frankfurt — Security staff at Volkswagen’s (VW) Brazilian plant collaborated with the country’s 1964 to 1985 military dictatorship, leading to the arrest and torture of several employees, according to a landmark report commissioned by the car maker. The year-long study, led by historian Christopher Kopper of Germany’s Bielefeld University, found that some security officials at the VW do Brasil factory near São Paulo aided the feared political police in identifying political dissenters. Members of VW’s security department kept blacklists of left-leaning workers and informed the secret police of illegal communist flyers and newspapers found at the plant, the independent report found. "Works Security monitored opposition activities by the company’s employees and, by its conduct, aided the arrest of at least seven members of staff," the independent study found. "This happened at a time when the use of torture by the political police was already common knowledge." In at least one case, a...
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