Preceding World War II, Siemens was involved in funding the rise of the Nazi Party and the secret rearmament of Germany. During the second World War, Siemens supported the Hitler regime, contributed to the war effort and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy. Siemens had many factories in and around notorious concentration camps[8][9] to build electric switches for military uses.[10] In one example, almost 100,000 men and women from Auschwitz worked in a Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying the electricity to the camp.
Siemens businessman and Nazi Party member John Rabe is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives during the Nanking Massacre. He later toured Germany lecturing on the atrocities committed in Nanking.