Weleda launches inquiry after historian alleges Dachau tests of company cream

Weleda, the Swiss natural cosmetics company best known for its Skin Food range, has commissioned an independent historical investigation after a German historian alleged the firm’s products and raw materials were linked to human experiments at the Nazi concentration camp Dachau.

The company said the study, to be carried out by the German Society for Corporate History (GuG), will examine newly raised questions about Weleda’s wartime activities and is expected to report its findings in early 2027. Weleda said it condemned the Nazi regime’s atrocities and was committed to "transparently researching our history," adding that the new findings "may not have been fully explored in previous research."

The move follows a report by historian Anne Sudrow, commissioned by the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, which alleges that Weleda ordered raw materials from a garden at Dachau and manufactured a cream to protect against hypothermia that an SS doctor used in human experiments. German magazine Der Spiegel published details saying the cream was used on up to 300 prisoners in experiments between August 1942 and May 1943 and that it was intended to treat hypothermia in German soldiers.

Der Spiegel reported the experiments were overseen by SS physician Sigmund Rascher, who is alleged to have tested whether the product could delay the onset of hypothermia. The magazine said that during Rascher’s tests prisoners were forced into pools of water and ice blocks and that up to 90 people died. The allegations are contained in Sudrow’s book and in reporting by the memorial site and German press.

Weleda noted that a separate study published in 2023 had found no evidence that Rascher tested the cream on prisoners kept in freezing conditions for hours. The company said the new research request by GuG was intended to take into account Sudrow’s findings and to examine questions raised more broadly about its wartime supply chains and contacts.

Dachau, north-west of Munich, was the first Nazi concentration camp, established in 1933. Historians estimate roughly 200,000 people were imprisoned there and more than 40,000 died before the camp’s liberation in 1945. Some of those deaths have been attributed to medical experiments carried out at the camp.

Weleda, founded in 1921 and now 104 years old, sells natural cosmetics and personal care products in international markets. The company has previously investigated and published research into its history during the Nazi years and says it will make the results of the GuG investigation public when available.

The commission of a specialist corporate history body reflects a broader trend among European companies to revisit and clarify wartime activities as new archival material and scholarly work surface. The GuG investigation will review archival records, correspondence and procurement documentation, and will seek to establish the nature and extent of any ties between Weleda and institutions or personnel associated with Dachau during the 1930s and 1940s.

Weleda did not provide further detail on the timeline or scope of the GuG review beyond its publication timeline. The Dachau Memorial Site and Sudrow’s publisher did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Der Spiegel’s reporting and Sudrow’s book provide the primary public account of the new allegations that prompted Weleda’s decision to commission the inquiry.