VW accused of infanticide during WWII

In the class-action lawsuit filed in Wisconsin, Snopczyk contends that the infants died because of abominable conditions in the nursery and because of the intentional neglect and maltreatment by VW employees.

Near the end of its operation, the mortality rate for infants at the Kinderheim was nearly 100 percent. They died with distended and discolored abdomens, and sores and pustules over most of their bodies, according to lawyer Michael Hausfeld, who filed the suit.

After the war, the Allies conducted an investigation of the VW Kinderheim and tried eight VW employees, including the manager of the Wolfsburg factory, for war crimes. The German physician VW put in charge of its nursery, Hans Korbel, was executed in 1947 for the "killing by willful neglect" of the Kinderheim children, Hausfeld's statement said.