Work on Germany's national Holocaust memorial has been halted after a company supplying materials for it was linked to the cyanide the Nazis used to gas millions of Jews.
Degussa, which won a lucrative contract to coat the vast Berlin memorial with an anti-graffiti solution, was once part-owner of the producers of Zyklon B gas used in concentration camps.
Lea Rosh, who initiated the project 15 years ago, said yesterday that several of the 2,700 concrete slabs comprising the memorial which had already been treated would have to be recast.
"This is not an easy decision to make," she said. "But while the memorial committee would have no problem working with a company that produced buttons for SS uniforms, working with a company connected to Zyklon B oversteps the mark."
Completion of the memorial, due next autumn after numerous delays, has been postponed indefinitely while a new supplier is sought.
Degussa used to own 42.2 per cent of Degesch GmbH, the producers of Zyklon B.
A report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper said that some members of the memorial foundation did not want to cut ties with Degussa. They said the firm had dealt openly with its past and had compensated slave labourers from the Nazi years.
But the majority agreed that "a company that profited from the destruction of Jews should not be allowed to profit from their memory".
Degussa said it would make a statement in due course.
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