German Volkswagen Transporter retro van parked at the city street. Image by iStock

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Volkswagen, the car manufacturing giant, is joining with the Anti-Defamation League to fund a Berlin-based office that will research and combat anti-Semitism in Europe.

“The initiative will focus on assessing the root causes of anti-Semitism, extremism, and bigotry in society and develop programs to counter it through advocacy and education,” ADL said in a release Tuesday.

A Volkswagen spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the venture would open an ADL office in Berlin, the first ADL presence in Europe in more than a decade. The funding, over the three years, would be in the low seven figures, the official said, with an option to expand and continue the initiative thereafter.

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Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, the largest car manufacturer in the world, announced the bid Monday at the ADL’s annual Washington conference. In an interview with JTA, he said he was concerned about the recent spike in anti-Semitism in Europe, and that Volkswagen had a special obligation to combat racism because of its origins in Nazi Germany.

“We have more obligation than others,” he said. “The whole company was built up by the Nazi regime.”

The initiative will have four components: Education in schools, education in workplaces, lobbying in European capitals, and research through surveys.

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