From the wiki, and I'm simplifying:
VW was handed over to the German government after being offered free-of-charge to Ford in 1948 by the British government (who ran the factory up till then).
In 1946 the produced 1000 cars per month.
In 1949, 2 cars were sold in the US.
In 1952, 12 VWs were sold in Canada.
In 1955 they produced over 1 million Beetles.
So 3 years on life support being ran by the British. Dunno how long being run by the German government before becoming GmbH.
So, we should be sending people to prison? Cause that's what happened to people involved in dieselgate. Along with the affected cars being recalled and the owners compensated.