WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER, by Antony C. Sutton

WALL STREET AND
THE RISE OF HITLER
By
Antony C. Sutton

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Unexplored Facets of Naziism
PART ONE: Wall Street Builds Nazi Industry
Chapter One
Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler
1924: The Dawes Plan
1928: The Young Plan
B.I.S. — The Apex of Control
Building the German Cartels
Chapter Two
The Empire of I.G. Farben
The Economic Power of I.G. Farben
Polishing I.G. Farben's Image
The American I.G. Farben

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WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER, by Antony C. Sutton

Chapter Three
General Electric Funds Hitler
General Electric in Weimar, Germany
General Electric & the Financing of Hitler
Technical Cooperation with Krupp
A.E.G. Avoids the Bombs in World War II
Chapter FourStandard Oil Duels World War II
Ethyl Lead for the Wehrmacht
Standard Oil and Synthetic Rubber
The Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum A.G.
Chapter Five
I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War
Baron Kurt von Schröder and I.T.T.
Westrick, Texaco, and I.T.T.
I.T.T. in Wartime Germany
PART TWO: Wall Street and Funds for Hitler
Chapter Six
Henry Ford and the Nazis
Henry Ford: Hitler's First Foreign Banker
Henry Ford Receives a Nazi Medal
Ford Assists the German War Effort
Chapter Seven
Who Financed Adolf Hitler?
Some Early Hitler Backers
Fritz Thyssen and W.A. Harriman Company
Financing Hitler in the March 1933 Elections
The 1933 Political Contributions

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WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER, by Antony C. Sutton

Chapter Eight
Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt
Putzi's Role in the Reichstag Fire
Roosevelt's New Deal and Hitler's New Order
Chapter Nine
Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle
The S.S. Circle of Friends
I.G. Farben and the Keppler Circle
Wall Street and the S.S. Circle
Chapter Ten
The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"
Who Was "Sidney Warburg"?
Synopsis of the Suppressed "Warburg" Book
James Paul Warbur's Affidavit
Some Conclusions from the "Warburg" Story
Chapter Eleven
Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War II
American I.G. in World War II
Were American Industrialists and Financiers
Guilty of War Crimes?
Chapter Twelve
Conclusions
The Pervasive Influence of International Bankers
Is the United States Ruled by a Dictatorial Elite?
The New York Elite as a Subversive ForceThe Slowly Emerging Revisionist Truth

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WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER, by Antony C. Sutton

Appendix A
Program of the National Socialist German
Workers Party
Appendix B
Affidavit of Hjalmar Schacht
Appendix C
Entries in the "National Trusteeship" AccountAppendix D
Letter from the U.S. War Department toEthyl Corporation
Appendix E
Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany)
Footnotes
Bibliography
Index

*****
Dedicated to the memory of Floyd Paxton —entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and American,
who believed in and worked for individual rights
in a free society under the Constitution*****
Copyright 2000

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WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER, by Antony C. Sutton

This work was created with the permission of Antony
C. Sutton.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced without written permission from theauthor, except by a reviewer who may quote brief
passages in connection with a review.
HTML version created in the United States ofAmerica by Studies in Reformed Theology

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PREFACE

PREFACEThis is the third and final volume of a trilogy describing the role of the American corporatesocialists, otherwise known as the Wall Street financial elite or the Eastern Liberal
Establishment, in three significant twentieth-century historical events: the 1917
Lenin-Trotsky Revolution in Russia, the 1933 election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the
United States, and the 1933 seizure of power by Adolf Hitler in Germany.
Each of these events introduced some variant of socialism into a major country — i.e.,
Bolshevik socialism in Russia, New Deal socialism in the United States, and Nationalsocialism in Germany.
Contemporary academic histories, with perhaps the sole exception of Carroll Quigley's
Tragedy And Hope, ignore this evidence. On the other hand, it is understandable that
universities and research organizations, dependent on financial aid from foundations that arecontrolled by this same New York financial elite, would hardly want to support and to
publish research on these aspects of international politics. The bravest of trustees is unlikely
to bite the hand that feeds his organization.
It is also eminently clear from the evidence in this trilogy that "public-spirited businessmen"
do not journey to Washington as lobbyists and administrators in order to serve the UnitedStates. They are in Washington to serve their own profit-maximizing interests. Their
purpose is not to further a competitive, free-market economy, but to manipulate a politicized
regime, call it what you will, to their own advantage.
It is business manipulation of Hitler's accession to power in March 1933 that is the topic ofWall Street and the Rise of Hitler.
ANTONY C. SUTTON
July, 1976

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INTRODUCTION: Unexplored Facets of Naziism

INTRODUCTION
Unexplored Facets of Naziism
Since the early 1920s unsubstantiated reports have circulated to the effect that not only
German industrialists, but also Wall Street financiers, had some role — possibly a
substantial role — in the rise of Hitler and Naziism. This book presents previously
unpublished evidence, a great deal from files of the Nuremburg Military Tribunals, tosupport this hypothesis. However, the full impact and suggestiveness of the evidence cannot
be found from reading this volume alone. Two previous books in this series, Wall Street andthe Bolshevik Revolution1 and Wall Street and FDR,2 described the roles of the same firms,
and often the same individuals and their fellow directors, hard at work manipulating andassisting the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, backing Franklin D. Roosevelt for
President in the United States in 1933, as well as aiding the rise of Hitler in pre-war
Germany. in brief, this book is part of a more extensive study of the rise of modernsocialism and the corporate socialists.
This politically active Wall Street group is more or less the same elitist circle known
generally among Conservatives as the "Liberal Establishment," by liberals (for instance G.
William Domhoff) as "the ruling class,"3 and by conspiratorial theorists Gary Allen4 and
Dan Smoot5 as the "Insiders." But whatever we call this self-perpetuating elitist group, it isapparently fundamentally significant in the determination of world affairs, at a level far
behind and above that of the elected politicians.
The influence and work of this same group in the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany is the
topic of this book. This is an area of historical research almost totally unexplored by theacademic world. It is an historical minefield for the unwary and the careless not aware of the
intricacies of research procedures. The Soviets have long accused Wall Street bankers ofbacking international fascism, but their own record of historical accuracy hardly lends theiraccusations much credence in the West, and they do not of course criticize support of theirown brand of fascism.
This author falls into a different camp. Previously accused of being overly critical of
Sovietism and domestic socialism, while ignoring Wall Street and the rise of Hitler, thisbook hopefully will redress an assumed and quite inaccurate philosophical imbalance andemphasize the real point at issue: Whatever you call the collectivist system — Soviet
socialism, New Deal socialism, corporate socialism, or National socialism — it is theaverage citizen, the guy in the street, that ultimately loses out to the boys running theoperation at the top. Each system in its own way is a system of plunder, an organizational
device to get everyone living (or attempting to live) at the expense of everyone else, while
the elitist leaders, the rulers and the politicians, scalp the cream off the top.
The role of this American power elite in the rise of Hitler should also be viewed inconjunction with a little-known aspect of Hitlerism only now being explored: the mystical
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INTRODUCTION: Unexplored Facets of Naziism

origins of Naziism, and its relations with the Thule Society and with other conspiratorialgroups. This author is no expert on occultism or conspiracy, but it is obvious that the
mystical origins, the neo-pagan historical roots of Naziism, the Bavarian Illuminati and theThule Society, are relatively unknown areas yet to be explored by technically competentresearchers. Some research is already recorded in French; probably the best introduction in
English is a translation of Hitler et la Tradition Cathare by Jean Michel Angebert.6
Angebert reveals the 1933 crusade of Schutzstaffel member Otto Rahn in search of the Holy
Grail, which was supposedly located in the Cathar stronghold in Southern France. The earlyNazi hierarchy (Hitler and Himmler, as well as Rudolph Hess and Rosenberg) was steepedin a neo-pagan theology, in part associated with the Thule Society, whose ideals were close
to those of the Bavarian Illuminati. This was a submerged driving force behind Naziism,with a powerful mystical hold over the hard-core S.S. faithful. Our contemporary
establishment historians barely mention, let alone explore, these occult origins;consequently, they miss an element equally as important as the financial origins of National
Socialism.
In 1950 James Stewart Martin published a very readable book, All Honorable Men7
describing his experiences as Chief of the Economic Warfare Section of the Department ofJustice investigating the structure of Nazi industry. Martin asserts that American and British
businessmen got themselves appointed to key positions in this post-war investigation todivert, stifle and muffle investigation of Nazi industrialists and so keep hidden their own
involvement. One British officer was sentenced by court martial to two years in jail for
protecting a Nazi, and several American officials were removed from their positions. Why
would American and British businessmen want to protect Nazi businessmen? In public theyargued that these were merely German businessmen who had nothing to do with the Nazi
regime and were innocent of complicity in Nazi conspiracies. Martin does not explore this
explanation in depth, but he is obviously unhappy and skeptical about it. The evidence
suggests there was a concerted effort not only to protect Nazi businessmen, but also toprotect the collaborating elements from American and British business.
The German businessmen could have disclosed a lot of uncomfortable facts: In return forprotection, they told very little. It is undoubtedly not coincidental that the Hitler
industrialists on trial at Nuremburg received less than a slap on the wrist. We raise thequestion of whether the Nuremburg trials should not have been held in Washington — witha few prominent U.S. businessmen as well as Nazi businessmen in the dock!
Two extracts from contemporary sources will introduce and suggest the theme to be
expanded. The first extract is from Roosevelt's own files. The U.S. Ambassador in
Germany, William Dodd, wrote FDR from Berlin on October 19, 1936 (three years after
Hitler came to power), concerning American industrialists and their aid to the Nazis:
Much as I believe in peace as our best policy, I cannot avoid the fears which
Wilson emphasized more than once in conversations with me, August 15, 1915
and later: the breakdown of democracy in all Europe will be a disaster to thepeople. But what can you do? At the present moment more than a hundred
American corporations have subsidiaries here or cooperative understandings.

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INTRODUCTION: Unexplored Facets of Naziism

The DuPonts have three allies in Germany that are aiding in the armamentbusiness. Their chief ally is the I. G. Farben Company, a part of theGovernment which gives 200,000 marks a year to one propaganda
organization operating on American opinion. Standard Oil Company (NewYork sub-company) sent $2,000,000 here in December 1933 and has made$500,000 a year helping Germans make Ersatz gas for war purposes; but
Standard Oil cannot take any of its earnings out of the country except in goods.
They do little of this, report their earnings at home, but do not explain the facts.
The International Harvester Company president told me their business hererose 33% a year (arms manufacture, I believe), but they could take nothing out.
Even our airplanes people have secret arrangement with Krupps. General
Motor Company and Ford do enormous businesses/sic] here through theirsubsidiaries and take no profits out. I mention these facts because they
complicate things and add to war dangers.8
Second, a quote from the diary of the same U.S. Ambassador in Germany. The reader
should bear in mind that a representative of the cited Vacuum Oil Company — as well as
representatives of other Nazi, supporting American firms — was appointed to the post-war
Control Commission to de-Nazify the Nazis:
January 25. Thursday. Our Commercial Attache brought Dr. Engelbrecht,
chairman of the Vacuum Oil Company in Hamburg, to see me. Engelbrecht
repeated what he had said a year ago: "The Standard Oil Company of New
York, the parent company of the Vacuum, has spent 10,000,000 marks inGermany trying to find oil resources and building a great refinery near the
Hamburg harbor." Engelbrecht is still boring wells and finding a good deal of
crude oil in the Hanover region, but he had no hope of great deposits. He
hopes Dr. Schacht will subsidize his company as he does some German
companies that have found no crude oil. The Vacuum spends all its earnings
here, employs 1,000 men and never sends any of its money home. I could give
him no encouragement.9
And further:
These men were hardly out of the building before the lawyer came in again toreport his difficulties. I could not do anything. I asked him, however: Why did
the Standard Oil Company of New York send $1,000,000 over here in
December, 1933, to aid the Germans in making gasoline from soft coal for war
emergencies? Why do the International Harvester people continue tomanufacture in Germany when their company gets nothing out of the country
and when it has failed to collect its war losses? He saw my point and agreed
that it looked foolish and that it only means greater losses if another war
breaks loose.10
The alliance between Nazi political power and American "Big Business" may well havelooked foolish to Ambassador Dodd and the American attorney he questioned. In practice,of course, "Big Business" is anything but foolish when it comes to promoting its own
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INTRODUCTION: Unexplored Facets of Naziism

self-interest. Investment in Nazi Germany (along with similar investments in the Soviet
Union) was a reflection of higher policies, with much more than immediate profit at stake,even though profits could not be repatriated. To trace these "higher policies" one has topenetrate the financial control of multinational corporations, because those who control theflow of finance ultimately control the day-to-day policies.
Carroll Quigley11 has shown that the apex of this international financial control systembefore World War II was the Bank for International Settlements, with representatives fromthe international banking firms of Europe and the United States, in an arrangement that
continued throughout World War II. During the Nazi period, Germany's representative at the
Bank for International Settlements was Hitler's financial genius and president of theReichsbank, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.
Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht
Wall Street involvement with Hitler's Germany highlights two Germans with Wall Street
connections — Hjalmar Schacht and "Putzi" Hanfstaengl. The latter was a friend of Hitler
and Roosevelt who played a suspiciously prominent role in the incident that brought Hitler
to the peak of dictatorial power — the Reichstag fire of 1933.12
The early history of Hjalmar Schacht, and in particular his role in the Soviet Union after the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, was described in my earlier book, Wall Street and the
Bolshevik Revolution. The elder Schacht had worked at the Berlin office of the Equitable
Trust Company of New York in the early twentieth century. Hjalmar was born in Germany
rather than New York only by the accident of his mother's illness, which required the family
to return to Germany. Brother William Schacht was an American-born citizen. To record his
American origins, Hjalmar's middle names were designated "Horace Greeley" after thewell-know Democrat politician. Consequently, Hjalmar spoke fluent English and thepost-war interrogation of Schacht in Project Dustbin was conducted in both German andEnglish. The point to be made is that the Schacht family had its origins in New York,
worked for the prominent Wall Street financial house of Equitable Trust (which wascontrolled by the Morgan firm), and throughout his life Hjalmar retained these Wall Street
connections.13 Newspapers and contemporary sources record repeated visits with Owen
Young of General Electric; Farish, chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey; and theirbanking counterparts. In brief, Schacht was a member of the international financial elite thatwields its power behind the scenes through the political apparatus of a nation. He is a key
link between the Wall Street elite and Hitler's inner circle.
This book is divided into two major parts. Part One records the buildup of German cartels
through the Dawes and Young Plans in the 1920s. These cartels were the major supportersof Hitler and Naziism and were directly responsible for bringing the Nazis to power in 1933.
The roles of American I. G. Farben, General Electric, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Ford, andother U.S. firms is outlined. Part Two presents the known documentary evidence on thefinancing of Hitler, complete with photographic reproduction of the bank transfer slips used
to transfer funds from Farben, General Electric, and other firms to Hitler, through Hjalmar
Horace Greeley Schacht.
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Footnotes:
1(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1974)
2(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1975)
3The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America, (New York: Vintage,

1970)
4None Dare Call It Conspiracy, (Rossmoor: Concord Press, 1971). For anotherview based on "inside" documents, see Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope,(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966)
5The Invisible Government, (Boston: Western Islands, 1962)
6Published in English as The Occult and the Third Reich, (The mystical origins

of Naziism and the search for the Holy Grail), (New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1974). See also Reginald H. Phelps, " 'Before Hitler Came:' ThuleSociety and Germanen Orden" in the Journal of Modern History, September
1968, No. 3.
7(Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1950)
8Edgar B. Nixon, ed., Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, Volume III:

September 1935-January 1937, (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1969), p. 456.
9Edited by William E. Dodd Jr. and Martha Dodd, Ambassador Dodd's Diary,

1933-1938, (New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1941), p. 303.
10Ibid, p. 358.
11Quigley, op. cit.
12For more information about "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, see Chapter Nine.
13See Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit., for Sehacht's

relations with Soviets and Wall Street, and his directorship of a Soviet bank.

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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

CHAPTER ONE
Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler
The Dawes Plan, adopted in August 1924, fitted perfectly into the plans of theGerman General Staffs military economists. (Testimony before United States
Senate, Committee on Military Affairs, 1946.)
The post-World War II Kilgore Committee of the United States Senate heard detailed
evidence from government officials to the effect that,...when the Nazis came to power in 1933, they found that long strides had been
made since 1918 in preparing Germany for war from an economic andindustrial point of view.1
This build-up for European war both before and after 1933 was in great part due to WallStreet financial assistance in the 1920s to create the German cartel system, and to technicalassistance from well-known American firms which will be identified later, to build theGerman Wehrmacht. Whereas this financial and technical assistance is referred to as"accidental" or due to the "short-sightedness" of American businessmen, the evidence
presented below strongly suggests some degree of premeditation on the part of these
American financiers. Similar and unacceptable pleas of "accident" were made on behalf ofAmerican financiers and industrialists in the parallel example of building the military powerof the Soviet Union from 1917 onwards. Yet these American capitalists were willing tofinance and subsidize the Soviet Union while the Vietnam war was underway, knowing that
the Soviets were supplying the other side.
The contribution made by American capitalism to German war preparations before 1940 can
only be described as phenomenal. It was certainly crucial to German military capabilities.
For instance, in 1934 Germany produced domestically only 300,000 tons of natural
petroleum products and less than 800,000 tons of synthetic gasoline; the balance wasimported. Yet, ten years later in World War II, after transfer of the Standard Oil of New
Jersey hydrogenation patents and technology to I. G. Farben (used to produce synthetic
gasoline from coal), Germany produced about 6 1/2 million tons of oil — of which 85
percent (5 1/2 million tons) was synthetic oil using the Standard Oil hydrogenation process.
Moreover, the control of synthetic oil output in Germany was held by the I. G. Farben
subsidiary, Braunkohle-Benzin A. G., and this Farben cartel itself was created in 1926 with
Wall Street financial assistance.
On the other hand, the general impression left with the reader by modern historians is that
this American technical assistance was accidental and that American industrialists were
innocent of wrongdoing. For example, the Kilgore Committee stated:
The United States accidentally played an important role in the technical
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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

arming of Germany. Although the German military planners had ordered andpersuaded manufacturing corporations to install modern equipment for mass
production, neither the military economists nor the corporations seem to haverealized to the full extent what that meant. Their eyes were opened when two of
the chief American automobile companies built plants in Germany in order tosell in the European market, without the handicap of ocean freight charges andhigh German tariffs. Germans were brought to Detroit to learn the techniquesof specialized production of components, and of straight-line assembly. Whatthey saw caused further reorganization and refitting of other key German war
plants. The techniques learned in Detroit were eventually used to construct thedive-bombing Stukas .... At a later period I. G. Farben representatives in thiscountry enabled a stream of German engineers to visit not only plane plants
but others of military importance, in which they learned a great deal that was
eventually used against the United States.2
Following these observations, which emphasize the "accidental" nature of the assistance, it
has been concluded by such academic writers as Gabriel Kolko, who is not usually asupporter of big business, that:
It is almost superfluous to point out that the motives of the American firmsbound to contracts with German concerns Were not pro. Nazi, whatever elsethey may have been.3
Yet, Kolko to the contrary, analyses of the contemporary American business press confirm
that business journals and newspapers were fully aware of the Nazi threat and its nature,
while warning their business readers of German war preparations. And even Kolko admits
that:
The business press [in the United States] was aware, from 1935 on, that
German prosperity was based on war preparations. More important, it was
conscious of the fact that German industry was under the control of the Nazis
and was being directed to serve Germany's rearmament, and the firm
mentioned most frequently in this context was the giant chemical empire, I. G.
Farben.4
Further, the evidence presented below suggests that not only was an influential sector of
American business aware of the nature of Naziism, but for its own purposes aided Naziism
wherever possible (and profitable) —with full knowledge that the probable outcome would
be war involving Europe and the United States. As we shall see, the pleas of innocence do
not accord with the facts.
1924: The Dawes Plan
The Treaty of Versailles after World War I imposed a heavy reparations burden on defeated
Germany. This financial burden — a real cause of the German discontent that led toacceptance of Hitlerism — was utilized by the international bankers for their own benefit.
The opportunity to float profitable loans for German cartels in the United States was
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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

presented by the Dawes Plan and later the Young Plan. Both plans were engineered by thesecentral bankers, who manned the committees for their own pecuniary advantages, andalthough technically the committees were not appointed by the U.S. Government, the plans
were in fact approved and sponsored by the Government.
Post-war haggling by financiers and politicians fixed German reparations at an annual fee of
132 billion gold marks. This was about one quarter of Germany's total 1921 exports. When
Germany was unable to make these crushing payments, France and Belgium occupied the
Ruhr to take by force what could not be obtained voluntarily. In 1924 the Allies appointed acommittee of bankers (headed by American banker Charles G. Dawes) to develop a programof reparations payments. The resulting Dawes Plan was, according to Georgetown
University Professor of International Relations Carroll Quigley, "largely a J.P. Morgan
production."5 The Dawes Plan arranged a series of foreign loans totaling $800 million with
their proceeds flowing to Germany. These loans are important for our story because theproceeds, raised for the greater part in the United States from dollar investors, were utilized
in the mid-1920s to create and consolidate the gigantic chemical and steel combinations of I.
G. Farben and Vereinigte Stahlwerke, respectively. These cartels not only helped Hitler topower in 1933; they also produced the bulk of key German war materials used in WorldWar II.
Between 1924 and 1931, under the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan, Germany paid out tothe Allies about 86 billion marks in reparations. At the same time Germany borrowed
abroad, mainly in the U.S., about 138 billion marks — thus making a net German payment
of only three billion marks for reparations. Consequently, the burden of German monetary
reparations to the Allies was actually carried by foreign subscribers to German bonds issued
by Wall Street financial houses — at significant profits for themselves, of course. And, let it
be noted, these firms were owned by the same financiers who periodically took off theirbanker hats and donned new ones to become "statesmen." As "statesmen" they formulated
the Dawes and Young Plans to "solve" the "problem" of reparations. As bankers, theyfloated the loans. As Carroll Quigley points out,
It is worthy of note that this system was set up by the inter. national bankers
and that the subsequent lending of other people's money to Germany was very
profitable to these bankers.6
Who were the New York international bankers who formed these reparations commissions?
The 1924 Dawes Plan experts from the United States were banker Charles Dawes andMorgan representative Owen Young, who was president of the General Electric Company.
Dawes was chairman of the Allied Committee of Experts in 1924. In 1929 Owen Youngbecame chairman of the Committee of Experts, supported by J.P. Morgan himself, withalternates T. W. Lamont, a Morgan partner, and T. N. Perkins, a banker with Morgan
associations. In other words, the U.S. delegations were purely and simply, as Quigley has
pointed out, J. P. Morgan delegations using the authority and seal of the United States topromote financial plans for their own pecuniary advantage. As a result, as Quigley puts it,
the "international bankers sat in heaven, under a rain of fees and commissions."7

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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

The German members of the Committee of Experts were equally interesting. In 1924
Hjalmar Schacht was president of the Reichsbank and had taken a prominent role inorganization work for the Dawes Plan; so did German banker Carl Melchior. One of the1928 German delegates was A. Voegler of the German steel cartel Stahlwerke Vereinigte. In
brief, the two significant countries involved — the United States and Germany —wererepresented by the Morgan bankers on one side and Schacht and Voegler on the other, bothof whom were key characters in the rise of Hitler's Germany and subsequent German
rearmament.
Finally, the members and advisors of the Dawes and Young Commissions were not only
associated with New York financial houses but, as we shall later see, were directors of firms
within the German cartels which aided Hitler to power.
1928: The Young Plan
According to Hitler's financial genie, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, and Nazi
industrialist Fritz Thyssen, it was the 1928 Young Plan (the successor to the Dawes Plan),
formulated by Morgan agent Owen D. Young, that brought Hitler to power in 1933.
Fritz Thyssen claims that,
I turned to the National Socialist Party only after I became convinced that thefight against the Young Plan was unavoidable if complete collapse of Germany
was to be prevented.8
The difference between the Young Plan and the Dawes Plan was that, while the Young Plan
required payments in goods produced in Germany financed by foreign loans, the Young
Plan required monetary payments and "In my judgment [wrote Thyssen] the financial debt
thus created was bound to disrupt the entire economy of the Reich."
The Young Plan was assertedly a device to occupy Germany with American capital andpledge German real assets for a gigantic mortgage held in the United States. It is noteworthy
that German firms with U.S. affiliations evaded the Plan by the device of temporary foreign
ownership. For instance, A.E.G. (German General Electric), affiliated with General Electricin the U.S., was sold to a Franco-Belgian holding company and evaded the conditions of theYoung Plan. It should be noted in passing that Owen Young was the major financial backer
for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United European venture when FDR, as a budding WallStreet financier, endeavoured to take advantage of Germany's 1925 hyperinflation. The
United European venture was a vehicle to speculate and to profit upon the imposition of theDawes Plan, and is clear evidence of private financiers (including Franklin D. Roosevelt)
using the power of the state to advance their own interests by manipulating foreign policy.
Schacht's parallel charge that Owen Young was responsible for the rise of Hitler, whileobviously self-serving, is recorded in a U.S. Government Intelligence report relating theinterrogation of Dr. Fritz Thyssen in September, 1945:
The acceptance of the Young Plan and its financial principles increased
unemployment more and more, until about one million were unemployed.
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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

People were desperate. Hitler said he would do away with unemployment. The
government in power at that time was very bad, and the situation of the people
was getting worse. That really was the reason of the enormous success Hitler
had in the election. When the last election came, he got about 40%.9
However, it was Schacht, not Owen Young, who conceived the idea which later became the
Bank for International Settlements. The actual details were worked out at a conference
presided over by Jackson Reynolds, "one of the leading New York bankers," together with
Melvin Traylor of the First National Bank of Chicago, Sir Charles Addis, formerly of theHong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and various French and German bankers.10
The B.I.S. was essential under the Young Plan as a means to afford a ready instrument for
promoting international financial relations. According to his own statements, Schacht also
gave Owen Young the idea that later became the post-World War II International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development:"A bank of this kind will demand financial co-operation be, tween vanquishedand victors that will lead to community of interests which in turn will give rise
to mutual confidence and understanding and thus promote and ensure peace."
I can still vividly recall the setting in which this conversation took place. Owen
Young was seated in his armchair puffing away at his pipe, his legs
outstretched, his keen eyes fixed unswervingly on me. As is my habit when
propounding such arguments I was doing a quiet steady "quarter-deck" up anddown the room. When I had finished there was a brief pause. Then his wholeface lighted up and his resolve found utterance in the words:"Dr. Schacht, you gave me a wonderful idea and I am going to sell it to theworld.11
B.I.S. — The Apex of Control
This interplay of ideas and cooperation between Hjalmar Sehacht in Germany and, throughOwen Young, the J.P. Morgan interests in New York, was only one facet of a vast andambitious system of cooperation and international alliance for world control. As describedby Carroll Quigley, this system was "... nothing less than to create a world system offinancial control, in private hands, able to dominate the political system of each country andthe economy of the world as a whole.12
This feudal system worked in the 1920s, as it works today, through the medium of theprivate central bankers in each country who control the national money supply of individual
economies. In the 1920s and 1930s, the New York Federal Reserve System, the Bank ofEngland, the Reichs-bank in Germany, and the Banque de France also more or lessinfluenced the political apparatus of their respective countries indirectly through control ofthe money supply and creation of the monetary environment. More direct influence wasrealized by supplying political funds to, or withdrawing support from, politicians andpolitical parties. In the United States, for example, President Herbert Hoover blamed his
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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

and influence to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Politicians amenable to the objectives of financial capitalism, and academies prolific withideas for world control useful to the international bankers, are kept in line with a system of
rewards and penalties. In the early 1930s the guiding vehicle for this international system offinancial and political control, called by Quigley the "apex of the system," was the Bank forInternational Settlements in Basle, Switzerland. The B.I.S. apex continued its work during
World War II as the medium through which the bankers — who apparently were not at war
with each other — continued a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas, information, andplanning for the post-war world. As one writer has observed, war made no difference to theinternational bankers:
The fact that the Bank possessed a truly international staff did, of course,
present a highly anomalous situation in time of war. An American President
was transacting the daily business of the Bank through a French General
Manager, who had a German Assistant General Manager, while theSecretary-General was an Italian subject. Other nationals occupied otherposts. These men were, of course, in daily personal contact with each other.
Except for Mr. McKittrick [see infra] theft were of course situated permanently
in Switzerland during this period and were not supposed to be subject to ordersof their government at any time. However, the directors of the Bank remained,of course, in their respective countries and had no direct contact with thepersonnel of the Bank. It is alleged, however, that H. Schacht, president of theReichsbank, kept a personal representative in Basle during most of this time.13
It was such secret meetings, "... meetings more secret than any ever held by Royal Ark
Masons or by any Rosicrucian Order..."14 between the central bankers at the "apex" ofcontrol that so intrigued contemporary journalists, although they only rarely and briefly
penetrated behind the mask of secrecy.
Building the German Cartels
A practical example of international finance operating behind the scenes to build andmanipulate politico-economic systems is found in the German cartel system. The threelargest loans handled by the Wall Street international bankers for German borrowers in the
1920s under the Dawes Plan were for the benefit of three German cartels which a few years
later aided Hitler and the Nazis to power. American financiers were directly represented on
the boards of two of these three German cartels. This American assistance to German cartels
has been described by James Martin as follows: "These loans for reconstruction became avehicle for arrangements that did more to promote World War II than to establish peace
after World War I.15
The three dominant cartels, the amounts borrowed and the Wall Street floating syndicate
were as follows:
German Cartel

Wall Street
SyndicateAmount Issued

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Allgemeine
National City
ElektrizitatsCo.
Gesellschaft(A.E.G.)(German General
Electric)
Vereinigte
Dillon, Read &Stahlwerke
Co.
(United Steelworks)
American I.G.
National City
Chemical (I.G.
Co.
Farben)$35,000,000$70,225,000$30,000,000

Looking at all the loans issued, it appears that only a handful of New York financial houses
handled the German reparations financing. Three houses — Dillon, Read Co.; Harris,
Forbes & Co.; and National City Company — issued almost three-quarters of the total face
amount of the loans and reaped most of the profits:
Participationin
GermanWall Street
industrial
Profits on
Syndicateissues in U.S.
GermanPercent
Manager
capital market
loans*of total
Dillon, Read & Co.
$241,325,000 $2.7 million
29.2
Harris, Forbes & Co.
186,500,000 1.4 million
22.6
20.9
National City Co.
173,000,000 5.0 million
Speyer & Co.
59,500,000 0.6 million
7.2
Lee, Higginson &53,000,000
n.a
6.4
Co.
Guaranty Co. of
41,575,000 0.2 million
5.0
N.Y.
Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
37,500,000 0.2 million
4.5
Equitable Trust Co.
34,000,000 0.3 million
4.1___________ ___________ _________
TOTAL$826,400,000 $10.4 million
99.9
Source: See Appendix A*Robert R. Kuczynski, Bankers Profits from German Loans(Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1932), p. 127.
After the mid-1920s the two major German combines of I.G. Farben and Vereinigte
Stahlwerke dominated the chemical and steel cartel system created by these loans.
Although these firms. had a voting majority in the cartels for only two or three basic
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products, they were able — through control of these basics — to enforce their willthroughout the cartel. I.G. Farben was the main producer of basic chemicals used byother combines making chemicals, so its economic power position cannot be measured
only by its capacity to produce a few basic chemicals. Similarly, Vereinigte Stahlwerke,with a pig-iron capacity greater than that of all other German iron and steel producers
combined, was able to exercise far more influence in the semi-finished iron and steel
products cartel than its capacity for pig-iron production suggests. Even so thepercentage output of these cartels for all products was significant:Vereinigte Stahlwerke
products
Pig iron
Pipes and tubes
Heavy plate
Explosives
Coal tar
Bar steel

I.G. Farben
Synthetic methanol
Magnesium
Chemical nitrogen
Explosives
Synthetic gasoline(high octane)
Brown coal

Percent of German total
production in 1938
50.8
45.5
36.0
35.0
33.3
37.1

Percent of German total
production in 1937
100.0
100.0
70.0
60.0
46.0 (1945)
20.0

Among the products that brought I.G. Farben and Vereinigte Stahlwerke into mutual
collaboration were coal tar and chemical nitrogen, both of prime importance for the
manufacture of explosives. I. G. Farben had a cartel position that assured dominancein the manufacture and sale of chemical nitrogen, but had only about one percent of
the cok-ing capacity of Germany. Hence an agreement was made under which Farben
explosives subsidiaries obtained their benzol, toluol, and other primary coal-tar
products on terms dictated by Vereinigte Stahlwerke, while Vereinigte Stahlwerke's
explosives subsidiary was dependent for its nitrates on terms set by Farben. Under thissystem of mutual collaboration and inter-dependence, the two cartels, I.G. Farben andVereinigte Stahlwerke, produced 95 percent of German .explosives in 1957-8 on theeve of World War II. This production was from capacity built by American loans and to
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some extent by American technology.
The I. G. Farben-Standard Oil cooperation for production of synthetic oil from coalgave the I. G. Farben cartel a monopoly of German gasoline production during WorldWar II. Just under one half of German high octane gasoline in 1945 was produced
directly by I. G. Farben and most of the balance by its affiliated companies.
In brief, in synthetic gasoline and explosives (two of the very basic elements of modern
warfare), the control of German World War II output was in the hands of two German
combines created by Wall Street loans under the Dawes Plan.
Moreover, American assistance to Nazi war efforts extended into other areas.17 The
two largest tank producers in Hitler's Germany were Opel, a wholly owned subsidiaryof General Motors (controlled by the J.P. Morgan firm), and the Ford A. G. subsidiaryof the Ford Motor Company of Detroit. The Nazis granted tax-exempt status to Opel in
1936, to enable General Motors to expand its production facilities. General Motors
obligingly reinvested the resulting profits into German industry. Henry Ford was
decorated by the Nazis for his services to Naziism. (See p. 93.) Alcoa and Dow
Chemical worked closely with Nazi industry with numerous transfers of their domestic
U.S. technology. Bendix Aviation, in which the J.P. Morgan-controlled General Motors
firm had a major stock interest, supplied Siemens & Halske A. G. in Germany withdata on automatic pilots and aircraft instruments. As late as 1940, in the "unofficial
war," Bendix Aviation supplied complete technical data to Robert Bosch for aircraft
and diesel engine starters and received royalty payments in return.
In brief, American companies associated with the Morgan-Rockefeller international
investment bankers — not, it should be noted, the vast bulk of independent Americanindustrialists — were intimately related to the growth of Nazi industry. It is important
to note as we develop our story that General Motors, Ford, General Electric, DuPont
and the handful of U.S. companies intimately involved with the development of Nazi
Germany were — except for the Ford Motor Company — controlled by the WallStreet elite — the J.P. Morgan firm, the Rockefeller Chase Bank and to a lesser extent
the Warburg Manhattan bank.18 This book is not an indictment of all Americanindustry and finance. It is an indictment of the "apex" — those firms controlled
through the handful of financial houses, the Federal Reserve Bank system, the Bankfor International Settlements, and their continuing international cooperative
arrangements and cartels which attempt to control the course of world politics andeconomics.
Footnotes:
1United States Congress. Senate. Hearings before a Subcommittee of theCommittee on Military Affairs. Elimination of German Resources for War.
Report pursuant to S. Res. 107 and 146, July 2, 1945, Part 7, (78thCongress and 79th Congress), (Washington: Government Printing Office,1945), hereafter cited as Elimination of German Resources.

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CHAPTER ONE: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler

2Elimination of German Resources, p. 174.
3Gabriel Kolko, "American Business and Germany, 1930-1941," The

Western Political Quarterly, Volume XV, 1962.
4Ibid, p. 715.
5Carroll Quigley, op. cit.
6Ibid, p. 308.
7Carroll Quigley, op. cit., p. 309.
8Fritz Thyssen, I Paid Hitler, (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., n.d.), p.

88.
9U.S. Group Control Council (Germany), Office of the Director ofIntelligence, Intelligence Report No. EF/ME/1, 4 September 1945. Also see
Hjalmar Schacht, Confessions of "the old Wizard", (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1956)
10Hjalmar Schacht, op cit., p. 18. Fritz Thyssen adds, "Even at the time

Mr, Dillon, a New York Banker of Jewish origin whom I much admire told
me 'In your place I would not sign the plan.'"
11Ibid, p. 282.
12Carroll Quigley, op. cit., p. 324.
13Henry H. Schloss, The Bank for International Settlements (Amsterdam,:

North Holland Publishing Company, 1958)
14John Hargrave, Montagu Norman, (New York: The Greystone Press,n.d.). p. 108.
15James Stewart Martin, op. cit., p. 70.
16See Chapter Seven for more details of Wall Street loans to German

industry.
17See Gabriel Kolko, op. cit., for numerous examples.
18In 1956 the Chase and Manhattan banks merged to become Chase

Manhattan.

BACK

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

CHAPTER TWO
The Empire of I.G. Farben
Farben was Hitler and Hitler was Farben. (Senator Homer T. Bone to Senate
Committee on Military Affairs, June 4, 1943.)
On the eve of World War II the German chemical complex of I.G. Farben was the largest
chemical manufacturing enterprise in the world, with extraordinary political and economic
power and influence within the Hitlerian Nazi state. I. G. has been aptly described as "a state
within a state."
The Farben cartel dated from 1925, when organizing genius Hermann Schmitz (with WallStreet financial assistance) created the super-giant chemical enterprise out of six alreadygiant German chemical companies — Badische Anilin, Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst,
Weiler-ter-Meer, and Griesheim-Elektron. These companies were merged to become
Inter-nationale Gesellschaft Farbenindustrie A.G. — or I.G. Farben for short. Twenty years
later the same Hermann Schmitz was put on trial at Nuremburg for war crimes committed
by the I. G. cartel. Other I. G. Farben directors were placed on trial but the American
affiliates of I. G. Farben and the American directors of I. G. itself were quietly forgotten; thetruth was buried in the archives.
It is these U.S. connections in Wall Street that concern us. Without the capital supplied byWall Street, there would have been no I. G. Farben in the first place and almost certainly no
Adolf Hitler and World War II.
German bankers on the Farben Aufsichsrat (the supervisory Board of Directors)1 in the late
1920s included the Hamburg banker Max War-burg, whose brother Paul Warburg was afounder of the Federal Reserve System in the United States. Not coincidentally, Paul
Warburg was also on the board of American I. G., Farben's wholly owned U.S. subsidiary.
In addition to Max Warburg and Hermann Schmitz, the guiding hand in the creation of theFarben empire, the early Farben Vorstand included Carl Bosch, Fritz ter Meer, Kurt
Oppenheim and George von Schnitzler.2 All except Max Warburg were charged as "warcriminals" after World War II.
In 1928 the American holdings of I. G. Farben (i.e., the Bayer Company, General Aniline
Works, Agfa Ansco, and Winthrop Chemical Company) were organized into a Swiss
holding company, i. G. Chemic (Inter-nationale Gesellschaft fur Chemisehe
Unternehmungen A. G.), controlled by I. G. Farben in Germany. In the following year these
American firms merged to become American I. G. Chemical Corporation, later renamed
General Aniline & Film. Hermann Schmitz, the organizer of I. G. Farben in 1925, became aprominent early Nazi and supporter of Hitler, as well as chairman of the Swiss I. G. Chemic
and president of American I. G. The Farben complex both in Germany and the United States
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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

then developed into an integral part of the formation and operation of the Nazi statemachine, the Wehrmacht and the S.S.
I. G. Farben is of peculiar interest in the formation of the Nazi state because Farben
directors materially helped. Hitler and the Nazis to power in 1933. We have photographic
evidence (see page 60) that I.G. Farben contributed 400,000 RM to Hitler's political "slush
fund." It was this secret fund which financed the Nazi seizure of control in March 1933.
Many years earlier Farben had obtained Wall Street funds for the 1925 cartelization andexpansion in Germany and $30 million for American I. G. in 1929, and had Wall Street
directors on the Farben board. It has to be noted that these funds were raised and directors
appointed years before Hitler was promoted as the German dictator.
The Economic Power of I. G. Farben
Qualified observers have argued that Germany could not have gone to war in 1939 without
I. G. Farben. Between 1927 and the beginning of World War II, I.G. Farben doubled in size,
an expansion made possible in great part by American technical assistance and by Americanbond issues, such as the one for $30 million offered by National City Bank. By 1939 I. G.
acquired a participation and managerial influence in some 380 other German firms and over
500 foreign firms. The Farben empire owned its own coal mines, its own electric power
plants, iron and steel units, banks, research units, and numerous commercial enterprises.
There were over 2,000 cartel agreements between I. G. and foreign firms — includingStandard Oil of New Jersey, DuPont, Alcoa, Dow Chemical, and others in the United States,
The full story of I,G, Farben and its world-wide ae-tivities before World War II can never beknown, as key German records were destroyed in 1945 in anticipation of Allied victory.
However, one post-war investigation by the U.S, War Department concluded that:
Without I. G.'s immense productive facilities, its intense re. search, and vastinternational affiliations, Germany's prosecution of the war would have beenunthinkable and impossible; Farben not only directed its energies towardarming Germany, but concentrated on weakening her intended victims, and thisdouble-barreled attempt to expand the German industrial potential for war andto restrict that of the rest of the world was not conceived and executed "in thenormal course of business." The proof is overwhelming that I. G. Farben
officials had full prior knowledge of Germany's plan for world conquest and ofeach specific aggressive act later undertaken ....3
Directors of Farben firms (i.e., the "I. G. Farben officials" referred to in the investigation)
included not only Germans but also prominent American financiers. This 1945 U.S. War
Department report concluded that I.G.'s assignment from Hitler in the prewar period was tomake Germany self-sufficient in rubber, gasoline, lubricating oils, magnesium, fibers,tanning agents, fats, and explosives. To fulfill this critical assignment, vast sums were spent
by I.G. on processes to extract these war materials from indigenous German raw materials in particular the plentiful German coal resources. Where these processes could not be
developed in Germany ,they were acquired from abroad under cartel arrangements. For
example, the process for iso-octane, essential for aviation fuels, was obtained from the

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

United States,... in fact entirely [from] the Americans and has become known to us in detailin its separate stages through our agreements with them [Standard Oil of New
Jersey] and is being used very extensively by us.4
The process for manufacturing tetra-ethyl lead? essential for aviation gasoline, was obtainedby I. G. Farben from the United States, and in 1939 I.G. was sold $20 million of high-grade
aviation gasoline by Standard Oil of New Jersey. Even before Germany manufactured
tetra-ethyl lead by the American process it was able to "borrow" 500 tons from the Ethyl
Corporation. This loan of vital tetra-ethyl lead was not repaid and I.G. forfeited the $1
million security. Further, I.G. purchased large stocks of magnesium from Dow Chemical for
incendiary bombs and stockpiled explosives, stabilizers, phosphorus, and cyanides from theoutside world.
In 1939, out of 43 major products manufactured by I.G., 28 were of "primary concern" to
the German armed forces. Farben's ultimate control of the German war economy, acquired
during the 1920s and 1930s with Wall Street assistance, can best be assessed by examining
the percentage of German war material output produced by Farben plants in 1945. Farben atthat time produced 100 percent of German synthetic rubber, 95 percent of German poisongas (including all the Zyklon B gas used in the concentration camps), 90 percent of German
plastics, 88 percent of German magnesium, 84 percent of German explosives, 70 percent ofGerman gunpowder, 46 percent of German high octane (aviation) gasoline, and 33 percentof German synthetic gasoline.5 (See Chart 2-1 and Table 2-1.)
Table 2-1: German Army (Wehrmacht) Dependence on I.G.
Farben Production (1943):
Percent Produced
Total German
byProduct
Production
I.G. Farben
Synthetic Rubber
118,600 tons
100
Methanol
251,000 tons
100
Lubricating Oil
60,000 tons
100
Dyestuffs
31,670 tons
98
Poison Gas—
95
Nickel2,000 tons
95
Plastics
57,000 tons
90
Magnesium
27,400 tons
88
Explosives
221,000 tons
84
Gunpowder
210,000 tons
70
High Octane(Aviation)
650,000 tons
46
Gasoline
Sulfuric Acid
707,000 tons
35

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

Chart 2-1: German Army (Wehrmacht) Dependence on I.G. Farben Production (1943)
Dr. von Schnitzler, of the I.G. Farben Aufsichsrat, made the following pertinent statement in
1943:
It is no exaggeration to say that without the services of German chemistry
performed under the Four Year Plan the prosecution of modern war would
have been unthinkable.6
Unfortunately, when we probe the technical origins of the more important of these militarymaterials — quite apart from financial Support for Hitler — we find links to Americanindustry and to American businessmen. There were numerous Farben arrangements with
American firms, including cartel marketing arrangements, patent agreements, and technicalexchanges as exemplified in the Standard Oil-Ethyl technology transfers mentioned above.
These arrangements were used by I.G. to advance Nazi policy abroad, to collect strategic
information, and to consolidate a world-wide chemical cartel.
One of the more horrifying aspects of I.G. Farben's cartel was the invention, production, anddistribution of the Zyklon B gas, used in Nazi concentration camps. Zyklon B was pure
Prussic acid, a lethal poison produced by I.G. Farben Leverkusen and sold from the Bayersales office through Degesch, an independent license holder. Sales of Zyklon B amounted toalmost three-quarters of Degesch business; enough gas to kill 200 million humans wasproduced and sold by I.G. Farben. The Kilgore Committee report of 1942 makes it clear that
the I.G. Farben directors had precise knowledge of the Nazi concentration camps and theuse of I.G. chemicals. This prior knowledge becomes significant when we later consider therole of the American directors in I.G.'s American subsidiary. The 1945 interrogation of I.G.
Farben director yon Schnitzler reads:
Q. What did you do when they told you that I.G. chemicals was [sic] being
used to kill, to murder people held in concentration camps?
A. I was horrified.
Q. Did you do anything about it?
A. I kept it for me [to myself] because it was too terrible .... I asked
Muller-Cunradi is it known to you and Ambros and other directors in
Auschwitz that the gases and chemicals are being used to murder people.
Q. What did he say?
A. Yes: it is known to all I.G. directors in Auschwitz.7
There was no attempt by I.G. Farben to halt production of the gases — a rather ineffective
way for von Schnitzler to express any concern for human life, "because it was too terrible."

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

The Berlin N.W. 7 office of I.G. Farben was the key Nazi overseas espionage center. The
unit operated under Farben director Max Ilgner, nephew of I.G. Farben president Hermann
Schmitz. Max Ilgner and Hermann Schmitz were on the board of American I.G., with fellow
directors Henry Ford of Ford Motor Company, Paul Warburg of Bank of Manhattan, andCharles E. Mitchell of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
At the outbreak o£ war in 1939 VOWI employees were ordered into the Wehrmacht but infact continued to perform the same work as when nominally under I.G. Farben. One of themore prominent of these Farben intelligence workers in N.W. 7 was Prince Bernhard of theNetherlands, who joined Farben in the early 1930s after completion of an 18-month periodof service in the black-uniformed S.S.8
The U.S. arm of the VOWI intelligence network was Chemnyco, Inc. According to the War
Department,
Utilizing normal business contacts Chemnyco was able to transmit to Germany
tremendous amounts of material ranging from photographs and blueprints todetailed descriptions of whole industrial plants.9
Chemnyco's vice president in New York was Rudolph Ilgner, an American citizen andbrother of American I, G. Farben director Max Ilgner. In brief, Farben operated VOWI, theNazi foreign intelligence operation, before World War II and the VOWI operation was
associated with prominent members of the Wall Street Establishment through American I.G.
and Chemnyco.
The U.S. War Department also accused I.G. Farben and its American associates ofspearheading Nazi psychological and economic warfare programs through dissemination of
propaganda via Farben agents abroad, and of providing foreign exchange for this Nazi
propaganda. Farben's cartel arrangements promoted Nazi economic warfare — theoutstanding example being the voluntary Standard Oil of New Jersey restriction on
development of synthetic rubber in the United States at the behest of I. G. Farben. As the
War Department report puts it:
The story in short is that because of Standard Oil's determination to maintainan absolute monopoly of synthetic rubber developments in the United States, it
fully accomplished I.G.'s purpose of preventing United States production by
dissuading American rubber companies from undertaking independent
research in developing synthetic rubber processes.10
In 1945 Dr. Oskar Loehr, deputy head of the I.G. "Tea Buro," confirmed that I. G. Farben
and Standard Oil of New Jersey operated a "preconceived plan" to suppress development of
the synthetic rubber industry in the United States, to the advantage of the German
Wehrmacht and to the disadvantage of the United States in World War II.
Dr. Loehr's testimony reads (in part) as follows:
Q. Is it true that while the delay in divulging the buna [synthetic rubber]processes to American rubber companies was taking place, Chemnyco andJasco were in the meantime keeping I.G. well informed in regard to synthetic
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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

rubber development in the U.S.?
A. Yes.
Q. So that at all times I.G. was fully aware of the state of the development of
the American synthetic rubber industry?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you present at the Hague meeting when Mr. Howard [of Standard Oil]went there in 1939?
A. No.
Q. Who was present?
A. Mr. Ringer, who was accompanied by Dr. Brown of Ludwigshafen. Did
they tell you about the negotiations?
A. Yes, as far as they were on the buna part of it.
Q. Is it true that Mr. Howard told I.G. at this meeting that the developments in
the U.S. had reached such a stage that it would no longer be possible for him to
keep the information in regard to the buna processes from the Americancompanies?
A. Mr. Ringer reported it.
Q. Was it at that meeting that for the first time Mr. Howard told I.G. theAmerican rubber companies might have to be informed of the processes and heassured I.G. that Standard Oil would control the synthetic rubber industry in the
U.S.? Is that right?
A. That is right. That is the knowledge I got through Mr. Ringer.
Q. So that in all these arrangements since the beginning of the development of
the synthetic rubber industry the suppression of the synthetic rubber industry in
the U.S. was part of a preconceived plan between I.G. on the one hand and Mr.
Howard of Standard Oil on the other?
A. That is a conclusion that must be drawn from the previous facts.11
I.G. Farben was pre-war Germany's largest earner of foreign exchange, and this foreignexchange enabled Germany to purchase strategic raw materials, military equipment, andtechnical processes, and to finance its overseas programs of espionage, propaganda, andvaried military and political activities preceding World War II. Acting on behalf of the Nazi
state, Farben broadened its own horizon to a world scale which maintained close relations
with the Nazi regime and the Wehrmaeht. A liaison office, the Vermittlungsstelle W, wasestablished to maintain communications between I.G. Farben and the German Ministry ofWar:

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The aim of this work is the building up o.[ a tight organ izatton for armamentin the I.G. which could be inserted without difficulty in the existingorganization of the I.G. and the individual plants. In the case of war, I.G. willbe treated by the authorities concerned with armament questions as one big
plant which, in its task for the armament, as far as it is possible to do so fromthe technical point of view, will regulate itself without any organizational
influence from outside (the work in this direction was in principle agreed uponwith the Ministry of War Wehrwirtschaftsant) and from this office with the
Ministry of Economy. To the field of the work of the Vermittlungsstelle W
belongs, besides the organizational set-up and long-range planning, thecontinuous collaboration with regard to the armament and technical questions
with the authorities of the Reich and with the plants of the I.G.12
Unfortunately the files of the Vermittlungsstelle offices were destroyed prior to the end of
the war, although it is known from other sources that from 1934 onwards a complex
network of transactions evolved between I.G. and the Wehrmacht. In 1934 I. G. Farben
began to mobilize for war, and each I.G. plant prepared its war production plans andsubmitted the plans to the Ministries of War and Economics. By 1935-6 war games werebeing held at I.G. Farben plants and wartime technical procedures rehearsed.13 These war
games were described by Dr. Struss, head of the Secretariat of I.G.'s Technical Committee:
It is true that since 1934 or 1935, soon after the establishment of the
Vermittlungsstelle W in the different works, theoretical war plant games had
been arranged to examine how the effect of bombing on certain factories would
materialize. It was particularly taken into consideration what would happen if
100- or 500-kilogram bombs would fall on a certain factory and what would be
the result of it. It is also right that the word Kriegsspiele was used for it.
The Kriegsspiele were prepared by Mr. Ritter and Dr. Eckell, later on partly by
Dr. yon Brunning by personal order on Dr. Krauch's own initiative or by orderof the Air Force, it is not known to me. The tasks were partly given by the
Vermittlung-sstelle W and partly by officers of the Air Force. A number ofofficers of all groups of the Wehrmacht (Navy, Air Force, and Army)participated in these Kriegsspiele.
The places which were hit by bombs were marked in a map of the plant so thatit could be ascertained which parts of the plant were damaged, for example agas meter or an important pipe line. As soon as the raid finished, themanagement of the plant ascertained the damages and reported which part ofthe plant had to stop working; they further reported what time would be
required in order to repair the damages. In a following meeting theconsequences of the Kriegsspiele were described and it was ascertained that in
the case of Leuna [plant] the damages involved were considerably high;especially it was found out that alterations of the pipe lines were to be made atconsiderable cost.14
Consequently, throughout the 1930s I. G. Farben did more than just comply with orders
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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

from the Nazi regime. Farben was an initiator and operator for the Nazi plans for worldconquest. Farben acted as a research and intelligence organization for the German Army andvoluntarily initiated Wehrmacht projects. In fact the Army only rarely had to approach
Farben; it is estimated that about 40 to 50 percent of Farben projects for the Army were
initiated by Farben itself. In brief, in the words of Dr, von Schnitzler:
Thus, in acting as it had done, I.G. contracted a great responsibility andconstituted a substantial aid in the chemical domain and decisive help toHitler's foreign policy, which led to war and to the ruin of Germany. Thus, I
must conclude that I.G. is largely responsible for Hitler's policy,
Polishing I. G. Farben's Public Image
This miserable picture of pre-war military preparation was known abroad and had to be sold— or disguised — to the American public in order to facilitate Wall Street fund-raising andtechnical assistance on behalf of I. G. Farben in the United States. A prominent New Yorkpublic relations firm was chosen for the job of selling the I.G. Farben combine to America.
The most notable public relations firm in the late 1920s and 1930s was Ivy Lee & T.J. Rossof New York. Ivy Lee had previously undertaken a public relations campaign for the
Rockefellers, to spruce up the Rockefeller name among the American public. The firm had
also produced a syncophantic book entitled USSR, undertaking the same clean-up task for
the Soviet Union — even while Soviet labor camps were in full blast in the late 20s andearly 30s.
From 1929 onwards Ivy Lee became public relations counsel for I. G. Farben in the UnitedStates. In 1934 Ivy Lee presented testimony to the House Un-American Activities
Committee on this work for Farben.15 Lee testified that I.G. Farben was affiliated with theAmerican Farben firm and "The American I.G. is a holding company with directors suchpeople as Edsel Ford, Walter Teagle, one of the officers of the City Bank .... " Lee explainedthat he was paid $25,000 per year under a contract made with Max Ilgner of I.G. Farben. His
job was to counter criticism levelled at I.G. Farben within the United States. The advice
given by Ivy Lee to Farben on this problem was acceptable enough:In the first place, I have told them that they could never in the world get theAmerican people reconciled to their treatment of the Jews: that that was justforeign to the American mentality and could never be justified in the American
public opinion, and there was no use trying.
In the second place, anything that savored of Nazi propaganda in this country
was a mistake and ought not to be under. taken. Our people regard it as
meddling with American affairs, and it was bad business.16
The initial payment of $4,500 to Ivy Lee under this contract was made by Hermann
Schmitz, chairman of I.G. Farben in Germany. It was deposited in the New York Trust
Company under the name of I. G. Chemic (or the "Swiss I.G.," as Ivy Lee termed it).
However, the second and major payment of $14,450 was made by William von Rath of theAmerican I.G. and also deposited by Ivy Lee in New York Trust Company, for the credit of
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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

his personal account. (The firm account was at the Chase Bank.) This point about the originof the funds is 'important when we consider the identity of directors of American I.G.,
because payment by American I.G. meant that the bulk of the Nazi propaganda funds were
not of German origin. They were American funds earned in the U.S. and under control ofAmerican directors, although used for Nazi propaganda in the United States.
In other words, most of the Nazi propaganda funds handled by Ivy Lee were not imported
from Germany.
The use to which these American funds were put was brought out under questioning by theHouse Un-American Activities Committee:
Mr. DICKSTEIN. As I understand you, you testified that you received no
propaganda at all, and that you had nothing to do with the distribution of
propaganda in this country?
Mr. LEE. I did not testify I received none Mr. Dickstein.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. I will eliminate that part of the question, then.
Mr. LEE. I testified that I disseminated none whatever.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. Have you received or has your firm received any propaganda
literature from Germany at any time?
Mr. LEE. Yes, sir.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. And when was that?
Mr. LEE. Oh, we have received — it is a question of what you call propaganda.
We have received an immense amount of literature.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. You do not know what that literature was and what it
contained?
Mr. LEE. We have received books and pamphlets and newspaper clippings anddocuments, world without end.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. I assume someone in your office would go over them andsee what they were?
Mr. LEE. Yes, sir.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. And then after you found out what they were, I assume you
kept copies of them?
Mr. LEE. In some cases, yes: and in some, no. A great many of them, ofcourse, were in German, and I had what my son sent me. He said they wereinteresting and significant, and those I had translated or excerpts of themmade.17
Finally, Ivy Lee employed Burnham Carter to study American new paper reports on
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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

Germany and prepare suitable pro-Nazi replies. It should be noted that this German
literature was not Farben literature, it was official Hitler literature:
Mr. DICKSTEIN. In other words, you receive this material that deals withGerman conditions today: You examine it and you advise them. It has nothing
to do with the German Government, although the material, the literature, isofficial literature of the Hitler regime. That is correct, is it not?
Mr. LEE. Well, a good deal of the literature was not official.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. It was not I.G. literature, was it?
Mr. LEE. No; I.G. sent it to me.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. Can you show us one scrap of paper that came in here that
had anything to do with the I.G.?
Mr. LEE. Oh, yes. They issue a good deal of literature. But I do not want to beg
the question. There is no question whatever that under their authority I havereceived an immense amount of material that came from official and unofficial
sources.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. Exactly. In other words, the material that was sent here by
the I.G. was material spread — we would call it propaganda t by authority of
the German Government. But the distinction that you make in your statement
is, as I take it, that the German Government did not send it to you directly; that
it was sent to you by the I.G.
Mr. LEE. Right.
Mr. DICKSTEIN. And it had nothing to do with their business relations justnow.
Mr. LEE. That is correct.
The American I.G. Farben
Who were the prominent Wall Street establishment financiers who directed the activities ofAmerican I.G., the I.G. Farben affiliate in the United States promoting Nazi propaganda?
American I.G. Farben directors included some of the more prominent members of WallStreet. German interests re-entered the United States after World War I, and successfully
overcame barriers designed to keep I.G. out of the American market. Neither seizure ofGerman patents, establishment of the Chemical Foundation, nor high tariff walls were amajor problem.
By 1925, General Dyestuff Corporation was established as the exclusive selling agent for
products manufactured by Gasselli Dyestuff (renamed General Aniline Works, Inc., in
1929) and imported from Germany. The stock of General Aniline Works was transferred in
1929 to American I.G. Chemical Corporation and later in 1939 to General Aniline & Film
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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

Corporation, into which American I.G. and General Aniline Works were merged. American
I.G. and its successor, General Aniline & Film, is the unit through which control of I.G.'s
enterprises in the U.S. was maintained. The stock authorization of American I.G. was3,000,000 common A
shares and 3,000,000 common B shares. In return for stock interests in General Aniline
Works and Agfa-Ansco Corporation, I.G. Farben in Germany received all the B shares and
400,000 A shares. Thirty million dollars of convertible bonds were sold to the American
public and guaranteed as to principal and interest by the German I.G. Farben, which
received an option to purchase an additional 1,000,000 A shares.
Table 2-2: The Directors of American I.G. at 1930:
American I,G.
Director
Citizenship
Other Major Associations
Carl BOSCH
GermanFORD MOTOR CO. A-G
Edsel B. FORD
U.S.
FORD MOTOR CO.
DETROITMax ILGNER
GermanDirected I.G. FARBEN N.W.7(INTELLIGENCE) office.
Guilty at Nuremberg War
Crimes Trials.
F. Ter MEER
GermanGuilty at Nuremberg War
Crimes Trials
H.A. METZ
U.S.
Director of I.G. Farben
Germany and BANK OF
MANHATTAN (U.S.)
C.E. MITCHELL
U.S.
Director of FEDERALRESERVE BANK OF N.Y.
and NATIONAL CITY BANK
HermanGermanOn boards of I.G. Farben
SCHMITZ(President) (Germany)
Deutsche Bank (Germany) and
BANK FOR
INTERNATIONALSETTLEMENTS. Guilty at
Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
Walter TEAGLE
U.S.
Director FEDERALRESERVE BANK OF NEWYORK and STANDARD OIL
OF NEW JERSEY
W.H. yon
Naturalized Director of GERMAN
RATH
GENERAL U.S. ELECTRIC(A.E.G.)

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

Paul M.
WARBURG

U.S.

W.E. WEISS

U.S.

First member of the FEDERALRESERVE BANK OF NEWYORK and BANK OF
MANHATTAN
Sterling Products

Source: Moody's Manual of Investments; 1930, p. 2149.
Note: Walter DUISBERG (U.S.), W. GRIEF (U.S.), and Adolf
KUTTROFF (U.S.) were also Directors of American I.G. Farben
at this period.
The management of American I.G. (later General Aniline) was dominated by I.G. or former
I.G. officials. (See Table 9..9..) Hermann Schmitz served as president from 1929 to 1936
and was then succeeded by his brother, Dietrich A. Schmitz, a naturalized American citizen,
until 1941. Hermann Schmitz, who was also a director of the bank for International
Settlements, the "apex" of the international financial control system. He remained aschairman of the board of directors from 1936 to 1939.
The original board of directors included nine members who were, or had been, members o[
the board of I.G. Farben in Germany (Hermann Schmitz, carl Bosch, Max Ilgner, Fritz ter
Meer, and Wilfred Grief), or had been previously employed by I.G. Farben in Germany(Walter Duisberg, Adolph Kuttroff, W.H. yon Rath, Herman A. Metz). Herman A. Metz
was an American citizen, a staunch Democrat in politics and a former comptroller of theCity of New York. A tenth, W.E. Weiss, had been under contract to I.G.
Directors of American I.G. were not only prominent in Wall Street and American industry
but more significantly were drawn from a few highly influential institutions:

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

The remaining four members of the American I.G. board were prominent American citizens
and members of the Wall Street financial elite: C.E. Mitchell, chairman of National City
Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Edsel B. Ford, president of Ford Motor
Company; W.C. Teagle, another director of Standard Oil of New Jersey; and, Paul Warburg,
first member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and chairman of the Bank of
Manhattan Company.
Directors of American I.G. were not only prominent in Wall Street and American industry
but more significantly were drawn from a few highly influential institutions. (See chart
above.)
Between 1929 and 1939 there were changes in the make-up of the board of American I.G.
The number of directors varied from time to time, although a majority always had I.G.
backgrounds or connections, and the board never had less than four American directors. In
1939 — presumably looking ahead to World War II — an effort was made to give the board
a more American complexion, but despite the resignation of Hermann Schmitz, Carl Bosch,and Walter Duisberg, and the appointment of seven new directors, seven members still
belonged to the I.G. group. This I.G. predominance increased during 1940 and 1941 as
American directors, including Edsel Ford, realized the political unhealthiness of I.G. andresigned.

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Several basic observations can be made from this evidence. First, the board of American
I.G. had three directors from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most influential ofthe various Federal Reserve Banks. American I.G. also had interlocks with Standard Oil of
New Jersey, Ford Motor Company, Bank of Manhattan (later to become the Chase
Manhattan), and A.E.G. (German General Electric). Second, three members of the board ofthis American I.G. were found guilty at Nuremburg War Crimes Trials. These were theGerman, not the American, members. Among these Germans was Max Ilgner, director of
the I.G. Farben N.W. 7 office in Berlin, i.e., the Nazi pre-war intelligence office. If thedirectors of a corporation are collectively responsible for the activities of the corporation,then the American directors should also have been placed on trial at Nuremburg, along with
the German directors — that is, if the purpose of the trials was to determine war guilt. Of
course, if the purpose of the trials had been to divert attention away from the U.S.
involvement in Hitler's rise to power, they succeeded very well in such an objective.

Footnotes:
1German firms have a two-tier board of directors. The Aufsichsrat concerns

itself with overall supervision, including financial policy, while the Vorstand isconcerned with day-to-day management.
2Taken from Der Farben-Konzern 1928, (Hoppenstedt, Berlin: I928), pp. 4-5.
3Elimination of German Resources, p. 943.
4Ibid, p. 945.
5New York Times, October 21, 1945, Section 1, pp. 1, 12.
6Ibid, p. 947.
7Elimination of German Resources.
8Bernhard is today better known for his role as chairman of the secretive,

so-called Bilderberger meetings. See U.S. Congress, House of Representatives,
Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Investigation of Nazi
Propaganda Activities and Investigation of Certain other Propaganda
Activities. 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, Hearings No. 73-DC-4. (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1934), Volume VIII, p. 7525.
9Ibid p. 949.
10Ibid p. 952.
11Ibid p. 1293.
12Ibid p. 954.
13Ibid p. 954.

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CHAPTER TWO: The Empire of I.G. Farben

14Ibid, pp. 954-5.
15U.S. Congress. House of Representatives, Special Committee on

Un-American Activities, Investigation of Nazi Propaganda Activities andInvestigation of Certain Other Propaganda Activities, op. cit.
16Ibid, p. 178.
17Ibid, p. 183.
18Ibid, p. 188.

BACK

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Chart 2-1: German Army (Wehrmacht) Dependence on I.G. Farben Production (1943)

BACK

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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

CHAPTER THREE
General Electric Funds Hitler
Among the early Roosevelt fascist measures was the National Industry
Recovery Act (NRA) of June 16, 1933. The origins of this scheme are worth
repeating. These ideas were first suggested by Gerard Swope of the General
Electric Company ... following this they were adopted by the United States
Chamber of Commerce .... (Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover:
The Great Depression, 1929-1941, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952,
p. 420)The multi-national giant General Electric has an unparalleled role in twentieth-century
history. The General Electric Company electrified the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s,
and fulfilled for the Soviets Lenin's dictum that "Socialism = electrification."1 The SwopePlan, created by General Electric's one-time president Gerard Swope, became Franklin D.
Roosevelt's New Deal, by a process deplored by one-time President Herbert Hoover anddescribed in Wall Street and FDR.2 There was a long-lasting, intimate relationship between
Swope and Young of General Electric Company and the Roosevelt family, as there was
between General Electric and the Soviet Union. In 1936 Senator James A. Reed of Missouri,
an early Roosevelt supporter, became aware of Roosevelt's betrayal of liberal ideas andattacked the Roosevelt New Deal program as a "tyrannical" measure "leading to despotism,[and] sought by its sponsors under the communistic cry of 'Social Justice.'" Senator Reedfurther charged on the floor of the Senate that Franklin D. Roosevelt was a "hired man for
the economic royalists" in Wall Street and that the Roosevelt family "is one of the largest
stockholders in the General Electric Company."3
As we probe into behind-the-scenes German interwar history and the story of Hitler andNaziism, we find both Owen D. Young and Gerard Swope of General Electric tied to therise of Hitlerism and the suppression of German democracy. That General Electric directors
are to be found in each of these three distinct historical categories — i.e., the developmentof the Soviet Union, the creation of Roosevelt's New Deal, and the rise of Hitlerism —suggests how elements of Big Business are keenly interested in the socialization of theworld, for their own purposes and objectives, rather than the maintenance of the impartial
market place in a free society.4 General Electric profited handsomely from Bolshevism,
from Roosevelt's New Deal socialism, and, as we shall see below, from national socialism in
Hitler's Germany.
General Electric in Weimar Germany
Walter Rathenau was, until his assassination in 1922, managing director of Allgemeine
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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

Gerard Swope, his counterparts in the U.S., he was a prominent advocate of corporatesocialism. Walter Rathenau spoke out publicly against competition and free enterprise,
Why? Because both Rathanau and Swope wanted the protection and cooperation of the state
for their own corporate objectives and profit. (But not of course for anybody else's
objectives and profits.) Rathanau expressed their plea in The New Political Economy:
The new economy will, as we have seen, be no state or governmental economy
but a private economy committed to a civic power of resolution which certainly
will require state cooperation for organic consolidation to overcome inner
friction and increase production and endurance.5
When we disentangle the turgid Rathenau prose, this means that the power of the State wasto be made available to private firms for their own corporate purposes, i.e., what is popularly
known as national socialism. Rathenau spoke out publicly against competition and freeenterprise. inheritance."6 Not their own wealth, so far as can be determined, but the wealthof others who lacked political pull in the State apparatus.
Owen D. Young of General Electric was one of the three U.S. delegates to the 1923 Dawes
Plan meeting which established the German reparations program. And in the Dawes andYoung Plans we can see how some private firms were able to benefit from the power of theState. The largest single loans from Wall Street to Germany during the 1920s werereparations loans; it was ultimately the U.S. investor who paid for German reparations. The
cartelization of the German electrical industry under A.E.G. (as well as the steel andchemical industries discussed in Chapters One and Two) was made possible with these WallStreet loans:Managing
Date ofBank
Offering
Borrowerin the U.S.
Allgemeine
National City
Jan. 26,
Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft
Co.
1925(A. E, G.)
Dec. 9,Allgemeine National
1925
City Co.
Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft(A. E.G. )National CityMay 22,Allgemeine
Co.
1928
ElektrizitatsGesellschaft (A.E.G.)
June 7,
Allgemeine
National City
1928
Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft
Co.
(A. E.G.)

Face
Amountof Issue$10,000,000

10,000,000

10,000,000

5,000,000

In 1928, at the Young Plan reparations meetings, we find General Electric president Owen
D. Young in the chair as the chief U.S. delegate, appointed by the U.S. government to use

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U.S. government power and prestige to decide international financial matters enhancing
Wall Street and General Electric profits. In 1930 Owen D. Young, after whom the Young
Plan for German reparations was named, became chairman of the Board of General ElectricCompany in New York City. Young was also chairman of the Executive Committee ofRadio Corporation of America and a director of both German General Electric (A.E.G.) andOsram in Germany. Young also served on the boards of other major U.S. corporations,
including General Motors, NBC, and RKO; he was a councilor of the National Industrial
Conference Board, a director of the International Chamber of Commerce, and deputy
chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Gerard Swope was president and director of General Electric Company as well as French
and German associated companies, including A.E.G. and Osram in Germany. Swope wasalso a director of RCA, NBC, and the National City Bank of New York. Other directors ofInternational General Electric at this time reflect Morgan control of the company, and bothYoung and Swope were generally known as the Morgan representatives on the G.E. board,which included Thomas Cochran, another partner in the J.P. Morgan firm. General Electric
director Clark Haynes Minor was president of International General Electric in the 1920s.
Another director was Victor M. Cutter of the First National Bank of Boston and a figure in
the "Banana Revolutions" in Central America.
In the late 1920s Young, Swope, and Minor of International General Electric moved into theGerman electrical industry and gained, if not control as some have reported, then at least a
substantial say in the internal affairs of both A.E.G. and Osram. In July 1929 an agreement
was reached between General Electric and three German firms — A.E.G., Siemens &Halske, and Koppel and Company — which between them owned all the shares in Osram,the electric bulb manufacturer. General Electric purchased 16% percent of Osram stock andreached a joint agreement for international control of electric bulbs production andmarketing. Clark Minor and Gerard Swope became directors of Osram.7
In July 1929 great interest was shown in rumors circulating in German financial circles that
General Electric was also buying into A.E.G. and that talks to this end were in progress
between A.E.G. and G.E.8 In August it was confirmed that 14 million marks of common
A.E.G. stock were to be issued to General Electric. These shares, added to shares bought on
the open market, gave General Electric a 25-percent interest in A.E.G. A closer working
agreement was signed between the two companies, providing the German company U.S.
technology and patents. It was emphasized in the news reports that A.E.G. would not haveparticipation in G.E., but that on the other hand G.E. would finance expansion of A.E.G. in
Germany.9 The German financial press also noted that there was no A.E.G. representationon the board of G.E. in the United States but that five Americans were now on the board of
A.E.G. The Vossische Zeitung recorded,
The American electrical industry has conquered the worM, and only a few of
the remaining opposing bastions have been able to withstand the onslaught...10
By 1930, unknown to the German financial press, General Electric had similarly gained aneffective technical monopoly of the Soviet electrical industry and was soon to penetrateeven the remaining bastions in Germany, particularly the Siemens group. In January 1930
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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

three G.E. men were elected to the board of A.E.G. — Clark H. Minor, Gerard Swope, andE. H. Baldwin — and International General Electric (I.G.E.) continued its moves to merge
the world electrical industry into a giant cartel under Wall Street control.
In February General Electric focused on the remaining German electrical giant, Siemens &Halske, and while able to obtain a large block of debentures issued on behalf of the German
firm by Dillon, Read of New York, G.E. was not able to gain participation or directors on
the Siemens board. While the German press recognized even this limited control as" anhistorical economic event of the first order and an important step toward a future world
electric trust,"11 Siemens retained its independence from General Electric — and thisindependence is important for our story. The New York Times reported,
The entire press emphasizes the fact that Siemens, contrary to A.E.G.,
maintains its independence for the future and points out that no General
Electric representative will sit on Stemen's board of directors.12
There is no evidence that Siemens, either through Siemens & Halske or Siemens-Schukert,
participated directly in the financing of Hitler. Siemens contributed to Hitler only slightly
and indirectly through a share participation in Osram. On the other hand, both A.E.G. andOsram directly financed Hitler through the Nationale Treuhand in substantial ways. Siemens
retained its independence in the early 1930s while both A.E.G. and Osram were under
American dominance and with American directors. There is no evidence that Siemens,
without American directors, financed Hitler. On the other hand, we have irrefutable
documentary evidence (see page 56) that both German General Electric and Osram, bothwith American directors, financed Hitler.
In the months following the attempted Wall Street take over of Siemens, the pattern of adeveloping world trust in the electrical industry clarified; there was an end to international
patent fights and the G.E. interest in A.E.G. increased to nearly 30 percent.13
Consequently, in the early 1930s, as Hitler prepared to grab dictatorial power in Germany— backed by some, but by no means all, German and American industrialists — theGerman General Electric (A.E.G.) was owned by International General Electric (about 30
percent), the Gesellschaft für Electrische Unternemungen (25 percent), and Ludwig Lowe
(25 percent). International General Electric also had an interest of about 16 2/3rds percent inOsram, and an additional indirect influence inCompanies Linked toGerman General
Electric throughDirectors ofCommon Electric
German General
Directors:
Electric (A.E.G.)
Accumulatoran-Fabrik
QuandtPfeffer
Osram
MamrothPeierls

Relationship ofLinked Firm withFinancing ofHitler:Direct Finance,see p, 55
Direct Finance,see p. 57

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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

Deutschen
Babcock-Wilcox
Vereinigte Stahlwerke

Krupp
I.G. Farben

Allianz u.
Stuttgarten Verein
Phoenix
Thyssen
Demag

LandauNot known

Wolff
Nathan
Kirdorf
Goldschmidt
NathanKlotzbachBucherFlechtheim
von Rath
von Rath
Wolff
Fahrenhorst
Fahrenhorst

Direct Finance,see p. 57

American I.G. Farben

Fahrenhorst
Flick
Flechtheim
Kirdorf
Flechtheim
Young
Swope
Minor
Baldwinvon Rath

International Bank
(Amsterdam)

H. Furstenberg
Goldschmidt

Dynamit
Gelsenkirchener
Bergwerks
International General
Electric

Direct Finance,see p. 59
Direct Finance,see p. 57
Reported, but not
substantiatedsee p. 57
Direct Finance,see p. 104
see p. 57
Through I.G. Farben
Direct Finance,see p. 57
Through A.E.G.,
see p. 52

Through I.G. Farben
see p. 47
Not known

Osram through A.E.G. directors. On the board of A.E,G., apart from the four American
directors (Young, Swope, Minor, and Baldwin), we find Pferdmenges of Oppenheim & Co.
(another Hitler financier), and Quandt, who owned 75 percent of Accumlatoren-Fabrik, amajor direct financier of Hitler. In other words, among the German board members of
A.E.G. we find representatives from several of the German firms that financed Hitler in the
1920s and 1930s.
General Electric and the Financing of Hitler
The tap root of modern corporate socialism runs deep into the management of two affiliatedmulti-national corporations: General Electric Company in the United States and its foreign
associates, including German General Electric (A.E.G.), and Osram in Germany. We have

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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

noted that Gerard Swope, second president and chairman of General Electric, and Walter
Rathanau of A.E.G. promoted radical ideas for control of the State by private businessinterests.
From 1915 onwards International General Electric (I.G.E.), located at 120 Broadway in
New York City, acted as the foreign investment, manufacturing, and selling organization for
the General Electric Company. I.G.E. held interests in overseas manufacturing companies
including a 25 to 30-percent holding in German General Electric (A.E.G.), plus holdings in
Osram G.m.b.H. Kommanditgesellschaft, also in Berlin. These holdings gave International
General Electric four directors on the board of A.E.G., and another director at Osram, andsignificant influence in the internal domestic policies of these German companies. The
significance of this General Electric ownership is that A.E.G. and Osram were prominent
suppliers of funds for Hitler in his rise to power in Germany in 1933. A bank transfer slip
dated March 2, 1933 from A.E.G. to Delbruck Schickler & Co. in Berlin requests that
60,000 Reichsmark be deposited in the "Nationale Treuhand" (National Trusteeship)
account for Hitler's use. This slip is reproduced on page 56.
I.G. Farben was the most important of the domestic financial backers of Hitler, and (asnoted elsewhere) I.G. Farben controlled American I.G. Moreover, several directors of
A.E.G. were also on the board of I.G. Farben — i.e., Hermann Bucher, chairman of A.E.G.
was on the I.G. Farben board; so were A.E.G. directors Julius Flechtheim and Walter vonRath. I.G. Farben contributed 30 percent of the 1933 Hitler National Trusteeship (ortakeover) fund.
Walter Fahrenhorst of A.E.G. was also on the board of Phoenix A-G, Thyssen A-G and
Demag A-G — and all were contributors to Hitler's fund. Demag A-G contributed 50,000
RM to Hitler's fund and had a director with A.E.G.— the notorious Friedrich Flick, andearly Hitler supporter, who was later convicted at the Nuremberg Trials. Accumulatoren
Fabrik A-G was a Hitler contributor (25,000 RM, see page 60) with two directors on the
A.E.G. board, August Pfeffer and Gunther Quandt. Quandt personally owned 75 percent of
Accumulatoren Fabrik.
Osram Gesellschaft, in which International General Electric had a 16 2/3rds direct interest,
also had two directors on the A.E.G. board: Paul Mamroth and Heinrich Pferls. Osram
contributed 40,000 RM directly to the Hitler fund. The Otto Wolff concern, Vereinigte
Stahlwerke A-G, recipient of substantial New York loans in the 1920s, had three directors
on the A.E.G. board: Otto Wolff, Henry Nathan and Jakob Goldschmidt. Alfred Krupp yon
Bohlen, sole owner of the Krupp organization and an early supporter of Hitler, was amember of the Aufsichsrat of A.E.G. Robert Pferdmenges, a member of Himmler's Circle ofFriends, was also a director of A, E.G.
In other words, almost all of the German directors of German General Electric were
financial supporters of Hitler and associated not only with A.E.G. but with other companies
financing Hitler.
Walter Rathenau14 became a director of A,E.G. in 1899 and by the early twentieth century
was a director of more than 100 corporations. Rathenau was also author of the" Rathenau
Plan," which bears a remarkable resemblance to the "Swope Plan" — i.e., FDR's New Deal
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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

but written by Swope of G.E. In other words, we have the extraordinay coincidence that theauthors of New Deal-tike plans in the U.S. and Germany were also prime backers of theirimplementers: Hitler in Germany and Roosevelt in the U.S.
Swope was chairman of the board of General Electric Company and International General
Electric. In 1932 the American directors of A.E.G, were prominently connected with
American banking and political circles as follows:
GERARD
SWOPE

Chairman of International General Electricandpresident of General Electric Company,
director of
National City Bank (and other companies),
director of A.E.G. and Osram in Germany.
Author of
FDR's New Deal and member of numerous
Roosevelt organizations.
Owen D. Young Chairman of board of General Electric, anddeputy chairman, Federal Reserve Bank of
New York. Author, with J. P, Morgan, of theYoung Plan which superseded the Dawes
Plan in 1929. (See Chapter One.)
CLARK H. Minor President and director of International
General Electric, director of British Thomson
Houston, Compania Generale di Electtricita(Italy), and Japan Electric Bond & Share
Company (Japan).
In brief, we have hard evidence of unquestioned authenticity (see p, 56) to show that
German General Electric contributed substantial sums to Hitler's political fund. There werefour American directors of A.E.G. (Baldwin, Swope, Minor, and Clark), which was 80
percent owned by International General Electric. Further, I.G.E. and the four American
directors were the largest single interest and consequently had the greatest single influence
in A.E.G. actions and policies. Even further, almost all other directors of A.E.G. wereconnected with firms (I. G. Farben, Accumulatoren Fabrik, etc.) which contributed directly— as firms — to Hitler's political fund. However, only the German directors of A.E.G wereplaced on trial in Nuremburg in 1945.
Technical Cooperation with Krupp
Quite apart from financial assistance to Hitler, General Electric extended its assistance tocartel schemes with other Hitler backers for their mutual benefit and the benefit of the Nazi
state. Cemented tungsten carbide is one example of this G.E.-Nazi cooperation. Prior to
November 1928, American industries had several sources for both tungsten carbide andtools and dies containing this hard-metal composition. Among these sources were the Krupp
Company of Essen, Germany, and two American firms to which Krupp was then shipping
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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitlerand selling, the Union Wire Die Corporation and Thomas Prosser & Son. In 1928 Krupp
obligated itself to grant licenses under United States patents which it owned to theFirth-Sterling Steel Company and to the Ludlum Steel Company. Before 1928, this tungsten
carbide for use in tools and dies sold in the United states for about $50 a pound.
The United States patents which Krupp claimed to own were assigned from Osram
Kommanditgesellschaft, and had been previously assigned by the Osram Company ofGermany to General Electric. However, General Electric had also developed its own patents,
principally the Hoyt and Gilson patents, covering competing processes for cemented
tungsten carbide. General Electric believed that it could utilize these patents independently
without infringing on or competing with Krupp patents. But instead of using the G.E.
patents independently in competition with Krupp, or testing out its rights under the patent
laws, General Electric worked out a cartel agreement with Krupp to pool the patents of bothparties and to give General Electric a monopoly control of tungsten carbide in the UnitedStates.
The first step in this cartel arrangement was taken by Carboloy Company, Inc., a General
Electric subsidiary, incorporated for the purpose of exploiting tungsten carbide. The 1920s
price of around $50 a pound was raised by Carboloy to $458 a pound. Obviously, no firm
could sell any great amounts of tungsten carbide in this price range, but the price would
maximize profits for G.E. In 1934 General Electric and Carboloy were also able to obtain,
by purchase, the license granted by Krupp to the Ludlum Steel Company, thereby
eliminating one competitor. In 1936, Krupp was induced to refrain from further imports into
the United States. Part of the price paid for the elimination from the American market oftungsten carbide manufactured abroad was a reciprocal undertaking that General Electricand Carboloy would not export from the U.S. Thus these American companies tied theirown hands by contract, or permitted Krupp to tie their hands, and denied foreign markets to
American industry. Carboloy Company then acquired the business of Thomas Prosser &Son, and in 1937, for nearly $1 million, Carboloy acquired the competing business of theUnion Wire Die Corporation. By refusing to sell, Krupp cooperated with General Electricand Carboloy to persuade Union Wire Die Corporation to sell out.
Licenses to manufacture tungsten carbide were then refused. A request for license by the
Crucible Steel Company was refused in 1936. A request by the Chrysler Corporation for alicense was refused in 1938. A license by the Triplett Electrical Instrument Company was
refused on April 25, 1940. A license was also refused to the General Cable Company. The
Ford Motor Company for several years expressed strong opposition to the high-price policy
followed by the Carboloy Company, and at one point made a request for the right tomanufacture for its own use. This was refused. As a result of these tactics, General Electricand its subsidiary Carboloy emerged in 1936 or 1937 with virtually a complete monopoly oftungsten carbide in the United States.
In brief, General Electric — with the cooperation of another Hitler supporter, Krupp —jointly obtained for G,E. a monopoly in the U.S. for tungsten carbide. So when World War
II began, General Electric had a monopoly at an established price of $450 a pound — almost
ten times more than the 1928 price — and use in the U.S. had been correspondingly
restricted,
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A.E.G. Avoids the Bombs in World War II
By 1939 the German electrical industry had become closely affiliated with two U.S. firms:
International General Electric and International Telephone and Telegraph. The largest firmsin German electrical production and their affiliations listed in order of importance were:
Firm and Type
Percent of German
U.S. Affiliatedof Production
1939 production
Firm
Heavy Current
Industry
General Electric
40 percent
International General(A.E.G. )Electric
Siemens Schukert
40 percent
None
A.G.
Brown Boveri et Cie
17 percent
None
Telephone andTelegraph
Siemens und Halske
60 percent
None
Lorenz A.G.
85 percent
I.T.T
Radio
Telefunken (A.E.G.
60 percent
International General
after 1941)
Electric
Lorenz35 percent
I.T.T.
Wire and Cable
Felton &20 percent
I.T.T.
Guilleaume A.G.
Siemens
20 percent
None
A.E.G.
20 percent
International General
Electric
In other words, in 1939 the German electrical equipment industry was concentrated into a
few major corporations linked in an international cartel and by stock ownership to two.major U.S. corporations. This industrial complex was never a prime target for bombing inWorld War II. The A.E.G. and I.T.T. plants were hit only incidentally in area raids and thenbut rarely. The electrical equipment plants bombed as targets were not those affiliated with
U.S. firms. It was Brown Boveri at Mannheim and Siemensstadt in Berlin — which were
not connected with the U.S. — who were bombed. As a result, German production ofelectrical war equipment rose steadily throughout World War II, peaking as late as 1944.
According to the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey reports, "In the opinion of Speers'
assistants and plant officials, the war effort in Germany was never hindered in any importantmanner by any shortage of electrical equipment."15
One example of the non-bombing policy for German General Electric was the A. E.G. plant
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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

at 185 Muggenhofer Strasse, Nuremburg. Study of this plant's output in World War II is ofinterest because it illustrates the extent to which purely peacetime production was converted
to war work. The pre-war plant manufactured household equipment, such as hot plates,
electric ranges, electric irons, toasters, industrial baking ovens, radiators, water heaters,
kitchen ovens, and industrial heaters. In 1939, 1940 and 1941, most of the Nuremburg
plant's production facilities were used for the manufacture of peacetime products. In 1942the plant's production was shifted to manufacture of war equipment. Metal parts forcommunications equipment and munitions such as bombs and mines were made. Other war
production consisted of parts for searchlights and amplifiers. The following tabulation very
strikingly shows the conversion to war work:

Year
1939
1940
1941
1942
1948
1944

Total sales
in 1000 RM
12,46911,754
21,194
20,68931,45531,205Percent
for war
5
15
40
61
67
69

Percent
ordinary
production
95
85
60
39
33
31

The actual physical damage by bombing to this plant was insignificant. No serious damage
occurred until the raids of February 20 and 21, 1945, near the end of the war, and thenprotection had been fairly well developed. Raids during which bombs struck in the plantarea and the trifling damage done are listed as follows:
Date of raid
March 8, 1943

Sept. 9, 1944
Nov. 26, 1944

Feb. 20, 1945
Feb. 21, 1945

Bombs striking
plant
30 stick type I.B.

Damage done

Trifling, but 3
storehouses outside themain plant destroyed.
None (blast damage) Trifling, glass andblackout curtain damage.
14000 lb. HE in
Wood shop destroyed,
open space in plant water main broken.
grounds
2 HE
3 buildings damaged.
5 HE, many I.B.'s
Administration bldg.
destroyed & enamelingworks damaged by HE.

Another example of a German General Electric plant not bombed is the A.E.G. plant at
Koppelsdorf producing radar sets and bomber antennae. Other A.E.G. plants which were notbombed and their war equipment production were:

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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

LIST OF A.E.G. FACTORIES NOT BOMBED IN WORLDWAR II
Name of Branch
Location
Product
1. Werk
Kries Saalfeld
Measuring
Reiehmannsdoff
Instruments
mit
Unterabteilungen in
Wallendorf und
Unterweissbach
2. Werk
BayreuthStarters
Marktschorgast
3. Werk F18ha
SachsenShort Wave SendingSets
4. Werk Reichenbach Vogtland
Dry Cell Batteries
5. Werk Burglengefeld Sachsen/S.E.
Heavy Starters
Chemnitz
6. Werk Nuremburg Belringersdorf/
Small Components
Nuremburg
7. Werk Zirndorf
Nuremburg
Heavy Starters
8. Werk Mattinghofen Oberdonau
1 KW Senders 250
Meters & long wave
for torpedo boats &U-boats
9. Unterwerk Neustadt Coburg
Radar Equipment
That the A.E.G. plants in Germany were not bombed in World War II was confirmed by theUnited States Strategic Bombing Survey, officered by such academics as John K. Galbraithand such Wall Streeters as George W. Ball and Paul H. Nitze. Their "German Electrical
Equipment Industry Report" dated January 1947 concludes:
The industry has never been attacked as a basic target system, but a few plants,
i.e. Brown Boveri at Mannheim, Bosch at Stuutgart and Siemenstadt in Berlin,
have been subjected to precision raids; many others were hit in area raids.17
At the end of World War II an Allied investigation team known as FIAT was sent toexamine bomb damage to German electrical industry plants. The team for the electricalindustry consisted of Alexander G.P.E. Sanders of International Telephone and Telegraph of
New York, Whit-worth Ferguson of Ferguson Electric Company, New York, and Erich J.
Borgman of Westinghouse Electric. Although the stated objective of these teams was to
examine the effects on Allied bombing of German targets, the objective of this particularteam was to get the German electrical equipment industry back into production as soon as
possible. Whirworth Ferguson wrote a report dated March 31, 1945 on the A.E.G.
Ostland-werke and concluded, "this plant is immediately available for production of finemetal parts and assemblies.18

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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

To conclude, we find that both Rathenau of A.E.G. and Swope of General Electric in the
U.S. had similar ideas of putting the State to work for their own corporate ends. General
Electric was prominent in financing Hitler, it profited handsomely from war production —and yet it managed to evade bombing in World War II. Obviously the story briefly surveyed
here deserves a much more thorough — and official — investigation.
Footnotes:
1For the technical details see the three-volume study, Antony C. Sutton,

Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, (Stanford, California:
Hoover Institution Press, 1968, 1971), 1973), hereafter cited as WesternTechnology Series.
2(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1975)
3New York Times, October 6, 1936. See also Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and

FDR, op. cit.
4Of course, socialist pleading by businessmen is still with us. Witness theinjured cries when President Ford proposed deregulation of airlines andtrucking. See for example Wall Street Journal, November 25, 1975.
5Mimeographed Translation in Hoover Institution Library, p. 67. Also see

Walter Rathenau, In Days to Come, (London: Allen & Unwin, n.d.)
6Ibid, p. 249.
7New York Times, July 2, 1929.
8Ibid, July 28, 1929.
9Ibid, August 2, 1929 and August 4, 1929.
10Ibid, August 6, 1929.
11Ibid, February 2, 1930.
12Ibid, February 2, 1930.
13Ibid, May 11, 1930. For the prewar machinations of General Electric, Osram,and the Dutch company N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken of Eindhoven
Holland, see Chapter 11, "Electric Eels," in James Stewart Martin, op cit.
Martin was Chief of the Economic Warfare Division of the U.S. Department ofJustice and comments that "The A.E.G. of Germany was largely controlled by
the American company, General Electric." The assumption by this author isthat the G.E. influence was somewhat less than controlling although substantial
enough. Because of Martin's official position and access to official documents,
not known to the author, his statement that A.E.G. was "largely controlled" by
U.S. General Electric cannot be lightly dismissed. However, if we accept that
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CHAPTER THREE: General Electric Funds Hitler

G.E. "largely controlled" A.E.G., then the most serious questions arise whichclamor for investigation. A.E.G. was a prime financier of Hitler and "control"
would more deeply implicate the U.S. parent company than is suggested by theevidence presented here.
14Son of Emil Rathenau, founder of A.E.G., born in 1867 and assassinated in

1922.
15The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, German Electrical Equipment

Industry/Report, (Equipment Division, January 1947), p. 4.
16U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Plant Report of A.E.G. (Allgemeine

Elektrizitats Gesellschaft), Nuremburg, Germany: June 1945), p. 6.
17p. 3. Consequently, "production during the war was adequate until November

1944" and "in the opinion of Speer assistants and plant officials the war effort
in Germany was never hindered in any important manner by any shortage ofelectrical equipment." Difficulties arose only at the very end of the war when
the whole economy was threatened with collapse. The report concluded, "Allimportant needs for electrical equipment in 1944 may therefore be said to havebeen met, since plans were always optimistic."
18U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, AEG-Ostlandwerke GmbH, by Whitworth

Ferguson, 31 May 1945.

BACK

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CHAPTER FOUR: Standard Oil Fuels World War II

CHAPTER FOUR
Standard Oil Fuels World War II
In two gears Germany will be manufacturing oil and gas enough out of soft
coal for a long war. The Standard Oil of New York is furnishing millions ofdollars to help. (Report from the Commercial Attaché, U.S. Embassy in Berlin,
Germany, January 1933, to State Department in Washington, D.C,)
The Standard Oil group of companies, in which the Rockefeller family owned a one-quarter(and controlling) interest,1 was of critical assistance in helping Nazi Germany prepare forWorld War II. This assistance in military preparation came about because Germany's
relatively insignificant supplies of crude petroleum were quite insufficient for modern
mechanized warfare; in 1934 for instance about 85 percent of German finished petroleum
products were imported. The solution adopted by Nazi Germany was to manufacture
synthetic gasoline from its plentiful domestic coal supplies. It was the hydrogenation
process of producing synthetic gasoline and iso-octane properties in gasoline that enabled
Germany to go to war in 1940 — and this hydrogenation process was developed andfinanced by the Standard Oil laboratories in the United States in partnership with I.G.
Farben.
Evidence presented to the Truman, Bone, and Kilgore Committees after World War II
confirmed that Standard Oil had at the same time "seriously imperiled the war preparationsof the United States."2 Documentary evidence was presented to all three Congressional
committees that before World War II Standard Oil had agreed with I.G. Farben, in theso-called Jasco agreement, that synthetic rubber was within Farben's sphere of influence,
while Standard Oil was to have an absolute monopoly in the U.S. only if and when Farben
allowed development of synthetic rubber to take place in the U.S.:
Accordingly [concluded the Kilgore Committee] Standard fully accomplished
I.G.'s purpose of preventing United States production by dissuading American
rubber companies from undertaking independent research in developing
synthetic rubber processes.3
Regrettably, the Congressional committees did not explore an even more ominous aspect of
this Standard Oil — I.G. Farben collusion: that at this time directors of Standard Oil of New
Jersey had not only strategic warfare affiliations to I.G. Farben, but had other links withHitler's Germany — even to the extent of contributing, through German subsidiarycompanies, to Heinrich Himmler's personal fund and with membership in Himmler's Circleof Friends as late as 1944.
During World War II Standard Oil of New Jersey was accused of treason for this pre-war
alliance with Farben, even while its continuing wartime activities within Himmler's Circle

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CHAPTER FOUR: Standard Oil Fuels World War II

of Friends were unknown. The accusations of treason were vehemently denied by Standard
Oil. One of the more prominent of these defenses was published by R.T. Haslam, a directorof Standard Oil of New Jersey, in The Petroleum Times (December 25, 1943), and entitled"Secrets Turned into Mighty War Weapons Through I.G. Farben Agreement."4 This was an
attempt to turn the tables and present the pre-war collusion as advantageous to the UnitedStates.
Whatever may have been Standard Oil's wartime recollections and hasty defense, the 1929
negotiations and contracts between Standard and I.G. Farben were recorded in thecontemporary press and describe the agreements between Standard Oil of New Jersey and
I.G. Farben and their intent. In April 1929 Walter C. Teagle, president of Standard Oil of
New Jersey, became a director of the newly organized American I.G. Farben. Not because
Teagle was interested in the chemical industry but because,
It has for some years past enjoyed a very close relationship with certain
branches of the research work of the I.G. Farbenin-dustrie which bear closely
upon the oil industry.5
It was announced by Teagle that joint research work on production of oil from coal had been
carried on for some time and that a research laboratory for this work was to be established in
the United States.6 In November 1929 this jointly owned Standard — Farben researchcompany was established under the management of the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey, and all research and patents relating to production of oil from coal held by both I.G.
and Standard were pooled. Previously, during the period 1926-1929, the two companies hadcooperated in development of the hydrogenation process, and experimental plants had beenplaced in operation in both the U.S. and Germany. It was now proposed to erect new plants
in the U.S. at Bayway, New Jersey and Baytown, Texas, in addition to expansion of theearlier experimental plant at Baton Rouge. Standard announced:... the importance of the new contract as applied to this country lay in the factthat it made certain that the hydrogenation process would be developed
commercially in this country under the guidance of American oil interests.7
In December 1929 the new company, Standard I.G. Company, was organized. F.A. Howard
was named president, and its German and American directors were announced as follows:
E.M. Clark, Walter Duisberg, Peter Hurll, R.A. Reidemann, H.G. Seidel, Otto von Schenck,
and Guy Wellman.
The majority of the stock in the research company was owned by Standard Oil. The
technical work, the process development work, and the construction of three new
oil-from-coal plants in the United States was placed in the hands of the Standard Oil
Development Company, the Standard Oil technical subsidiary. It is clear from thesecontemporary reports that the development work on oil from coal was undertaken byStandard Oil of New Jersey within the United States, in Standard Oil plants and withmajority financing and control by Standard. The results of this research were made available
to I.G. Farben and became the basis for the development of Hitler's oil from-coal-program
which made World War II possible.

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CHAPTER FOUR: Standard Oil Fuels World War II

The Haslam article, written by a former Professor of Chemical Engineering at M.I.T. (thenvice president of Standard Oil of New Jersey) argued — contrary to these recorded facts —that Standard Oil was able, through its Farben agreements, to obtain German technology for
the United States. Haslam cited the manufacture of toluol and paratone (Op-panol), used tostabilize viscosity of oil, an essential material for desert and Russian winter tank operations,and buna rubber. However, this article, with its erroneous self-serving claims, found its way
to wartime Germany and became the subject of a "Secret" I.G. Farben memorandum dated
June 6, 1944 from Nuremburg defendent and then-Farben official von Knieriem to fellow
Farben management officials. This yon Knieriem "Secret" memo set out those facts Haslam
avoided in his Petroleum Times article. The memo was in fact a summary of what Standard
was unwilling to reveal to the American public — i.e., the major contribution made byStandard Oil of New Jersey to the Nazi war machine. The Farben memorandum states that
the Standard Oil agreements were absolutely essential for I.G. Farben:
The closing of an agreement with Standard was necessary for technical,
commercial, and financial reasons:technically, because the specialized
experience which was available only in a big oil company was necessary to thefurther development of our process, and no such industry existed in Germany;
commercially, because in the absence of state economic control in Germany atthat time, IG had to avoid a competitive struggle with the great oil powers, whoalways sold the best gasoline at the lowest price in contested markets;
financially, because IG, which had already spent extraordinarily large sums forthe development of the process, had to seek financial relief in order to be able tocontinue development in other new technical fields, such as buna.8
The Farben memorandum then answered the key question: What did I.G. Farben acquirefrom Standard Oil that was "vital for the conduct of war?" The memo examines those
products cited by Haslam — i.e., iso-octane, tuluol, Oppanol-Paratone, and buna — anddemonstrates that contrary to Standard Oil's public claim, their technology came to a great
extent from the U.S., not from Germany.
On iso-octane the Farben memorandum reads, in part,By reason of their decades of work on motor fuels, the Americans were aheadof us in their knowledge of the quality requirements that are called for by thedifferent uses of motor fuels. In particular they had developed, at great
expense, a large number of methods of testing gasoline for different uses. On
the basis of their experiments they had recognized the good anti, knock qualityof iso-octane long before they had any knowledge of our hydrogenation
process. This is proved by the single fact that in America fuels are graded in
octane numbers, and iso-octane was entered as the best fuel with the number
100. All this knowledge naturally became ours as a result of the agreement,
which saved us much effort and protected us against many errors.
I.G. Farben adds that Haslam's claim that the production of iso-octane became known in
America only through the Farben hydrogenation process was not correct:
Especially in the case of iso-octane, it is shown that we owe much to the
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Americans because in our own work we could draw widely on American
information on the behavior of fuels in motors. Moreover, we were also kept
currently informed by the Americans on the progress of their production
process and its further development.
Shortly before the war, a new method for the production of iso-octane wasfound in America — alkylation with isomerization as a preliminary step. This
process, which Mr. Haslain does not mention at all, originates in fact entirely
with the Americans and has become known to us in detail in its separate stages
through our agreements with them, and is being used very extensively by us.
On toluol, I.G. Farben points to a factual inaccuracy in the Haslam article: toluol was notproduced by hydrogenation in the U.S. is claimed by Professor Haslam. In the case of
Oppanol, the I.G. memo calls Haslam's information "incomplete" and so far as buna rubber
is concerned, "we never gave technical information to the Americans, nor did technicalcooperation in the buna field take place." Most importantly, the Farben memo goes on todescribe some products not cited by Haslam in his article:
As a consequence of our contracts with the Americans, we received from them,
above and beyond the agreement, many very valuable contributions for thesynthesis and improvement of motor fuels and lubricating oils, which Just now
during the war are most useful to us; and we also received other advantages
from them. Primarily, the following may be mentioned:(1) Above all, improvement of fuels through the addition of tetraethyl-lead andthe manufacture of this product. It need not be especially mentioned thatwithout tetraethl-lead the present methods of warfare would be impossible. The
fact that since the beginning of the war we could produce tetraethyl-lead isentirely due to the circumstances that, shortly before, the Americans had
presented us with the production plans, complete with their know-how. It was,moreover, the first time that the Americans decided to give a license on thisprocess in a foreign country (besides communication of unprotected secrets)
and this only on our urgent requests to Standard Oil to fulfill our wish.
Contractually we could not demand it, and we found out later that the War
Department in Washington gave its permission only after long deliberation.
(2) Conversion of low-molecular unsaturates into usable gasoline(polymerization). Much work in this field has been done here as well as inAmerica. But the Americans were the first to carry the process through on alarge scale, which suggested to us also to develop the process on a large
technical scale. But above and beyond that, plants built according to American
processes are functioning in Germany.
(3) In the field of lubricating oils as well, Germany through the contract with
America, learned of experience which is extraordinarily important for present
day warfare.
In this connection, we obtained not only the experience of Standard, but,
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through Standard, the experiences of General Motors and other large
American motor companies as well.
(4) As a further remarkable example of advantageous effect for us of thecontract between IG and Standard Oil, the following should be mentioned: inthe years 1934 / 1935 our government had the greatest interest in gatheringfrom abroad a stock of especially valuable mineral oil products (in particular,
aviation gasoline and aviation lubricating oil), and holding it in reserve to an
amount approximately equal to 20 million dollars at market value. The German
Government asked IG if it were not possible, on the basis o fits friendly
relations with Standard Oil, to buy this amount in Farben's name; actually,
however, as trustee of the German Government. The fact that we actually
succeeded by means of the most difficult negotiations in buying the quantity
desired by our government from the American Standard Oil Company and theDutch — English Royal — Dutch — Shell group and in transporting it toGermany, was made possible only through the aid of the Standard Oil Co.
Ethyl Lead for the Wehrmacht
Another prominent example of Standard Oil assistance to Nazi Germany — in cooperation
with General Motors — was in supplying ethyl lead. Ethyl fluid is an anti-knock compound
used in both aviation and automobile fuels to eliminate knocking, and so improve engine
efficiency; without such anti-knocking compounds modern mobile warfare would be
impractical.
In 1924 the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation was formed in New York City, jointly owned by theStandard Oil Company of New Jersey and General Motors Corporation, to control andutilize U.S. patents for the manufacture and distribution of tetraethyl lead and ethyl fluid in
the U.S. and abroad. Up to 1935 manufacture of these products was undertaken only in the
United States. In 1935 Ethyl Gasoline Corporation transferred its know-how to Germany foruse in the Nazi rearmament program. This transfer was undertaken over the protests of the
U.S. Government.
Ethyl's intention to transfer its anti-knock technology to Nazi Germany came to the attentionof the Army Air Corps in Washington, D.C. On December 15, 1934 E. W. Webb, presidentof Ethyl Gasoline, was advised that Washington had learned of the intention of "forming a
German company with the I.G. to manufacture ethyl lead in that country." The War
Department indicated that there was considerable criticism of this technological transfer,which might "have the gravest repercussions" for the U.S.; that the commercial demand for
ethyl lead in Germany was too small to be of interest; and,... it has been claimed that Germany is secretly arming [and] ethyl lead would
doubtless be a valuable aid to military aeroplanes.10
The Ethyl Company was then advised by the Army Air Corps that "under no conditions
should you or the Board of Directors of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation disclose any secrets
or 'know-how' in connection with the manufacture of tetraethyl lead to Germany.11
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On January 12, 1935 Webb mailed to the Chief of the Army Air Corps a "Statement of
Facts," which was in effect a denial that any such technical knowledge would betransmitted; he offered to insert such a clause in the contract to guard against any suchtransfer. However, contrary to its pledge to the Army Air Corps, Ethyl subsequently signed
a joint production agreement with I.G. Farben in Germany to form Ethyl G.m.b.H. and with
Montecatini in fascist Italy for the same purpose.
It is worth noting the directors of Ethyl Gasoline Corporation at the time of this transfer:12
E.W. Webb, president and director; C.F. Kettering; R.P. Russell; W.C. Teagle, Standard Oilof New Jersey and trustee of FDR's Georgia Warm Springs Foundation; F. A. Howard; E.
M. Clark, Standard Oil of New Jersey; A. P. Sloan, Jr.; D. Brown; J. T. Smith; and W.S.
Parish of Standard Oil of New Jersey.
The I.G. Farben files captured at the end of the war confirm the importance of this particulartechnical transfer for the German Wehrmacht:
Since the beginning of the war we have been in a position. to produce leadtetraethyl solely because, a short time before the outbreak of the war, theAmericans had established plants for us ready for production and supplied us
with all available experience. In this manner we did not need to perform thedifficult work of development because we could start production right away on
the basis of all the experience that the Americans had had for years.13
In 1938, just before the outbreak of war in Europe, the German Luftwaffe had an urgent
requirement for 500 tons of tetraethyl lead. Ethyl was advised by an official of DuPont thatsuch quantities of ethyl would be used by Germany for military purposes.14 This 500 tons
was loaned by the Ethyl Export Corporation of New York to Ethyl G.m.b.H. of Germany, ina transaction arranged by the Reich Air Ministry with I.G. Farben director Mueller-Cunradi.
The collateral security was arranged in a letter dated September 21, 193815 through Brown
Brothers, Harriman & Co. of New York.
Standard Oil of New Jersey and Synthetic Rubber
The transfer of ethyl technology for the Nazi war machine was repeated in the case ofsynthetic rubber. There is no question that the ability of the German Wehrmacht to fightWorld War II depended on synthetic rubber — as well as on synthetic petroleum — because
Germany has no natural rubber, and war would have been impossible without Farben's
synthetic rubber production. Farben had a virtual monopoly of this field and the program toproduce the large quantities necessary was financed by the Reich:
The volume of planned production in this field was far beyond the needs ofpeacetime economy. The huge costs involved were consistent only with militaryconsiderations in which the need for self-sufficiency without regard to cost wasdecisive.16
As in the ethyl technology transfers, Standard Oil of New Jersey was intimately associatedwith I.G. Farben's synthetic rubber. A series of joint cartel agreements were made in the late
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1920s aimed at a joint world monopoly of synthetic rubber. Hitler's Four Year Plan went
into effect in 1937 and in 1938 Standard provided I.G. Farben with its new butyl rubber
process. On the other hand Standard kept the German buna process secret within the UnitedStates and it was not until June 1940 that Firestone and U.S. Rubber were allowed toparticipate in testing butyl and granted the buna manufacturing licenses. Even then Standard
tried to get the U.S. Government to finance a large-scale buna program — reserving its own
funds for the more promising butyl process.17
Consequently, Standard assistance in Nazi Germany was not limited to oil from coal,although this was the most important transfer. Not only was the process for tetraethyltransferred to I.G. Farben and a plant built in Germany owned jointly by I.G., General
Motors, and Standard subsidiaries; but as late as 1939 Standard's German subsidiary
designed a German plant for aviation gas. Tetraethyl was shipped on an emergency basis for
the Wehrmacht and major assistance was given in production of butyl rubber, while holding
secret in the U.S. the Farben process for buna. In other words, Standard Oil of New Jersey(first under president W.C. Teagle and then under W..S. Farish) consistently aided the Nazi
war machine while refusing to aid the United States.
This sequence of events was not an accident. President W.S. Farish argued that not to have
granted such technical assistance to the Wehrmacht "... would have been unwarranted."18
The assistance was knowledgeable, ranged over more than a decade, and was so substantivethat without it the Wehrmacht could not have gone to war in 1939.
The Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum A.G. (DAPAG)
The Standard Oil subsidiary in Germany, Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum A.G.
(DAPAG), was 94-percent owned by Standard Oil of New Jersey. DAPAG had branches
throughout Germany, a refinery at Bremen, and a head office in Hamburg. Through
DAPAG, Standard Oil of New Jersey was represented in the inner circles of Naziism — theKeppler Circle and Himmler's Circle of Friends. A director of DAPAG was Karl
Lindemann, also chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in Germany, as well
as director of several banks, including the Dresdner Bank, the Deutsche Reichsbank, and theprivate Nazi-oriented bank of C. Melchior & Company, and numerous corporations
including the HAPAG (Hamburg-Amerika Line). Lindemann was a member of Keppler's
Circle of Friends as late as 1944 and so gave Standard Oil of New Jersey a representative at
the very core of Naziism. Another member of the board of DAPAG was Emil Helfrich, who
was an original member of the Keppler Circle.
In sum, Standard Oil of New Jersey had two members of the Keppler Circle as directors of
its German wholly owned subsidiary. Payments to the Circle from the Standard Oil
subsidiary company, and from Lindemann and Helffrich as individual directors, continued
until 1944, the year before the end of World War II.19
Footnotes:
1In 1935, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. owned stock valued at $245 million in Stan

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dard Oil of New Jersey, Standard Oil of California, and Socony-Vacuun
Company, New York Times, January 10, 1935.
2Elimination of German Resources, op cit., p. 1085.
3Ibid.
4NMT, I.G. Farben case, p. 1304.
5New York Times, April 28, 1929.
6Ibid.
7Ibid, November 24, 1929.
8NMT, I.G. Farben case, Volumes VII and VIII, pp. 1304-1311,
9See letter from U.S. War Department reproduced as Appendix D.
10United States Congress. Senate. Hearings before a subcommittee of theCommittee on Military Affairs. Scientific and Technical Mobilization, (78thCongress, 1st session, S. 702), Part 16, (Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1944), p. 939. Hereafter cited as Scientific and Technical Mobilization.
11Ibid.
12Oil and Petroleum Yearbook, 1938, p. 89.
13New York Times, October 19, 1945, p. 9.
14George W. Stocking & Myron W. Watkins, Cartels in Action, (New York:The Twentieth Century Fund, 1946), p. 9.
15For original documents see NMT, I.G. Farben case, Volume VIII, pp.

1189-94.
16NMT, I.G. Farben case, Volume VIII, p. 1264-5.
17Scientific and Technical Mobilization, p. 543.
18Robert Engler, The Politics of Oil, (New York: The MacMillan Company,

1961), p. 102.
19See Chapter Nine for details.

BACK

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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

CHAPTER FIVE
I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War
Thus while I.T.T. Focke-Wolfe planes were bombing Allied ships, and I. T. T.
lines were passing information to German submarines, I.T.T. direction .finders
were saving other ships from torpedoes. (Anthony Sampson, The Sovereign
State of I.T.T., New York: Stein & Day, 1973, p. 40.)
The multi-national giant International Telephone and Telegraph (I.T.T.)1 was founded in
1920 by Virgin Islands-born entrepreneur Sosthenes Behn. During his lifetime Behn was the
epitome of the politicized businessman, earning his profits and building the I.T.T. empire
through political maneuverings rather than in the competitive market place. In 1923, throughpolitical adroitness, Behn acquired the Spanish telephone monopoly, Compania Telefonica
de Espana. In 1924 I.T.T., now backed by the J.P. Morgan firm, bought what later became
the International Standard Electric group of manufacturing plants around the world.
The parent board of I.T.T. reflected the J.P. Morgan interests, with Morgan partners Arthur
M. Anderson and Russell Leffingwell. The Establishment law firm of Davis, Polk,
Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed was represented by the two junior partners, Gardiner & Reed.
DIRECTORS OF I.T.T. IN 1933:
Affiliation with other
Directors
Wall Street firms:
Arthur M. ANDERSON
Partner, J.P. MORGAN and
New York Trust Company
Hernand BEHN
Bank of America
Sosthenes BEHN
NATIONAL CITY BANK
F. Wilder BELLAMY
Partner in Dominick &Dominicik
John W. CUTLERGRACE NATIONAL BANK,Lee Higginson
George H. GARDINER
Partner in Davis, Polk,
Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed
Allen G. HOYTNATIONAL CITY BANK
Russell C. LEFFINGWELL
Partner J.P. MORGAN andCARNEGIE CORP.
Bradley W. PALMER
Chairman, Executive
Committee, UNITED FRUIT
Lansing P. REED
Partner in Davis, Polk,
Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed
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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

The National City Bank (NCB) in the Morgan group was represented by two directors,
Sosthenes Behn and Allen G. Hoyt. In brief, I.T.T. was a Morgan-controlled company; andwe have previously noted the interest of Morgan-controlled companies in war andrevolution abroad and political maneuvering in the United States.2
In 1930 Behn acquired the German holding company of Standard Elekrizitäts A.G.,
controlled by I.T.T. (62.0 percent of the voting stock), A.E.G. (81.1 percent of the voting
stock) and Felton & Guilleaume (six percent of the voting stock). In this deal Standard
acquired two German manufacturing plants and a majority stock interest in Telefonfabrik
Berliner A.G.I.T.T. also obtained the Standard subsidiaries in Germany, Ferdinand
Schuchardt Berliner Fernsprech-und Telegraphenwerk A,G., as well as Mix & Genest in
Berlin, and Suddeutsche Apparate Fabrik G,m.b.H. in Nuremburg.
It is interesting to note in passing that while Sosthenes Behn's I.T.T. controlled telephonecompanies and manufacturing plants in Germany, the cable traffic between the U.S. andGermany was under the control of Deutsch-Atlantische Telegraphengesellschaft (theGerman Atlantic Cable Company). This firm, together with the Commercial Cable
Company and Western Union Telegraph Company, had a monopoly in transatlantic
U.S.-German cable communications. W.A. Harriman & Company took over a block of
625,000 shares in Deutsch-Atlantische in 1925, and the firm's board of directors included an
unusual array of characters, many of whom we have met elsewhere. It included, forexample, H. F. Albert, the German espionage agent in the United States in World War I;
Franklin D. Roosevelt's former business associate yon Berenberg-Gossler; and Dr. Cuno, aformer German chancellor of the 1923 inflationary era. I.T.T. in the United States was
represented on the board by yon Guilleaume and Max Warburg of the Warburg banking
familyBaron Kurt von Schroder and the I.T.T.
There is no record that I.T.T. made direct payments to Hitler before the Nazi grab for power
in 1933. On the other hand, numerous payments were made to Heinrich Himmler in the late
1930s and in World War II itself through I.T.T. German subsidiaries. The first meeting
between Hitler and I.T.T. officials — so far as we know — was reported in August 1933,3
when Sosthenes Behn and I.T.T. German representative Henry Manne met with Hitler inBerchesgaden. Subsequently, Behn made contact with the Keppler circle (see Chapter Nine)
and, through Keppler's influence, Nazi Baron Kurt von Schröder became the guardian of
I.T.T. interests in Germany. Schröder acted as the conduit for I.T.T. money funneled toHeinrich Himmler's S.S. organization in 1944, while World War II was in progress, and theUnited states was at war with Germany.4
Through Kurt Schröder, Behn and his I.T.T. gained access to the profitable German
armaments industry and bought substantial interest in German armaments firms, including
Focke-Wolfe aircraft. These armaments operations made handsome profits, which could
have been repatriated to the United States parent company. But they were reinvested inGerman rearmament. This reinvestment of profits in German armament firms suggests that

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Wall Street claims it was innocent of wrongdoing in German rearmament — and indeed did
not even know of Hitler's intentions — are fraudulent. Specifically, I.T.T. purchase of a
substantial interest in Focke-Wolfe meant, as Anthony Sampson has pointed out, that I.T.T.
was producing German planes used to kill Americans and their allies — and it madeexcellent profits out of the enterprise.
In Kurt von Schröder, I.T.T. had access to the very heart of the Nazi power elite. Who was
Schröder? Baron Kurt von Schröder was born in Hamburg in 1889 into an old, established
German banking family. An earlier member of the Schröder family moved to London,changed his name to Schroder (without the dierisis) and organized the banking firm of J.
Henry Schroder in London and J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation in New York. Kurt
von Schröder also became a partner in the private Cologne Bankhaus, J. H. Stein &Company, founded in the late eighteenth century. Both Schröder and Stein had beenpromoters, in company with French financiers, of the 1919 German separatist movement
which attempted to split the rich Rhineland away from Germany and its troubles. In thisescapade prominent Rhineland industrialists met at J. H. Stein's house on January 7, 1919
and a few months later organized a meeting, with Stein as chairman, to develop public
support for the separatist movement. The 1919 action failed. The group tried again in 1923
and spearheaded another movement to break the Rhineland away from Germany to comeunder the protection of France. This attempt also failed. Kurt yon Schrader then linked up
with Hitler and the early Nazis, and as in the 1919 and 1923 Rhineland separatist
movements, Schröder represented and worked for German industrialists and armaments
manufacturers.
In exchange for financial and industrial support arranged by yon Schrader, he later gained
political prestige. Immediately after the Nazis gained power in 1933 Schrader became theGerman representative at the Bank for International Settlements, which Quigley calls the
apex of the international control system, as well as head of the private bankers groupadvising the German Reichsbank. Heinrich Himmler appointed Sehroder an S.S. SeniorGroup Leader, and in turn Himmler became a prominent member of Keppler's Circle. (See
Chapter Nine.)
In 1938 the Schroder Bank in London became the German financial agent in Great Britain,
represented at financial meetings by its Managing Director (and a director of the Bank ofEngland), F.C. Tiarks. By World War II Baron Schrader had in this manner acquired an
impressive list of political and banking connections reflecting a widespread influence; it waseven reported to the U.S. Kilgore Committee that Schrader was influential enough in 1940
to bring Pierre Laval to power in France. As listed by the Kilgore Committee, Sehroder'spolitical acquisitions in the early 1940s were as follows:
SS Senior Group Leader.
Iron Cross of First andSecond Class.
Swedish Consul General.

Trade Group for Wholesale
and Foreign Trade –Manager.
Akademie fur Deutsches
Recht (Academy ofGermany Law) – Member

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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

International Chamber ofCommerce – Member ofadministrative committee.
Council of Reich Post Office– Member of advisory board.
German Industrial andCommerce Assembly –Presiding member.
Reich Board of Economic
Affairs Member.
Deutsche Reichsbahn –President of administrative
board.

City of Cologne –Councilor.
University of Cologne –Member of board of trustees.
Kaiser Wilhelm Foundation– Senator.
Advisory Council of
German-Albanians.
Goods Clearing Bureau –Member.
Working Committee ofReich Group for Industry
and Commerce – Deputy
chairman.5

Schröder's banking connections were equally impressive and his business connections (notlisted here) would take up two pages:
Bank for International
Settlement – Member of thedirectorate.

J.H. Stein & Co, Cologne –Partner (Banque Worms was
French cortespondent).

DeutscheVerkehrs-Kredit-Bank,
A.G., Berlin (Controlled by
Deutsche Reichsbank) –Chairman of board of
directors.
Deutsche Ueberseeische
Bank (Controlled by
Deutsche Bank, Berlin) –Director.6

Deutsche Reichsbank, Berlin.
Adviser to board of
directors.
Wirtschaftsgruppe Private
Bankegewerbe – Leader.
This was the Schröder who, after 1933, represented Sosthenes Behn of I.T.T. and I.T.T.
interests in Nazi Germany. Precisely because Schröder had these excellent politicalconnections with Hitler and the Nazi State, Behn appointed Schröder to the boards of all the
I.T.T. German companies: Standard Electrizitatswerke A.G. in Berlin, C. Lorenz A.G. of
Berlin, and Mix & Genest A.G. (in which Standard had a 94-percent participation).
In the mid-1930s another link was forged between Wall Street and Schröder, this timethrough the Rockefellers. In 1936 the underwriting and general securities business handled
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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

by J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation in New York was merged into a new investmentbanking firm — Schroder, Rockefeller & Company, Inc. at 48 Wall Street. Carlton P. Fullerof Schroder Banking Corporation became president and Avery Rockefeller, son of Percy
Rockefeller (brother of John D. Rockefeller) became vice president and director of the newfirm. Previously, Avery Rockefeller had been associated behind the scenes with J. Henry
Schroder Banking Corporation; the new firm brought him out into the open.7
Westrick, Texaco, and I.T.T.
I.T.T. had yet another conduit to Nazi Germany, through German attorney Dr. Gerhard
Westrick. Westrick was one of a select group of Germans who had conducted espionage inthe United States during World War I. The group included not only Kurt von Schröder andWestrick but also Franz yon Papen — whom we shall meet in company with James Paul
Warburg of the Bank of Manhattan in Chapter Ten — and Dr. Heinrich Albert. Albert,
supposedly German commercial attache in the U.S. in World War I, was actually in chargeof financing yon Papen's espionage program. After World War I Westrick and Albert
formed the law firm of Albert & Westrick which specialized in, and profited heavily from,the Wall Street reparations loans. The Albert & Westrick firm handled the German end of
the J Henry Schroder Banking loans, while the John Foster Dulles firm of Sullivan and
Cromwell in New York handled the U.S. end of the Schroder loans.
Just prior to World War II the Albert-Papen-Westrick espionage operation in the UnitedStates began to repeat itself, only this time around the American authorities were more alert.
Westrick came to the U.S. in 1940, supposedly as a commercial attache but in fact as
Ribbentrop's personal representative. A stream of visitors to the influential Westrick
in-eluded prominent directors of U.S. petroleum and industrial firms, and this brought
Westrick to the attention of the FBI.
Westrick at this time became a director of all I.T.T. operations in Germany, in order toprotect I.T.T. interests during the expected U.S. involvement in the European war.8 Among
his other enterprises Westrick attempted to persuade Henry Ford to cut off supplies to
Britain, and the favored treatment given by the Nazis to Ford interests in France suggeststhat Westrick was partially successful in neutralizing U.S. aid to Britain.
Although Westrick's most important wartime business connection in the United States waswith International Telephone and Telegraph, he also represented other U.S. firms, including
Underwood Elliott Fisher, owner of the German company Mercedes Buromaschinen A.G.;
Eastman Kodak, which had a Kodak subsidiary in Germany; and the International Milk
Corporation, with a Hamburg subsidiary. Among Westrick's deals (and the one which
received the most publicity) was a contract for Texaco to supply oil to the German Navy,
which he arranged with Torkild Rieber, chairman of the board of Texaco Company.
In 1940 Rieber discussed an oil deal with Hermann Goering, and Westrick in the UnitedStates worked for Texas Oil Company. His automobile was bought with Texaco funds, andWestrick's driver's license application gave Texaco as his business address. These activities
were publicized on August 12, 1940. Rieber subsequently resigned from Texaco andWestrick returned to Germany. Two years later Rieber was chairman of South Carolina
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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

Shipbuilding and Dry Docks, supervising construction of more than $10 million of U.S.
Navy ships, and a director of the Guggenheim family's Barber Asphalt Corporation andSeaboard Oil Company of Ohio.9
I.T.T. in Wartime Germany
In 1939 I.T.T. in the United States controlled Standard Elektrizitats in Germany, and in turnStandard Elektrizitats controlled 94 percent of Mix & Genest. On the board of Standard
Elektrizitats was Baron Kurt yon Schrader, a Nazi banker at the core of Naziism, and Emil
Heinrich Meyer, brother-in-law of Secretary of State Keppler (founder of the Keppler
Circle) and a director of German General Electric. Schrader and Meyer were also directorsof Mix & Genest and the other I.T.T. subsidiary, C. Lorenz Company; both of these I.T.T.
subsidiaries were monetary contributors to Himmler's Circle of Friends — i.e., the Nazi S.S.
slush fund. As late as 1944, Mix & Genest contributed 5,000 RM to Himmler and Lorenz
contributed 20,000 RM. In short, during World War II International Telephone andTelegraph was making cash payments to S.S. leader Heinrich Himmler.10 These payments
enabled I.T.T. to protect its investment in Focke-Wolfe, an aircraft manufacturing firm
producing fighter aircraft used against the United States.
The interrogation of Kurt von Schröder on November 19, 1945 points up the deliberate
nature of the close and profitable relationship between Colonel Sosthenes Behn of I.T.T.,
Westrick, Schröder, and the Nazi war machine during World War II, and that this was adeliberate and knowledgeable relationship:
Q. You have [told] us in your earlier testimony, a number of companies inGermany in which the International Telephone and Telegraph Company or theStandard Electric Company had a participation. Did either International
Telephone and Telegraph Company or the Standard Electric Company have aparticipation in any other company in Germany?
A. Yes. The Lorenz Company, shortly before the war, took a participation of
about 25 percent in Focke-Wolfe A.G. in Bremen. Focke-Wolfe was making
airplanes for the German Air Ministry. I believe that later as Focke-Wolfe
expanded and took in more capital that the interest of Lorenz Company
dropped a little below this 25 percent.
Q. So this participation in Focke-Wolfe by Lorenz Company began after
Lorenz Company was nearly 100-percent owned and controlled by Colonel
Behn through the International Telephone and Telegraph Company?
A. Yes.
Q. Did Colonel Behen [sic] approve of this investment by the Lorenz Company
in Focke-Wolfe?
A. I am confident that Colonel Behn approved before his representatives who
were in close touch with him formally approved the transaction.

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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

Q. What year was it that the Lorenz Company made the investment which gaveit this 25 percent participation in Foeke-Wolfe?
A. I remember it was shortly before the outbreak of war, that is, shortly before
the invasion of Poland. [Ed: 1939]
Q Would Westrick know all about the details of the participations of Lorenz
Company in Foeke-Wolfe, A.G. of Bremen?
A. Yes. Better than I would.
Q. What was the size of the investment that Lorenz Company made in the
Focke-Wolfe A.G., of Bremen, which gave them the initial 25 percent
participation?
A. 250,000 thousand RM initially, and this was substantially increased, but I
don't recall the extent of the additional investments that Lorenz Company madeto this Focke-Wolfe A.G. of Bremen.
Q. From 1055, until the outbreak of the European War, was Colonel Behn in aposition to transfer the profits from investments of his companies in Germany
to his companies in the United States?
A. Yes. While it would have required that his companies take a little less than
the full dividends because of the difficulty of securing foreign exchange, thegreat bulk of the profits could have been transferred to the company of Colonel
Behn in the United States. However, Colonel Behn did not elect to do this andat no time did he ask me if I could accomplish this for him. Instead, heappeared to be perfectly content to have all the profits of the companies inGermany, which he and his interests controlled, reinvesting these profits in newbuildings and machinery and any other enterprises engaged in producing
armaments.
Another one of these enterprises, Huth and Company, G.m.b.H., of Berlin,which made radio and radar parts, many of which were used in equipment
going to the German Armed Forces. The Lorenz Company as I recall it [had] a50-percent participation in Huth and Company. The Lorenz Company also hada small subsidiary which acted as a sales agency for the Lorenz Company toprivate customers.
Q. You were a member of the board of Lorenz Company's board of director,
from about 1935 up to the present time. During this time, Lorenz Company andsome of the other companies, such as Foeke-Wolfe with which it had large
participations, were engaged in the manufacture of equipment for armaments
and war production. Did you know or did you hear of any protest made by
Colonel Behn or his representatives against these companies engaged in these
activities preparing Germany for war?
A. No.

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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

Q. Are you positive that there was no other occasion in which you were asked
by either Westrick, Mann [sic], Colonel Behn or any other person connectedwith the International Telephone and Telegraphic Company interests inGermany, to intervene on behalf of the company with the German authorities.
A. Yes. I don't remember any request for my intervention in any matter ofimportance to the Lorenz Company or any other International Telephone andTelegraph interests in Germany.
I have read the record of this interrogation and I swear that the answers I havegiven to the question of Messrs. Adams and Pajus are true to the best ofknowledge and belief. s/Kurt yon Schröder
It was this story of I.T.T.-Nazi cooperation during World War II and I.T.T. association with
Nazi Kurt von Schröder that I.T.T. wanted to conceal — and almost was successful inconcealing. James Stewart Martin recounts how during the planning meetings of the Finance
Division of the Control Commission he was assigned to work with Captain Norbert A.
Bogdan, who out of uniform was vice president of the J. Henry Schroder Banking
Corporation of New York. Martin relates that "Captain Bogdan had argued vigorously
against investigation of the Stein Bank on the grounds that it was 'small potatoes.'"11 Shortly
after blocking this maneuver, two permanent members of Bogdan's staff applied for
permission to investigate the Stein Bank — although Cologne had not yet fallen to U.S.
forces. Martin recalls that "The Intelligence Division blocked that one," and so some
information on the Stein-Schröder Bank-I.T.T. operation survived.
Footnotes:
1For an excellent review of I.T.T.'s worldwide activities, see Anthony

Sampson, The Sovereign State of I.T.T., (New York: Stein & Day, 1973).
2See also Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit.
3New York Times, August 4, 1933.
4See also Chapter Nine for documentary proof of these I.T.T. payments to the

S.S.
5Elimination of German Resources, p. 871.
6Ibid.
7New York Times, July 20, 1936.
8Anthony Sampson reports a meeting between I.T.T. vice president Kenneth

Stockton and Westrick in which the preservation of I.T.T. properties wasplanned. See Anthony Sampson, op. cit., p. 39.
9There is no substance to reports that Rieber received $20,000 from the Nazis.

These reports were investigated by the F.B.I. with no proof forthcoming. See
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CHAPTER FIVE: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War

United States Senate, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the.
Internal Security Act, Committee on the Judiciary, Morgenthau Diary(Germany), Volume I, 90th Congress, 1st Session, November 20, 1967,(Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), pp. 316-8. On Rieber
see also Appendix to the Congressional Record, August 20, 1942, p, A 1501-2,
Remarks of Hon. John M. Coffee.
10See pp. 128-130 for further details.
11James Stewart Martin, op. cit., p. 52.

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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

CHAPTER SIX
Henry Ford and the Nazis
I would like to outline the importance attached by high [Nazi] officials torespect the desire and maintain the good will of "Ford," and by "Ford" I mean
your father, yourself, and the Ford Motor Company, Dearborn. (Josiah E.
Dubois, Jr, Generals in Grey Suits, London: The Bodley Head, 1953, p. 250.)
Henry Ford is often seen to be something of an enigma among the Wall Street elite. For
many years in the 20s and 30s Ford was popularly known as an enemy of the financial
establishment. Ford accused Morgan and others of using war and revolution as a road to
profit and their influence in social systems as a means of personal advancement. By 1938
Henry Ford, in his public statements, had divided financiers into two classes: those who
profited from war and used their influence to bring about war for profit, and the"constructive" financiers. Among the latter group he now included the House of Morgan.
During a 1938 New York Times interview1 Ford averred that:
Somebody once said that sixty families have directed the destinies of the nation.
It might well be said that if somebody would focus the spotlight on twenty-fivepersons who handle the nation's finances, the world's real warmakers would be
brought into bold relief.
The Times reporter asked Ford how he equated this assessment with his long-standing
criticism of the House of Morgan, to which Ford replied:
There is a constructive and a destructive Wall Street. The House of Morgan
represents the constructive. I have known Mr. Morgan for many years. He
backed and supported Thomas Edison, who was also my good friend ....
After expounding on the evils of limited agricultural production — allegedly brought about
by Wall Street — Ford continued,... if these financiers had their way we'd be in a war now. They want war
because they make money out of such conflict — out of the human misery thatwars bring.
On the other hand, when we probe behind these public statements we find that Henry Fordand son Edsel Ford have been in the forefront of American businessmen who try to walk
both sides of every ideological fence in search of profit. Using Ford's own criteria, the Fords
are among the "destructive" elements.
It was Henry Ford who in the 1930s built the Soviet Union's first modern automobile plant(located at Gorki) and which in the 50s and 60s produced the trucks used by the North

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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

Vietnamese to carry weapons and munitions for use against Americans.2 At about the sametime, Henry Ford was also the most famous of Hitler's foreign backers, and he was rewardedin the 1930s for this long-lasting support with the highest Nazi decoration for foreigners.
This Nazi favor aroused a storm of controversy in the United States and ultimately
degenerated into an exchange of diplomatic notes between the German Government and theState Department. While Ford publicly protested that he did not like totalitarian
governments, we find in practice that Ford knowingly profited from both sides of WorldWar II — from French and German plants producing vehicles at a profit for the Wehrmacht,
and from U.S. plants building vehicles at a profit for the U.S. Army.
Henry Ford's protestations of innocence suggest, as we shall see in this chapter, that he did
not approve of Jewish financiers profiting from war (as some have), but if anti-Semitic
Morgan3 and Ford profited from war that was acceptable, moral and "constructive."
Henry Ford: Hitler's First Foreign Backer
On December 20, 1922 the New York Times reported4 that automobile manufacturer Henry
Ford was financing Adolph Hitler's nationalist and anti-Semitic movements in Munich.
Simultaneously, the Berlin newspaper Berliner Tageblatt appealed to the American
Ambassador in Berlin to investigate and halt Henry Ford's intervention into German
domestic affairs. It was reported that Hitler's foreign backers had furnished a "spacious
headquarters" with a "host of highly paid lieutenants and officials." Henry Ford's portrait
was prominently displayed on the walls of Hitler's personal office:The wall behind his desk in Hitler's private office is decorated with a large
picture of Henry Ford. In the antechamber there is a large table covered withbooks, nearly all of which are a translation of a book written and published by
Henry Ford.5
The same New York Times report commented that the previous Sunday Hitler had reviewed,
The so-called Storming Battalion.., 1,000 young men in brand new uniforms
and armed with revolvers and blackjacks, while Hitler and his henchmen drove
around in two powerful brand-new autos.
The Times made a clear distinction between the German monarchist parties and Hitler'santi-Semitic fascist party. Henry Ford, it was noted, ignored the Hohenzollern monarchists
and put his money into the Hitlerite revolutionary movement.
These Ford funds were used by Hitler to foment the Bavarian rebellion. The rebellion failed,and Hitler was captured and subsequently brought to trial. In February 1923 at the trial, vicepresident Auer of the Bavarian Diet testified:
The Bavarian Diet has long had the information that the Hitler movement was
partly financed by an American anti-Semitic chief, who is Henry Ford. Mr.
Ford's interest in the Bavarian anti-Semitic movement began a year ago when
one of Mr. Ford's agents, seeking to sell tractors, came in contact with
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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

Diedrich Eichart, the notorious Pan-German. Shortly after, Herr Eichart asked
Mr. Ford's agent for financial aid. The agent returned to America andimmediately Mr. Ford's money began coming to Munich.
Herr Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford's support and praises Mr. Ford as agreat individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in
Herr Hitler's quarters, which is the center of monarchist movement.6
Hitler received a mild and comfortable prison sentence for his Bavarian revolutionary
activities. The rest from more active pursuits enabled him to write Mein Kampf. Henry
Ford's book, The International Jew, earlier circulated by the Nazis, was translated by theminto a dozen languages, and Hitler utilized sections of the book verbatim in writing Mein
Kampf.7
We shall see later that Hitler's backing in the late 20s and early 30s came from the chemical,
steel, and electrical industry cartels, rather than directly from individual industrialists. In
1928 Henry Ford merged his German assets with those of the I.G. Farben chemical cartel. A
substantial holding, 40 percent of Ford Motor A.G. of Germany, was transferred to I.G.
Farben; Carl Bosch of I.G. Farben became head of Ford A.G. Motor in Germany.
Simultaneously, in the United States Edsel Ford joined the board of American I.G. Farben.
(See Chapter Two.)Henry Ford Receives a Nazi Medal
A decade later, in August 1938 — after Hitler had achieved power with the aid of the cartels— Henry Ford received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a Nazi decoration for
distinguished foreigners. The New York Times reported it was the first time the Grand Cross
had been awarded in the United States and was to celebrate Henry Ford's 75th birthday.8
The decoration raised a storm of criticism within Zionist circles in the U.S. Ford backed off
to the extent of publicly meeting with Rabbi Leo Franklin of Detroit to express his sympathy
for the plight of German Jews:
My acceptance of a medal from the German people [said Ford] does not, assome people seem to think, involve any sympathy on my part with naziism.
Those who have known me for many years realize that anything that breeds
hate is repulsive to me.9
The Nazi medal issue was picked up in a Cleveland speech by Secretary of Interior Harold
Ickes. Ickes criticized both Henry Ford and Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh for accepting
Nazi medals. The curious part of the Ickes speech, made at a Cleveland Zionist Societybanquet, was his criticism of "wealthy Jews" and their acquisition and use of wealth:
A mistake made by a non-Jewish millionaire reflects upon him alone, but afalse step made by a Jewish man of wealth reflects upon his whole race. This isharsh and unjust, but it is a fact that must be faced.10
Perhaps Ickes was tangentially referring to the roles of the Warburgs in the I.G. Farben
cartel: Warburgs were on the board of I.G. Farben in the U.S. and Germany. In 1938 the
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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

Warburgs were being ejected by the Nazis from Germany. Other German Jews, such as the
Oppenheim bankers, made their peace with the Nazis and were granted "honorary Aryan
status."Ford Motor Company Assists the German War Effort
A post-war Congressional subcommittee investigating American support for the Nazi
military effort described the manner in which the Nazis succeeded in obtaining U.S.
technical and financial assistance as "quite fantastic.11 Among other evidence theCommittee was shown a memorandum prepared in the offices of Ford-Werke A.G. on
November 25, 1941, written by Dr. H. F. Albert to R. H. Schmidt, then president of theboard of Ford-Werke A.G. The memo cited the advantages of having a majority of theGerman firm held by Ford Motor Company in Detroit. German Ford had been able toexchange Ford parts for rubber and critical war materials needed in 1938 and 1939 "andthey would not have been able to do that if Ford had not been owned by the United States."
Further, with a majority American interest German Ford would "more easily be able to stepin and dominate the Ford holdings throughout Europe." It was even reported to theCommittee that two top German Ford officials had been in a bitter personal feud about who
was to control Ford of England, such "that one of them finally got up and left the room in
disgust."According to evidence presented to the Committee, Ford-Werke A.G. was technicallytransformed in the late 1930s into a German company. All vehicles and their parts were
produced in Germany, by German workers using German materials under German directionand exported to European and overseas territories of the United States and Great Britain.
Any needed foreign raw materials, rubber and nonferrous metals, were obtained through theAmerican Ford Company. American influence had been more or less converted into a
supporting position (Hilfsstellung) for the German Ford plants.
At the outbreak of the war Ford-Werke placed itself at the disposal of the Wehrmacht forarmament production. It was assumed by the Nazis that as long as Ford-Werke A.G. had an
American majority, it would be possible to bring the remaining European Ford companies
under German influence — i.e., that of Ford-Werke A.G. — and so execute Nazi "Greater
European" policies in the Ford plants in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, Budapest, Bucharest,
and Copenhagen:
A majority, even if only a small one, of Americans is essential for thetransmittal of the newest American models, as well as American production
and sales methods. With the abolition of the American majority, this advantage,
as well as the intervention of the Ford Motor Company to obtain raw materials
and exports, would be lost, and the German plant would practically only beworth its machine capacity.12
And, of course, this kind of strict neutrality, taking an international rather than a national
viewpoint, had earlier paid off for Ford Motor Company in the Soviet Union, where Ford
was held in high regard as the ultimate of technical and economic efficiency to be achievedby the Stak-hanovites.
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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

In July 1942 word filtered back to Washington from Ford of France about Ford's activities
on behalf of the German war effort in Europe. The incriminating information was promptly
buried and even today only part of the known documentation can be traced in Washington.
We do know, however, that the U.S. Consul General in Algeria had possession of a letterfrom Maurice Dollfuss of French Ford — who claimed to be the first Frenchman to go to
Berlin after the fall of France — to Edsel Ford about a plan by which Ford Motor could
contribute to the Nazi war effort. French Ford was able to produce 20 trucks a day for the
Wehrmacht, which [wrote Dollfuss] is better than,... our less fortunate French competitors are doing. The reason is that our
trucks are in very large demand by the German authorities and I believe that aslong as the war goes on and at least for some period of time, all that we shallproduce will be taken by the German authorities .... I will satisfy myself by
telling you that... the attitude you have taken, together with your father, of strict
neutrality, has been an invaluable asset for the production of your companies
in Europe.13
Dollfuss disclosed that profits from this German business were already 1.6 million francs,
and net profits for 1941 were no less than 58,000,000 francs — because the Germans paid
promptly for Ford's output. On receipt of this news Edsel Ford cabled:
Delighted to hear you are making progress. Your letters most interesting. Fully
realize great handicap you are working under. Hope you and family well.
Regards.
s/ Edsel Ford14
Although there is evidence that European plants owned by Wall Street interests were notbombed by the U.S. Air Force in World War II, this restriction apparently did not reach the
British Bombing Command. In March 1942 the Royal Air Force bombed the Ford plant at
Poissy, France. A subsequent letter from Edsel Ford to Ford General Manager Sorenson
about this RAF raid commented, "Photographs of the plant on fire were published in
American newspapers but fortunately no reference was made to the Ford Motor Company.15
In any event, the Vichy government paid Ford Motor Company 38 million francs ascompensation for damage done to the Poissy plant. This was not reported in the U.S. press
and would hardly be appreciated by those Americans at war with Naziism. Dubois assertsthat these private messages from Ford in Europe were passed to Edsel Ford by Assistant
Secretary of State Breckenridge Long. This was the same Secretary Long who one year later
suppressed private messages through the State Department concerning the extermination ofJews in Europe. 16 Disclosure of those messages conceivably could have been used to assist
those desperate people.
A U.S. Air Force bombing intelligence report written in 1943 noted that,
Principal wartime activities [of the Ford plant] are probably manufacture oflight trucks and of spare parts for all the Ford trucks and cars in service in

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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

Axis Europe (including captured Russian Molotovs).16
The Russian Molotovs were of course manufactured by the Ford-built works at Gorki,
Russia. In France during the war, passenger automobile production was entirely replaced bymilitary vehicles and for this purpose three large additional buildings were added to the
Poissy factory. The main building contained about 500 machine tools, "all imported fromthe United States and including a fair sprinkling of the more complex types, such as Gleason
gear cutters, Bullard automatics and Ingersoll borers.17
Ford also extended its wartime activities into North Africa. In December 1941 a new Ford
Company, Ford-Afrique, was registered in France and granted all the rights of the former
Ford Motor Company, Ltd. of England in Algeria, Tunisia, French Morocco, French
Equatorial, and French West Africa. North Africa was not accessible to British Ford so thisnew Ford Company — registered in German-occupied France — was organized to fill thegap. The directors were pro-Nazi and included Maurice Dollfuss (Edsel Ford's
correspondent) and Roger Messis (described by the U.S. Algiers Consul General as "known
to this office by repute as unscrupulous, is stated to be a 100 percent pro-German")18
The U.S. Consul General also reported that propaganda was common in Algiers about... the collaboration of French-German-American capital and the questionable
sincerity of the American war effort, [there] is already pointing an accusing
finger at a transaction Which has been for long a subject of discussion incommercial circles.19
In brief, there is documentary evidence that Ford Motor Company worked on both sides ofWorld War II. If the Nazi industrialists brought to trial at Nuremburg were guilty of crimes
against mankind, then so must be their fellow collaborators in the Ford family, Henry and
Edsel Ford. However, the Ford story was concealed by Washington — apparently likealmost everything else that could touch upon the name and sustenance of the Wall Street
financial elite.

Footnotes:
1June 4, 1938, 2:2.
2A list of these Gorki vehicles and their model numbers is in Antony G. Sutton,

National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union, (New York: Arlington
House Publishers, 1973), Table 7-2, p. 125.
3The House of Morgan was known for its anti-Semitic views.
4Page 2, Column 8.
5Ibid.
6Jonathan Leonard, The Tragedy of Henry Ford, (New York: G.P. Putnam's

Sons, 1932), p. 208. Also see U.S. State Department Decimal File, National
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CHAPTER SIX: Henry Ford and the Nazis

Archives Microcopy M 336, Roll 80, Document 862.00S/6, "Money sources of
Hitler," a report from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.
7On this see Keith Sward, The Legend of Henry Ford, (New York: Rinehart &Co, 1948), p. 139.
8New York Times, August l, 1938.
9Ibid., December 1, 1938, 12:2.
10Ibid., December 19, 1938, 5:3.
11Elimination of German Resources, p. 656.
12Elimination of German Resources, pp. 657-8.
13Josiah E. Dubois, Jr., Generals in Grey Suits, (London: The Bodley Head,

1958), p. 248.
14Ibid., p. 249.
15Ibid., p. 251.
16Ibid.
17U.S. Army Air Force, Aiming point report No I.E.2, May 29, 1943.
18U.S. State Department Decimal File, 800/61o.1.
19Ibid.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

CHAPTER SEVEN
Who Financed Adolf Hitler?
The funding of Hitler and the Nazi movement has yet to be explored in exhaustive depth.
The only published examination of Hitler's personal finances is an article by Oron JamesHale, "Adolph Hitler: Taxpayer,1 which records Adolph's brushes with the German tax
authorities before he became Reichskanzler, In the 1920s Hitler presented himself to theGerman tax man as merely an impoverished writer living on bank loans, with an automobile.bought on credit. Unfortunately, the original records used by Hale do not yield the source ofHitler's income, loans, or credit, and German law "did not require self-employed or
professional persons to disclose in detail the sources of income or the nature of services
rendered."2 Obviously the funds for the automobiles, private secretary Rudolf Hess, anotherassistant, a chauffeur, and expenses incurred by political activity, came from somewhere.
But, like Leon Trotsky's 1917 stay in New York, it is hard to reconcile Hitler's known
expenditures with the precise source of his income.
Some Early Hitler Backers
We do know that prominent European and American industrialists were sponsoring all
manner of totalitarian political groups at that time, including Communists and various Nazigroups. The U.S. Kilgore Committee records that:
By 1919 Krupp was already giving financial aid to one of the reactionary
political groups which sowed the seed of the present Nazi ideology. Hugo
Stinnes was an early contributor to the Nazi Party (National Socialistische
Deutsche Arbeiter Partei). By 1924 other prominent industrialists andfinanciers, among them Fritz Thyssen, Albert Voegler, Adolph [sic] Kirdorf,
and Kurt von Schroder, were secretly giving substantial sums to the Nazis. In
1931 members of the coalowners' association which Kirdorf headed pledged
themselves to pay 50 pfennigs for each ton of' coal sold, the money to go to theorganization which Hitler was building.3
Hitler's 1924 Munich trial yielded evidence that the Nazi Party received $20,000 from
Nuremburg industrialists. The most interesting name from this period is that of Emil
Kirdorf, who had earlier acted as conduit for financing German involvement in the
Bolshevik Revolution.4 Kirdorfs role in financing Hitler was, in his own words:
In 1923 I came into contact for the first time with the National-Socialist
movement .... I first heard the Fuehrer in the Essen Exhibition Hall. His clear
exposition completely convinced and overwhelmed me. In 1927 I first met theFuehrer personally. I travelled to Munich and there had a conversation with
the Fuehrer in the Bruckmann home. During four and a half hours Adolf Hitler
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

explained to me his programme in de tail. I then begged the Fuehrer to put
together the lecture he had given me in the form of a pamphlet. I thendistributed this pamphlet in my name in business and manufacturing circles.
Since then I have placed myself completely at the disposition of his movement,
Shortly after our Munich conversation, and as a result of the pamphlet which
the Fuehrer composed and I distributed, a number of meetings took place
between the Fuehrer and leading personalities in the field of indus. try. For thelast time before the taking over of power, the leaders of industry met in myhouse together with Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Hermann Goering and otherleading personalities of the party.5
In 1925 the Hugo Stinnes family contributed funds to convert the Nazi weekly Volkischer
Beobachter to a daily publication. Putzi Hanf-staengl, Franklin D. Roosevelt's friend andprotegé, provided the remaining funds.6 Table 7-1 summarizes presently known financial
contributions and the business associations of contributors from the United States. Putzi is
not listed in Table 7-1 as he was neither industrialist nor financier.
In the early 1930s financial assistance to Hitler began to flow more readily. There took placein Germany a series of meetings, irrefutably documented in several sources, between
German industrialists, Hitler himself, and more often Hitler's representatives Hjalmar
Sehaeht and Rudolf Hess. The critical point is that the German industrialists financing Hitler
were predominantly directors of cartels with American associations, ownership,participation, or some form of subsidiary connection. The Hitler backers were not, by andlarge, firms of purely German origin, or representative of German family business. Except
for Thyssen and Kirdoff, in most cases they were the German multi-national firms — i.e.,
I.G. Farben, A.E.G., DAPAG, etc. These multi-nationals had been built up by American
loans in the 1920s, and in the early 1930s had American directors and heavy American
financial participation.
One flow of foreign political funds not considered here is that reported from theEuropean-based Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil's great competitor in the 20s and 30s, andthe giant brainchild of Anglo-Dutch businessman Sir Henri Deterding. It has been widelyasserted that Henri Deterding personally financed Hitler. This argument is made, forinstance, by biographer Glyn Roberts in The Most Powerful Man in the World. Roberts
notes that Deterding was impressed with Hitler as early as 1921:...and the Dutch press reported that, through the agent Georg Bell, he[Deterding] had placed at Hitler's disposal, while the party was "still in long
clothes," no less than four million guilders.7
It was reported (by Roberts) that in 1931 Georg Bell, Deterding's agent, attended meetingsof Ukrainian Patriots in Paris "as joint delegate of Hitler and Deterding."8 Roberts also
reports:
Deterding was accused, as Edgar Ansell Mowrer testifies in his Germany Puts
the Clock Back, of putting up a large sum of money for the Nazis on theunderstanding that success would give him a more favored position in the
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

German oil market. On other occasions, figures as high as £55,000,000 werementioned.9
Biographer Roberts really found Deterding's strong anti-Bolshevism distasteful, and rather
than present hard evidence of funding he is inclined to assume rather than prove that
Deterding was pro-Hitler. But pro-Hitlerism is not a necessary consequence ofanti-Bolshevism; in any event Roberts offers no proof of finance, and hard evidence ofDeterding's involvement was not found by this author.
Mowrer's book contains neither index nor footnotes as to the source of his information andRoberts has no specific evidence for his accusations. There is circumstantial evidence that
Deterding was pro-Nazi. He later went to live in Hitler's Germany and increased his share of
the German petroleum market. So there may have been some contributions, but these havenot been proven.
Similarly, in France (on January 11, 1932), Paul Faure, a member of the Chambre desDéputés, accused the French industrial firm of Schneider-Creuzot of financing Hitler — andincidentally implicated Wall Street in other financing channels.10
The Schneider group is a famous firm of French armaments manufacturers. After recalling
the Schneider influence in establishment of Fascism in Hungary and its extensive
international armaments operations, Paul Fauré turns to Hitler, and quotes from the French
paper LeJournal, "that Hitler had received 300,000 Swiss gold francs" from subscriptions
opened in Holland under the case of a university professor named von Bissing. The Skoda
plant at Pilsen, stated Paul Fauré, was controlled by the French Schneider family, and it was
the Skoda directors von Duschnitz and von Arthaber who made the subscriptions to Hitler.
Fauré concluded:. . . I am disturbed to see the directors of Skoda, controlled by Schneider,subsidizing the electoral campaign of M. Hitler; I am disturbed to see yourfirms, your financiers, your industrial cartels unite themselves with the mostnationalistic of Germans ....
Again, no hard evidence was found for this alleged flow of Hitler funds.
Fritz Thyssen and W.A. Harriman Company of New York
Another elusive case of reported financing of Hitler is that of Fritz Thyssen, the German
steel magnate who associated himself with the Nazi movement in the early 20s. Wheninterrogated in 1945 under Project Dustbin,11 Thyssen recalled that he was approached in
1923 by General Ludendorf at the time of French evacuation of the Ruhr. Shortly after thismeeting Thyssen was introduced to Hitler and provided funds for the Nazis through General
Ludendorf. In 1930-1931 Emil Kirdorf approached Thyssen and subsequently sent Rudolf
Hess to negotiate further funding for the Nazi Party. This time Thyssen arranged a credit of
250,000 marks at the Bank Voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V. at 18 Zuidblaak in Rotterdam,
Holland, founded in 1918 with H.J. Kouwenhoven and D.C. Schutte as managing partners.12
This bank was a subsidiary of the August Thyssen Bank of Germany (formerly von der

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Heydt's Bank A.G.). It was Thyssen's personal banking operation, and it was affiliated with
the W. A. Harriman financial interests in New York. Thyssen reported to his Project Dustbininterrogators that:
I chose a Dutch bank because I did not want to be mixed up with German banks
in my position, and because I thought it was better to do business with a Dutch
bank, and I thought I would have the Nazis a little more in my hands.13
Thyssen's book I Paid Hitler, published in 1941, was purported to be written by Fritz
Thyssen himself, although Thyssen denies authorship. The book claims that funds for Hitler— about one million marks — came mainly from Thyssen himself. I Paid Hitler has other
unsupported assertions, for example that Hitler was actually descended from an illegitimate
child of the Rothschild family. Supposedly Hitler's grandmother, Frau Schickelgruber, hadbeen a servant in the Rothschild household and while there became pregnant:... an inquiry once ordered by the late Austrian chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss,yielded some interesting results, owing to the fact that the dossiers of the police
department of the Austro-Hungarian monarch were remarkably complete.14
This assertion concerning Hitler's illegitimacy is refuted entirely in a more solidly based
book by Eugene Davidson, which implicates the Frankenberger family, not the Rothschildfamily.
In any event, and more relevant from our viewpoint, the August Thyssen front bank in
Holland — i.e., the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V. — controlled the Union
Banking Corporation in New York. The Harrimans had a financial interest in, and E. Roland
Harriman (Averell's brother) was a director of, this Union Banking Corporation. The Union
Banking Corporation of New York City was a joint Thyssen-Harriman operation with thefollowing directors in 1932:15
E. Roland HARRIMAN
H.J. KOUWENHOVEN

J. G. GROENINGEN
C. LIEVENSE
E. S. JAMES

Vice president of W. A.
Harriman & Co., New York
Nazi banker, managing partnerof August Thyssen Bank andBank voor Handel Scheepvaart
N.V. (the transfer bank for
Thyssen's funds)
Vereinigte Stahlwerke (the steel
cartel which also funded Hitler)
President, Union Banking
Corp., New York City
Partner Brown Brothers, later
Brown Brothers, Harriman &Co.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

TABLE 7-1: FINANCIAL LINKS BETWEEN U.S. INDUSTRIALISTS AND ADOLF
HITLER

Thyssen arranged a credit of 250,000 marks for Hitler, through this Dutch bank affiliatedwith the Harrimans. Thyssen's book, later repudiated, states that as much as one million
marks came from Thyssen.
Thyssen's U.S. partners were, of course, prominent members of the Wall Street financial
establishment. Edward Henry Harriman, the nineteenth-century railroad magnate, had twosons, W. Averell Harriman (born in 1891), and E. Roland Harriman (born in 1895). In 1917
W. Averell Harriman was a director of Guaranty Trust Company and he was involved in the
Bolshevik Revolution.16 According to his biographer, Averell started at the bottom of the
career ladder as a clerk and section hand after leaving Yale in 1913, then "he moved steadily
forward to positions of increasing responsibility in the fields of transportation and finance.17
In addition to his directorship in Guaranty Trust, Harriman formed the Merchant
Shipbuilding Corporation in 1917, which soon became the largest merchant fleet under
American flag. This fleet was disposed of in 1925 and Harriman entered the lucrative
Russian market.18
In winding up these Russian deals in 1929, Averell Harriman received a windfall profit of$1 million from the usually hard-headed Soviets, who have a reputation of giving nothingaway without some present or later quid pro quo. Concurrently with these successful moves
in international finance, Averell Harriman has always been attracted by so-called "public"
service. In 1913 Harriman's "public" service began with an appointment to the Palisades
Park Commission. In 1933 Harriman was appointed chairman of the New York State
Committee of Employment, and in 1934 became Administrative Officer of Roosevelt's NRA— the Mussolini-like brainchild of General Electric's Gerard Swope.19 There followed astream of "public" offices, first the Lend Lease program, then as Ambassador to the Soviet
Union, later as Secretary of Commerce.
By contrast, E. Roland Harriman confined his activities to private business in international
finance without venturing, as did brother Averell, into "public" service. In 1922 Roland and
Averell formed W. A. Harri-man & Company. Still later Roland became chairman of theboard of Union Pacific Railroad and a director of Newsweek magazine, Mutual Life
Insurance Company of New York, a member of the board of governors of the American Red
Cross, and a member of the American Museum of Natural History.
Nazi financier Hendrik Jozef Kouwenhoven, Roland Harriman's fellow-director at Union
Banking Corporation in New York, was managing director of the Bank voor Handel enScheepvaart N.V. (BHS) of Rotterdam. In 1940 the BHS held approximately $2.2 million
assets in the Union Banking Corporation, which in turn did most of its business with BHS.20
In the 1930s Kouwenhoven was also a director of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke A.G., the steel
cartel founded with Wall Street funds in the mid-1920s. Like Baron Schroder, he was aprominent Hitler supporter.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Another director of the New York Union Banking Corporation was Johann Groeninger, aGerman subject with numerous industrial and financial affiliations involving Vereinigte
Stahlwerke, the August Thyssen group, and a directorship of August Thyssen Hutte A.G.21
This affiliation and mutual business interest between Harriman and the Thyssen interests
does not suggest that the Harrimans directly financed Hitler. On the other hand, it does showthat the Harrimans were intimately connected with prominent Nazis Kouwenhoven and
Groeninger and a Nazi front bank, the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. There is every
reason to believe that the Harrimans knew of Thyssen's support for the Nazis. In the case of
the Harrimans, it is important to bear in mind their long-lasting and intimate relationshipwith the Soviet Union and the Harriman's position at the center of Roosevelt's New Deal andthe Democratic Party. The evidence suggests that some members of the Wall Street elite areconnected with, and certainly have influence with, all significant political groupings in thecontemporary world socialist spectrum — Soviet socialism, Hitler's national socialism, andRoosevelt's New Deal socialism.
Financing Hitler in the March 1933 General Election
Putting the Georg Bell-Deterding and the Thyssen-Harriman cases to one side, we now
examine the core of Hitler's backing. In May 1932 the so-called "Kaiserhof Meeting" took
place between Schmitz of I.G. Farben, Max Ilgner of American I.G. Farben, Kiep ofHamburg-America Line, and Diem of the German Potash Trust. More than 500,000 marks
was raised at this meeting and deposited to the credit of Rudolf Hess in the Deutsche Bank.
It is noteworthy, in light of the "Warburg myth" described in Chapter Ten that Max Ilgner ofthe American I.G. Farben contributed 100,000 RM, or one-fifth of the total. The "Sidney
Warburg" book claims Warburg involvement in the funding of Hitler, and Paul Warburg
was a director of American I.G. Farben22 while Max Warburg was a director of I.G. Farben.
There exists irrefutable documentary evidence of a further role of. international bankers andindustrialists in the financing of the Nazi Party and the Volkspartie for the March 1933
German election. A total of three million Reichmarks was subscribed by prominent firms
and businessmen, suitably "washed" through an account at the Delbruck Schickler Bank,and then passed into the hands of Rudolf Hess for use by Hitler and the NSDAP. Thistransfer of funds was followed by the Reichstag fire, abrogation of constitutional rights, andconsolidation of Nazi power. Access to the Reichstag by the arsonists was obtained througha tunnel from a house where Putzi Hanfstaengel was staying; the Reichstag fire itself wasused by Hitler as a pretext to abolish constitutional rights. In brief, within a few weeks of the
major funding of Hitler there was a linked sequence of major events: the financial
contribution from prominent bankers and industrialists to the 1933 election, burning of theReichstag, abrogation of constitutional rights, and subsequent seizure of power by the Nazi
Party.
The fund-raising meeting was held February 20, 1933 in the home of Goering, who was thenpresident of the Reichstag, with Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht acting as host. Among
those present, according to I.G. Farben's von Schnitzler, were:
Krupp von Bohlen, who, in the beginning of 1933, was president of the
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie Reich Association of German Industry;
Dr. Albert Voegler, the leading man of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke; Von
Loewenfeld; Dr, Stein, head of the Gewerkschaft Auguste-Victoria, a mine
which belongs to the IG.23
Hitler expounded his political views to the assembled businessmen in a lengthy
two-and-one-half hour speech, using the threat of Communism and a Communist take-overto great effect:
It is not enough to say we do not want Communism in our economy. If we
continue on our old political course, then we shall perish .... It is the noblest
task of the leader to find ideals that are stronger than the factors that pull thepeople together. I recognized even while in the hospital that one had to search
for new ideals conducive to reconstruction. I found them in nationalism, in thevalue of personality, and in the denial of reconciliation between nations ....
Now we stand before the last election. Regardless of the outcome, there will be
no retreat, even if the coming election does not bring about decision, one way
or another. If the election does not decide, the decision must be brought about
by other means. I have intervened in order to give the people once more thechance to decide their fate by themselves ....
There are only two possibilities, either to crowd back the opponent on
constitutional grounds, and for this purpose once more this election; or a
struggle will be conducted with other weapons, which may demand greater
sacrifices. I hope the German people thus recognize the greatness of thehour.24
After Hitler had spoken, Krupp von Bohlen expressed the support of the assembled
industrialists and bankers in the concrete form of a three-million-mark political fund. Itturned out to be more than enough to acquire power, because 600,000 marks remained
unexpended after the election.
Hjalmar Schacht organized this historic meeting. We have previously described Schacht's
links with the United States: his father was cashier for the Berlin Branch of Equitable
Assurance, and Hjalmar was intimately involved almost on a monthly basis with WallStreet.
The largest contributor to the fund was I.G. Farben, which como mitted itself for 80 percent(or 500,000 marks) of the total. Director A. Steinke, of BUBIAG (Braunkohlen-u.
Brikett-Industrie A.G.), an I.G. Farben subsidiary, personally contributed another 200,000
marks. In brief, 45 percent of the funds for the 1933 election came from I.G. Farben. If welook at the directors of American I.G. Farben — the U.S. subsidiary of I.G. Farben — we
get close to the roots of Wall Street involvement with Hitler. The board of American I.G.
Farben at this time contained some of the most prestigious names among Americanindustrialists: Edsel B. Ford of the Ford Motor Company, C.E. Mitchell of the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, and Walter Teagle, director of the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Georgia Warm Springs Foundation.
Paul M. Warburg, first director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and chairman of
the Bank of Manhattan, was a Farben director and in Germany his brother Max Warburg
was also a director of I.G, Farben. H. A. Metz of I.G. Farben was also a director of the
Warburg's Bank of Manhattan. Finally, Carl Bosch of American I.G. Farben was also a
director of Ford Motor Company A-G in Germany.
Three board members of American I.G. Farben were found guilty at the Nuremburg War
Crimes Trials: Max Ilgner, F. Ter Meer, and Hermann Schmitz. As we have noted, theAmerican board members — Edsel Ford, C. E. Mitchell, Walter Teagle, and Paul Warburg— were not placed on trial at Nuremburg, and so far as the records are concerned, it appears
that they were not even questioned about their knowledge of the 1933 Hitler fund.
The 1933 Political Contributions
Who were the industrialists and bankers who placed election funds at the disposal of the
Nazi Party in 1933? The list of contributors and the amount of their contribution is asfollows:
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO HITLER:
Feb. 23-Mar. 13, 1933:(The Hjalmar Schacht account at Delbruck, Schickler Bank)
Political Contributions
by Firms (with selected
AmountPercent ofaffiliated directors)
PledgedFirm Total
Verein fuer die$600,000
45.8
Bergbaulichen
Interessen (Kitdorf)
I.G. Farbenindustrie400,000
30.5(Edsel Ford, C.E.
Mitchell, Walter Teagle,
Paul Warburg)
Automobile Exhibition,
100,000
7.6
Berlin (Reichsverbund
der Automobilindustrie
S.V.)
A.E.G., German General
60,000
4.6
Electric (Gerard Swope,
Owen Young, C.H.
Minor, Arthur Baldwin)
Demag50,0003.8
Osram G.m.b.H. (Owen
40,000
3.0
Young)

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Telefunken Gesellsehaftruerdrahtlose Telegraphic
Accumulatoren-Fabrik
A.G.
(Quandt of A.E.G.)

85,0002.7

25,0001.9_____________
Total from industry
1,310,000_____________
99.9

Plus Political Contributions by Individual Businessmen:
Karl Hermann
300,000
Director A. Steinke (BUBIAG200,000
Braunkohlen—u. Brikett —Industrie A.G.)
Dir. Karl Lange
50,000(Geschaftsfuhrendes
Vostandsmitglied des Vereins
Deutsches
Maschinenbau—Anstalten)
Dr. F. Springorum (Chairman:
36,000Eisen-und Stahlwerke Hoesch
A.G.)
Source: See Appendix for translation of original document.
How can we prove that these political payments actually took place?
The payments to Hitler in this final step on the road to dictatorial Naziism were madethrough the private bank of Delbruck Sehickler. The Delbruck Schickler Bank was a
subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft A.G. ("Metall"), an industrial giant, the largest non-ferrous
metal company in Germany, and the dominant influence in the world's nonferrous metal'trading. The principal shareholders of "Metall" were I.G. Farben and the British Metal
Corporation. We might note incidentally that the British directors on the" Metall"
Aufsichsrat were Walter Gardner (Amalgamated Metal Corporation) and Captain Oliver
Lyttelton (also on the board of Amalgamated Metal and paradoxically later in World War II
to become the British Minister of Production).
There exists among the Nuremburg Trial papers the original transfer slips from the banking
division of I.G. Farben and other firms listed on page 110 to the Delbruck Schickler Bank in
Berlin, informing the bank of the transfer of funds from Dresdner Bank, and other banks, totheir Nationale Treuhand (National Trusteeship) account. This account was disbursed by
Rudolf Hess for Nazi Party expenses during the election. Translation of the I.G. Farbentransfer slip, selected as a sample, is as follows:25

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Translation of I.G, Farben letter of February 27, 1933, advising of transfer of 400,000
Reichsmarks to National Trusteeship account:
I.G. FARBENINDUSTRIE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFTBank Department
Firm: Delbruck Schickler & Co.,BERLIN W.8
Mauerstrasse 63/65, Frankfurt (Main) 20
Our Ref: (Mention in Reply)
B./Goe.

27 February 1933

We are informing you herewith that we have authorized the Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt/M.,
to pay you tomorrow forenoon: RM 400,000 which you will use in favor of the account"NATIONALE TREUHAND" (National Trusteeship).
Respectfully,
I.G. Farbenindustrie
Aktiengesellschaft
by Order:(Signed) SELCK (Signed)
BANGERT
By special delivery.26
At this juncture we should take note of the efforts that have been made to direct ourattention away from American financiers (and German financiers connected with
American-affiliated companies) who were, involved with the funding of Hitler. Usually theblame for financing Hitler has been exclusively placed upon Fritz Thyssen or Emil Kirdorf.
In the case of Thyssen this blame was widely circulated in a book allegedly authored byThyssen in the middle of World War II but later repudiated by him.27 Why Thyssen would
want to admit such actions before the defeat of Naziism is unexplained.
Emil Kirdorf, who died in 1937, was always proud of his association with the rise of
Naziism. The attempt to limit Hitler financing to Thyssen and Kirdorf extended into the
Nuremburg trials in 1946, and was challenged only by the Soviet delegate. Even the Soviet
delegate was unwilling to produce evidence of American associations; this is not surprisingbecause the Soviet Union depends on the goodwill of these same financiers to transfer muchneeded advanced Western technology to the U.S.S.R.
At Nuremburg, statements were made and allowed to go unchallenged which were directly
contrary to the known direct evidence presented above. For example, Buecher, Director
General of German General Electric, was absolved from sympathy for Hitler:
Thyssen has confessed his error like a man and has courageously paid a heavy
penalty for it. On the other side stand men like Reusch of the

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

Gutehoffnungshuette, Karl Bosch, the late chairman of the I.G. Farben
Aufsichtsrat, who would very likely have come to a sad end, had he not died intime. Their feelings were shared by the deputy chairman of the Aufsichtsrat of
Kalle. The Siemens and AEG companies which, next to I.G. Farben, were themost powerful German concerns, and they were determined opponents ofnational socialism.
I know that this unfriendly attitude on the part of the Siemens concern to the
Nazis resulted in the firm receiving rather rough treatment. The Director
General of the AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft), Geheimrat
Buecher, whom I knew from my stay in the colonies, was anything but a Nazi. I
can assure General Taylor that it is certainly wrong to assert that the leadingindustrialists as such favored Hitler before his seizure of power.28
Yet on page 56 of this book we reproduce a document originating with General Electric,transferring General Electric funds to the National Trusteeship account controlled by Rudolf
Hess on behalf of Hitler and used in the 1933 elections.
Similarly, von Schnitzler, who was present at the February 1933 meeting on behalf of I.G.
Farben, denied I.G. Farben's contributions to the 1933 Nationale Treuhand:
I never heard again of the whole matter [that of financing Hitler], but I believethat either the buro of Goering or Schacht or the Reichsverband der Deutschen
Industrie had asked the of fice of Bosch or Schmitz for payment of IG's share in
the elec tion fund. As I did not take the matter up again I not even at that timeknew whether and which amount had been paid by the IG. According to thevolume of the IG, I should estimate IG's share being something like 10 percentof the election fund, but as far as I know there is no evidence that I.G. Farben
participated in the payments.29
As we have seen, the evidence is incontrovertible regarding political cash contributions toHitler at the crucial point of the takeover of power in Germany — and Hitler's earlier speech
to the industrialists clearly revealed that a coercive takeover was the premeditated intent.
We know exactly who contributed, how much, and through what channels. It is notable thatthe largest contributors — I.G. Farben, German General Electric (and its affiliated company
Osram), and Thyssen — were affiliated with Wall Street financiers. These Wall Street
financiers were at the heart of the financial elite and they were prominent in contemporary
American politics. Gerard Swope of General Electric was author of Roosevelt's New Deal,
Teagle was one of NRA's top administrators, Paul Warburg and his associates at American
I.G. Farben were Roosevelt advisors. It is perhaps not an extraordinary coincidence that
Roosevelt's New Deal — called a "fascist measure" by Herbert Hoover — should have soclosely resembled Hitler's program for Germany, and that both Hitler and Roosevelt took
power in the same month of the same year — March 1933.

Footnotes:

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

1The American Historical Review, Volume LC, NO. 4, July. 1955. p, 830.
2Ibid, fn. (2).
3Elimination of German Resources, p. 648. The Albert Voegler mentioned in

the Kilgore Committee list of early Hitler supporters was the German
representative on the Dawes Plan Commission. Owen Young of General
Electric (see Chapter Three) was a U.S. representative for the Dawes Plan andformulated its successor, the Young Plan.
4Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit,
5Preussiche Zettung, January 3, 1937.
6See p. 116.
7Glyn Roberts, The Most Powerful Man in the World, (New York: Covicl,

Friede, 1938), p. 305.
8Ibid., p. 313.
9Ibid., p. 322.
10See Chambre des Deputes — Debats, February 11, 1932, pp. 496-500.
11U.S. Group Control Council (Germany0 Office of the Director ofIntelligence, Field Information Agency, Technical). Intelligence Report No.
EF/ME/1,4 September 1945. "Examination of Dr. Fritz Thyssen," p, 13,
Hereafter cited as Examination of Dr. Fritz Thyssen.
12The Bank was known in Germany as Bank fur Handel und Schiff.
13Examination of Dr. Fritz Thyssen.
14Fritz Thyssen, I Paid Hitler, (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1941). p.

159.
15Taken from Bankers Directory, !932 edition, p, 2557 and Poors, Directory of

Directors. J.L. Guinter and Knight Woolley were also directors.
16See Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit.
17National Cyclopaedia, Volume G, page 16.
18For a description of these ventures, based on State Department files, see An,

tony C. Sutton, Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development,
Volume 1, op. cit.
19See Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and FDR. Chapter Nine, "Swope's Plan,"

op. cit.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?

20See Elimination of German Resources, pp. 728-30.
21For yet other connections between the Union Banking Corp, and German

enterprises, see Ibid., pp. 728-30.
22See Chapter Ten.
23NMT, Volume VII, p. 555.
24Josiah E. Dubois, Jr., Generals in Grey Suits op. cit., p. 323.
25Original reproduced on page 64.
26NMT, Volume VII, p. 565. See p. 64 for photograph of original document.
27Fritz Thyssen, I Paid Hitler, (New York: Toronto: Farrat & Rinehart, Inc.,

1941).
28NMT, Volume VI, pp. 1169-1170.
29NMT, Volume VII, p. 565.

BACK

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TABLE 7-1: FINANCIAL LINKS BETWEEN U.S. INDUSTRIALISTS AND ADOLF HITLERTABLE 7-1: FINANCIAL LINKS BETWEEN U.S. INDUSTRIALISTS AND ADOLF HITLER
American Bankers
Dateand Industrialists U.S. Affiliated Firm
German Source
1923
Henry FORD
FORD MOTOR—COMPANY1931
E.R. HARRIMAN
UNION BANKING
Fritz
250,000 RM
CORP
THYSSEN

1932-3Flick(a directorof AEG)
NONE

FebruaryMarch 1933
FebruaryMarch 1933

FebruaryMarch 1933
FebruaryMarch 1933

FebruaryMarch 1933
FebruaryMarch 1933
FebruaryMarch 1933
Februa ryMarch 1933

Edsel B. FORD
C.E. MITCHELL
Walter TEAGLEPaul M. WARBURGAMERICAN
I.G.

NONE
Gerard SWOPE
INTERNATIONAL
Owen D. YOUNG
GENERAL
C.H. MINORELECTRIC
E. Arthur BALDWIN
NONE
Owen D. YOUNG
INTERNATIONAL
GENERAL
ELECTRIC
Sosthenes BEHN
I.T.T.
NONE
NONE

25
percent

Intermediary for
Funds/Agent—Bank voor Handel enScheepvaart N.V.
(Subsidiary of AugustThyssen Bank)
Direct to NSDAPFriedrich
FLICK

150,000 RM

Emil
KIRDORF

600,000 RM

I.G. FARBEN

400,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"a/c at Delbrück
Schickler Bank
"Nationale Treuhand"

Reichsverband derAutomobilindustrie
A.E.G.

100,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

60,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

50,000 RM
40,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

Telefunken

35,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"KarlHerrmanA. Steinke(Director of
BYBUAG)

300,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

200,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

DEMAG
OSRAM
percent G.m.b.H.
162/3

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TABLE 7-1: FINANCIAL LINKS BETWEEN U.S. INDUSTRIALISTS AND ADOLF HITLER

FebruaryMarch 1933

NONE

FebruaryMarch 1933
FebruaryMarch 1933

NONE

1932-1944

1932-1944

Edsel B. FORD

Ford Motor Co.

Walter TEAGLE
J.A. MOFFETT
W.S. FARISH
Sosthenes BEHN

Standard Oilof N.J.
I.T.T.

Karl Lange(Machine
industry)
F. Springorum(Hoesch A.G.)
Carl BOSCH(I.G. Farben & Ford
Motor A.G.)
94 Emil HELFFRICH
percent (German-American
Petroleum Co)
Kurt yon
SCHRÖDER
Mix & Genest
Lorenz

BACK

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50,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

36,000 RM"Nationale Treuhand"

Heinrich Himmler S.S.
via Keppler's Circle
Heinrich Himmler S.S.
via Keppler's Circle

CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

CHAPTER EIGHT
Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt
Ernst Sedgewiek Hanfstaengl (or Hanfy or Putzi, as he was more usually called), like
Hjalmar Horaee Greeley Sehacht, was another German-American at the core of the rise ofHitlerism. Hanfstaengl was born into a well-known New England family; he was a cousin ofCivil War General John Sedgewiek and a grandson of another Civil War General, William
Heine. Introduced to Hitler in the early l920s by Captain Truman-Smith, the U.S. Military
Attaehe in Berlin, Putzi became an ardent Hitler supporter, on occasion financed the Nazis
and, according to Ambassador William Dodd, "... is said to have saved Hitler's life in
1923."1
By coincidence, S.S. leader Heinrich Himmler's father was also Putni's form master at theRoyal Bavarian Wilhelms gymnasium. Putzi's student day friends at Harvard University
were "such outstanding future figures" as Walter Lippman, John Reed (who figures
prominently in Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution), and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Aftera few years at Harvard, Putzi established the family art business in New York; it was adelightful combination of business and pleasure, for as he says, "the famous names who
visited me were legion, Pierpont Morgan, Toscanini, Henry Ford, Caruso, Santos-Dumont,
Charlie Chaplin, Paderewski, and a daughter of President Wilson."2 It was also at Harvardthat Putzi made friends with the future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
I took most of my meals at the Harvard Club, where I made friends with theyoung Franklin D. Roosevelt, at that time a rising New York State Senator. Also
I received several invitations to visit his distant cousin Teddy, the former
President, who had retired to his estate at Sagamore Hill.3
From these varied friendships (or perhaps after reading this book and its predecessors, WallStreet and FDR and Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, the reader may consider
Putzi's friendship to have been confined to a peculiarly elitist circle), Putzi became not only
an early friend, backer and financier of Hitler, but among those early Hitler supporters he
was, "., . almost the only person who crossed the lines of his (Hitler's) groups ofacquaintances."4
In brief, Putzi was an American citizen at the heart of the Hitler entourage from the early
1920s to the late 1930s. In 1943, after falling out of favor with the Nazis and interned by the
Allies, Putzi was bailed out of the miseries of a Canadian prisoner of war camp by his friend
and protector President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When FDR's actions threatened to become aninternal political problem in the United States, Putzi was re-interned in England. As if it is
not surprising enough to find both Heinrich Himmler and Franklin D. Roosevelt prominent
in Putzi's life, we also discover that the Nazi Stormtrooper marching songs were composed
by Hanfstaengl, "including the one that was played by the brownshirt columns as theymarched through the Brandenburger Tor on the day Hitler took over power.5 To top this
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CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

eye-opener, Putzi averred that the genesis of the Nazi chant "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil," used in
the Nazi mass rallies, was none other than "Harvard, Harvard, Harvard, rah, rah, rah."Putzi certainly helped finance the first Nazi daily press, the Volkische Beobachter. Whether
he saved Hitler's life from the Communists is less verifiable, and while kept out of the actual
writing process of Mein Kampf — much to his disgust — Putzi did have the honor to financeits publication, "and the fact that Hitler found a functioning staff when he was released fromjail was entirely due to our efforts. ,"7
When Hitler came to power in March 1933, simultaneously with Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in Washington, a private "emissary" was sent from Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. to
Hanfstaengl in Berlin, with a message to the effect that as it appeared Hitler would soonachieve power in Germany, Roosevelt hoped, in view of their long acquaintance, that Putzi
would do his best to prevent any rashness and hot-headedness. "Think of your piano playing
and try and use the soft pedal if things get too loud," was FDR's message. "If things startgetting awkward please get in touch with our ambassador at once.8
Hanfstaengl kept in close touch with the American Ambassador in Berlin, William E. Dodd
— apparently much to his disgust, because Putzi's recorded comments on Dodd are
distinctly unflattering:
In many ways, he [Dodd] was an unsatisfactory representative. He was amodest little Southern history professor, who ran his embassy on a shoestring
and was probably trying to save money out of his pay. At a time when it neededa robust millionaire to compete with the flamboyance of the Nazis, he teeteredaround self-effacingly as if he were still on his college campus. His mind andhis prejudices were small.9
In point of fact Ambassador Dodd pointedly tried to decline Roosevelt's Ambassadorial
appointment. Dodd had no inheritance and preferred to live on his State Department pay
rather than political spoils; unlike the politician Dodd was particular from whom he received
money. In any event, Dodd commented equally harshly on Putzi, "... he gave money toHitler in 1923, helped him write Mein Kampf, and was in every way familiar with Hitler's
motives ...."Was Hanfstaengl an agent for the Liberal Establishment in the U.S.? We can probably ruleout this possibility because, according to Ladislas Farago, it was Putzi who blew the whistle
on top-level British penetration of the Hitler command. Farago reports that Baron William
S. de Ropp had penetrated the highest Nazi echelons in pre-World War II days and Hitler
used de Ropp "... as his confidental consultant about British affairs.10 De Ropp was
suspected as being a double agent only by Putzi. According to Farago:
The only person ... who ever suspected him of such duplicity and cautioned theFuehrer about him was the erratic Putzt Hanfstaengl, the Harvard educatedchief of Hitler's office dealing with the foreign press.
As Farago notes, "Bill de Ropp was playing the game In both camps — a double agent atthe very top."11 Putzi was equally diligent in warning his friends, the Hermann Goerings,
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CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

about potential spies in their camp. Witness the following extract from Putzi's memoirs, inwhich he points the accusing finger of espionage at the Goerings' gardener..
"Herman," I said one day, "I will bet any money that fellow Greinz is a policespy." "Now really, Putzi," Karin [Mrs. Herman Goertng] broke in, "he's such anice fellow and he's a wonderful gardener." "He's doing exactly what a spy
ought to do," I told her, "he has made himself indispensable."12
By 1941 Putzi was out of favor with Hitler and the Nazis, fled Germany, and was interned ina Canadian prisoner of war camp. With Germany and the United States now at war Putzi
re-calculated the odds and concluded, "Now I knew for certain that Germany would be
defeated."13 Putzi's release from the POW camp came with the personal intervention of old
friend President Roosevelt:
One day a correspondent of the Hearst press named Kehoe obtained
permission to visit Fort Hens. I managed to have a few words with him in acorner. "I know your boss well," I told him. "Will you do me a small service?"
Fortunately he recognized my name.
I gave him a letter, which he slipped into his pocket. It was addressed to theAmerican Secretary of State, Cordell Hull. A few days later it was on the deskof my Harvard Club friend, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In it I offered to act asa political and psychological warfare adviser in the war against Germany.14
The response and offer to "work" for the American side was accepted. Putzi was installed in
comfortable surroundings with his son, U.S. Army Sergeant Egon Hanfstaengl, also there asa personal aide. In 1944, under pressure of a Republican threat to blow the whistle on
Roosevelt's favoritism for a former Nazi, Egon was shipped out to New Guinea and Putzi
hustled off to England, where the British promptly interned him for the duration of the war,
Roosevelt or no Roosevelt,
Putzi's Role in the Reichstag Fire
Putzi's friendships and political manipulations may or may not be of any great consequence,but his role in the Reichstag fire is significant. The firing of the Reichstag on February 27,
1933 is one of the key events of modern times. The fire was used by Adolf Hitler to claim
imminent Communist revolution, suspend constitutional rights, and seize totalitarian power.
From that point on there was no turning back for Germany; the world was set upon thecourse to World War II.
At the time the firing of the Reichstag was blamed on the Communists, but there is little
question in historical perspective that the fire was deliberately set by the Nazis to provide an
excuse to seize political power. Fritz Thyssen commented in the post-war Dustbininterrogations:
When the Reichstag was burned, everyone was sure it had been done by thecommunists. I later learned in Switzerland that it was all a lie.15

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CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

Schacht states quite emphatically:
Nowadays it would be quite clear that this action could not be fastened on theCommunist Party. To what extent individual National Socialists co-operated in
the planning and execution of the deed will be difficult to establish, but in viewof all that has been revealed in the meantime, the fact must be accepted that
Goebbels and Goering each played a leading part, the one in planning, theother in carrying out the plan.16
The Reichstag fire was deliberately set, probably utilizing a flammable liquid, by a group of
experts. This is where Putzi Hanfstaengl comes into the picture. The key question is how did
this group, bent on arson, gain access to the Reichstag to do the job? After 8 p.m. only one
door in the main building was unlocked and this door was guarded. Just before 9 p.m. a tourof the building by watchmen indicated all was well; no flammable liquids were noticed andnothing was out of the ordinary in the Sessions Chamber where the fire started. Apparently
no one could have gained access to the Reichstag building after 9 p.m., and no one was seen
to enter or leave between 9 p.m. and the start of the fire.
There was only one way a group with flammable materials could have entered the Reichstag— through a tunnel that ran between the Reichstag and the Palace of the Reichstag
President. Hermann Goering was president of the Reichstag and lived in the Palace, andnumerous S.A. and S.S. men were known to be in the Palace. In the words of one author:
The use of the underground passage, with all its complications, was possible
only to National-Socialists, the advance and escape of the incendiary gang was
feasible only with the connivance of highly-placed employees of the Reichstag.
Every clue, every probability points damningly in one direction, to theconclusion that the burning of the Reichstag was the work of
National-Socialists.17
How does Putzi Hanfstaengl fit into this picture of arson and political intrigue?
Putzi — by his own admission — was in the Palace room at the other end of the tunnel
leading to the Reichstag. And according to The Reichstag Fire Trial, Putzi Hanfstaengl was
actually in the Palace itself during the fire:
propaganda apparatus stood ready, and the leaders of the Storm Troopers
were in their places. With the official bulletins planned in advance, the ordersof arrest prepared, Karwahne, Frey and Kroyer waiting patiently in their cafe,
the preparations were complete, the scheme almost perfect.18
Dimitrov also asserts that:
The National-Socialist leaders, Hitler, Goering and Goebbels, together with thehigh National-Socialist officials, Daluege, Hanfstaengl and Albrecht, happened
to be present in Berlin on the day of the fire, despite that the election campaign
was at its highest pitch throughout Germany, six days before the poll. Goeringand Goebbels, under oath, furnished contradictory explanations for their"fortuitous" presence in Berlin with Hitler on that day. The National-Socialist
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CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

Hanfstaengl, as Goering's "guest," was present in the Palace of the Reichstag
President, immediately adjacent to the Reichstag, at the time when the .fire
broke out, although his "host" was not there at that time.19
According to Nazi Kurt Ludecke, there once existed a document signed by S.A. Leader Karl
Ernst — who supposedly set the fire and was later murdered by fellow Nazis — which
implicated Goering, Goebbels, and Hanfstaengl in the conspiracy.
Roosevelt's New Deal and Hitler's New Order
Hjalmar Schacht challenged his post-war Nuremburg interrogators with the observation that
Hitler's New Order program was the same as Roosevelt's New Deal program in the UnitedStates. The interrogators understandably snorted and rejected the observation. However, alittle research suggests that not only are the two programs quite similar in content, but that
Germans had no trouble in observing the similarities. There is in the Roosevelt Library asmall book presented to FDR by Dr. Helmut Magers in December 1933.20 On the flyleaf of
this presentation copy is written the inscription,
To the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in profoundadmiration of his conception of a new economic order and with devotion for his
personality. The author, Baden, Germany, November 9, 1933.
FDR's reply to this admiration for his new economic order was as follows:21(Washington) December 19, 1933
My dear Dr. Magers: I want to send you my thanks for the copy of your little
book about me and the "New Deal." Though, as you know, I went to school inGermany and could speak German with considerable fluency at one time, I am
reading your book not only with great interest but because it will help myGerman.
Very sincerely yours,
The New Deal or the "new economic order" was not a creature of classical liberalism. It wasa creature of corporate socialism. Big business as reflected in Wall Street strived for a stateorder in which they could control industry and eliminate competition, and this was the heartof FDR's New Deal. General Electric, for example, is prominent in both Nazi Germany and
the New Deal. German General Electric was a prominent financier of Hitler and the Nazi
Party, and A.E.G. also financed Hitler both directly and indirectly through Osram.
International General Electric in New York was a major participant in the ownership anddirection of both A.E.G. and Osram. Gerard Swope, Owen Young, and A. Baldwin ofGeneral Electric in the United States were directors of A.E.G. However, the story does notstop at General Electric and financing of Hitler in 1933.
In a previous book, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, the author identified the roleof General Electric in the Bolshevik Revolution and the geographic location of American
participants as at 120 Broadway, New York City; the executive offices of General Electric
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CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

were also at 120 Broadway. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was working in Wall Street,
his address was also 120 Broadway. In fact, Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, the FDR
Foundation, was located at 120 Broadway. The prominent financial backer of an early
Roosevelt Wall Street venture from 120 Broadway was Gerard Swope of General Electric.
And it was "Swope's Plan" that became Roosevelt's New Deal — the fascist plan that
Herbert Hoover was unwilling to foist on the United States. In brief, both Hitler's New
Order and Roosevelt's New Deal were backed by the same industrialists and in content werequite similar — i.e., they were both plans for a corporate state.
There were then both corporate and individual bridges between FDR,s America and Hitler'sGermany. The first bridge was the American I.G. Farben, American affiliate of I.G. Farben,
the largest German corporation. On the board of American I.G. sat Paul Warburg, of the
Bank of Manhattan and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The second bridge was
between International General' Electric, a wholly owned subsidiary of General ElectricCompany and its partly owned affiliate in Germany, A.E.G. Gerard Swope, who formulated
FDR's New Deal, was chairman of I.G.E. and on the board of A.E.G. The third "bridge" wasbetween Standard Oil of New Jersey and Vacuum Oil and its wholly owned German
subsidiary, Deutsche-Amerikanisehe Gesellschaft. The chairman of Standard Oil of New
Jersey was Walter Teagle, of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He was a trustee ofFranklin Delano Roosevelt's Georgia Warm Springs Foundation and appointed by FDR to a
key administrative post in the National Recovery Administration.
These corporations were deeply involved in both the promotion of Roosevelt's New Dealand the construction of the military power of Nazi Germany. Putzi Hanfstaengl's role in theearly days, up to the mid-1930s anyway, was an informal link between the Nazi elite and theWhite House. After the mid-1930s, when the world was set on the course for war, Putzis
importance declined — while American Big Business continued to be represented throughsuch intermediaries as Baron Kurt von Schroder attorney Westrick, and membership in
Himmler's Circle of Friends.

Footnotes:
1William E. Dodd, Ambassador Dodd's Diary, 1933-1938, (New York:

Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1941), p. 360.
2Ernst Hanfstaengl, Unheard Witness, (New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1957), p.

28.
3Ibid., p.
4Ibid., p. 52.
5Ibid., p. 53.
6Ibid., p. 59.
7Ibid., p. 122.

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CHAPTER EIGHT: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt

8Ibid., pp. 197-8.
9Ibid., p. 214.
10Ladislas Farago, The Game of the Foxes, (New York: Bantam, 1973), p. 97.
11Ibid., p. 106.
12Ernst Hanfstaengl, Unheard Witness, op. cit., p. 76.
13Ibid.
14Ibid., pp. 310-11.
15Dustbin report EF/Me/1. Interview of Thyssen, p. 13.
16Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, Confessions of" The Old Wizard," (Boston:

Houghton Mifflin, 1956), p. 276.
17George Dimitrov, The Reichstag Fire Trial, (London: The Bodley Head,

1934), p. 309.
18Ibid., p. 310.
19Ibid., p. 311.
20Helmut Magers, Ein Revolutionar Aus Common Sense, (Leipzig: R. Kittler

Verlag, 1934).
21Nixon, Edgar B., Editor, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs,(Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969), Volume 1:
January 1933-February 1934. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. Hyde Park, New
York.

BACK

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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

CHAPTER NINE
Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle
During the entire period of our business contacts we. had no inkling ofFarben's conniving part in Hitler's brutal policies. We offer any help we cangive to see that complete truth is brought to light and that rigid justice is done.
(F. W. Abrams, Chairman of the Board, Standard Oil of New Jersey, 1946.)
Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, Josef Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler, the inner group of
Naziism, were at the same time heads of minor fiefdoms within the Nazi State. Power
groups or political cliques were centered around these Nazi leaders, more importantly after
the late 1930s around Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, Reich-Leader of the S.S. (thedreaded Schutzstaffel). The most important of these Nazi inner circles was created by orderof the Fuehrer; it was known first as the Keppler Circle and later as Himmler's Circle ofFriends.
The Keppler Circle originated as a group of German businessmen supporting Hitler's rise topower before and during 1933. In the mid-1930s the Keppler Circle came under the
influence and protection of S.S. chief Himmler and the organizational control of Cologne
banker and prominent Nazi businessman Kurt von Schroder. Schroder, it will be recalled,
was head of the J.H. Stein Bank in Germany and affiliated with the L. Henry Schroder
Banking Corporation of New York. It is within this innermost of the inner circles, the very
core of Naziism, that we find Wall Street, including Standard Oil of New Jersey and I.T.T.,
represented from 1933 to as late as 1944.
Wilhelm Keppler, founder of the original Circle of Friends, typifies the well-known
phenomenon of a politicized businessman — i.e., a businessman who cultivates the politicalarena rather than the impartial market place for his profits. Such businessmen have beeninterested In promoting socialist causes, because a planned socialist society provides a mostlucrative opportunity for contracts through political influence.
Scenting such profitable opportunities, Keppler joined the national socialists and was close
to Hitler before 1933. The Circle of Friends grew out of a meeting between Adolf Hitler andWilhelm Keppler in December 1931. During the course of their conversation — this wasseveral years before Hitler became dictator — the future Fuehrer expressed a wish to havereliable German businessmen available for economic advice when the Nazis took power.
"Try to get a few economic leaders — they need not be Party members — who will be at our
disposal when we come into power.1 This Keppler undertook to do.
In March 1933 Keppler was elected to the Reichstag and became Hitler's financial expert.
This lasted only briefly. Keppler was replaced by the infinitely more capable Hjalmar
Schacht, and sent to Austria where in 1938 he became Reichs Commissioner, but still able

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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

to use his position to acquire considerable power in the Nazi State. Within a few years hecaptured a string of lucrative directorships in German firms, including chairman of the boardof two I.G. Farben subsidiaries: Braunkohle-Benzin A.G. and Kontinental Oil A.G.
Braunkohle-Benzin was the German exploiter of the Standard Oil of New Jersey technology
for production of gasoline from coal. (See Chapter Four.)In brief, Keppler war the chairman of the very firm that utilized American technology forthe indispensible synthetic gasoline which enabled the Wehrmacht to go to war in 1939.
This is significant because, when linked with other evidence presented in this chapter, itsuggests that the profits and control of these fundamentally important technologies forGerman military ends were retained by a small group of international firms and businessmen
operating across national borders.
Keppler's nephew, Fritz Kranefuss, under his uncle's protection, also gained prominenceboth as Adjutant to S.S. Chief Heinrich Himmler and as a businessman and politicaloperator. It was Kranefuss' link with Himmler which led to the Keppler circle graduallydrawing away from Hitler in the 1930s to come within Himmler's orbit, where in exchange
for annual donations to Himmler's pet S.S. projects Circle members received political favors
and not inconsiderable protection from the S.S.
Baron Kurt von Schroder was, as we have noted, the I.T.T. representative in Nazi Germany
and an early member of the Keppler Circle. The original Keppler Circle consisted of:
THE ORIGINAL (PRE-1932) MEMBERS OF THE
KEPPLER CIRCLE
Circle Member
Main Associations
Wilhelm KEPPLER
Chairman of I.G. Farben
subsidiary Braunkohle-Benzin
A.G. (exploited Standard Oil ofN.J. oil from coal technology)
Fritz KRANEFUSS
Keppler's nephew and Adjutant
to Heinrich Himmler. On
Vorstand of BRABAG
Kurt von SCHRODER
On board of all International
Telephone & Telegraphsubsidiaries in Germany
Karl Vincenz KROGMANN
Lord Mayor of Hamburg
August ROSTERG
General Director of
WINTERSHALL
Emil MEYER
On the board of I.T.T.
subsidiaries and German
General Electric.
Otto STEINBRINCK
Vice president of
VEREINIGTE STAHLWERKE(steel cartel founded with WallStreet loans in 1926)
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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

Hjalmar SCHACHT
Emil HELFFRICHFriedrich REINHARDT
Ewald HECKER
Graf von BISMARCK

President of the REICHSBANKBoard chairman of
GERMAN-AMERICANPETROLEUM CO. (94-percent
owned by Standard Oil of New
Jersey) (See above underWilhelm Keppler)
Board chairman
COMMERZBANKBoard chairman of ILSEDER
HUTTE
Government president of
STETTIN

The S.S. Circle of Friends
The original Circle of Friends met with Hitler in May 1932 and heard a statement of Nazi
objectives. Heinrich Himmler then became a frequent participant in the meetings, andthrough Himmler, various S.S. officers as well as other businessmen joined the group. This
expanded group in time became Himmler's Circle of Friends, with Himmler acting asprotector and expeditor for its members.
Consequently, banking and Industrial interest — were heavily represented in the inner circleof Naziism, and their pre-1933 financial contributions to Hitlerism which we have earlier
enumerated were amply repaid. Of the "Big Five" German banks, the Dresdner Bank had theclosest connections with the Nazi Party: at least a dozen members of Dresdner Bank's boardof directors had high Nazi rank and no fewer than seven Dresdner Bank directors wereamong Keppler's expanded Circle of Friends, which never exceeded 40.
When we examine the names comprising both the original pre-1933 Keppler Circle and thepost-1933 expanded Keppler and Himmler's Circle, we find the Wall Street multi-nationals
heavily represented — more so than any other institutional group. Let us take each WallStreet multinational or its German associate in turn — those identified in Chapter Seven as
linked to financing Hitler — and examine their links to Keppler and Heinrich Himmler.
I.G. Farben and the Keppler Circle
I.G. Farben was heavily represented within the Keppler Circle: no fewer than eight out ofthe peak circle membership of 40 were directors of I.G. Farben or a Farben subsidiary.
These eight members included the previously described Wilhelm Keppler and his nephew
Kranefuss, in addition to Baron Kurt von Schroder. The Farben presence was emphasized bymember Hermann Schmitz, chairman of I.G. Farben and a director of Vereinigte
Stahlwerke, both cartels built and consolidated by the Wall Street loans of the 1920s. A U.S.
Congressional report described Hermann Schmitz as follows:

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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

Hermann Schmitz, one of the most important persons in Germany, has achieved
outstanding success simultaneously in the three separate fields, industry,finance, and government, and has served with zeal and devotion every
government in power. He symbolizes the German citizen who out of thedevastation of the First World War made possible the Second.
Ironically, his may be said to be the greater guilt in that in 1919 he was amember of the Reich's peace delegation, and in the 1930's was in a position toteach the Nazis much that theft had to know concerning economic penetration,
cartel uses, synthetic materials for war.2
Another Keppler Circle member on the I.G. Farben board was Friedrich Flick, creator of thesteel cartel Vereinigte Stahlwerke and a director of Allianz Versicherungs A.G. and German
General Electric (A.E.G.).
Heinrich Schmidt, a director of Dresdner Bank and chairman of the board of I.G. Farben
subsidiary Braunkohle-Benzin A.G., was in the circle; so was Karl Rasehe, another directorof the Dresdner Bank and a director of Metallgesellschaft (parent of the Delbruck Schickler
Bank) and Accumulatoren-Fabriken A.G. Heinrich Buetefisch was also a director of I.G.
Farben and a member of the Keppler Circle. In brief, the I.G. Farben contribution to Rudolf
Hess' Nationale Treuhand — the political slush fund — was confirmed after the 1933
takeover by heavy representation in the Nazi inner circle.
How many of these Keppler Circle members in the I.G. Farben complex were affiliated with
Wall Street?
MEMBERS OF THE ORIGINAL KEPPLER CIRCLEASSOCIATED WITH U.S. MULTI-NATIONALSMember ofStandard Oil General
Keppler Circle I.G. Farben
I.T.T.
of New Jersey Electric
Wilhelm
Chairman of
KEPPLER
Farben—subsidiary
BRABAGFritz
On Aufsichrat—
KRANEFUSS of BRABAG
Emil Heinrich
On board of
Board ofMEYER
all I.T.T.
A.E.G.
German—subsidiaries:
Standard/Mix&
Genest/Lorenz

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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

Emil
HELFFRICH

Friedrich
FLICK
Kurt von
SCHRODER

Chairman of
DAPAG(94-percent
owned byStandard of New
JerseyI.G. Farben——

Board of
A.E.G.

On board of all
I.T.T.
subsidiaries inGermany

Similarly, we can identify other Wall Street institutions represented in the early Keppler's
Circle of Friends, confirming their monetary contributions to the National Trusteeship Fundoperated by Rudolf Hess on behalf of Adolf Hitler. These representatives were Emil
Heinrich Meyer and banker Kurt von Schroder on the boards of all the I.T.T. subsidiaries inGermany, and Emil Helffrich, the board chairman of DAPAG, 94-percent owned byStandard Oil of New Jersey.
Wall Street in the S.S. Circle
Major U.S. multi-nationals were also very well represented in the later Heinrich Himmler
Circle and made cash contributions to the S.S. (the Sonder Konto S) up to 1944 — while
World War II was in progress.
Almost a quarter of the 1944 Sonder Konto S contributions came from subsidiaries ofInternational Telephone and Telegraph, represented by Kurt von Schröder. The 1943
payments from I.T.T. subsidiaries to the Special Account were as follows:
Mix & Genest A.G.
C. Lorenz AG
Felten & Guilleaume
Kurt von Schroder

5,000 RM
20,000 RM
25,000 RM
16,000 RM

And the 1944 payments were:Mix & Genest A.G.
C. Lorenz AG
Felten & Guilleaume
Kurt von Schroder

5,000 RM
20,000 RM
20,000 RM
16,000 RM

Sosthenes Behn of International Telephone and Telegraph transferred wartime control of
Mix & Genest, C. Lorenz, and the other Standard Telephone interests in Germany to Kurt
von Schroder — who was a founding member of the Keppler Circle and organizer andhttp://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_09.htm (5 of 9) [8/4/2001 9:44:18 PM]

CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

treasurer of Himmler's Circle of Friends. Emil H. Meyer, S.S. Untersturmfuehrer, memberof the Vorstand of the Dresdner Bank, A.E.G., and a director of all the I.T.T. subsidiaries inGermany, was also a member of the Himmler Circle of Friends — giving I.T.T. two
powerful representatives at the heart of the S.S.
A letter to fellow member Emil Meyer from Baron von Schroder dated February 25, 1936
describes the purposes and requirements of the Himmler Circle and the long-standing natureof the Special Account 'S' with funds at Schroder's own bank — the J,H. Stein Bank of
Cologne:Berlin, 25
February 1936
(Illegible
handwriting)
To Prof. Dr. Emil H. Meyer
S.S. (Untersturmfuchrer) (second lieutenant) Member of the Managing Board(Vorstand) of the Dresdner Bank
Berlin W. 56,
Behrenstr. 38
Personal!
To the Circle of Friends of the Reich Leader SS
At the end of the 2 day's inspection tour of Munich to which the Reich Leader
SS had invited us last January, the Circle of Friends agreed to put — each one
according to his means — at the Reich Leader's disposal into "Special AccountS" (Sonder Konto S), to be established at the banking firm J.H. Stein in
Cologne, funds which are to be used for certain tasks outside of the budget.
This should enable the Reich Leader to rely on all his friends. In Munich it was
decided that the undersigned would make themselves available for setting up
and handling this account. In the meantime the account was set up and we wantevery participant to know that in case he wants to make contributions to theReich Leader for the aforementioned tasks — either on behalf of his firm or the
Circle of Friends — payments may be made to the banking firm J.H. Stein,
Cologne (Clearing Account of the Reich Bank, Postal Checking Acount No.
1392) to the Special Account S.
: Heil Hitler!
(Signed) Kurt
Baron vonSehroder(Signed)Steinbrinck3

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This letter also explains why U.S. Army Colonel Bogdan, formerly of the Schroder Banking
Corporation in New York, was anxious to divert the attention of post-war U.S. Army
investigators away from the J. H. Stein Bank in Cologne to the "bigger banks" of Nazi
Germany. It was the Stein Bank that held the secrets of the associations of American
subsidiaries with Nazi authorities while World War II was in progress. The New Yorkfinancial interests could not know the precise nature of these transactions (and particularly
the nature of any records that may have been kept by their German associates), but theyknew that some record could well exist of their war-time dealings — enough to embarrassthem with the American public. It was this possibility that Colonel Bogdan tried
unsuccessfully to head off.
German General Electric profited greatly from its association with Himmler and otherleading Nazis. Several members of the Schroder clique were directors of A.E.G., the mostprominent being Robert Pferdmenges, who was not only a member of the Keppler or
Himmler Circles but was a partner in the aryanized banking house Pferdmenges &Company, the successor to the former Jewish banking house Sal Oppenheim of Cologne.
Waldemar von Oppenheim achieved the dubious distinction (for a German Jew) of"honorary Aryan" and was able to continue his old established banking house under Hitlerin partnership with Pferdmenges.
MEMBERS OF THE HIMMLER CIRCLE OF FRIENDS WHO
WERE ALSO DIRECTORS OF AMERICAN-AFFILIATED
FIRMS:
Standard Oilof New
I.G. Farben I.T.T.
A.E.G.
Jerseyx
KRANEFUSS, Fritzx
KEPPLER, Wilhelmxx
SCHRODER, Kurt
Vonx
BUETEFISCH,
Heinrichx
RASCHE, Dr. Karlx
x
FLICK, Friedrichx
LINDEMANN, Karlx
SCHMIDT,
Heinrichx
ROEHNERT,
Kellmuthx
SCHMIDT, Kurt
x
MEYER, Dr. Emilx
SCHMITZ,
Hermann

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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

Pferdmenges was also a director of A.E.G. and used his Nazi influence to good advantage.4
Two other directors of German General Electric were members of Himmler's Circle ofFriends and made 1943 and 1944 monetary contributions to the Sonder Konto S. These
were:
Friedrich Flick
Otto Steinbrinck(a Flick associate)

100,000 RM
100,000 RM

Kurt Schmitt was chairman of the board of directors of A.E.G. and a member of theHimmler Circle of Friends, but Schmitt's name is not recorded in the list of payments for1943 or 1944.
Standard Oil of New Jersey also made a significant contribution to Himmler's Special
Account through its wholly owned (94 percent) German subsidiary,
Deutsche-Amerikanische Gesellschaft (DAG). In 1943 and 1944 DAG contributed asfollows:
Staatsrat Helfferich of Deutsch- 10,000 RM
Amerikanische Petroleum A.G.
Staatsrat Lindemann of
10,000 RM
Deutsch4,000 RM
Amerikanische Petroleum A.G.
and personally
It is important to note that Staatsrat Lindemann contributed 4,000 RM personally, thus
making a clear distinction between the corporate contribution of 10,000 RM from Standard
Oil of New Jersey's wholly owned subsidiary and the personal contribution from director
Linde-mann. In the case of Staatsrat Hellfrich, the only contribution was the Standard Oilcontribution of 10,000 RM; there is no recorded personal donation.
I.G. Farben, parent company of American I.G. (see Chapter Two), was another significant
contributor to Heinrich Himmler's Sonder Konto S. There were four I.G. Farben directors
within the inner circle: Karl Rasehe, Fritz Kranefuss, Heinrich Schmidt, and Heinrich
Buetefisch. Karl Rasche was a member of the management committee of the Dresdner Bankand a specialist in international law and banking. Under Hitler Karl Rasche became aprominent director of many German corporations, including Accumulatoren-Fabrik A.G. in
Berlin, which financed Hitler; the Metallgesellschaft; and Felten & Guilleame, an I.T.T.
company. Fritz Kranefuss was a member of the board of directors of Dresdner Bank and a
director of several corporations besides I.G. Farben. Kranefuss, nephew of Wilhelm
Keppler, was a lawyer and prominent in many Nazi public organizations. Heinrich Schmidt,
a director of I.G. Farben and several other German companies, was also a director of theDresdner Bank.
It is important to note that all three of the above — Rasche, Kranefuss, and Schmidt — weredirectors of an I.G. Farben subsidiary, Braunkohle-Benzin A.G. — the manufacturer ofGerman synthetic gasoline using Standard Oil technology, a result of the I.G.
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CHAPTER NINE: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle

Farben-Standard Oil agreements of the early 1930s.
In brief, the Wall Street financial elite was well represented in both the early Keppler Circle
and the later Himmler Circle.5

Footnotes:
1From the affidavit of Wilhem Keppler, NMT, Volume VI, p. 285.
2Elimination of German Resources, p. 869.
3NMT, Volume VII, p. 238. "Translation of Document N1-10103, Prosecution

Exhibit 788." Letter from von Schroder and Defendant Steinbrinck to Dr.
Meyer, Dresdner Bank official, 25 February 1936, noting that the Circle ofFriends would put funds at Himmler's disposal "For Certain Tasks outside of
the Budget" and had established a "Special Account for this purpose."
4Elimination of German Resources, p. 857.
5The significant nature of this representation is reflected in Chart 8-1, "WallStreet representation in the Keppler and Himmler Circles, 1933 and 1944."

BACK

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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

CHAPTER TEN
The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"
A vital question, only partly resolved, is the extent to which Hitler's accession to power in1933 was aided directly by Wall Street financiers. We have shown with original
documentary evidence that there was indirect American participation and support throughGerman affiliated firms, and (as for example in the case of I.T.T.) there was aknowledgeable and deliberate effort to benefit from the support of the Nazi regime. Was thisindirect financing extended to direct financing?
After Hitler gained power, U.S. firms and individuals worked on behalf of Naziism andcertainly profited from the Nazi state. We know from the diaries of William Dodd, theAmerican Ambassador to Germany, that in 1933 a stream of Wall Street bankers andindustrialists filed through the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, expressing their admiration for Adolf
Hitler — and anxious to find ways to do business with the new totalitarian regime. For
example, on September 1, 1933 Dodd recorded that Henry Mann of the National City Bankand Winthrop W. Aldrich of the Chase Bank both met with Hitler and "these bankers feelthey can work with him."1 Ivy Lee, the Rockefeller public relations agent, according to
Dodd "showed himself at once a capitalist and an advocate of Fascism."2
So at least we can identify a sympathetic response to the new Nazi dictatorship, reminiscentof the manner in which Wall Street international bankers greeted the new Russia of Lenin
and Trotsky in 1917.
Who Was "Sidney Warburg"?
The question posed in this chapter is the accusation that some Wall Street financiers (theRockefellers and Warburgs specifically have been accused) directly planned and financed
Hitler's takeover in 1933, and that they did this from Wall Street. On this question theso-called myth of "Sidney Warburg" is relevant. Prominent Nazi Franz von Papen has statedin his Memoirs:3... the most documented account of the National Socialists' sudden acquisitionof funds was contained in a book published in Holland in 1933, by the oldestablished Amsterdam publishing house of Van Holkema & Warendorf, called
De Geldbronnen van Het Nationaal-Socialisme (Drie Gesprekken Met Hitler)
under the name "Sidney Warburg."
A book with this title in Dutch by "Sidney Warburg" was indeed published in 1933, but
remained on the book stalls in Holland only for a matter of days. The book was purged.4
One of three surviving original copies was translated into English. The translation was at
one time deposited in the British Museum, but is now withdrawn from public circulation andis unavailable for research. Nothing is now known of the original Dutch copy upon which
this English translation was based.
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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

The second Dutch copy was owned by Chancellor Schussnigg in Austria, and nothing is
known of its present whereabouts. The third Dutch copy found its way to Switzerland andwas translated into German. The German translation has survived down to the present day in
the Schweizerischen Sozialarchiv in Zurich, Switzerland. A certified copy of theauthenticated German translation of this Swiss survivor was purchased by the author in 1971
and translated into English. It is upon this English translation of the German translation thatthe text in this chapter is based.
Publication of the "Sidney Warburg" book was duly reported in the New York Times(November 24, 1933) under the title "Hoax on Nazis Feared." A brief article noted that a"Sidney Warburg" pamphlet has appeared in Holland, and the author is not the son of Felix
Warburg. The translator is J. G. Shoup, a Belgian newspaperman living in Holland. The
publishers and Shoup "are wondering if they have not been the victims of a hoax." TheTimes account adds:
The pamphlet repeats an old story to the effect that leading Americans,including John D. Rockefeller, financed Hitler from 1929 to 1932 to the extent
of $32,000,000, their motive being"to liberate Germany from the financial gripof France by bringing about a revolution·" Many readers of the pamphlet havepointed out that it contains many inaccuracies.
Why was the Dutch original withdrawn from circulation in 1933? Because "Sidney
Warburg" did not exist and a "Sidney Warburg" was claimed as the author. Since 1933 the"Sidney Warburg" book has been promoted by various parties both as a forgery and as a
genuine document. The Warburg family itself has gone to some pains to substantiate its
falsity.
What does the book report? What does the book claim happened in Germany in the early
1930s? And do these events have any resemblance to facts we know to be true from otherevidence?
From the viewpoint of research methodology it is much more preferable to assume that the"Sidney Warburg" book is a forgery, unless we can prove the contrary. This is the procedure
we shall adopt. The reader may well ask — then why bother to look closely at a possibleforgery? There are at least two good reasons, apart from academic curiosity.
First, the Warburg claim that the book is a forgery has a curious and vital flaw. The
Warburgs deny as false a book they admit not to have read t nor even seen. The Warburg
denial is limited specifically to non-authorship by a Warburg. This denial is acceptable; but
it does not deny or reject the validity of the contents. The denial merely repudiates
authorship.
Second, we have already identified I.G. Farben as a key financier and backer of Hitler. We
have provided photographic evidence (page 64) of the bank transfer slip for 400,000 marks
from I.G. Farben to Hitler's "Nationale Treuhand" political slush fund account administeredby Rudolf Hess. Now it is probable, almost certain, that "Sidney Warburg" did not exist. On
the other hand, it is a matter of public record that the Warburgs were closely connected with

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I.G. Farben in Germany and the United States. In Germany Max Warburg was a director of
I.G. Farben and in the United States brother Paul Warburg (father of James Paul Warburg)
was a director of American I.G. Farben. In brief, we have incontrovertible evidence thatsome Warburgs, including the father of James Paul, the denouncer of the "Sidney Warburg"
book, were directors of I.G. Farben. And I.G. Farben is known to have financed Hitler.
"Sidney Warburg" was a myth, but I.G. Farben directors Max Warburg and Paul Warburg
were not myths. This is reason enough to push further.
Let us first summarize the book which James Paul Warburg claims is a forgery.
A Synopsis of the Suppressed "Sidney Warburg" Book
The Financial Sources of National Socialism opens with an alleged conversation between"Sidney Warburg" and joint author/translator I. G. Shoup. "Warburg" relates why he washanding Shoup an English language manuscript for translation into Dutch and publication in
Holland In the words of the mythical "Sidney Warburg":
There are moments when I want to turn away from a world of such intrigue,
trickery, swindling and tampering with the stock exchange .... Do you knowwhat I can never under stand? How it is possible that people of good andhonest character — for which I have ample proof — participate in swindlingand fraud, knowing full well that it will affect thousands.
Shoup then describes "Sidney Warburg" as "son of one of the largest bankers in the UnitedStates, member of the banking firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York." "Sidney Warburg" thentells Shoup that he ("Warburg") wants to record for history how national socialism wasfinanced by New York financiers.
The first section of the book is entitled simply "1929." It relates that in 1929 Wall Street hadenormous credits outstanding in Germany and Austria, and that these claims had, for themost part, been frozen. While France was economically weak and feared Germany, France
was also getting the "lion's share" of reparations funds which were actually financed fromthe United States. In June 1929, a meeting took place between the members of the Federal
Reserve Bank and leading American bankers to decide what to do about France, andparticularly to cheek her call on German reparations. This meeting was attended (according
to the "Warburg" book) by the directors of Guaranty Trust Company, the "Presidents" of theFederal Reserve Banks, in addition to five independent bankers, "young Rockefeller," andGlean from Royal Dutch Shell. Carter and Rockefeller according to the text "dominated theproceedings. The others listened and nodded their heads."
The general consensus at the bankers' meeting was that the only way to free Germany from
French financial clutches was by revolution, either Communist or German Nationalist. At an
earlier meeting it had previously been agreed to contact Hitler to "try to find out if he were
amenable to American financial support." Now Rockefeller reportedly had more recently
seen a German-American leaflet about the Hitler national socialist movement and the
purpose of this second meeting was to determine if "Sidney Warburg" was prepared to go toGermany as a courier to make personal contact with Hitler.
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In return for proferred financial support, Hitler would be expected to conduct an "aggressive
foreign policy and stir up the idea of revenge against France." This policy, it was
anticipated, would result in a French appeal to the United States and England for assistancein "international questions involving the eventual German aggression." Hitler was not toknow about the purpose of Wall Street's assistance. It would be left "to his reason andresourcefulness to discover the motives behind the proposal." "Warburg" accepted the
proposed mission and left New York for Cherbourg on the Ile de France, "with a diplomatic
passport and letters of recommendation from Carter, Tommy Walker, Rockefeller, Gleanand Herbert Hoover."Apparently, "Sidney Warburg" had some difficulty in meeting Hitler. The American Consul
in Munich did not succeed in making contact with the Nazis, and finally Warburg went
directly to Mayor Deutzberg of Munich, "with a recommendation from the American
Consul," and a plea to guide Warburg to Hitler. Shoup then presents extracts from Hitler's
statements at this initial meeting. These extracts include the usual Hitlerian anti-Semitic
rantings, and it should be noted that all the anti, Semitic parts in the "Sidney Warburg" bookare spoken by Hitler. (This is important because James Paul Warburg claims the Shoup book
is totally anti-Semitic.) Funding of the Nazis was discussed at this meeting and Hitler isreported to insist that funds could not be deposited in a German bank but only in a foreignbank at his disposal. Hitler asked for 100 million marks and suggested that "Sidney
Warburg" report on the Wall Street reaction through von Heydt at Lutzowufer, 18 Berlin.5
After reporting back to Wall Street, Warburg learned that $24 million was too much for theAmerican bankers; they offered $10 million. Warburg contacted von Heydt and a further
meeting was arranged, this time with an "undistinguished looking man, introduced to me
under the name Frey." Instructions were given to make $10 million available at the
Mendelsohn & Co. Bank in Amsterdam, Holland. Warburg was to ask the Mendelsohn
Bank to make out checks in marks payable to named Nazis in ten German cities.
Subsequently, Warburg travelled to Amsterdam, completed his mission with Mendelsohn &Co., then went to Southampton, England and took the Olympia back to New York where hereported to Carter at Guaranty Trust Company. Two days later Warburg gave his report tothe entire Wall Street group, but "this time an English representative was there sitting next
to Glean from Royal Dutch, a man named Angell, one of the heads of the Asiatic PetroleumCo." Warburg was questioned about Hitler, and "Rockefeller showed unusual interest in
Hitler's statements about the Communists."
A few weeks after Warburg's return from Europe the Hearst newspapers showed "unusualinterest" in the new German Nazi Party and even the New York Times carried regular shortreports of Hitler's speeches. Previously these newspapers had not shown too much interest,
but that now changed.6 Also, in December 1929 a long study of the German National
Socialist movement appeared "in a monthly publication at Harvard University."
Part II of the suppressed "Financial Sources of National Socialism" is entitled "1931" andopens with a discussion of French influence on international politics. It avers that Herbert
Hoover promised Pierre Laval of France not to resolve the debt question without first
consulting the French government and [writes Shoup]:

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When Wall Street found out about this Hoover lost the respect of this circle atone blow. Even the subsequent elections were affected — many believed that
Hoover's failure to get reelected can be traced back to the issue.7
In October 1931, Warburg received a letter from Hitler which he passed on to Carter at
Guaranty Trust Company, and subsequently another bankers' meeting was called at the
Guaranty Trust Company of-rices. Opinions at this meeting were divided. "Sidney
Warburg" reported that Rockefeller, Carter, and McBean were for Hitler, while the otherfinanciers were uncertain. Montague Norman of the Bank of England and Glean of RoyalDutch Shell argued that the $10 million already spent on Hitler was too much, that Hitler
would never act. The meeting finally agreed in principle to assist Hitler further, andWarburg again undertook a courier assignment and went back to Germany.
On this trip Warburg reportedly discussed German affairs with "a Jewish banker" in
Hamburg, with an industrial magnate, and other Hitler supporters. One meeting was withbanker von Heydt and a "Luetgebrunn." The latter stated that the Nazi storm troopers wereincompletely equipped and the S.S. badly needed machine guns, revolvers, and carbines.
In the next Warburg-Hitler meeting, Hitler argued that "the Soviets cannot miss ourindustrial products yet. We will give credit, and if I am not able to deflate France myself,then the Soviets will help me." Hitler said he had two plans for takeover in Germany: (a) the
revolution plan, and (b), the legal takeover plan. The first plan would be a matter of threemonths, the second plan a matter of three years. Hitler was quoted as saying, "revolution
costs five hundred million marks, legal takeover costs two hundred million marks — what
will your bankers decide?" After five days a cable from Guaranty Trust arrived for Warburg
and is cited in the book as follows:
Suggested amounts are out of the question. We don't want to and cannot.
Explain to man that such a transfer to Europe will shatter financial market.
Absolutely unknown on international territory. Expect long report, before
decision is made. Stay there. Continue investigation. Persuade man of
impossible demands. Don't forget to include in report own opinion of
possibilities for future of man.
Warburg cabled his report back to New York and three days later received a second
cablegram reading:
Report received. Prepare to deliver ten, maximum fifteen million dollars.
Advise man necessity of aggression against foreign danger.
The $15 million was accepted for the legal takeover road, not for the revolutionary plan. The
money was transferred from Wall Street to Hitler via Warburg as follows — $5 million to
be paid at Mendelsohn & Company, Amsterdam; $5 million at the Rotterdamsehe
Bankvereinigung in Rotterdam; and $5 million at "Banca Italiana."
Warburg travelled to each of these banks, where he reportedly met Heydt, Strasser andHermann Goering. The groups arranged for cheeks to be made out to different names invarious towns in Germany. In other words, the funds were "laundered" in the modern

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tradition to disguise their Wall Street origins. In Italy the payment group was reportedly
received at the main building of the bank by its president and while waiting in his office two
Italian fascists, Rossi and Balbo, were introduced to Warburg, Heydt, Strasser, and Goering.
Three days after payment, Warburg returned to New York from Genoa on the Savoya.
Again, he reported to Carter, Rockefeller, and the other bankers.
The third section of "Financial Sources of National Soeialism" is entitled simply "1933."
The section records "Sidney Warburg's" third and last meeting with Hitler — on the night
the Reichstag was burned. (We noted in Chapter Eight the presence of Roosevelt's friend
Putzi Hanfstaengl in the Reichstag.) At this meeting Hitler informed Warburg of Nazi
progress towards legal takeover. Since 1931 the Nationalist Socialist party had tripled insize. Massive deposits of weapons had been made near the German border in Belgium,
Holland, and Austria — but these weapons required cash payments before delivery. Hitler
asked for a minimum of 100 million marks to take care of the final step in the takeoverprogram. Guaranty Trust wired Warburg offering $7 million at most, to be paid as follows— $2 million to the Renania Joint Stock Company in Dusseldorf (the German branch ofRoyal Dutch), and $5 million to other banks. Warburg reported this offer to Hitler, whorequested the $5 million should be sent to the Banca Italiana in Rome and (although thereport does not say so) presumably the other $2 million was paid to Dusseldorf. The bookconcludes with the following statement from Warburg:
I carried out my assignment strictly down to the last detail. Hitler is dictator of
the largest European country. The world has now observed him at work forseveral months. My opinion of him means nothing now. His actions will prove
if he is bad, which I believe he is. For the sake of the German people I hope in
my heart that I am wrong. The world continues to suffer under a system thathas to bow to a Hitler to keep itself on its feet. Poor world, poor humanity.
This is a synopsis of "Sidney Warburg's" suppressed book on the financial origins ofnational socialism in Germany. Some of the information in the book is now common
knowledge — although only part was generally known in the early 1930s. It is extraordinary
to note that the unknown author had access to information that only surfaced many years
later — for example, the identity of the von Heydt bank as a Hitler financial conduit. Why
was the book taken off the bookstands and suppressed? The stated reason for withdrawal
was that "Sidney Warburg" did not exist, that the book was a forgery, and that the Warburg
family claimed it contained anti-Semitic and libelous statements.
The information in the book was resurrected after World War II and published in otherbooks in an anti-Semitic context which does not exist in the original 1933 book. Two ofthese post-war books were Rene Sonderegger's Spanischer Sommer and Werner
Zimmerman's Liebet Eure Feinde.
Most importantly James P. Warburg of New York signed an affidavit in 1949, which was
published as an appendix in von Papen's Memoirs. This Warburg affidavit emphaticallydenied the authenticity of the "Sidney Warburg" book and claimed it was a hoax,
Unfortunately, James P. Warburg focuses on the 1947 Sonderegger anti-Semitic book
Spanischer Sommer, not the original suppressed "Sidney Warburg" book published in 1933

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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"— where the only anti-Semitism stems from Hitler's alleged statements.
In other words, the Warburg affidavit raised far more questions than it resolved. We should
therefore look at Warburg's 1949 affidavit denying the authenticity of Financial Sources of
National Socialism.
James Paul Warburg's Affidavit
In 1953 Nazi Franz von Papen published his Memoirs.8 This was the same Franz von Papen
who had been active in the United States on behalf of German espionage in World War I. In
his Memoirs, Franz von Papen discusses the question of financing Hitler and places theblame squarely on industrialist Fritz Thyssen and banker Kurt von Sehroder. Papen denies
that he (Papen) financed Hitler, and indeed no credible evidence has been forthcoming tolink von Papen with Hitler's funds (although Zimmerman in Liebert Eure Feinde accuses
Papen of donating 14 million marks). In this context von Papen mentions "Sidney
Warburg's" The Financial Sources of National Socialism, together with the two more recent
post-World War II books by Werner Zimmerman and Rene Sonderegger (alias Severin
Reinhardt).9 Papen adds that:
James P. Warburg is able to refute the whole falsification in his affidavit ....
For my own part I am most grateful to Mr. Warburg for disposing once and forall of this malicious libel. It is almost impossible to refute accusations of thissort by simple negation, and his authoritative denial has enabled me to give
body to my own protestations.10
There are two sections to Appendix II of Papen's book. First is a statement by James P.
Warburg; second is the affidavit, dated July 15, 1949.
The opening paragraph of the statement records that in 1933 the Dutch publishing house of
Holkema and Warendorf published De Geldbronnen van Het Nationaal-Socialisme. Drie
Gesprekken Met Hitler, and adds that,
This book was allegedly written by "Sidney Warburg." A partner in the
Amsterdam firm of Warburg & Co. informed James P. Warburg of the bookand Holkema and Warendorf were informed that no such person as "Sidney
Warburg" existed. They thereupon withdrew the book from circulation.
James Warburg then makes two sequential and seemingly contradictory statements:... the book contained a mass of libelous material against various members of
my family and against a number of prominent banking houses and individuals
in New York· I have never to this day seen a copy of the book. Apparently only
a handful of copies escaped the publisher's withdrawal.
Now on the one hand Warburg claims he has never seen a copy of the "Sidney Warburg"
book, and on the other hand says it is "libelous" and proceeds to construct a detailed
affidavit on a sentence by sentence basis to refute the information supposedly in a book heclaims not to have seen! It is very difficult to accept the validity of Warburg's claim he has
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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg""never to this day seen a copy of the book." Or if indeed he had not, then the affidavit isworthless.
James Warburg adds that the "Sidney Warburg" book is "obvious anti-Semitism," and thethrust of Warburg's statement is that the "Sidney Warburg" story is pure anti-Semitic
propaganda. In fact (and Warburg would have discovered this fact if he had read the book),
the only anti-Semitic statements in the 1933 book are those attributed to Adolf Hitler, whose
anti-Semitic feelings are hardly any great discovery. Apart from Hitler's ravings there isnothing in the original "Sidney Warburg" book remotely connected with anti-Semitism,
unless we classify Rockefeller, Glean, Carter, McBean, etc. as Jewish. In fact, it is notablethat not a single Jewish banker is named in the book — except for the mythical "Sidney
Warburg" who is a courier, not one of the alleged money givers. Yet we know from anauthentic source (Ambassador Dodd) that the Jewish banker Eberhard von Oppenheim did
indeed give 200,000 marks to Hitler,11 and it is unlikely "Sidney Warburg" would havemissed this observation if he was deliberately purveying false anti-Semitic propaganda.
The first page of James Warburg's statement concerns the 1933 book. After the first pagelames Warburg introduces Rene Sonderegger and another book written in 1947. Carefulanalysis of Warburg's statement and affidavit point up that his denials and assertions
essentially refer to Sonderegger and not to Sidney Warburg. Now Sonderegger wasanti-Semitic and probably was part of a neo-Nazi movement after World War II, but thisclaim of anti-Semitism cannot be laid to the 1933 book — and that is the crux of thequestion at issue. In brief, James Paul Warburg starts out by claiming to discuss a book he
has never seen but knows to be libelous and anti-Semitic, then without warning shifts theaccusation to another book which was certainly anti-Semitic but was published a decade
later. Thus, the Warburg affidavit so thoroughly confuses the two books that the reader islead to condemn the mythical" Sidney Warburg" along with Sonderegger.12 Let us look atsome of J.P. Warburg's statements:
James P. Warburg's Sworn
Author's Comments on James P.
Affidavit New York City, July
Warburg Affidavit
15, 1949
1. Concerning the wholly false and Note that the affidavit concerns
malicious allegations made byRene Sonderegger, not the bookRene Sonderegger of Zurich,published by J.G. Shoup in 1933.
Switzerland, et al., as set forth in
the foregoing part of thisstatement, I, James Paul Warburg,of Greenwich, Connecticut,
U.S.A., depose as follows:
2. No such person as
We can assume that the name"Sidney Warburg" existed in New "Sidney Warburg" is a pseudonym,
York City in 1933, noror used falsely.
elsewhere, as far as I know,
then or at any other time.
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3. I never gave any manuscript,
The affidavit confines itself todiary, notes, cables, or any other grant of materials "for translation
documents to any person forand publication in Holland."translation and publication in
Holland, and, specifically, I nevergave any such documents to thealleged J.G. Shoup of Antwerp. To
the best of my knowledge andrecollection I never at any time
met any such person.
4. The telephone conversation
Reported by Sonderegger, notbetween Roger Baldwin and"Sidney Warburg."
myself, reported by Sonderegger,
never took place at all and is pureinvention.
5. I did not go to Germany at the But Warburg did go to Germany inrequest of the President of the1929 and 1930 for the
Guaranty Trust Company in 1929, International Acceptance Bank,or at any other time.
Inc.
6. I did go to Germany on business Note that Warburg, by his own
statement, told his banking
for my own bank, Theassociates that Hitler would comeInternational Acceptance Bank
Inc., of New York, in both 1929 to power. This claim was made in
and 1930. On neither of these
1930 — and the Warburgs
occasions did I have anything to continued as directors with I.G.
do with investigating the possible Farben and other pro-Nazi firms.
prevention of a Communist
revolution in Germany by thepromotion of a Nazi counterrevolution. As a matter of recorded
fact, my opinion at the time wasthat there was relatively little
danger of a Communist revolutionin Germany and a considerable
danger of a Nazi seizure of power,
I am in a position to prove that, on
my return from Germany after the
Reichstag elections of 1930, I
warned my associates that Hitler
would very likely come to powerin Germany and that the result
would be either a Nazi- dominatedEurope or a second world war —perhaps both. This can becorroborated as well as the fact
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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"that, as a consequence of mywarning, my bank proceeded toreduce its German commitments as
rapidly as possible.
7. I had no discussions anywhere, There is no evidence to contradictat any time, with Hitler, with any this statement. So far as can be
Nazi officials, or with anyone else traced Warburgs were notabout providing funds for the Nazi connected with these banking
Party. Specifically, I had nofirms except that the Italiandealing of this sort withcorrespondent of Warburg's Bank
Mendelssohn & Co., or theof Manhattan was "Banca
Rotterdamsche Bankvereiniging or Commerciale Italiana" — which is
the Banca Italiana. (The latter isclose to "Banca Italiana."
probably meant to read Banca
d'Italia, with which I likewise hadno such dealings.)
8. In February 1933 (see pages 191 There is no evidence to contradictthese statements. "Sidneyand 192 of Spanischer Sommer)
when I am alleged to have brought Warburg" provides no supporting
evidence for his claims.
Hitler the last installment ofAmerican funds and to have been
received by Goering and Goebbels
as well as by Hitler himself, I canprove that I was not in Germany atall. I never set foot in Germany
after the Nazis had come to powerin January 1933. In January andFebruary I was in New York andWashington, working both with
See Wall Street and FDR, (Newmy bank and with President-elect York: Arlington House Publishers,
Roosevelt on the then-acute1975), for details of FDR'sbanking crisis. After Mr.
German associations.
Roosevelt's inauguration, on
March 3, 1933, I was working withhim continuously helping toprepare the agenda for the World
Economic Conference, to which I
was sent as Financial Adviser inearly June. This is a matter ofpublic record.

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9. The foregoing statements should No. James P. Warburg states hesuffice to demonstrate that thehas never seen the original "Sidney
whole "Sidney Warburg" myth and Warburg" book published in
the subsequent spurious
Holland in 1933. Therefore his
identification of myself with the affidavit only applies to thenon-existent" Sidney" areSonderegger book which isfabrications of malicious falsehood inaccurate. Sidney Warburg may
without the slightest foundation in well be a myth, but the association
truth.
of Max Warburg and Paul
Warburg with I.G. Farben and
Hitler is not a myth.
Does James Warburg intend to mislead?
It is true that" Sidney Warburg" may well have been an invention, in the sense that"
Sidney Warburg" never existed. We assume the name is a fake; but someone wrote thebook. Zimmerman and Sonderegger may or may not have committed libel to the
Warburg name, but unfortunately when we examine James P. Warburg's affidavit as
published in von Papen's Memoirs we are left as much in the dark as ever. There arethree important and unanswered questions: (1) why would James P. Warburg claim as
a forgery a book he has not read; (2) why does Warburg's affidavit avoid the key
question and divert discussion away from "Sidney Warburg" to the anti-Semitic
Sonderegger book published in 1947; and (3) why would James P. Warburg be soinsensitive to Jewish suffering in World War II to publish his affidavit in the Memoirsof Franz von Papen, who was a prominent Nazi at the heart of the Hitler movement
since the early days of 1933?
Not only were the German Warburgs persecuted by Hitler in 1938, but millions ofJews lost their lives to Nazi barbarism. It seems elementary that anyone who has
suffered and was sensitive to the past sufferings of German Jews would avoid Nazis,
Naziism, and neo-Nazi books like the plague. Yet here we have Nazi von Papen acting
as a genial literary host to self-described anti-Nazi James P. Warburg, who apparently
welcomes the opportunity. Moreover, the Warburgs had ample opportunity to releasesuch an affidavit with wide publicity without utilizing neo-Nazi channels.
The reader will profit from pondering this situation. The only logical explanation isthat some of the facts in the "Sidney Warburg" book are either true, come close to thetruth, or are embarrassing to James P. Warburg. One cannot say that Warburg
intends to mislead (although this might seem an obvious conclusion), because
businessmen are notoriously illogical writers and reasoners, and there is certainly
nothing to exempt Warburg from this categorization.
Some Conclusions from the "Sidney Warburg" Story"Sidney Warburg" never existed; in this sense the original 1933 book is a work of

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fiction. However, many of the then-little-known facts recorded in the book are curate;
and the James Warburg affidavit is not aimed at the original boo but rather at an
anti-Semitic book circulated over a decade later.
Paul Warburg was a director of American I.G. Farben and thus connected with thefinancing of Hitler. Max Warburg, a director of German I.G. Farben, signed — alongwith Hitler himself — the document which appointed Hjalmar Schacht to theReichsbank. These verifiable connections between the Warburgs and Hitler suggest the"Sidney Warburg" story cannot be abandoned as a total forgery without close
examination.
Who wrote the 1933 book, and why? I.G. Shoup says the notes were written by a
Warburg in England and given to him to translate. The War-burg motive was alleged
to be genuine remorse at the amoral behavior of Warburgs and their Wall Street
associates. Does this sound like a plausible motive? It has not gone unnoticed that thosesame Wall Streeters who plot war and revolution are often in their private lives
genuinely decent citizens; it is not beyond the realm of reason that one of them had achange of heart or a heavy conscience. But this is not proven.
If the book was a forgery, then by whom was it written? James War-burg admits hedoes not know the answer, and he writes: "The original purpose of the forgery remains
somewhat obscure even today.13
Would any government forge the document? Certainly not the British or U.S.
governments, which are both indirectly implicated by the book. Certainly not the Nazi
government in Germany, although James Warburg appears to suggest this unlikely
possibility. Could it be France, or the Soviet Union, or perhaps Austria? France,
possibly because France feared the rise of Nazi Germany. Austria is a similar
possibility. The Soviet Union is a possibility because the Soviets also had much to fear
from Hitler. So it is plausible that France, Austria, or the Soviet Union had some handin the preparation of the book.
Any private citizen who forged such a book without inside government materials
would have to be remarkably well informed. Guaranty Trust is not a particularly
well-known bank outside New York, yet there is an extraordinary degree ofplausibility about the involvement of Guaranty Trust, because it was the Morgan
vehicle used for financing and infiltrating the Bolshevik revolution.14 Whoever named
Guaranty Trust as the vehicle for funding Hitler either knew a great deal more thanthe man in the street, or had authentic government information. What would be themotive behind such a book?
The only motive that seems acceptable is that the unknown author had knowledge awar was in preparation and hoped for a public reaction against the Wall Street
fanatics and their industrialist friends in Germany — before it was too late. Clearly,
whoever wrote the book, his motive almost certainly was to warn against Hitlerian
aggression and to point to its Wall Street source, because the technical assistance ofAmerican companies controlled by Wall Street was still needed to build Hitler's war
machine. The Standard Oil hydrogenation patents and financing for the oil from coal
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plants, the bomb sights, and the other necessary technology had not been fullytransferred when the "Sidney Warburg" book was written. Consequently, this could
have been a book designed to break the back of Hitler's supporters abroad, to inhibit
the planned transfer of U.S. war-making potential, and to eliminate financial anddiplomatic support of the Nazi state. If this was the goal, it is regrettable that the bookfailed to achieve any of these purposes.

Footnotes:
1William E. Dodd, Ambassador Dodd's Diary, op. cit., p. 31.
2Ibid., p. 74.
3Franz von Papen, Memoirs, (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1953), p. 229.
4The English text for this chapter is translated from an authenticatedsurviving German translation of a copy of the Dutch edition of De
Geldbronnen van Het Nationaal-Socialisme (Drie Gesprekken Met Hitler), or
The Financial Sources of National Socialism (Three conversations withHitler. The original Dutch author is given as "Door Sidney Warburg,
vertaald door I.G. Shoup" (By Sidney Warburg, as told by I.G. Shoup).
The copy used here was translated from the Dutch by Dr. Walter Nelz,
Wilhelm Peter, and Rene Sonderegger in Zurich, February 11, 1947, and
the German translation bears an affidavit to the effect that: "Theundersigned three witnesses do verify that the accompanying document isnone other than a true and literal translation from Dutch into German of
the book by Sidney Warburg, a copy of which was constantly at theirdisposal during the complete process of translation. They testify that theyheld this original in their hands, and that to the best of their ability theyread it sentence by sentence, translating it into German, comparing thenthe content of the accompanying translation to the original conscientiously
until complete agreement was reached."
5Note that "von Heydt" was the original name for the Dutch Bank voor

Handel en Seheepvaart N.V., a subsidiary of the Thyssen interests and now
known to have been used as a funnel for Nazi funds. See Elimination ofGerman Resources.
6Examination of the Index for the New York Times confirms the accuracyof the latter part of this statement. See for example the sudden rush ofinterest by the New York Times, September 15, 1930 and the feature articleon "Hitler, Driving Force in Germany's Fascism" in the September 21,
1930 issue of the New York Times. In 1929 the New York Times listed only
one brief item on Adolf Hitler. In 1931 it ran a score of substantial entries,
in-eluding no fewer than three "Portraits."

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7Hoover said he lost the support of Wall Street in 1931 because he would

not go along with its plan for a New Deal: see Antony C. Sutton, WallStreet and FDR, op. cit.
8Franz von Papen, Memoirs, (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1958).

Translated by Brian Connell.
9Werner Zimmerman, Liebet Eure Feinde, (Frankhauser Verlag:

Thielle-Neuchatel, 1948), which contains a chapter, "Hitler's geheime
Geldgeber" (Hitler's secret financial supporters) and Rene Sonderegger,
Spanischer Sommer, (Afroltern, Switzerland: Aehren Verlag, 1948).
10Franz von Papen, Memoirs, op. cit., p. 23.
11William E. Dodd, Ambassador Dodd,s Diary, op. cit. pp, 593-602.
12The reader should examine the complete Warburg statement andaffidavit; see Franz von Papen, Memoirs, op. cit. pp. 593-602,
13Franz von Papen, Memoirs, op. cit., p. 594.
14See Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit,

BACK

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CHAPTER ELEVEN: Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War II

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War II
Behind the battle fronts in World War II, through intermediaries in Switzerland and North
Africa, the New York financial elite collaborated with the Nazi regime, Captured files after
the war yielded a mass of evidence demonstrating that for some elements of Big Business,the period 1941-5 was "business as usual." For instance, correspondence between U.S. firms
and their French subsidiaries reveals the aid given to the Axis military machine — while theUnited States was at war with Germany and Italy. Letters between Ford of France and Fordof the U.S. between 1940 and July 1942 were analyzed by the Foreign Funds Control
section of the Treasury Department. Their initial report concluded that until mid-1942:(1) the business of the Ford subsidiaries in France substantially increased; (2)their production was solely for the benefit of the Germans and the countries
under its occupation; (3) the Germans have "shown clearly their wish toprotect the Ford interests" because of the attitude of strict neutrality
maintained by Henry Ford and the late Edsel Ford; and (4) the increased
activity of the French Ford subsidiaries on behalf of the Germans received thecommendation of the Ford family in America.1
Similarly, the Rockefeller Chase Bank was accused of collaborating with the Nazis in WorldWar II France, while Nelson Rockefeller had a soft job in Washington D.C.:
Substantially the same pattern of behavior was pursued by the Paris office of
the Chase Bank during German occupation, An examination of thecorrespondence between Chase, New York, and Chase, France, from the dateof the fall of France to May, 1942 discloses that: (1) the manager of the Paris
office appeased and collaborated with the Germans to place the Chase banks in
a "privileged position;" (2) the Germans held the Chase Bank in a very special
esteem — owing to the international activities of our (Chase) head office andthe pleasant relations which the Paris branch has been maintaining with manyof their (German) banks and their (German) local organizations and higher
officers; (3)the Paris manager was "very vigorous in enforcing restrictions
against Jewish property, even going so far as to refuse to release funds
belonging to Jews in anticipation that a decree with retroactive provisions
prohibiting such release might be published in the near future by the occupying
authorities;" (4)the New York office despite the above information took no
direct steps to remove the undesirable manager from the Paris office since it"might react against our (Chase) interests as we are dealing, not with a theory
but with a situation."2
An official report to then-Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau concluded that:

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CHAPTER ELEVEN: Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War II

These two situations [i.e., Ford and Chase Bank] convince us that it isimperative to investigate immediately on the spot the activities of subsidiaries
of at least some of the larger American firms which were operating in France
during German occupation ....3
Treasury officials urged that an investigation be started with the French subsidiaries ofseveral American banks — that is, Chase, Morgan, National City, Guaranty, Bankers Trust,and American Express. Although Chase and Morgan were the only two banks to maintain
French offices throughout the Nazi occupation, in September 1944 all the major New Yorkbanks were pressing the U.S. Government for permission to re-open pre-war branches.
Subsequent Treasury investigation produced documentary evidence of collaboration
between both Chase Bank and J.P. Morgan with the Nazis in World War II. The
recommendation for a full investigation is cited in full as follows:
TREASURY DEPARTMENT
INTER-OFFICE COMMUNICATION
Date: December 20, 1944
To: Secretary Morgenthau From: Mr. Saxon
Examination of the records of the Chase Bank, Paris, and of Morgan andCompany, France, have progressed only far enough to permit tentative
conclusions and the revelation of a few interesting facts:
CHASE BANK, PARIS
a. Niederman, of Swiss nationality, manager of Chase, Paris, wasunquestionably a collaborator;b. The Chase Head Office in New York was informed of Nieder-man's
collaborationist policy but took no steps to remove him. Indeed there is ample
evidence to show that the Head Office in New York viewed Niederman's good
relations with the Germans as an excellent means of preserving, unimpaired,
the position of the Chase Bank in France;c. The German authorities were anxious to keep the Chase open and indeed
took exceptional measures to provide sources of revenue;d. The German authorities desired "to be friends" with the important Americanbanks because they expected that these banks would be useful after the war as
an instrument of German policy in the United States;
e. The Chase, Paris showed itself most anxious to please the German authorities
in every possible way. For example, the Chase zealously maintained theaccount of the German Embassy in Paris, "as every little thing helps" (tomaintain the excellent relations between Chase and the German authorities);
f. The whole objective of the Chase policy and operation was to maintain theposition of the bank at any cost.

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MORGAN AND COMPANY, FRANCE
a. Morgan and Company regarded itself as a French bank, and therefore
obligated to observe French banking laws and regulations, whether
Nazi-inspired or not; and did actually do so;b. Morgan and Company was most anxious to preserve the continuity of its
house in France, and, in order to achieve this security, worked out a modus
vivendi with the German authorities;c. Morgan and Company had tremendous prestige with the German authorities,
and the Germans boasted of the splendid cooperation of Morgan and Company;
d. Morgan continued its prewar relations with the great French industrial andcommercial concerns which were working for Germany, including the Renault
Works, since confiscated by the French Government, Puegeqt [sic], Citroen,and many others.
e. The power of Morgan and Company in France bears no relation to the small
financial resources of the firm, and the enquiry now in progress will be of realvalue in allowing us for the first time to study the Morgan pattern in Europe
and the manner in which Morgan has used its great power;f. Morgan and Company constantly sought its ends by playing one government
against another in the coldest and most unscrupulous manner.
Mr. Jefferson Caffery, U.S. Ambassador to France, has been kept informed ofthe progress of this investigation and at all times gave me full support andencouragement, in principle and in fact. Indeed, it was Mr. Caffery himself who
asked me how the Ford and General Motors subsidiaries in France had acted
during the occupation, and expressed the desire that we should look into thesecompanies after the bank investigation was completed.
RECOMMENDATION
I recommend that this investigation, which, for unavoidable reasons, hasprogressed slowly up to this time, should now be pressed urgently and that
additional needed personnel be sent to Paris as soon as possible.4
The full investigation was never undertaken, and no investigation has been made of thispresumably treasonable activity down to the present day.
American I.G. in World War II
Collaboration between American businessmen and Nazis in Axis Europe was paralleled byprotection of Nazi interests in the United States. In 1939 American I.G. was renamed
General Aniline & Film, with General Dyestuffs acting as its exclusive sales agent in the
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CHAPTER ELEVEN: Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War IIFilm) was an important producer of major war materials, including atabrine, magnesium,and synthetic rubber. Restrictive agreements with its German parent I.G. Farben reduced
American supplies of these military products during World War II.
An American citizen, Halbach, became president of General Dyestuffs in 1930 and acquired
majority control in 1939 from Dietrich A. Schmitz, a director of American I.G. and brotherof Hermann Schmitz, director of I.G. Farben in Germany and chairman of the board ofAmerican I.G. until the outbreak of war in 1939. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Treasury
blocked Halbach's bank accounts. In June 1942 the Alien Property Custodian seized
Halbach's stock in General Dyestuffs and took over the firm as an enemy corporation under
the Trading with the Enemy Act. Subsequently, the Alien Property Custodian appointed a
new board of directors to act as trustee for the duration of the war. These actions werereasonable and usual practice, but when we probe under the surface another and quite
abnormal story emerges.
Between 1942 and 1945 Halbach was nominally a consultant to General Dyestuffs. In fact
Halbach ran the company, at $82,000 per year, Louis Johnson, former Assistant Secretary ofWar, was appointed president of General Dyestuffs by the 'U.S. Government, for which hereceived $75,000 a year. Louis Johnson attempted to bring pressure to bear on the U.S.
Treasury to unblock Halbach's blocked funds and allow Halbach to develop policies
contrary to the interests of the U.S., then at war with Germany. The argument used to get
Halbach's bank accounts unblocked was that Halbach was running the company and that theGovernment-appointed board of directors "would have been lost without Mr. Halbach's
knowledge."
During the war Halbach filed suit against the Alien Property Custodian, through the
Establishment law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, to oust the U.S. Government from its
control of I.G. Farben companies. These suits were unsuccessful, but Halbach was
successful in keeping the Farben cartel agreements intact throughout World War II; theAlien Property Custodian never did go into court during World War II on the pendinganti-trust suits. Why not? Leo T. Crowley, head of the Alien Property Custodian's office,had John Foster Dulles as his advisor, and John Foster Dulles was a partner in theabove-mentioned Sullivan and Cromwell firm, which was acting on behalf of Halbach in its
suit against the Alien Property Custodian.
There were other conflict of interest situations we should note. Leo T. Crowley, the Alien
Property Custodian, appointed Victor Emanuel to the boards of both General Aniline &Film and General Dyestuffs. Before the war Victor Emanuel was director of the J. Schroder
Banking Corporation. Schroder, as we have already seen, was a prominent financier of
Hitler and the Nazi party — and at that very time was a member of Himmler's Circle ofFriends, making substantial contributions to S.S. organizations in Germany.
In turn Victor Emanuel appointed Leo Crowley head of Standard Gas & Electric (controlled
by Emanuel) at $75,000 per annum. This sum was in addition to Crowley's salary from the
Alien Property Custodian and $10,000 a year as head of the U.S. Government Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation. By 1945 James E. Markham had replaced Crowley as
A.P.C. and was also appointed by Emanuel as a director of Standard Gas at $4,850 per year,

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in addition to the $10,000 he drew as Alien Property Custodian.
The wartime influence of General Dyestuffs and this cozy government-business coterie onbehalf of I.G. Farben is exemplified in the ease of American Cyanamid. Before the war I.G.
Farben controlled the drug, chemical, and dyestuffs industries in Mexico. During WorldWar II it was proposed to Washington that American Cyanamid take over this Mexican
industry and develop an "independent" chemical industry with the old I.G. Farben firms
seized by the Mexican Alien Property Custodian.
As hired hands of Schroder banker Victor Emanuel, Crowley and Markham, who were also
employees of the U.S. Government, attempted to deal with the question of these I.G. Farben
interests in the United States and Mexico. On April 13, 1943 James Markham sent a letter to
Secretary of State Cordell Hull objecting to the proposed Cyanamid deal on the grounds it
was contrary to the Atlantic Charter and would interfere with the aim of establishing
independent firms in Latin America. The Markham position was supported by Henry A.
Wallace and Attorney General Francis Biddle.
The forces aligned against the Cyanamid deal were Sterling Drug, Inc. and Winthrop. Both
Sterling and Winthrop stood to lose their drug market in Mexico if the Cyanamid deal went
through. Also hostile to the Cyanamid deal of course was I.G. Farben's General Aniline andGeneral Dyestuffs, dominated by Victor Emanuel, banker Sehroder's former associate.
On the other hand, the State Department and the Office of the Coordinator ofInter-American affairs — which happened to be Nelson Rockefeller's wartime baby —supported the proposed Cyanamid deal. The Rockefellers are, of course, also interested in
the drug and chemical industries in Latin America. In brief, an American monopoly underinfluence of Rockefeller would have replaced a Nazi I.G. Farben monopoly.
I.G. Farben won this round in Washington, but more ominous questions are raised when we
look at the bombing of Germany in wartime by the U.S.A.A.F. It has long been rumored,
but never proven, that Farben received favored treatment — i.e., that it was not bombed.
James Stewart Martin comments as follows on favored treatment received by I.G. Farben in
the bombing of Germany:
Shortly after the armies reached the Rhine at Cologne, we were driving along
the west bank within sight of the undamaged I.G. Farben plant at Leverkusen
across the river. Without knowing anything about me or my business he (thejeep driver) began to give me a lecture about I.G. Farben and to point at thecon. trast between the bombed-out city of Cologne and the trio of untouchedplants on the fringe: the Ford works and the United Rayon works on the westbank, and the Farben works on the east bank..5
While this accusation is very much of an open question, requiring a great deal of skilledresearch into the U.S.A.A.F. bombing records, other aspects of favoritism for the Nazis arewell recorded.
At the end of World War II, Wall Street moved into Germany through the Control Council
to protect their old cartel friends and limit the extent to which the denazification fervor

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would damage old business relationships. General Lucius Clay, the deputy military governor
for Germany, appointed businessmen who opposed denazification to positions of control
over the denazification proceeds. William H. Draper of Dill. on, Read, the firm which
financed the German cartels back in the 1920s, became General Clay's deputy.
Banker William Draper, as Brigadier General William Draper, put his control team together
from businessmen who had represented American business in pre-war Germany. The
General Motors representation in-eluded Louis Douglas, a former director of G.M., and
Edward S. Zdunke, a pre-war head of General Motors in Antwerp, appointed to supervise
the Engineering Section of the Control Council. Peter Hoglund, an expert on German auto
industry, was given leave from General Motors. The personnel selection for the Council wasundertaken by Colonel Graeme K. Howard — former G,M. representative in Germany andauthor of a book which "praises totalitarian practices [and] justifies German aggression ....
"6
Treasury Secretary Morgenthau was deeply disturbed at the implications of this Wall Street
monopoly of the fate of Nazi Germany and prepared a memorandum to present to President
Roosevelt. The complete Morgenthau memorandum, dated May 29, 1945, reads as follows:
MEMORANDUM
May 29, 1945
Lieutenant-General Lucius D. Clay, as Deputy to General Eisenhower, actively
runs the American element of the Control Council for Germany. General Clay's
three principal advisers on the Control Council staff are.
1. Ambassador Robert D. Murphy, who is in charge of the Political Division.
2. Louis Douglas, whom General Clay describes as my personal adviser on
economical, financial and governmental matters." Douglas resigned as Directorof the Budget in 1934; and for the following eight years he attacked thegovernment's fiscal policies. Since 1940, Douglas has been president of the
Mutual Life Insurance Company, and since December 1944, he has been a
director of the General Motors Corporation.
3. Brigadier-General William Draper, who is the director of the Economics
Division of the Control Council. General Draper is a partner of the banking
firm of Dillon, Read and Company,
Sunday's New York Times contained the announcement of key personnel who
have been appointed by General Clay and General Draper to the Economic
Division of the Control Council. The appointments include the following:
1. R.J. Wysor is to be in charge of the metallurgical matters. Wysor waspresident of the Republic Steel Corporation from 1937 until a recent date, andprior thereto, he was associated with the Bethlehem Steel, Jones and Laughlin
Steel Corporation and the Republic Steel Corporation.
2. Edward X. Zdunke is to supervise the engineering section. Prior to the war,
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Mr. Zdunke was head of General Motors at Antwerp.
3. Philip Gaethke is to be in charge of mining operations. Gaethke wasformerly connected with Anaconda Copper and was manager of its smelters
and mines in Upper Silesia before the war.
4. Philip P. Clover is to be in charge of handling oil matters. He was formerly arepresentative of the Socony Vacuum Oil Company in Germany.
5. Peter Hoglund is to deal with industrial production problems. Hoglund is on
leave from General Motors and is said to be an expert on German production.
6. Calvin B. Hoover is to be in charge of the Intelligence Group on the Control
Council and is also to be a special advisor to General Draper. In a letter to the
Editor of the New York Times on October 9, 1944, Hoover wrote as follows:
The publication of Secretary Morgenthau's plan for dealing withGermany has disturbed me deeply ... such a Carthaginian peace
would leave a legacy of hate to poison international relations forgenerations to come... the void in the economy of Europe which
would exist through the destruction of all German industry issomething which is difficult to contemplate.
7. Laird Bell is to be Chief Counsel of the Economic Division. He is awell-known Chicago lawyer and in May 1944, was elected the president of the
Chicago Daily News, after the death of Frank Knox.
One of the men who helped General Draper in the selection of personnel for the
Economics Division was Colonel Graeme Howard, a vice-president of General
Motors, who was in charge of their overseas business and who was a leading
representative of General Motors in Germany prior to the war. Howard is theauthor of a book in which he praises totalitarian practices, justifies German
aggression and the Munich policy of appeasement, and blames Roosevelt for
precipitating the war.
So when we examine the Control Council for Germany under General Lucius D. Clay wefind that the head of the finance division was Louis Douglas, director of theMorgan-controlled General Motors and president of Mutual Life Insurance. (Opel, theGeneral Motors German subsidiary, had been Hitler's biggest tank producer.) The head of
the Control Council's Economics Division was William Draper, a partner in the Dillon,
Read firm that had so much to do with building Nazi Germany in the first place. All three
men were, not surprisingly in the light of more recent findings, members of the Council on
Foreign Relations.
Were American Industrialists and Financiers Guilty of War Crimes?
The Nuremburg War Crimes Trials proposed to select those responsible for World War II
preparations and atrocities and place them on trial. Whether. such a procedure is morally

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justifiable is a debatable matter; there is some justification for holding that Nuremburg wasa political farce far removed from legal principle.7 However, if we assume that there is such
legal and moral justification, then surely any such trial should apply to all, irrespective of
nationality. What for example should exempt Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill,
but not exempt Adolf Hitler and Goering? If the offense is preparation for war, and not blind
vengeance, then justice should be impartial.
The directives prepared by the U.S. Control Council in Germany for the arrest and detentionof war criminals refers to "Nazis" and "Nazi sympathizers," not "Germans." The relevant
extracts are as follows:a. You will search out, arrest, and hold, pending receipt by you of further
instructions as to their disposition, Adolph Hitler, his chief Nazi associates,
other war criminals and all persons who have participated in planning or
carrying out Nazi enterprises involving or resulting in atrocities or war crimes.
Then follows a list of the categories of persons to be arrested, including:(8) Nazis and Nazi sympathizers holding important and key positions in (a)National and Gau Civic and economic organizations; (b ) corporations andother organizations in which the government has a major financial interest; (c)industry, commerce, agriculture, and finance; (d) education; (e) the judicial;and (f) the press, publishing houses and other agencies disseminating news andpropaganda.
Top American industrialists and financiers named in this book are covered by the categories
listed above. Henry Ford and Edsel Ford respectively contributed money to Hitler andprofited from German wartime production. Standard Oil of New Jersey, General Electric,
General Motors, and I.T.T. certainly made financial or technical contributions which
comprise prima facie evidence of "participating in planning or carrying out Nazi
enterprises."
There is, in brief, evidence which suggests:(a) cooperation with the Wehrmacht (Ford Motor Company, Chase Bank, Morgan Bank);(b) aid to the Nazi Four Year Plan and economic mobilization for war (Standard Oil of New
Jersey);(c) creating and equipping the Nazi war machine (I.T.T.);(d) stockpiling critical materials for the Nazis (Ethyl Corporation);(e) weakening the Nazis' potential enemies (American I.G. Farben);and,(f) carrying on of propaganda, intelligence, and espionage (American I.G. Farben andRockefeller public-relations man Ivy Lee).
At the very least there is sufficient evidence to demand a thorough and impartial
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investigation. However, as we have noted previously, these same firms and financiers wereprominent in the 1933 election of Roosevelt and consequently had sufficient political pull tosquelch threats of investigation. Extracts from the Morgenthau diary demonstrate that WallStreet political power was sufficient even to control the appointment of officers responsible
for the denazification and eventual government of post-war Germany.
Did these American firms know of their assistance to Hitler's military machine? According
to the firms themselves, emphatically not. They claim innocence of any intent to aid Hitler'sGermany. Witness a telegram sent by the chairman of the board of Standard Oil of New
Jersey to Secretary of War Patterson after World War II, when preliminary investigation ofWall Street assistance was under way:
During the entire period of our business contacts, we had no inkling ofFarben's conniving part in Hitler's brutal politics, We offer any help we cangive to see that complete truth is brought to light, and that rigid justice is done.
F.W. Abrams,
Chairman of
Board
Unfortunately, the evidence presented is contrary to Abrams' telegraphed assertions.
Standard Oil of New Jersey not only aided Hitler's war machine, but had knowledge of thisassistance. Emil Helfferich, the board chairman of a Standard of New Jersey subsidiary, wasa member of the Keppler Circle before Hitler came to power; he continued to give financial
contributions to Himmler's Circle as late as 1944.
Accordingly, it is not at all difficult to visualize why Nazi industrialists were puzzled by"investigation" and assumed at the end of the war that their Wall Street friends would bailthem out and protect them from the wrath of those who had suffered. These attitudes were
presented to the Kilgore Committee in 1946:
You might also be interested in knowing, Mr. Chairman, that the top I.G.
Farben people and others, when we questioned them about these activities,
were inclined at times to be very in. dignant. Their general attitude andexpectation was that the war was over and we ought now to be assisting themin helping to get I.G. Farben and German industry back on its feet. Some ofthem have outwardly said that this questioning and investigation was, in theirestimation, only a phenomenon of short duration, because as soon as things got
a little settled they would expect their friends in the United States and in
England to be coming over. Their friends, so they said, would put a stop to
activities such as these investigations and would see that they got the treatment
which they regarded as proper and that assistance would be given to them tohelp reestablish their industry.8

Footnotes:
1Morgenthau Diary (Germany).

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2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4Ibid., pp. 800-2.
5James Stewart Martin, All Honorable Men, op. cit., p. 75.
6Morgenthau Diary (Germany), p. 1543. Colonel Graeme K.

Howard's book was entitled, America and a New World Order,(New York: Scribners, 1940).
7The reader should examine the essay, "The Return to War

Crimes," in James J. Martin, Revisionist Viewpoints, (Colorado:
Ralph Mules, 1971).
8Elimination of German Resources, p. 652.

BACK

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CHAPTER TWELVE: Conclusions

CHAPTER TWELVE
Conclusions
We have demonstrated with documentary evidence a number of critical associations
between Wall Street international bankers and the rise of Hitler and Naziism in Germany.
First: that Wall Street financed the German cartels in the mid-1920s which in turn proceeded
to bring Hitler to power.
Second: that the financing for Hitler and his S.S. street thugs came in part from affiliates or
subsidiaries of U.S. firms, including Henry Ford in 1922, payments by I.G. Farben andGeneral Electric in 1933, followed by the Standard Oil of New Jersey and I.T.T. subsidiary
payments to Heinrich Himmler up to 1944.
Third: that U.S. multi-nationals under the control of Wall Street profited handsomely from
Hitler's military construction program in the 1930s and at least until 1942.
Fourth: that these same international bankers used political influence in the U.S. to cover up
their wartime collaboration and to do this infiltrated the U.S. Control Commission forGermany.
Our evidence for these four major assertions can be summarized as follows:
In Chapter One we presented evidence that the Dawes and Young Plans for German
reparations were formulated by Wall Streeters, temporarily wearing the hats of statesmen,
and these loans generated a rain of profits for these international bankers. Owen Young ofGeneral Electric, Hjalmar Schacht, A. Voegler, and others intimately connected with Hitler's
accession to power had earlier been the negotiators for the U.S. and German sides,
respectively. Three Wall Street houses — Dillon, Read; Harris, Forbes; and, National City
Company — handled three-quarters of the reparations loans used to create the German cartel
system, including the dominant I.G. Farben and Vereinigte Stahlwerke, which together
produced 95 percent of the explosives for the Nazi side in World War II.
The central role of I.G. Farben in Hitler's coup d' état was reviewed in Chapter Two. The
directors of American I.G. (Farben) were identified as prominent American businessmen:
Walter Teagle, a dose Roosevelt associate and backer and an NRA administrator; banker
Paul Warburg (his brother Max Warburg was on the board of I.G. Farben in Germany); andEdsel Ford. Farben contributed 400,000 RM directly to Schacht and Hess for use in the
crucial 1933 elections and Farben was subsequently in the forefront of military development
in Nazi Germany.
A donation of 60,000 RM was made to Hitler by German General Electric (A.E.G.), which
had four directors and a 25-30 percent interest held by the U.S. General Electric parent
company. This role was described in Chapter Three, and we found that Gerard Swope, an

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originator of Roosevelt's New Deal (its National Recovery Administration segment),
together with Owen Young of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Clark Minor ofInternational General Electric, were the dominant Wall Streeters in A.E.G. and the mostsignificant single influence.
We also found no evidence to indict the German electrical firm Siemens, which was notunder Wall Street control. In contrast, there is documentary evidence that both A.E.G. andOsram, the other units of the German electrical industry — both of which had U.S.
participation and control — did finance Hitler. In fact, almost all directors of German
General Electric were Hitler backers, either directly through A.E.G. or indirectly throughother German firms, G.E. rounded out its Hitler support by technical cooperation with
Krupp, aimed at restricting U.S. development of tungsten carbide, which worked to thedetriment of the U.S. in World War II. We concluded that A.E.G. plants in Germany
managed, by a yet unknown maneuver, to avoid bombing by the Allies.
An examination of the role of Standard Oil of New Jersey (which was and is controlled by
the Rockefeller interests) was undertaken in Chapter Four. Standard Oil apparently did notfinance Hitler's accession to power in 1933 (that part of the "myth of Sidney Warburg" isnot proven). On the other hand, payments were made up to 1944 by Standard Oil of New
Jersey, to develop synthetic gasoline for war purposes on behalf of the Nazis and, throughits wholly owned subsidiary, to Heinrich Himmler's S.S. Circle of Friends for political
purposes. Standard Oil's role was technical aid to Nazi development of synthetic rubber andgasoline through a U.S. research company under the management control of Standard Oil.
The Ethyl Gasoline Company, jointly owned by Standard Oil of New Jersey and General
Motors, was instrumental in supplying vital ethyl lead to Nazi Germany — over the written
protests of the U.S. War Department — with the clear knowledge that the ethyl lead was for
Nazi military purposes.
In Chapter Five we demonstrated that International Telephone and Telegraph Company, oneof the more notorious multi-nationals, worked both sides of World War II through Baron
Kurt von Schroder, of the Schroder banking group. I.T.T. also held a 28-percent interest in
Focke-Wolfe aircraft, which manufactured excellent German fighter planes. We also foundthat Texaco (Texas Oil Company) was involved in Nazi endeavors through German attorney
Westrick, but dropped its chairman of the board Rieber when these endeavors were
publicized.
Henry Ford was an early (1922) Hitler backer and Edsel Ford continued the family traditionin 1942 by encouraging French Ford to profit from arming the German Wehrmacht,
Subsequently, these Ford-produced vehicles were used against American soldiers as theylanded in France in 1944. For his early recognition of, and timely assistance to, the Nazis,
Henry Ford received a Nazi medal in 1938. The records of French Ford suggest Ford Motor
received kid glove treatment from the Nazis after 1940.
The provable threads of Hitler financing are drawn together in Chapter Seven and answer
with precise names and figures the question, who financed Adolf Hitler? This chapter
indicts Wall Street and, incidentally, no one else of consequence in the United States except
the Ford family. The Ford family is not normally associated with Wall Street but is certainly

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a part of the "power elite."
In earlier chapters we cited several Roosevelt associates, including Teagle of Standard Oil,the Warburg family, and Gerard Swope. In Chapter Eight the role of Putzi Hanfstaengl,
another Roosevelt friend and a participant in the Reichstag fire, is traced. The compositionof the Nazi inner circle during World War II, and the financial contributions of Standard Oilof New Jersey and I.T.T. subsidiaries, are traced in Chapter Nine. Documentary proof ofthese monetary contributions is presented. Kurt yon Schrader is identified as the key
intermediary in this S.S. "slush fund."Finally, in Chapter Ten we reviewed a book suppressed in 1934 and the "myth of 'Sidney
Warburg.'" The suppressed book accused the Rockefellers, the Warburgs, and the major oilcompanies of financing Hitler. While the name "Sidney Warburg" was no doubt aninvention, the extraordinary fact remains that the argument in the suppressed "Sidney
Warburg" book is remarkably close to the evidence presented now. It also remains a puzzle
why James Paul Warburg, fifteen years later, would want to attempt, in a rathertransparently slipshod manner, to refute the contents of the "Warburg" book, a book heclaims not to have seen. It is perhaps even more of a puzzle why Warburg would choose
Nazi von Papen's Memoirs as the vehicle to present his refutation.
Finally, in Chapter Eleven we examined the roles of the Morgan and Chase Banks in WorldWar II, specifically their collaboration with the Nazis in France while a major war was
raging.
In other words, as in our two previous examinations of the links between New York
international bankers and major historical events, we find a provable pattern of subsidy andpolitical manipulation.
The Pervasive Influence of International Bankers
Looking at the broad array of facts presented in the three volumes of the Wall Street series,
we find persistent recurrence of the same names: Owen Young, Gerard Swope, Hjalmar
Schacht, Bernard Baruch, etc.; the same international banks: J.P. Morgan, Guaranty Trust,
Chase Bank; and the same location in New York: usually 120 Broadway.
This group of international bankers backed the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequently
profited from the establishment of a Soviet Russia. This group backed Roosevelt andprofited from New Deal socialism. This group also backed Hitler and certainly profited from
German armament in the 1930s. When Big Business should have been running its business
operations at Ford Motor, Standard of New Jersey, and so on, we find it actively and deeply
involved in political upheavals, war, and revolutions in three major countries.
The version of history presented here is that the financial elite knowingly and withpremeditation assisted the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in concert with German bankers.
After profiting handsomely from the German hyper-inflationary distress of 1923, andplanning to place the German reparations burden onto the backs of American investors,
Wall Street found it had brought about the 1929 financial crisis.

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Two men were then backed as leaders for major Western countries: Franklin D. Roosevelt in
the United States and Adolf Hitler in Germany. The Roosevelt New Deal and Hitler's FourYear Plan had great similarities. The Roosevelt and Hitler plans were plans for fascist
takeovers of their respective countries. While Roosevelt's NRA failed, due to then-operating
constitutional constraints, Hitler's Plan succeeded.
Why did the Wall Street elite, the international bankers, want Roosevelt and Hitler inpower? This is an aspect we have not explored. According to the "myth of 'Sidney
Warburg,'" Wall Street wanted a policy of revenge; that is, it wanted war in Europe between
France and Germany. We know even from Establishment history that both Hitler andRoosevelt acted out policies leading to war.
The link-ups between persons and events in this three-book series would require anotherbook. But a single example will perhaps indicate the remarkable concentration of power
within a relatively few organizations, and the use of this power.
On May 1st, 1918, when the Bolsheviks controlled only a small fraction of Russia (and were
to come near to losing even that fraction in the summer of 1918), the American League to
Aid and Cooperate with Russia was organized in Washington, D.C. to support the
Bolsheviks. This was not a "Hands off Russia" type of committee formed by the Communist
Party U.S.A. or its allies. It was a committee created by Wall Street with George P. Whalen
of Vacuum Oil Company as Treasurer and Coffin and Oudin of General Electric, along with
Thompson of the Federal Reserve System, Willard of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, andassorted socialists.
When we look at the rise of Hitler and Naziism we find Vacuum Oil and General Electric
well represented. Ambassador Dodd in Germany was struck by the monetary and technicalcontribution by the Rockefeller-controlled Vacuum Oil Company in building up military
gasoline facilities for the Nazis. The Ambassador tried to warn Roosevelt. Dodd believed, in
his apparent naiveté of world affairs, that Roosevelt would intervene, but Roosevelt himself
was backed by these same oil interests and Walter Teagle of Standard Oil of New Jersey and
the NRA was on the board of Roosevelt's Warm Springs Foundation. So, in but one of many
examples, we find the Rockefeller-controlled Vacuum Oil Company prominently assistingin the creation of Bolshevik Russia, the military build-up of Nazi Germany, and backing
Roosevelt's New Deal.
Is the United States Ruled by a Dictatorial Elite?
Within the last decade or so, certainly since the 1960s, a steady flow of literature haspresented a thesis that the United States is ruled by a self-perpetuating and unelected power
elite. Even further, most of these books aver that this elite controls, or at the least heavily
influences, all foreign and domestic policy decisions, and that no idea becomes respectable
or is published in the United States without the tacit approval, or perhaps lack ofdisapproval, of this elitist circle.
Obviously the very flow of anti-establishment literature by itself testifies that the UnitedStates cannot be wholly under the thumb of any single group or elite. On the other hand,
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anti-establishment literature is not fully recognized or reasonably discussed in academic ormedia circles. More often than not it consists of a limited edition, privately produced, almost
hand-to-hand circulated. There are some exceptions, true; but not enough to dispute theobservation that anti-establishment critics do not easily enter normal
information/distribution channels.
Whereas in the early and mid-1960s, any concept of rule by a conspiratorial elite, or indeed
any kind of elite, was reason enough to dismiss the proponent out of hand as a "nut case,"
the atmosphere for such concepts has changed radically. The Watergate affair probably
added the final touches to a long-developing environment of skepticism and doubt. We arealmost at the point where anyone who accepts, for example, the Warren Commission report,
or believes that that the decline and fall of Mr. Nixon did not have some conspiratorialaspects, is suspect. In brief, no one any longer really believes the Establishment information
process. And there is a wide variety of alternative presentations of events now available forthe curious.
Several hundred books, from the full range of the political and philosophical spectrum, add
bits and pieces of evidence, more hypotheses, and more accusations. What was not too long
ago a kooky idea, talked about at midnight behind closed doors, in hushed and almost
conspiratorial whispers, is now openly debated — not, to be sure, in Establishment
newspapers but certainly on non-network radio talk shows, the underground press, and evenfrom time to time in books from respectable Establishment publishing houses.
So let us ask the question again: Is there an unelected power elite behind the U.S.
Government?
A substantive and often-cited source of information is Carroll Quigley, Professor ofInternational Relations at Georgetown University, who in 1966 had published a monumental
modern history entitled Tragedy and Hope.1 Quigley's book is apart from others in thisrevisionist vein, by virtue of the fact that it was based on a two-year study of the internal
documents of one of the power centers. Quigley traces the history of the power elite:... the powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing
less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able todominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world asa whole.
Quigley also demonstrates that the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Planning
Association, and other groups are "semi-secret" policy-making bodies under the control ofthis power elite.
In the following tabular presentation we have listed five such revisionist books, including
Quigley's. Their essential theses and compatibility with the three volumes of the "WallStreet" series are summarized. It is surprising that in the three major historical events noted,
Carroll Quigley is not at all consistent with the "Wall Street" series evidence. Quigley goesa long way to provide evidence for the existence of the power elite, but does not penetrate
the operations of the elite.

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Possibly, the papers used by Quigley had been vetted, and did not include documentation on
elitist manipulation of such events as the Bolshevik Revolution, Hitler's accession to power,
and the election of Roosevelt in 1933. More likely, these political manipulations may not berecorded at all in the files of the power groups. They may have been unrecorded actions by asmall ad hoc segment of the elite. It is noteworthy that the documents used by this author
came from government sources, recording the day-to-day actions of Trotsky, Lenin,
Roosevelt, Hitler, J.P. Morgan and the various firms and banks involved.
On the other hand, such authors as Jules Archer, Gary Allen, Helen P. Lasell, and William
Domhoff, writing from widely different political standpoints2 are consistent with the "WallStreet" evidence. These writers present a hypothesis of a power elite manipulating the U.S.
Government. The "Wall Street" series demonstrates how this hypothesized "power elite" hasmanipulated specific historical events.
Obviously any such exercise of unconstrained and supra-legal power is unconstitutional,
even though wrapped in the fabric of law-abiding actions. We can therefore legitimately
raise the question of the existence of a subversive force operating to remove constitutionally
guaranteed rights.
The New York Elite as a Subversive ForceTwentieth-century history, as recorded in Establishment textbooks and journals, isinaccurate. It is a history which is based solely upon those official documents which various
Administrations have seen fit to release for public consumption.
Table: IS THE EVIDENCE IN THE "WALL STREET" SERIES CONSISTENT WITHRELATED REVISIONIST ARGUMENTS PRESENTED ELSEWHERE?
But an accurate history cannot be based on a selective release of documentary archives.
Accuracy requires access to all documents. In practice, as previously classified documentsin the U.S. State Department files, the British Foreign Office, and the German Foreign
Ministry archives and other depositories are acquired, a new version of history has emerged;
the prevailing Establishment version is seen to be, not only inaccurate, but designed to hidea pervasive fabric of deceit and immoral conduct.
The center of political power, as authorized by the U.S. Constitution, is with an elected
Congress and an elected President, working within the framework and under the constraintsof a Constitution, as interpreted by an unbiased Supreme Court. We have in the pastassumed that political power is consequently carefully exercised by the Executive andlegislative branch, after due deliberation and assessment of the wishes of the electorate. In
fact, nothing could be further from this assumption. The electorate has long suspected, but
now knows, that political promises are worth nothing. Lies are the order of the day forpolicy implementors. Wars are started (and stopped) with no shred of coherent explanation.
Political words have never matched political deeds. Why not? Apparently because the centerof political power has been elsewhere than with elected and presumably responsive

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representatives in Washington, and this power elite has its own objectives, which areinconsistent with those of the public at large.
In this three-volume series we have identified for three historical events the seat of politicalpower in the United States — the power behind the scenes, the hidden influence on
Washington — as that of the financial establishment in New York: the private international
bankers, more specifically the financial houses of J.P. Morgan, the Rockefeller-controlled
Chase Manhattan Bank, and in earlier days (before amalgamation of their Manhattan Bank
with the former Chase Bank), the Warburgs.
The United States has, in spite of the Constitution and its supposed constraints, become aquasi-totalitarian state. While we do not (yet) have. the overt trappings of dictatorship, theconcentration camps and the knock on the door at midnight, we most certainly do havethreats and actions aimed at the survival of non-Establishment critics, use of the Internal
Revenue Service to bring dissidents in line, and manipulation of the Constitution by a court
system that is politically subservient to the Establishment.
It is in the pecuniary interests of the international bankers to centralize political power —and this centralization can best be achieved within a collectivist society, such as socialist
Russia, national socialist Germany, or a Fabian socialist United States.
There can be no full understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century American politics
and foreign policy without the realization that this financial elite effectively monopolizes
Washington policy.
In case after case, newly released documentation implicates this elite and confirms thishypothesis. The revisionist versions of the entry of the United States into World Wars I and
II, Korea, and Vietnam reveal the influence and objectives of this elite.
For most of the twentieth century the Federal Reserve System, particularly the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York (which is outside the control of Congress, unaudited anduncontrolled, with the power to print money and create credit at will), has exercised a virtual
monopoly over the direction of the American economy. In foreign affairs the Council on
Foreign Relations, superficially an innocent forum for academics, businessmen, andpoliticians, contains within its shell, perhaps unknown to many of its members, a power
center that unilaterally determines U.S. foreign policy. The major objective of thissubmerged — and obviously subversive — foreign. policy is the acquisition of markets andeconomic power (profits, if you will), for a small group of giant multi-nationals under thevirtual control of a few banking investment houses and controlling families.
Through foundations controlled by this elite, research by compliant and spinelessacademics, "conservatives" as well as "liberals," has been directed into channels useful forthe objectives of the elite essentially to maintain this subversive and unconstitutional power
apparatus.
Through publishing houses controlled by this same financial elite unwelcome books havebeen squashed and useful books promoted; fortunately publishing has few barriers to entry
and is almost atomistically competitive. Through control of a dozen or so major newspapers,

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CHAPTER TWELVE: Conclusions

run by editors who think alike, public information can be almost orchestrated at will.
Yesterday, the space program; today, an energy crisis or a campaign for ecology; tomorrow,a war in the Middle East or some other manufactured "crisis."
The total result of this manipulation of society by the Establishment elite has been four
major wars in sixty years, a crippling national debt, abandonment of the Constitution,
suppression of freedom and opportunity, and creation of a vast credibility gulf between the
man in the street and Washington, D.C. While the transparent device of two major parties
trumpeting artificial differences, circus-like conventions, and the cliche of "bipartisan
foreign policy" no longer carries credibility, and the financial elite itself recognizes that its
policies lack public acceptance, it is obviously prepared to go it alone without even nominal
public support.
In brief, we now have to consider and debate whether this New York-based elitist
Establishment is a subversive force operating with deliberation and knowledge to suppress
the Constitution and a free society. That will be the task ahead in the next decade.
The Slowly Emerging Revisionist Truth
The arena for this debate and the basis for our charges of subversion is the evidence
provided by the revisionist historian. Slowly, over decades, book by book, almost line byline, the truth of recent history has emerged as documents are released, probed, analyzed,
and set within a more valid historical framework.
Let us consider a few examples. American entry into World War II was supposedly
precipitated, according to the Establishment version, by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Revisionists have established that Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Marshall knew of theimpending Japanese attack and did nothing to warn the Pearl Harbor military authorities.
The Establishment wanted war with Japan. Subsequently, the Establishment made certainthat Congressional investigation of Pearl Harbor would fit the Roosevelt whitewash. In thewords of Percy Greaves, chief research expert for the Republican minority on the Joint
Congressional Committee investigating Pearl Harbor:
The complete facts will never be known. Most of the so-called investigations
have been attempts to suppress, mislead, or confuse those who seek the truth.
From the beginning to the end, facts and files have been withheld so as toreveal only those items of information which benefit the administration underinvestigation. Those seeking the truth are told that other facts or documents
cannot be revealed because they are intermingled in personal diaries, pertain
to our relations with foreign countries, or are sworn to contain no informationof value.3
But this was not the first attempt to bring the United States into war, or the last. The Morganinterests, in concert with Winston Churchill, tried to bring the U.S. into World War I as
early as 1915 and succeeded in doing so in 1917. Colin Thompson's Lusitania implicates
President Woodrow Wilson in the sinking of the Lusitania — a horror device to generate apublic backlash to draw the United States into war with Germany. Thompson demonstrates
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CHAPTER TWELVE: Conclusions

that Woodrow Wilson knew four darts beforehand that the Lusitania was carrying
six-million rounds of ammunition plus explosives, and therefore, "passengers who proposed
to sail on that vessel were sailing in violation of statute of this country."4The British Board of Inquiry under Lord Mersey was instructed by the British Government"that it is considered politically expedient that Captain Turner, the master of the Lusitania,
be most prominently blamed for the disaster."
In retrospect, given Colin Thompson's evidence, the blame is more fairly to be attributed to
President Wilson, "Colonel" House, J.P. Morgan, and Winston Churchill; this conspiratorial
elite should have been brought to trial for willful negligence, if not treason. It is to Lord
Mersey's eternal credit that after performing his "duty" under instructions from His
Majesty's government, and placing the blame on Captain Turner, he resigned, rejected hisfee, and from that date on refused to handle British government commissions. To his friends
Lord Mersey would only say about the Lusitania case that it was a "dirty business."
Then in 1933-4 came the attempt by the Morgan firm to install a fascist dictatorship in the
United States. In the words of Jules Archer, it was planned to be a Fascist putsch to takeover the government and "run it under a dictator on behalf of America's bankers andindustrialists."5 Again, a single courageous individual emerged — General Smedley
Darlington Butler, who blew the whistle on the Wall Street conspiracy. And once again
Congress stands out, particularly Congressmen Dickstein and MacCormack, by its gutlessrefusal to do no more than conduct a token whitewash investigation.
Since World War II we have seen the Korean War and the Vietnamese War — meaningless,meandering no-win wars costly in dollars and lives, with no other major purpose but togenerate multibillion-dollar armaments contracts. Certainly these wars were not fought torestrain communism, because for fifty years the Establishment has been nurturing andsubsidizing the Soviet Union which supplied armaments to the other sides in both wars —Korea and Vietnam. So our revisionist history will show that the United States directly or
indirectly armed both sides in at least Korea and Vietnam.
In the assassination of President Kennedy, to take a domestic example, it is difficult to findanyone who today accepts the findings of the Warren Commission — except perhaps themembers of that Commission. Yet key evidence is still hidden from public eyes for 50 to 75
years. The Watergate affair demonstrated even to the man in the street that the White House
can be a vicious nest of intrigue and deception.
Of all recent history the story of Operation Keelhaul6 is perhaps the most disgusting.
Operation Keelhaul was the forced repatriation of millions of Russians at the orders of
President (then General) Dwight D. Eisenhower, in direct violation of the Geneva
Convention of 1929 and the long-standing American tradition of political refuge. Operation
Keelhaul, which contravenes all our ideas of elementary decency and individual freedom,
was undertaken at the direct orders of General Eisenhower and, we may now presume, was apart of a long-range program of nurturing collectivism, whether it be Soviet communism'
Hitler's Naziism, or FDR's New Deal. Yet until recent publication of documentary evidenceby Julius Epstein, anyone who dared to suggest Eisenhower would betray millions of

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CHAPTER TWELVE: Conclusions

innocent individuals for political purposes was viciously and mercilessly attacked.7
What this revisionist history really teaches us is that our willingness as individual citizens tosurrender political power to an elite has cost the world approximately two-hundred-million
persons killed from 1820 to 1975. Add to that untold misery the concentration camps, thepolitical prisoners, the suppression and oppression of those who try to bring the truth tolight.
When will it all stop? It will not stop until we act upon one simple axiom: that the powersystem continues only so long as individuals want it to continue, and it will continue only solong as individuals try to get something for nothing. The day when a majority of individuals
declares or acts as if it wants nothing from government, declares it will look after its own
welfare and interests, then on that day power elites are doomed. The attraction to "go along"with power elites is the attraction of something for nothing. That is the bait. The
Establishment always offers something for nothing; but the something is taken fromsomeone else, as taxes or plunder, and awarded elsewhere in exchange for political support.
Periodic crises and wars are used to whip up support for other plunder-reward cycles whichin effect tighten the noose around our individual liberties. And of course we have hordes ofacademic sponges, amoral businessmen, and just plain hangers-on, to act as non-productive
recipients for the plunder.
Stop the circle of plunder and immoral reward and elitist structures collapse. But not until amajority finds the moral courage and the internal fortitude to reject thesomething-for-nothing con game and replace it by voluntary associations, voluntarycommunes, or local rule and decentralized societies, will the killing and the plunder cease.

Footnotes:
1Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, op. cit.
2There are many others; the author selected more or less at random twoconservatives (Allen and Lasell) and two liberals (Archer and Domhoff),
3Percy L. Greaves, Jr., "The Pearl Harbor Investigation," in Harry Elmer

Harnes, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, (Caldwell: Caxton Printers, 1953),
p, 13-20.
4Colin Simpson, Lusitania, (London: Longman, 1972), p, 252.
5Jules Archer, The Plot to Seize the White House, (New York: Hawthorn Book,

1973), p. 202.
6See Julius Epstein, Operation Keelhaul, (Old Greenwich: Devin Adair, 1973).
7See for example Robert Welch, The Politician, (Belmont, Mass.: Belmont

Publishing Co., 1963).

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CHAPTER TWELVE: Conclusions

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IS THE EVIDENCE IN THE "WALL STREET" SERIES CONSISTENT WITH RELATED REVISIONIST ARGUMENTS PRESENTED ELSEWHERE?

IS THE EVIDENCE IN THE "WALL STREET" SERIES CONSISTENT WITH RELATED REVISIONIST ARGUMENTS PRESENTED
ELSEWHERE?

Author and Title:

Essential Thesis:

Is the Thesis
Consistent with:(1) Wall Street and the
Bolshevik Revolution

Carroll QUIGLEY:
Tragedy and Hope (1)"Semi-secret" Eastern
Establishment and interlocks
have dominant role inplanning and policy in U.S.

Quigley does not include
evidence of Wall Street in the
Bolshevik Revolution (pp.
385-9)

No: Quigley's argument is
Quigley's account of thetotally inconsistent with above rise of Hitler (pp. 529-33)(see p. 533)
does not include evidenceof Establishment
involvement.

Jules ARCHER: Plot to
Seize the White House(2)

In 1933-4 there was a WallStreet conspiracy to remove
FDR and install a fascist
dictatorship in the UnitedStates.

Not relevant, but Wall Street
elements cited by Archer wereinvolved in the Bolshevik
Revolution.

Yes: in general Archer's
evidence is consistent, exceptthat the role of FDR isinterpreted differently.

Those parts in Archer
bearing on Hitler andNaziism are consistent
with the above.

Gary ALLEN: None
Dare Call It Conspiracy(3)

There exists a secretconspiracy (the Council on
Foreign Relations) to install a
dictatorship in the U.S. andultimately to control theworld.

Yes, except for minor varianceson financing.

Not included in Allen but isconsistent.

Not included in Allen but
is consistent.

Helen P. LASELL:
Power Behind theGovernment Today (4)The Council on Foreign
Relations is a secretsubversive organization
dedicated to the overthrow ofConstitutional government in
the U.S.

Lasell's evidence is consistent
with above.

Lasell's evidence is consistent
with above.

Lasell's evidence isconsistent with above

Above series extends
Domhoff's argument to
Presidential elections.

Above series extends
Domhoffs argument toforeign policy.

William DOMHOFF:
There is a "power elite" which Above series extends Dombolls
argument to foreign policy.
Who Rules America? (5) controls all major banks,
corporations, foundations, theexecutive branch, and theregulatory agencies of the
U.S. government.
1. New York: MacMillan, 1966.
http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/table_12-1.htm (1 of 2) [8/4/2001 9:44:22 PM](2) Wall Street
and FDR(3) Wall Street and theRise of Hitler

IS THE EVIDENCE IN THE "WALL STREET" SERIES CONSISTENT WITH RELATED REVISIONIST ARGUMENTS PRESENTED ELSEWHERE?

2. New York: Hawthorn, 1973.
3. Seal Beach: Concord Press, 1971.
4. New York: Liberty, 1963.
5. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1967.

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APPENDIX A
Program of the National
Socialist German Workers Party
Note: This program is important because it demonstrates that the nature of Naziism was
known publicly as early as 1920.
THE PROGRAM
The program of the German Workers' Party is limited as to period. The leaders have nointention, once the aims announced in it have been achieved, of setting up fresh ones,
merely in order to increase the discontent of the masses artificially, and so ensure thecontinued existence of the Party.
1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great Germany on the basis of the right ofthe self-determination enjoyed by nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German People in its dealings with other nations,and abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the nourishment of our people and forsettling our superfluous population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the State. None but those of German
blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. No Jew, therefore, may be amember of the nation.
5. Any one who is not a citizen of the State may live in Germany only as a guest and must
be regarded as being subject to foreign laws.
6. The right of voting on the State's government and legislation is to be enjoyed by the
citizen of the State alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever
kind, whether in the Reich, in the country, or in the smaller localities, shall be granted to
citizens of the State alone.
We oppose the corrupting custom of Parliament of filling posts merely with a view to party
considerations, and without reference to character or capability.
7. We demand that the State shall make it its first duty to promote the industry andlivelihood of citizens of the State. If it is not possible to nourish the entire population of theState, foreign nationals (non-citizens of the State) must be excluded from the Reich.
8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, whoentered Germany subsequent to August 2nd, 1914, shall be required forthwith to depart fromhttp://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/appendix_a.htm (1 of 4) [8/4/2001 9:44:22 PM]APPENDIX A: Program of the National Socialist German Workers Party

the Reich.
9. All citizens of the State shall be equal as regards rights and duties.
10. It must be the first duty of each citizen of the State to work with his mind or with his
body. The activities of the individual may not clash with the interests of the whole, but must
proceed within the frame of the community and be for the general good.
We demand therefore:
11, Abolition of incomes unearned by work.
ABOLITION OF THE THRALDOM OF INTEREST
12. In view of the enormous sacrifice of life and property demanded of a nation by every
war, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We
demand therefore ruthless confiscation of all war gains,
13. We demand nationalisation of all businesses which have been up to the present formed
into companies (Trusts).
14. We demand that the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.
15. We demand extensive development of provision for old age.
16. We demand creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, immediate
communalisation of wholesale business premises, and their lease at a cheap rate to small
traders, and that extreme consideration shall be shown to all small purveyors to the State,
district authorities and smaller localities.
17. We demand land-reform suitable to our national requirements, passing of a law for
confiscation without compensation of land for communal purposes; abolition of interest on
land loans, and prevention of all speculation in land.
18. We demand ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the common
interest. Sordid criminals against the nation, usurers, profiteers, etc. must be punished withdeath, whatever their creed or race.
19. We demand that the Roman Law, which serves the materialistic world order, shall be
replaced by a legal system for all Germany.
20. With the aim of opening to every capable and industrious German the possibility ofhigher education and of thus obtaining advancement, the State must consider a thoroughre-construction of our national system of education. The curriculum of all educational
establishments must be brought into line with the requirements of practical life.
Comprehension of the State idea (State sociology) must be the school objective, beginningwith the first dawn of intelligence in the pupil. We demand development of the giftedchildren of poor parents, whatever their class or occupation, at the expense of the State.
21. The State must see to raising the standard of health in the nation by protecting mothers
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and infants, prohibiting child labour, increasing bodily efficiency by obligatory gymnastics
and sports laid down by law, and by extensive support of clubs engaged in the bodily
development of the young.
22. We demand abolition of a paid army and formation of a national army.
23. We demand legal warfare against conscious political lying and its dissemination in thePress. In order to facilitate creation of a German national Press we demand:(a) that all editors of newspapers and their assistants, employing the German language, must
be members of the nation;(b) that special permission from the State shall be necessary before non-German newspapers
may appear. These are not necessarily printed in the German language;(c) that non-Germans shall be prohibited by law from participating financially in or
influencing German newspapers, and that the penalty for contravention of the law shall be
suppression of any such newspaper, and immediate deportation of the non-German
concerned in it.
It must be forbidden to publish papers which do not conduce to the national welfare. We
demand legal prosecution of all tendencies in art and literature of a kind likely todisintegrate our life as a nation, and the suppression of institutions which militate against therequirements above-mentioned.
24. We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the State, so far as they are not adanger to it and do not militate against the moral feelings of the German race.
The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter ofcreed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within us andwithout us, and is convinced that our nation can only achieve permanent health from withinon the principle:
THE COMMON INTEREST BEFORE SELF
25. That all the foregoing may be realised we demand the creation of a strong central powerof the State. Unquestioned authority of the politically centralised Parliament over the entire
Reich and its organisation; and formation of Chambers for classes and occupations for the
purpose of carrying out the general laws promulgated by the Reich in the various States of
the confederation.
The leaders of the Party swear to go straight forward — if necessary to sacrifice their lives— in securing fulfillment of the foregoing Points.
Munich, February 24th, 1920.
Source: Official English translation by E. Dugdale, reprinted from Kurt G, W.
Ludecke, I Knew Hitler (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937),

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APPENDIX B
Affidavit of Hjalmar Schacht
I, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, after having been warned that I will be liable to punishment formaking false statements, state herewith under oath, of my own free will and without
coercion, the following:
The amounts contributed by the participants in the meeting of 20 February 1933 at Goering's
house were paid by them to the bankers. Delbruck, Schickler & Co., Berlin, to the credit ofan account "Nationale Treuhand" (which may be translated as National Trusteeship). It wasarranged that I was entitled to dispose of this account, which I administered as a trustee, andthat in case of my death, or that in case the trusteeship should be terminated in any otherway, Rudolf Hess should be entitled to dispose of the account.
I disposed of the amounts of this account by writing out checks to Mr. Hess. I do not knowwhat Mr. Hess actually did with the money.
On 4 April 1933, I closed the account with Delbruck, Schickler & Co. and had the balancetransferred to the "Account Ic" with the Reichsbank which read in my name. Later on I wasordered directly by Hitler, who was authorized by the assembly of 20 February 1933 todispose of the amounts collected, or through Hess, his deputy, to pay the balance of about
600,000 marks to Ribbentrop.
I have carefully read this affidavit (one page) and have signed it. I have made the necessary
corrections in my own handwriting and initialed each correction in the margin of the page. I
declare herewith under oath that I have stated the full truth to the best of my knowledge andbelief.
(Signed) Dr. Hjalmar Schacht
12 August 1947

In a subsequent affidavit of 18 August 1947 (N1-9764, Pros. Ex 54), Schacht declared thefollowing with regard to the above interrogation: "I made all of the statements appearing inthis interrogation to Clifford Hyanning, a financial investigator of the American Forces of
my own free will and without coercion. I have reread this interrogation today and can statethat all of the facts contained therein are true to my best knowledge and belief. I declareherewith under oath and I have stated the full truth to the best of my knowledge and belief."
Source: Copy of Document Prosecution Exhibit 55. Trials of War
Criminals before the Nuremburg Military Tribunals under Control
Council Law No. 10, Nuremburg, October 1946-April 1949,
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APPENDIX B: Affidavit of Hjalmar Schacht

Volume VII, I.G. Farben, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1952).

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APPENDIX C: Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account Found in the Files of the Delbruck, Schickler Co. BankAPPENDIX C
Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account Foundin the Files of the Delbruck, Schickler Co. BankNATIONAL TRUSTEESHIPREICHSBANK PRESIDENT DR. HJALMAR SCHACHT,BERLIN-ZEHLENDORF

Feb. 23 Debibk (Deutsche Bank
Diskonto-Gesellschaft)Verein fuer die
bergbaulichen Interessen,
Essen
24 Transfer to accountRudolf Hess, at present
in Berlin

Feb. 23

100,000.00

200,000.00

24

24 Karl Herrmann
Automobile Exhibition,
Berlin25
25

150,000.00
100,000.00

25 Director A. Steinke

27

200,000.00

25 Demag A.G., Duisberg

27

50,000.00

27 Telefunken Gesellschaft
ruer draht lose
Telegraphie Berlin

28

85,000.00

Osram G.m.b.H., Berlin

28

40,000.00

27 Bayerische
Hypotheken-und Wechselbank, branch office
Munich, Kauflingerstr. In
favor of Verlag Franz
Eher Nachf, Munich

100,000.00

28

27 Transfer to accountRudolf Hess, Berlin

100,000.00

27

28

I.G. Farbenindustrie
A.G. Frankfurt/M

Mar. 1

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400,000.00

APPENDIX C: Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account Found in the Files of the Delbruck, Schickler Co. Bank

28

Telegraph expenses fortransfer to Munich

8.00 Feb. 28

Mar. 1 Your Payment

Mar. 2125,000.00

2 Telegr. transfer toBayerische
Hypotheken-und
Wechselbank, Munich
branch office, Bayerstr.
for account Josef Jung

400,000.00

2

Telegr. transfer expenses

23.00

2

Account transfer Rudolf
Hess

300,000.00

2 Reimbursement from
Director Karl Lange,
Berlin3

30,000.00

3 Reimbursement from
Dir. Karl Lange,'Maschinen-industrie'
Account

4

20,000.00

Reimbursement from
Verein ruer die
bergbaulichen Interessen,
Essen

4

100,000.00

Reimbursement from
Karl Herrmann, Berlin,
Dessauerstr. 28/9

4150,000.00

Reimbursement fromAllgemeine
Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft,
Berlin4

60,000.00

836,000.00

7 Reimbursement from
General-direktor Dr. F.
Springorum, Dortmund
8 Reichsbank transfer:
Bayerische
Hypotheken-und
Wechselbank,
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APPENDIX C: Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account Found in the Files of the Delbruck, Schickler Co. Bank

branch office
Kauffingerstr.

Mar. 8 Bayerische
Hypotheken-und
Wechselbank, Munich,branch office Bayerstr.
Transfer to accountRudolf Hess

100,000.00

8

1,100,031.00

1,696,000.00

1,100,031.00

Mar. 1,696,000.00

100,000.00

8

250,000.00

7

10 Accumulatoren-Fabrik
A.G. Berlin

1125,000.00

13 Verein f.d. bergbaulichen
Interessen, Essen

14

300,000.00

14 Reimbursement Rudolf
Hess

200,000.00

14

29 Reimbursement Rudolf
Hess

200,000.00

29

99,000.00

Apr. 4

April Commerz-und
4 Privatbank Dep. Kasse
N. Berlin W.9
Potsdamerstr. 1 f.
Special
Account S 29
5 Interests according to list
1
percent

5

Phone bills

1.00

5

Postage

2.50

5Balance

72,370.00

5Balance carried over

2,021,404.50

404.502,021,404.50
Apr. 5

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72,370.00

APPENDIX C: Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account Found in the Files of the Delbruck, Schickler Co. Bank

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APPENDIX D: Letter from U.S. War Department to Ethyl Corporation

APPENDIX D
Letter from U.S. War Department to Ethyl Corporation
December 15, 1934
Exhibit No, 144(Handwritten) Mr, Webb sent copies for other Directors
Copy to: Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., General Motors Corp,, New York City, Mr. Donaldson
Brown, General Motors Corp., New York City.
December 15, 1934.
Mr. E. W. Webb,
President Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, 185 E, 42nd Street, New York City. Dear Mr. Webb:
I learned through our Organic Chemicals Division today that the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation
has in mind forming a German company with the I.G. to manufacture Ethyl lead in thatcountry.
I have just had two weeks in Washington, no inconsiderable part of which was devoted to
criticising the interchanging with foreign companies of chemical knowledge which might
have a military value. Such giving of information by an industrial company might have thegravest repercussions on it. The Ethyl Gasoline Corporation would be no exception, in fact,
would probably be singled out for special attack because of the ownership of its stock.
It should seem. on the face of it, that the quantity of Ethyl lead used for commercial
purposes in Germany would be too small to go after. It has been claimed that Germany issecretly arming. Ethyl lead would doubtless be a valuable aid to military aeroplanes.
I am writing you this to say that in my opinion under no conditions should you or the Boardof Directors of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation disclose any secrets or 'know how' inconnection with the manufacture of tetraethyl lead to Germany.
I am informed that you will be advised through the Dyestuffs Division of the necessity of
disclosing the information which you have received from Germany to appropriate War
Department officials.
Yours very truly,
Source: United States Senate, Hearings before a Subcommittee of theCommittee on Military Affairs, Scientific and Technical Mobilization, 78th
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APPENDIX D: Letter from U.S. War Department to Ethyl Corporation

Congress, Second Session, Part 16, (Washington D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1944), p. 939.

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APPENDIX E: Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany) Regarding Sosthenes Behn of I.T.T.

APPENDIX E
Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany)
Regarding Sosthenes Behn of I.T.T.
March 16, 1945
11:30 a.m.
GROUP MEETING
Bretton Woods — I.T.&T. — Reparations
Present:
Mr. White
Mr. Fussell
Mr. Feltus
Mr. Coe
Mr. DuBois
Mrs. Klotz
H.M., Jr.: Frank, can you boil down this business on I.T.&T.?
Mr. Coe: Yes, sir. I.T. &T. by the way did transfer or did get $15 million yesterday or a few
days ago of their debts in dollars paid to them by the Spanish Government and that they areallowed to do under our general license, so that's all right. However, it is in part in theirrepresentation to us, part of a deal for the sale of the company in Spain, so they are trying
thereby to force our hand. Now, the proposition which they have had up over some years in
different forms now takes this form. They can get their receivables paid off in dollars, which
they say they have not been able to do hitherto — either $15 million now and $10 million or$11 million later. They will sell the company to Spain and take in return $30 million worthof bonds — Spanish Government bonds — which are to be amortized over a number ofyears and roughly at the rate of $2 million per annum, and they are to receive 90% of thoseexports in order to amortize bonds faster, if they are to export it to the United States.
H. M. Jr.: Like the match dealer I mentioned in my speech.
Mr. Coe: That's right. The Spanish Government. They are willing, they say — they are able
to get from the Spanish Government assurances, that these will not be, that the shares which
the Spanish Government intends to resell will not go to anybody on the black list, and soforth. In some negotiations we have had with them over the last few weeks, they have been
willing to come further on that. Our hesitation on the matter relates to two things; First, thatyou can't trust Franco, and that if they are able — if Franco is able to sell $50 million worthof shares Of this company in Spain in the next period of time, he may very well sell it topro-German interests. It seems doubtful that he would be able to dispose of it to the
Spaniards, so that is the first thing. The second thing we can't document too well, but I think
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APPENDIX E: Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany) Regarding Sosthenes Behn of I.T.T.

it is more pronounced in my mind than in the minds of the Foreign Funds and legal people. I
don't think we can really trust Behn either.
Mr. White: I'm sure you can't.
Mr. Coe: We have records here of interviews, going far back, that some of your men had
with Behn — Klaus was one — in which Behn said that he had had conversations with
Goering with the proposition that Goering was to hold I.T. &T.'s property in Germany, andas you recall, I.T. &T. here did try to purchase General Aniline and make it an Americancompany thereby and that was part of the deal which Behn told State and our lawyers very
frankly he had discussed. He thought it was perfectly all right protecting property: That was
before we entered the war,
H. M., Jr.: I don't remember that,
Mr. Coe: The man in charge of their properties now is Westrick who you recall came overhere and was mixed up with Texaco. They tried in every way to cook up deals earlier toescape. They are tied up with top German group and etc. On the other hand, Colonel Behn
has been used several times as an emissary by the State Department, and I believe he ispersonally on very good terms with Stettinius. We have heard from State on this lettersaying they have no objections. We proposed to you earlier — the letter which I sent in to
you suggesting that you ask State, if in view of our safe haven objectives, they still said yes.
I am confident from talking with them on the phone the last day or two, they will write backand say yes, they still think it is a good deal.
H. M., Jr.: This is the position I am in. As you gentlemen know I am overextended now andI can't go into this thing personally, and I think that we are just going to have to throw thething in the lap of the State Department, and if they want to clear it, all right. I just haven't
got the time or the energy to fight them on that basis.
Mr. Coe: Then we ought to license it now.
Mr. White: First you ought to get a letter. I agree with the Secretary on this point of viewthat this fellow Behn is not to be trusted around the corner. There is something about thisdeal that looks suspicious and has been for the last couple of years we have been dealing
with him. However, it is one thing to believe that and another thing to defend that before thepressure that will be brought in here that they are trying to deprive this company of thebusiness deal, but I think that what we might do is get the State Department on record that inview of a safe haven project they don't think that there is any danger that any of these assets— I would cite some of them, spell the letter out. Get them down on record and even makethem a little frightened and hold out or they will at least have had the record and you will
have called their attention to these dangers. This fellow Behn hates our guts anyway. We
have been standing between him and deals for 4 years, at least.
H. M., Jr.: Follow what White said. Something along that line. "Dear Mr, Stettinius; I am
bothered about these things due to the following facts, and I would like you to advise me
whether we should or should not .... "Mr. White: "In view of the danger that German assets may be cloaked here, the future —"http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/appendix_e.htm (2 of 3) [8/4/2001 9:44:24 PM]

APPENDIX E: Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany) Regarding Sosthenes Behn of I.T.T.

and let him come back and say, "No," and we'll watch him.
Mr. Coe: We said we wanted to give Acheson something Monday.
H. M., Jr.: And if you get that ready for me by tomorrow morning, I'll sign it. Mr. Coe: O.K.
Source: United States Senate, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administrationof the Internal Security Act. Committee on the Judiciary, Morgenthau Diarty(Germany), Volume 1, 90th Congress, 1st Session, November 20, 1967,(Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 320 of Book
828. (Page 976 of U,S. Senate print.)
Note: "Mr. White" is Harry Dexter White. "Dr. Dubois" is Josiah E. Dubois,
Jr., author of the book, Generals in Grey Suits (London: The Bodley Head,
1953). "H.M., Jr." is Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury.
This memorandum is important because it accuses Sosthenes Behn ofattempting to make behind-the-scenes deals in Nazi Germany "for 4 years, atleast" — i.e. while the rest of the U.S. was at war, Behn and his friends werestill doing business as usual with Germany. This memorandum supports theevidence presented in Chapters Five and Nine concerning the influence of
I.T.T. in the Himmler inner circle and adds Herman Goering to the list of I T T.
contacts.

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