This was written and published about 2006, when the concerns expressed herein were those of many, felt not by just the one author, about the direction of his nation.
Much has happened since, including change of leadership, not just of the person in office but the party too. Election results of 2008 were a huge celebration, and with good reason, despite the subsequent behaviour of most politicians that reflected their deeply rooted racism. That was responsible, too, more than most other factors, for another change of leadership in a direction supposedly surprising to media.
Those deriding the last and current leader in office have either forgotten the first few years of the millennium and the concerns expressed here by the author, or are simply those that would not accept someone not a member of the club. But the very open derogation of the current leader in office is completely opposite of the then atmosphere, where criticism was limited to a comedian on television spoofing hilarious pronunciation of a word here and there. Some of those mispronounced words have since become standard in U.S. by people one expects better from; such was the then lack of spine in opposition to the leader in office when this was published.
Most people overlook the fact that the results of 2000 election were not genuine, but manipulated; on the other hand, results of 2016 reflect reality of the mindset of U.S., if not majority of voters, then at least as natural outcome of the electoral college style of U.S. elections. Any faults reflected in the result are merely deeply entrenched in the psyche, if not of most voters, than of most living in most of the country. A spate of murders began after 2008, and the country wasn't going to tolerate a woman leader, despite thereby being behind over a dozen nations of the world, including some first world and some never so considered.
This backward state of psyche is not surprising to anyone familiar with bible belt insisting on internet about earth being flat. More relevant, it shouldn't be surprising if one really reflects on reasons why until 2008, but most relevantly during early years of the new millennium, a nation leading the world in supposedly fighting terror was friends with another that's Benn proven over and over the decades since it's inception a terrorist factory. This friendship was not new, but was begun for sake of a cover for military bases for west for use against USSR, and continued subsequently for the real reasons that have more to do with the bible belt psychologically than anything else.
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" ... With the help of Anglo-Saxon clubs, the 1924 Virginia legislator passed the Racial Integrity Act, labeling anyone with more than one-sixteenth nonwhite blood as a nonwhite. Originally, the act called for one sixty-fourth, but the legislature amended it because too many of the leading families of Virginia boasted of their Indian ancestry. The penalty for falsely registering one’s race was a year in jail."
Here's yet another racist, colonial perpetration of a falsehood by Columbus, who knew he'd not found India, but lied. Perpetrating that lie, knowing that natives of U.S. have nothing to do with India, and still calling them Indian, is racist, based on a subliminal assumption that all colonial invaders are superior, and natives of such lands do not matter, no matter how ancient their culture, how rich the treasure of their ancient knowledge. It's a falsehood on par with, say, Mongol invaders calling Europe "Afghanistan". Yet the latter is less fraudulent than the author calling natives of his continent Indian.
India was a name given by outsiders in West to the ancient land that was India, because crossing the river Sindhu - name deformed to Indus by West - was their only access to this land, for millennia. India had other names for the land. The river Sindhu had never been of paramount importance to those that belonged to India. And they were the real Aarya, unlike European thieves who stole and appropriated the term for themselves.
Aarya is a Sanskrit word and has nothing to do with physical colours. "Land of Aarya " is a translation of one of the indigenous names for India. The quintessential Aarya was Raamaayana hero, who's described for his perfect beauty specifically, as dark hued. Another much worshipped God Shiva is described as literally "Camphor-light hued", so light colours have never been unfamiliar either. They just are neither here nor there when implications of qualities, even beauty, are in question.
And no, such people as Plecker never could qualify as Aarya, any more than a Nazi could; for the word relates to Light, and connotes someone with a level of enlightenment incorporated in ones breeding, as in being brought up.
The author discusses, after the introduction chapter which is really heart of the work, definition of fascism in his first chapter. He provides several, by various people, including Webster's dictionary. Many of the characteristics apply almost completely to most colonial empires, or any regimes established by invaders where the locals or natives were treated at far less than par with the invaders. This includes aĺl empires established by migrants from Europe, but also those by Mongols and others.
Most of them, he either does not say or plain forgets, would fit Roman empire and it's successor, church, especially the inquisition.
But more to the point, he identifies nationalism as essential characteristic of fascism. This is a common mistake due to the word nationalism being usurped and twisted into fraud by Nazi ideology with which it's identified. This is as huge a mistake as allowing the Nazi fraudulent usage and false interpretation of ancient Indian terms and symbols, the word Aryan and the symbol Swastika.
Love of nation does not equate with destruction of other nations or races by attacking them and taking their lands while reducing their people to slavery, or worse, causing them to perish in millions. Before nazis did that, few could point at them as much wrong.
Indeed, most indicative of what nazis did wrong was Kristallnacht, not the flagwaving or the assertion of German supremacy. Everyone is free to love ones nation as everyone is free to love one's own home and family, and to claim that one's own are the best. The trouble only begins when there is an assault against others with a demand to have them agree.
The most characteristic of fascism is the image of Mussolini's thugs beating up opposition leaders, including women, with truncheons, to death - Matteotti, and Barbara Pugliese, to name two. It wasn't about loving Italy.
And no leader loving one's nation would give the orders to call young boys - teenagers and even younger - to fight the war, and destroy all fields, factories and infrastructure, rather than surrender, just for egotistical reasons of not wanting personal humiliation. Nazis were definitely not about loving Germany. They knew Germans did not want war, before they went to war anyway.
Fascism is evil, pure and simple. It's about death and destruction of all civilisation, and slavery of others to ones own. It has nothing to do with love. Of anyone.
................................................................................................
The second chapter quotes so many cases of corporate bad behaviour, including that of hospitals, that one is reminded of The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair - with a halfway certainty that he would've seen this work as competition by someone much younger!
................................................................................................
"At this time, the party changed its name to National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler also insisted on a party flag that could outdo the communist banner. A dentist from Stamberg suggested the design. The swastika has a long history dating back centuries and is found in various cultures, including American Indians. It had long been a symbol of the Teutonic Knights, and was used by the Thule Society and several Freikorp units."
That points at double racism by the author - one, denying roots of the symbol in India (the very word Swastik or Swastika is of Sanskrit language of ancient India, and literally means 'Symbol of Well-being'; it's an occult symbol, and it's misuse backfired on nazis and on Germany; in India, it's in everyday use since antiquity till date, painted or drawn fresh before homes by women early in morning every day, invoking blessings on the household) - and two, promoting the lie of nomenclature by calling natives of his continent Indian, although by now it ought to be clear to everyone they have, have never had, anything to do with India, although the latest theory in West is that they were migrants from Mongolia and Siberia who walked across the Bering strait.
This promotion of a lie by Columbus serves to annihilate India and her still living, flourishing culture, the annihilation being convenient for every invader culture and every colonial regime, equating all subjugated people of earth under the epithet Indian.
This is a much more humongous lie compared to the original one by Columbus, because India is a name given by outsiders, specifically by West, to the land. The name relates to the river Sindhu, called Indus by West as usual deforming words they can't pronounce, because that crossing was the only entry for them to the land protected by Himaalayan ranges and oceans on every other side.
India is named differently in India, and always was, since the river Sindhu wasn't identified with more than the small province that was the mouth of the river. Its one of the major rivers of india, but not amongst the first five, only about sixth or so. None of the Indian names for India relate to the river Sindhu in any way.
Extremely interesting:-
"The meeting of the Allies took place on Jan. 13, 1942. Representatives from nine nations took part: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia and the French National Committee. Also present, as observers, were the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, China, the Dominions and India. Eden addressed the group with caution, concluding that the governments of occupied territories should take the initiative in declaring the principles by which they will be guided once liberated."
Fùnny, did they not realise that India, the Dominions, and even U.S. for that matter, were then occupied territories? Which, except for India, still are? Or do they equate the natives to zero, which is what nazis did without subterfuge of giving them other, false names?
"In the first case, we even have Bush’s word that he’ll continue to spy on citizens without a court order, if the courts rule against him."
"The outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent demonstrates the vindictiveness of the Bush and his administration towards those who differ with him, as well as callous disregard for the law. Bush’s candid remark that the constitution is just a damn piece of paper demonstrates a fascistic contempt for liberty and freedom. His verbal attack on the constitution is confirmed by his attempts to rule by decree, using unconstitutional “signing statements” to amend newly passed laws.
"During his first term Bush issued over 100 such statements, raising over 500 constitutional challenges. Since these statements have no constitutional basis, they would likely be ruled unconstitutional; but leaving them to stand unchallenged lets them become law de facto."
"The Bush clique incessantly demands that Congress grant him the power to declare martial law, and inserts a $385 billion contract in the budget, for a Halliburton subsidiary to expand and update concentration camps, raising the specter of an imminent and apocalyptic threat to our freedoms."
"In September 2006 Congress did pass the Defense Authorization Act, which allows the president to declare martial law with little or no reason. It is clear that the Bush administration and the Republican party goals are to criminalize any dissent. This is evident in various bills the Republicans have introduced in congress and state legislators that would hold protestors liable for any delay that may cause a corporation or individual. It is evident in the Bush administration vendetta against journalists that report the truth and their confidential sources. It is readily evident in the US fall from 17th to 53rd place in freedom of the press, as ranked by Journalists Without Borders.
"Bush consolidated his power further on May 9, 2007 with the issuance of “National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51” and “Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20.” These orders outline Bush’s plan for dealing with catastrophic emergencies. Bush grants himself the responsibility for ensuring “constitutional” government - the sole authority for the entire federal government, and not just the executive branch! The directives define a catastrophic emergency as any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function. With such a broad definition, another 9/11 style attack, a hurricane, an earthquake, a large wild fire, or a stock market crash could be classified as a catastrophic emergency and trigger martial law."
"Most serious are the warnings by figures like Paul Craig Roberts, a Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, that the Bush regime is up to another false flag operation. Roberts believes the Bush regime will concoct another 9/11-like domestic terrorist act as an excuse to invade Iran and declare martial law. This is indeed a very serious warning coming from a conservative Republican insider."
"Most recently, FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds broke a federal gag order to report a neocon plot to leak materials for a nuclear device. This would lead to a nuclear 9/11 or Reichstag fire on American soil, to be blamed on Islamic countries, along the plot lines of the novel The Shell Game. All these reports indicate that the planning for a Hitlerian dictatorship has reached an advanced phase."
"Like the Nazis, the Bush regime has taken pains to pass laws permitting their criminal behavior. These laws are against all principles of justice, civilization, and morality. To debase the rule of law is a criminal act in itself."
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"The Nazi Hydra in America is a penetrating, provocative and controversial study of the roots of American fascism. From the days of the robber barons and the Reichstag fire to the 9/11 atrocity and the present tyranny of the George W. Bush regime, the Nazi Hydra outlines the footprint of global fascism cloaked in the banner of free trade."
"Starting after World War I and through post-World War II, Hydra systematically explores the intricate connections among the Nazis, corporate America and Wall Street - a confederation of traitors that armed Hitler, sabotaged America’s war effort, avoided prosecution and triggered the Cold War."
"For instance, most Americans are unaware of the coup attempt to remove President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the opposition he faced from Nazi supporters in Congress and other branches of government. Following the failed coup led by the du Ponts, Morgans and other leading American industrialists, the native fascists began to work inside the political system, just as Hitler did after the Beer Hall Putsch. The Republican Party and its close association with big money capitalized on the Nazi ideology of corporatism. In its reelection campaigns, the Republican Party employed known Nazis and paid for Nazi broadcasts to attract German-American voters.
"Few Americans know that three days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the McCormick papers published the top secret Rainbow 5 battle plan, prepared in the event that the U.S. was forced into the war in Europe. Sen. Burton Wheeler, a fascist and a member of the America First pro-Nazi group, released the top secret plan in an attempt to brand Roosevelt as a warmonger. In his declaration of war against the United States, Hitler cited the plans as the final straw.
"By 1943, top Nazi officials realized they had lost the war and began preparing for their future by sending overseas gold, other assets, and additional agents. Their plan relied on the irrational fear America held for communism, as well as support from Nazi supporters in other countries, especially the U.S. The Nazis must have been very pleased with the help they received from America’s Right Wing and the Republican Party. In fact, every Republican president after Dwight Eisenhower, or their families, had connections with the Nazis and provided them aid.
"The extent of corporate America’s involvement with the Nazis may never be fully known. Many of the files remain classified, and others undoubtedly have been purged. However, the list of American corporations that knowingly and willingly continued to trade with the Nazis during the war exceeds 300. It includes Ford, General Motors, General Electric, ITT, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Chase, and the bluest of the blue chips, IBM.
"The scope of the Nazi intrigue in the United States is generally underestimated, and assumed to be confined to a few noisy street agitators like William Pelly and Elizabeth Dilling, and a few corporations, such as Ford and General Motors. In reality, Nazi influence has been pervasive. After the war, for instance, John Rogge, the prosecuting attorney for the Sedition Trial, received a tip from U.S. Army Capt. Sam Harris, a member of the prosecuting team at Nuremberg, concerning indisputable evidence linking the former Nazi government and certain leading U.S. citizens.
"Rogge traveled to Germany with four aides to interview Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop and other top Nazis. Rogge’s findings were definitive and explosive:
""Our investigation showed us that we had completely underestimated the scope and scale of Nazi activities in the United States. When I went to Germany I felt that the biggest threat to American democracy emanated from the machinations of persons like the defendants in the sedition trial (i.e. the little fascist crackpots). I found that a far more dangerous threat lay in the inner-connection between German and American industrialists, and that some of the best-known names in America were involved in Nazi intrigue."
"As Rogge prepared his final report, an aide for Attorney General Tom Clark asked that all the names of American politicians and businessmen be omitted. Rogge refused and submitted his report, which the Department of Justice never released. Rogge was fired after he lectured on fascism at Swarthmore College, naming several prominent Americans who reportedly conspired with the Nazis to bring about the defeat of Roosevelt in the 1940 election - John L. Lewis, William Rhodes Davis, Sen. Wheeler, former Vice President James Garner, former Postmaster General James Farley, and former President Herbert Hoover."
"Hitler’s Nazi regime mastered the use of propaganda to create outward enemies while the foundation of Germany’s freedom was steadily destroyed. A perfect example was Pastor Martin Niemöller. Under orders from Hitler, Niemöller was imprisoned and finally transferred to the infamous Dachau concentration camp until the war ended in 1945. He emerged from his years of detention as a towering symbol of the Church’s struggle.
"During his trips to America, he addressed more than 200 audiences, sometimes with the now-famous concluding words:
""Not many Germans lost much sleep over the arrests of a few thousand pastors and priests. First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.""
"Few people realize the Republican Party paid for Nazi broadcasts in the 1930s, or that the GOP employed Nazis in election campaigns. Fewer are aware that Herbert Hoover conspired with top Nazi officials in Berlin to unseat Roosevelt in the 1940 election. Others have forgotten that as chairman of the Republican Party, George H. W. Bush senior set up the ethnic heritage groups of the party as havens for former Nazis, or that he employed known Nazi war criminals on his campaign staff."
"New weapons such as a sound blaster developed for the military are already in place in New York, blurring the lines between the military and civilian affairs. Over fifty protestors are being tightly watched and tailed, while their only crime is their opposition to Bush."
"Additionally a massive operation is going on in Florida and other states to deny Blacks their right to vote."
"Several authors have noted the link between senior members of the Bush administration and the fascist Leo Strauss. Exploring further, we see those philosophical roots lead back to the robber barons and the empire of J.P Morgan. Due to the natural congeniality between then and the corporate state of fascism, most of America’s leading industrialists became the main supporters of fascism in the US. Indeed, they were responsible for bringing Hitler to power, and for building Hitler’s war machine."
For what it's worth, Upton Sinclair's works mention J. P. Morgan explicitly, as well as portraying him a heinous villain in some of his novels, which he leaves no doubt about identity of, by stating so in his The Brass Check.
"In 1914, Straight and his wife Dorothy (née Dorothy Payne Whitney) invited Herbert Croly to edit the first edition of the New Republic, a new liberal magazine funded by Straight. During WWI, J.P. Morgan was obsessed with the media and endeavored to control it. Providing backing for the New Republic had a threefold purpose for Morgan. Firstly, it would keep him abreast of the thinking in left-wing circles. He even had an inside man in the communist press. Secondly, Morgan believed a magazine like the New Republic allowed the left to blow off steam, thus acting as a safety valve. Finally, he also believed it would give him a power of veto on any actions originated by the left, in case they ever went radical.
"Morgan’s efforts to control the media didn’t stop with the New Republic. In 1915, he got together twelve leading men within the newspaper business and commissioned them to determine how one could control the national press. They agreed that it would be sufficient to control 25 of the most influential papers. Morgan immediately sent emissaries to purchase the editorial policy of the 25 selected papers. He also used his money to form the American Legion and to craft it into a union-busting and redbaiting group of hired thugs. that ran amok during the 1919 Red Scare terrorizing and murdering countless union leaders and leftists."
" ... With the help of Anglo-Saxon clubs, the 1924 Virginia legislator passed the Racial Integrity Act, labeling anyone with more than one-sixteenth nonwhite blood as a nonwhite. Originally, the act called for one sixty-fourth, but the legislature amended it because too many of the leading families of Virginia boasted of their Indian ancestry. The penalty for falsely registering one’s race was a year in jail."
Here's yet another racist, colonial perpetration of a falsehood by Columbus, who knew he'd not found India, but lied. Perpetrating that lie, knowing that natives of U.S. have nothing to do with India, and still calling them Indian, is racist, based on a subliminal assumption that all colonial invaders are superior, and natives of such lands do not matter, no matter how ancient their culture, how rich the treasure of their ancient knowledge. It's a falsehood on par with, say, Mongol invaders calling Europe "Afghanistan". Yet the latter is less fraudulent than the author calling natives of his continent Indian.
India was a name given by outsiders in West to the ancient land that was India, because crossing the river Sindhu - name deformed to Indus by West - was their only access to this land, for millennia. India had other names for the land. The river Sindhu had never been of paramount importance to those that belonged to India. And they were the real Aarya, unlike European thieves who stole and appropriated the term for themselves.
Aarya is a Sanskrit word and has nothing to do with physical colours. "Land of Aarya " is a translation of one of the indigenous names for India. The quintessential Aarya was Raamaayana hero, who's described for his perfect beauty specifically, as dark hued. Another much worshipped God Shiva is described as literally "Camphor-light hued", so light colours have never been unfamiliar either. They just are neither here nor there when implications of qualities, even beauty, are in question.
And no, such people as Plecker never could qualify as Aarya, any more than a Nazi could; for the word relates to Light, and connotes someone with a level of enlightenment incorporated in ones breeding, as in being brought up.
................................................................................................
The author discusses, after the introduction chapter which is really heart of the work, definition of fascism in his first chapter. He provides several, by various people, including Webster's dictionary. Many of the characteristics apply almost completely to most colonial empires, or any regimes established by invaders where the locals or natives were treated at far less than par with the invaders. This includes aĺl empires established by migrants from Europe, but also those by Mongols and others.
Most of them, he either does not say or plain forgets, would fit Roman empire and it's successor, church, especially the inquisition.
But more to the point, he identifies nationalism as essential characteristic of fascism. This is a common mistake due to the word nationalism being usurped and twisted into fraud by Nazi ideology with which it's identified. This is as huge a mistake as allowing the Nazi fraudulent usage and false interpretation of ancient Indian terms and symbols, the word Aryan and the symbol Swastika.
Love of nation does not equate with destruction of other nations or races by attacking them and taking their lands while reducing their people to slavery, or worse, causing them to perish in millions. Before nazis did that, few could point at them as much wrong.
Indeed, most indicative of what nazis did wrong was Kristallnacht, not the flagwaving or the assertion of German supremacy. Everyone is free to love ones nation as everyone is free to love one's own home and family, and to claim that one's own are the best. The trouble only begins when there is an assault against others with a demand to have them agree.
The most characteristic of fascism is the image of Mussolini's thugs beating up opposition leaders, including women, with truncheons, to death - Matteotti, and Barbara Pugliese, to name two. It wasn't about loving Italy.
And no leader loving one's nation would give the orders to call young boys - teenagers and even younger - to fight the war, and destroy all fields, factories and infrastructure, rather than surrender, just for egotistical reasons of not wanting personal humiliation. Nazis were definitely not about loving Germany. They knew Germans did not want war, before they went to war anyway.
Fascism is evil, pure and simple. It's about death and destruction of all civilisation, and slavery of others to ones own. It has nothing to do with love. Of anyone.
................................................................................................
The second chapter quotes so many cases of corporate bad behaviour, including that of hospitals, that one is reminded of The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair - with a halfway certainty that he would've seen this work as competition by someone much younger!
................................................................................................
"At this time, the party changed its name to National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler also insisted on a party flag that could outdo the communist banner. A dentist from Stamberg suggested the design. The swastika has a long history dating back centuries and is found in various cultures, including American Indians. It had long been a symbol of the Teutonic Knights, and was used by the Thule Society and several Freikorp units."
That points at double racism by the author - one, denying roots of the symbol in India (the very word Swastik or Swastika is of Sanskrit language of ancient India, and literally means 'Symbol of Well-being'; it's an occult symbol, and it's misuse backfired on nazis and on Germany; in India, it's in everyday use since antiquity till date, painted or drawn fresh before homes by women early in morning every day, invoking blessings on the household) - and two, promoting the lie of nomenclature by calling natives of his continent Indian, although by now it ought to be clear to everyone they have, have never had, anything to do with India, although the latest theory in West is that they were migrants from Mongolia and Siberia who walked across the Bering strait.
This promotion of a lie by Columbus serves to annihilate India and her still living, flourishing culture, the annihilation being convenient for every invader culture and every colonial regime, equating all subjugated people of earth under the epithet Indian.
This is a much more humongous lie compared to the original one by Columbus, because India is a name given by outsiders, specifically by West, to the land. The name relates to the river Sindhu, called Indus by West as usual deforming words they can't pronounce, because that crossing was the only entry for them to the land protected by Himaalayan ranges and oceans on every other side.
India is named differently in India, and always was, since the river Sindhu wasn't identified with more than the small province that was the mouth of the river. Its one of the major rivers of india, but not amongst the first five, only about sixth or so. None of the Indian names for India relate to the river Sindhu in any way.
................................................................................................
Extremely interesting:-
"The meeting of the Allies took place on Jan. 13, 1942. Representatives from nine nations took part: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia and the French National Committee. Also present, as observers, were the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, China, the Dominions and India. Eden addressed the group with caution, concluding that the governments of occupied territories should take the initiative in declaring the principles by which they will be guided once liberated."
Fùnny, did they not realise that India, the Dominions, and even U.S. for that matter, were then occupied territories? Which, except for India, still are? Or do they equate the natives to zero, which is what nazis did without subterfuge of giving them other, false names?
................................................................................................
"Two of the biggest stumbling blocks between Britain and the Soviets were the case of Rudolf Hess and the inclusion of the Dominions. The Soviets wanted immediate trials, including that of Hess; the British wanted to wait until after the war before beginning any trials. The British also wanted to include the Dominions, such as New Zealand and South Africa, on the commission. The Soviets opposed including the Dominions unless each of the Soviet states received equal status. This also was a bedrock issue for the Soviets in forming the present United Nations. By demanding the Dominions each have a separate vote, British influence was multiplied several fold; denying the Soviet demand for a vote for each of its states weakened its overall influence."
Notice Brits demanding a place for "dominions", translated "lands stolen completely from natives, citizens mostly European migrants, with negligible, ignored, dominated and pushed into corners natives"; but India, the Jewel In The Crown, indeed the land where jewels, food and most of Brit wealth was sourced from, by looting India, wasn't to have a place; and yet the whole reason for the rivalry, animosity and suspicion from U.K. towards USSR was lest India be free and Russia, close neighbour, be able to influence India.
How overt the racism!
Notice Brits demanding a place for "dominions", translated "lands stolen completely from natives, citizens mostly European migrants, with negligible, ignored, dominated and pushed into corners natives"; but India, the Jewel In The Crown, indeed the land where jewels, food and most of Brit wealth was sourced from, by looting India, wasn't to have a place; and yet the whole reason for the rivalry, animosity and suspicion from U.K. towards USSR was lest India be free and Russia, close neighbour, be able to influence India.
How overt the racism!
................................................................................................
"On Oct. 20, 1943, representatives from 17 nations met in London to inaugurate the UNWCC. The Soviets were absent. The Dutch representative disagreed with the British view, which limited the commission to investigating and recording evidence of war crimes. The Dutch proposed the commission be actively involved in preparing the trials. The Chinese representative raised another troublesome point for the British. They wanted to include all war crimes dating back to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The British feared granting this request would open the door for the Czechs to demand investigations back to the Munich agreement, in which the British role was less than exemplary. Beyond a vote to set up the commission and the headquarters’ location, nothing substantial was accomplished."
Indeed, British government could be indicted and convicted for stealing harvest from India and being so callous about resulting death of millions in India as to disallow aid ships of grain sent by FDR to proceed further after they arrived at Australia. Churchill was explicit in stating that India starving to death was not worthy of a thought.
"On Nov. 1, the Big Three signed the Moscow Declaration on prosecuting war criminals. The document ended with the following words:
""Let those who have hitherto not imbrued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done. The above declaration is without prejudice to the case of major criminals, whose offences have no particular geographical localization and who will be punished by the joint decision of the Governments of the Allies.""
Again, extremely interesting - when they signed it, was humanity considered limited to totally European ancestry?
"This was the only substantial agreement among the Allies about punishment of war criminals. Although its principles served as a guide for the Allies, it did nothing to bridge the differences to bring the Soviets into UNWCC. The Soviets and British remained at odds over including the Dominions vs. the various Soviet Republics. There were other obstacles to Soviet participation, especially the failure of the Allies to open a second front in 1942.
"In mid-July 1943, the Soviet Union put 11 of its citizens on trial for high treason for aiding the German forces around the town of Krasnodar and for their role in helping annihilate 7,000 people. Eight Soviets were sentenced to hang; the remaining defendants were deported or sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Moscow obviously wished to prove its commitment to punishing war criminals and to a joint policy. The Soviets held many German POWs, including many believed to be guilty of war crimes.
"Several weeks after the hangings, Soviet scholar Professor A. Farrin published an English version of War and the Working Class. This publication hinted at being the official viewpoint of the Soviet Union. The article divided war criminals into four classes. The first class included Hitler and his cabinet ministers. The second class included party leaders and the German Army Command. Financial and industrial leaders made up the third class. The fourth group was defined as those who benefited from the Nazi plundering, such as by receiving stolen goods or exploiting slave labor."
Hmmmmmmmm?!!!! That last does fit Brits.
"On Oct. 20, 1943, representatives from 17 nations met in London to inaugurate the UNWCC. The Soviets were absent. The Dutch representative disagreed with the British view, which limited the commission to investigating and recording evidence of war crimes. The Dutch proposed the commission be actively involved in preparing the trials. The Chinese representative raised another troublesome point for the British. They wanted to include all war crimes dating back to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The British feared granting this request would open the door for the Czechs to demand investigations back to the Munich agreement, in which the British role was less than exemplary. Beyond a vote to set up the commission and the headquarters’ location, nothing substantial was accomplished."
Indeed, British government could be indicted and convicted for stealing harvest from India and being so callous about resulting death of millions in India as to disallow aid ships of grain sent by FDR to proceed further after they arrived at Australia. Churchill was explicit in stating that India starving to death was not worthy of a thought.
................................................................................................
""Let those who have hitherto not imbrued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done. The above declaration is without prejudice to the case of major criminals, whose offences have no particular geographical localization and who will be punished by the joint decision of the Governments of the Allies.""
Again, extremely interesting - when they signed it, was humanity considered limited to totally European ancestry?
"This was the only substantial agreement among the Allies about punishment of war criminals. Although its principles served as a guide for the Allies, it did nothing to bridge the differences to bring the Soviets into UNWCC. The Soviets and British remained at odds over including the Dominions vs. the various Soviet Republics. There were other obstacles to Soviet participation, especially the failure of the Allies to open a second front in 1942.
"In mid-July 1943, the Soviet Union put 11 of its citizens on trial for high treason for aiding the German forces around the town of Krasnodar and for their role in helping annihilate 7,000 people. Eight Soviets were sentenced to hang; the remaining defendants were deported or sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Moscow obviously wished to prove its commitment to punishing war criminals and to a joint policy. The Soviets held many German POWs, including many believed to be guilty of war crimes.
"Several weeks after the hangings, Soviet scholar Professor A. Farrin published an English version of War and the Working Class. This publication hinted at being the official viewpoint of the Soviet Union. The article divided war criminals into four classes. The first class included Hitler and his cabinet ministers. The second class included party leaders and the German Army Command. Financial and industrial leaders made up the third class. The fourth group was defined as those who benefited from the Nazi plundering, such as by receiving stolen goods or exploiting slave labor."
Hmmmmmmmm?!!!! That last does fit Brits.
................................................................................................
"In the first case, we even have Bush’s word that he’ll continue to spy on citizens without a court order, if the courts rule against him."
"The outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent demonstrates the vindictiveness of the Bush and his administration towards those who differ with him, as well as callous disregard for the law. Bush’s candid remark that the constitution is just a damn piece of paper demonstrates a fascistic contempt for liberty and freedom. His verbal attack on the constitution is confirmed by his attempts to rule by decree, using unconstitutional “signing statements” to amend newly passed laws.
"During his first term Bush issued over 100 such statements, raising over 500 constitutional challenges. Since these statements have no constitutional basis, they would likely be ruled unconstitutional; but leaving them to stand unchallenged lets them become law de facto."
"The Bush clique incessantly demands that Congress grant him the power to declare martial law, and inserts a $385 billion contract in the budget, for a Halliburton subsidiary to expand and update concentration camps, raising the specter of an imminent and apocalyptic threat to our freedoms."
"In September 2006 Congress did pass the Defense Authorization Act, which allows the president to declare martial law with little or no reason. It is clear that the Bush administration and the Republican party goals are to criminalize any dissent. This is evident in various bills the Republicans have introduced in congress and state legislators that would hold protestors liable for any delay that may cause a corporation or individual. It is evident in the Bush administration vendetta against journalists that report the truth and their confidential sources. It is readily evident in the US fall from 17th to 53rd place in freedom of the press, as ranked by Journalists Without Borders.
"Bush consolidated his power further on May 9, 2007 with the issuance of “National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51” and “Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20.” These orders outline Bush’s plan for dealing with catastrophic emergencies. Bush grants himself the responsibility for ensuring “constitutional” government - the sole authority for the entire federal government, and not just the executive branch! The directives define a catastrophic emergency as any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function. With such a broad definition, another 9/11 style attack, a hurricane, an earthquake, a large wild fire, or a stock market crash could be classified as a catastrophic emergency and trigger martial law."
"Most serious are the warnings by figures like Paul Craig Roberts, a Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, that the Bush regime is up to another false flag operation. Roberts believes the Bush regime will concoct another 9/11-like domestic terrorist act as an excuse to invade Iran and declare martial law. This is indeed a very serious warning coming from a conservative Republican insider."
"Most recently, FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds broke a federal gag order to report a neocon plot to leak materials for a nuclear device. This would lead to a nuclear 9/11 or Reichstag fire on American soil, to be blamed on Islamic countries, along the plot lines of the novel The Shell Game. All these reports indicate that the planning for a Hitlerian dictatorship has reached an advanced phase."
"Like the Nazis, the Bush regime has taken pains to pass laws permitting their criminal behavior. These laws are against all principles of justice, civilization, and morality. To debase the rule of law is a criminal act in itself."
................................................................................................
"The Nazi Hydra in America is a penetrating, provocative and controversial study of the roots of American fascism. From the days of the robber barons and the Reichstag fire to the 9/11 atrocity and the present tyranny of the George W. Bush regime, the Nazi Hydra outlines the footprint of global fascism cloaked in the banner of free trade."
"Starting after World War I and through post-World War II, Hydra systematically explores the intricate connections among the Nazis, corporate America and Wall Street - a confederation of traitors that armed Hitler, sabotaged America’s war effort, avoided prosecution and triggered the Cold War."
"For instance, most Americans are unaware of the coup attempt to remove President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the opposition he faced from Nazi supporters in Congress and other branches of government. Following the failed coup led by the du Ponts, Morgans and other leading American industrialists, the native fascists began to work inside the political system, just as Hitler did after the Beer Hall Putsch. The Republican Party and its close association with big money capitalized on the Nazi ideology of corporatism. In its reelection campaigns, the Republican Party employed known Nazis and paid for Nazi broadcasts to attract German-American voters.
"Few Americans know that three days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the McCormick papers published the top secret Rainbow 5 battle plan, prepared in the event that the U.S. was forced into the war in Europe. Sen. Burton Wheeler, a fascist and a member of the America First pro-Nazi group, released the top secret plan in an attempt to brand Roosevelt as a warmonger. In his declaration of war against the United States, Hitler cited the plans as the final straw.
"By 1943, top Nazi officials realized they had lost the war and began preparing for their future by sending overseas gold, other assets, and additional agents. Their plan relied on the irrational fear America held for communism, as well as support from Nazi supporters in other countries, especially the U.S. The Nazis must have been very pleased with the help they received from America’s Right Wing and the Republican Party. In fact, every Republican president after Dwight Eisenhower, or their families, had connections with the Nazis and provided them aid.
"The extent of corporate America’s involvement with the Nazis may never be fully known. Many of the files remain classified, and others undoubtedly have been purged. However, the list of American corporations that knowingly and willingly continued to trade with the Nazis during the war exceeds 300. It includes Ford, General Motors, General Electric, ITT, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Chase, and the bluest of the blue chips, IBM.
"The scope of the Nazi intrigue in the United States is generally underestimated, and assumed to be confined to a few noisy street agitators like William Pelly and Elizabeth Dilling, and a few corporations, such as Ford and General Motors. In reality, Nazi influence has been pervasive. After the war, for instance, John Rogge, the prosecuting attorney for the Sedition Trial, received a tip from U.S. Army Capt. Sam Harris, a member of the prosecuting team at Nuremberg, concerning indisputable evidence linking the former Nazi government and certain leading U.S. citizens.
"Rogge traveled to Germany with four aides to interview Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop and other top Nazis. Rogge’s findings were definitive and explosive:
""Our investigation showed us that we had completely underestimated the scope and scale of Nazi activities in the United States. When I went to Germany I felt that the biggest threat to American democracy emanated from the machinations of persons like the defendants in the sedition trial (i.e. the little fascist crackpots). I found that a far more dangerous threat lay in the inner-connection between German and American industrialists, and that some of the best-known names in America were involved in Nazi intrigue."
"As Rogge prepared his final report, an aide for Attorney General Tom Clark asked that all the names of American politicians and businessmen be omitted. Rogge refused and submitted his report, which the Department of Justice never released. Rogge was fired after he lectured on fascism at Swarthmore College, naming several prominent Americans who reportedly conspired with the Nazis to bring about the defeat of Roosevelt in the 1940 election - John L. Lewis, William Rhodes Davis, Sen. Wheeler, former Vice President James Garner, former Postmaster General James Farley, and former President Herbert Hoover."
................................................................................................
"Hitler’s Nazi regime mastered the use of propaganda to create outward enemies while the foundation of Germany’s freedom was steadily destroyed. A perfect example was Pastor Martin Niemöller. Under orders from Hitler, Niemöller was imprisoned and finally transferred to the infamous Dachau concentration camp until the war ended in 1945. He emerged from his years of detention as a towering symbol of the Church’s struggle.
"During his trips to America, he addressed more than 200 audiences, sometimes with the now-famous concluding words:
""Not many Germans lost much sleep over the arrests of a few thousand pastors and priests. First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.""
................................................................................................
"Few people realize the Republican Party paid for Nazi broadcasts in the 1930s, or that the GOP employed Nazis in election campaigns. Fewer are aware that Herbert Hoover conspired with top Nazi officials in Berlin to unseat Roosevelt in the 1940 election. Others have forgotten that as chairman of the Republican Party, George H. W. Bush senior set up the ethnic heritage groups of the party as havens for former Nazis, or that he employed known Nazi war criminals on his campaign staff."
"New weapons such as a sound blaster developed for the military are already in place in New York, blurring the lines between the military and civilian affairs. Over fifty protestors are being tightly watched and tailed, while their only crime is their opposition to Bush."
"Additionally a massive operation is going on in Florida and other states to deny Blacks their right to vote."
"Several authors have noted the link between senior members of the Bush administration and the fascist Leo Strauss. Exploring further, we see those philosophical roots lead back to the robber barons and the empire of J.P Morgan. Due to the natural congeniality between then and the corporate state of fascism, most of America’s leading industrialists became the main supporters of fascism in the US. Indeed, they were responsible for bringing Hitler to power, and for building Hitler’s war machine."
For what it's worth, Upton Sinclair's works mention J. P. Morgan explicitly, as well as portraying him a heinous villain in some of his novels, which he leaves no doubt about identity of, by stating so in his The Brass Check.
"In 1914, Straight and his wife Dorothy (née Dorothy Payne Whitney) invited Herbert Croly to edit the first edition of the New Republic, a new liberal magazine funded by Straight. During WWI, J.P. Morgan was obsessed with the media and endeavored to control it. Providing backing for the New Republic had a threefold purpose for Morgan. Firstly, it would keep him abreast of the thinking in left-wing circles. He even had an inside man in the communist press. Secondly, Morgan believed a magazine like the New Republic allowed the left to blow off steam, thus acting as a safety valve. Finally, he also believed it would give him a power of veto on any actions originated by the left, in case they ever went radical.
"Morgan’s efforts to control the media didn’t stop with the New Republic. In 1915, he got together twelve leading men within the newspaper business and commissioned them to determine how one could control the national press. They agreed that it would be sufficient to control 25 of the most influential papers. Morgan immediately sent emissaries to purchase the editorial policy of the 25 selected papers. He also used his money to form the American Legion and to craft it into a union-busting and redbaiting group of hired thugs. that ran amok during the 1919 Red Scare terrorizing and murdering countless union leaders and leftists."
................................................................................................
"While the dealings of the Rockefeller-owned Standard Oil Company with the Nazis during the war allowed the family the thin pretense that they were not personally involved, other actions by the Rockefeller family confirm their fascist ideology. It was the Rockefeller Foundation that provided funding for much of the Nazi research into eugenics, including the twin research conducted in the concentration camps by Mengele."
"An interesting aspect of Strauss’s tenure at the University of Chicago is that it is was during this time that both David Rockefeller and John Ashcroft received their degrees from the University of Chicago."
"The Rockefeller family played a key role not only in funding Strauss but also in destroying the economies of Third World nations. The Rockefellers have used the University of Chicago and their various family foundations to promote an economic policy of ruin. The laissez-faire economics promoted by the Chicago school has failed numerous times in the past and was one of the leading causes of the 1929 stock market crash and resulting Great Depression. Such economic policies only lead to global fascism and corporate rule, which are the prime goal of the Rockefeller family.
"This is evident in David Rockefeller’s support of free trade agreements, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. These trade organizations and agreements have impoverished much of the Southern Hemisphere with their draconian demands for privatization and cuts in social spending. Moreover, these trade agreements effectively reduce the government’s role to that of an enforcer of corporate policies.
"All of these free trade agreements contain a clause setting up a tribunal comprised of corporations to settle all disputes, including claims against the government. The clause effectively bypasses the court systems in signatory countries. In effect, these clauses confer supreme sovereignty to multinational corporations who answer to no one. Under these clauses, corporations are free to claim environmental laws, labor laws and other laws are harmful to the company and cause it financial loss, which results in massive settlements against the government and in the overturning of needed laws.
"One of the chief advocates of these free trade agreements is Dick Cheney, who has promised David Rockefeller that he would deliver a hemisphere trade agreement before the end of the current Bush administration.
"While the dealings of the Rockefeller-owned Standard Oil Company with the Nazis during the war allowed the family the thin pretense that they were not personally involved, other actions by the Rockefeller family confirm their fascist ideology. It was the Rockefeller Foundation that provided funding for much of the Nazi research into eugenics, including the twin research conducted in the concentration camps by Mengele."
"An interesting aspect of Strauss’s tenure at the University of Chicago is that it is was during this time that both David Rockefeller and John Ashcroft received their degrees from the University of Chicago."
"The Rockefeller family played a key role not only in funding Strauss but also in destroying the economies of Third World nations. The Rockefellers have used the University of Chicago and their various family foundations to promote an economic policy of ruin. The laissez-faire economics promoted by the Chicago school has failed numerous times in the past and was one of the leading causes of the 1929 stock market crash and resulting Great Depression. Such economic policies only lead to global fascism and corporate rule, which are the prime goal of the Rockefeller family.
"This is evident in David Rockefeller’s support of free trade agreements, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. These trade organizations and agreements have impoverished much of the Southern Hemisphere with their draconian demands for privatization and cuts in social spending. Moreover, these trade agreements effectively reduce the government’s role to that of an enforcer of corporate policies.
"All of these free trade agreements contain a clause setting up a tribunal comprised of corporations to settle all disputes, including claims against the government. The clause effectively bypasses the court systems in signatory countries. In effect, these clauses confer supreme sovereignty to multinational corporations who answer to no one. Under these clauses, corporations are free to claim environmental laws, labor laws and other laws are harmful to the company and cause it financial loss, which results in massive settlements against the government and in the overturning of needed laws.
"One of the chief advocates of these free trade agreements is Dick Cheney, who has promised David Rockefeller that he would deliver a hemisphere trade agreement before the end of the current Bush administration.
................................................................................................
"The partners of J.P Morgan provide the operative connection between the Bush administration and fascism. Thomas Lamont was a prominent figure in the 1934 fascist plot to remove Roosevelt from office. The plot called for retired Marine General Smedley Butler to lead the force - much of it consisting of American Legionnaires - to take over the White House. Roosevelt would be given a chance to step down and to cooperate with the plotters. If herefused to let the business leaders seize power, then the plotters would kill him.
"However, Butler was an honorable man, and he leaked the information concerning the plot to Roosevelt. Roosevelt knew he could not simply dismiss it when it was connected with several leading industrialists and bankers. To foil the plot, Roosevelt leaked information about it to the press. The resulting commotion in the front pages of the country’s newspapers undermined any efforts by the plotters to proceed."
"Butler described his military career as follows.
"“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses…. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”"
................................................................................................
"A third partner of J. P. Morgan, Henry Davison, financed the Yale Aviation Club, of which his son Trubee was a member. Many of the Aviation Club members were also members of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale. The club gained fame during WWI. Robert Lovett led the unit during the war. Artemus Gates was another member.
The most interesting aspect of this group of college aviation buffs is how many of them later served in WWII on the targeting selection committee. Henry Simpson, Secretary of War and a former Bonesman, appointed John McCloy as his Assistant Secretary of War in charge of intelligence. Robert Lovett was appointed Assistant Secretary of War for air. Directly under Lovett was Trubee Davison, assistant chief of staff at A-1. Artemus Gates served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for air. James Stillman Rockefeller served with the Airborne Command and Airborne Center as assistant chief of staff.
"Clearly the Department of War, and particularly the air command had an unusually high number of members from the Yale Aviation Unit and the Skull and Bones. These individuals all had extensive ties to Wall Street firms, which had a history of doing business with the Nazis. They were well positioned to influence the target selection in the air campaign against Germany.
"Lovett was a lifelong advocate of what amounts to terror bombing, the bombing of civilian centers. The air campaign against Germany left eighty percent of the homes destroyed. Factory production was only reduced by twenty percent . Even then, much of the reduction came about not by damage to the factories, but from delays and shortages of parts caused by the disruption of the transportation system by bombing. For example, Cologne was a city targeted for massive bombing attacks. While the city lay in ruins, the Ford and IG Farben plants escaped all but minor bomb damage. In Berlin, a city that had been reduced to rubble from the bombing campaign, the Allies chose the IG Farben building for their headquarters. It had escaped all but minor damage from the bombs.
"Robert Lovett and Prescott Bush were both Bonesmen employed by Brown Brothers Harriman. In fact, many of the top directors and partners of Brown Brothers & Harriman were Bonesmen. It was one of the main firms on Wall Street to have extensive dealings with the Nazis.
"The deals with the Nazis were so extensive at Brown Brothers Harriman that Prescott Bush had 23 firms seized from him for trading with the enemy. Five firms were seized from Bush in 1942, another 18 firms shortly after the war. The 18 firms had been allowed to operate during the war only because seizing them had been judged detrimental to the war effort and their continued operation posed little risk to the Allies.
"Before the firms were seized, Prescott Bush hired the Dulles brothers to conceal the Nazi ownership in these firms. This deliberate act closed any window of deniability; it was treason by both Bush and the Dulles brothers. It confirms that both parties knew that the continued operation of these companies was in violation of U.S. policy and of the Trading with the Enemy Act, and that both parties freely chose to aid the Nazis when the U.S. was at war with Nazi Germany."
"The partners of J.P Morgan provide the operative connection between the Bush administration and fascism. Thomas Lamont was a prominent figure in the 1934 fascist plot to remove Roosevelt from office. The plot called for retired Marine General Smedley Butler to lead the force - much of it consisting of American Legionnaires - to take over the White House. Roosevelt would be given a chance to step down and to cooperate with the plotters. If herefused to let the business leaders seize power, then the plotters would kill him.
"However, Butler was an honorable man, and he leaked the information concerning the plot to Roosevelt. Roosevelt knew he could not simply dismiss it when it was connected with several leading industrialists and bankers. To foil the plot, Roosevelt leaked information about it to the press. The resulting commotion in the front pages of the country’s newspapers undermined any efforts by the plotters to proceed."
"Butler described his military career as follows.
"“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses…. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”"
................................................................................................
"A third partner of J. P. Morgan, Henry Davison, financed the Yale Aviation Club, of which his son Trubee was a member. Many of the Aviation Club members were also members of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale. The club gained fame during WWI. Robert Lovett led the unit during the war. Artemus Gates was another member.
The most interesting aspect of this group of college aviation buffs is how many of them later served in WWII on the targeting selection committee. Henry Simpson, Secretary of War and a former Bonesman, appointed John McCloy as his Assistant Secretary of War in charge of intelligence. Robert Lovett was appointed Assistant Secretary of War for air. Directly under Lovett was Trubee Davison, assistant chief of staff at A-1. Artemus Gates served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for air. James Stillman Rockefeller served with the Airborne Command and Airborne Center as assistant chief of staff.
"Clearly the Department of War, and particularly the air command had an unusually high number of members from the Yale Aviation Unit and the Skull and Bones. These individuals all had extensive ties to Wall Street firms, which had a history of doing business with the Nazis. They were well positioned to influence the target selection in the air campaign against Germany.
"Lovett was a lifelong advocate of what amounts to terror bombing, the bombing of civilian centers. The air campaign against Germany left eighty percent of the homes destroyed. Factory production was only reduced by twenty percent . Even then, much of the reduction came about not by damage to the factories, but from delays and shortages of parts caused by the disruption of the transportation system by bombing. For example, Cologne was a city targeted for massive bombing attacks. While the city lay in ruins, the Ford and IG Farben plants escaped all but minor bomb damage. In Berlin, a city that had been reduced to rubble from the bombing campaign, the Allies chose the IG Farben building for their headquarters. It had escaped all but minor damage from the bombs.
"Robert Lovett and Prescott Bush were both Bonesmen employed by Brown Brothers Harriman. In fact, many of the top directors and partners of Brown Brothers & Harriman were Bonesmen. It was one of the main firms on Wall Street to have extensive dealings with the Nazis.
"The deals with the Nazis were so extensive at Brown Brothers Harriman that Prescott Bush had 23 firms seized from him for trading with the enemy. Five firms were seized from Bush in 1942, another 18 firms shortly after the war. The 18 firms had been allowed to operate during the war only because seizing them had been judged detrimental to the war effort and their continued operation posed little risk to the Allies.
"Before the firms were seized, Prescott Bush hired the Dulles brothers to conceal the Nazi ownership in these firms. This deliberate act closed any window of deniability; it was treason by both Bush and the Dulles brothers. It confirms that both parties knew that the continued operation of these companies was in violation of U.S. policy and of the Trading with the Enemy Act, and that both parties freely chose to aid the Nazis when the U.S. was at war with Nazi Germany."
................................................................................................
"The Wall Street law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell employed both John Foster and Allan Dulles. Throughout the 1930s and the early 1940s, the Dulles brothers were busy cloaking Nazi ownership of numerous corporations and their cartel arrangements with IG Farben. Not only was their work treasonous in and of itself, it also delayed the production of war materials and munitions.
"Aside from his 23 corporations seized for violating the Trading with the Enemy Act, Prescott Bush was a leader in the American eugenics movement, which succeeded in the passage of sterilization laws in many states for anyone judged unfit. These laws served as the basis of the Nuremberg Laws passed by the Nazis. Much of the Nazi eugenics research was funded, even during the war, with money from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation. The Harrimans were also major financial backers of the movement."
"After the war, John Foster Dulles, with the aid of Rockefeller money, led a world tour of third-world nations stressing the danger of population expansion of non-Aryan races. George H. W. Bush, Prescott’s son, has followed in his father’s footsteps in setting up population control in third-world nations through the UN. In his first political race, George H. W. Bush campaigned against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and as a member of Congress he warned of the danger of too many Black babies. While population control may be a laudable goal, in the hands of the Bush family it becomes another eugenic tool aimed at eliminating non-Aryan races."
There is another fraudulent misuse of a word that belongs transient culture and Sanskrit language of India - Aarya or Aryan has nothing to do with any physical characteristics, especially colour, and has everything to do with inner state of enlightenment. It was falsified by those attempting to break India down into slavery of West, and the fraudulent theory of Aryan migration spread about.
But epitome, iconic image of Aarya is the hero of the grand epic Raamaayana by Vaalmieki, a hero extensively described in his physical beauty, and he is never portrayed as white, or light hued. That isn't because India did not see physical hues and shades, either. God Shiva has always been described as Karpoorgaura, literally, White As Camphor. But being Aarya isnt about physical colours.
"Cold Springs Harbor, the center of eugenics research in the 1920s and 1930s, is still operating. It is currently a leader of the human genome project. While the genome project will undoubtedly provide many future medical benefits, Cold Springs remains firmly under the control of the same families involved in the American eugenics movement. Current directors William Gerry and Allen Dulles Jebsen are the grandsons of Harriman and Allan Dulles respectively.
"The genome project provides the ideal cover to develop a gene-specific bioweapon, a weapon with the sole purpose of committing genocide on a massive scale. Such a weapon has been described by the PNAC as a politically useful tool. The PNAC is the road map George W. Bush is following as a “War President.”
"This is not the only link between the Rockefeller Foundation and questionable programs. In 1931, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Cornelius Rhoads infected human subjects with cancer cells. Rhoads later established the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama. It was named the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he began a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
"Following the war, Allan Dulles faced an investigation for treason. While Dulles was crafty enough to escape the charges, one of those aiding him in covering up his crimes was Richard Nixon. While still serving in the navy, Nixon was given some captured documents to review. The contents would have revealed Allan Dulles as a traitor. In exchange for burying the documents, Dulles agreed to fund Nixon’s first political campaign. Nixon’s campaign also benefited from large contributions from a large New York bank connected with Brown Brothers and Harriman."
No wonder Nixon hated India, supported genocide of three million people of East Bengal by paki military, and abused - in vulgar words - the courageous woman of frail physique but immense stature who saved East Bengal from complete annihilation. What else could a Nazi do!
"Captured Nazi documents reveal they had a comeback plan. Their plan to regain power after the war revolved around using their friends and fascist sympathizers in other countries - particularly in the United States - to do their bidding while rebuilding Germany. The documents note that, as late as 1944, the Nazis were hoping for a Republican victory in the presidential election because they would get an easier peace. The second part of their plan aimed at provoking a war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which would allow the Nazis to retake power in Germany without U.S. intervention. Eisenhower was politically naïve. When John Foster Dulles approached him in Europe to run for election in 1948,
"Eisenhower had no foreign policy concept formulated. He was easily swayed by Dulles’ idea of massive nuclear retaliation, which led to the appointment of Dulles as secretary of state. While Eisenhower was no Nazi and expressed his hatred of Nazis and Germans in his letters to his wife, he allowed American Nazis like the Dulles brothers to gain a great deal of control over his administration. Eisenhower appointed Allan Dulles as CIA Director, and Prescott Bush and John Lovett were Eisenhower’s close golfing buddies. Prescott Bush was also the driving force in selecting Richard Nixon as Eisenhower’s running mate. Nelson Rockefeller was appointed to head the Psychological Strategy Board. Numerous employees of Sullivan & Cromwell, the two Wall Street firms most involved with the Nazis, held important positions within the administration."
"The Wall Street law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell employed both John Foster and Allan Dulles. Throughout the 1930s and the early 1940s, the Dulles brothers were busy cloaking Nazi ownership of numerous corporations and their cartel arrangements with IG Farben. Not only was their work treasonous in and of itself, it also delayed the production of war materials and munitions.
"Aside from his 23 corporations seized for violating the Trading with the Enemy Act, Prescott Bush was a leader in the American eugenics movement, which succeeded in the passage of sterilization laws in many states for anyone judged unfit. These laws served as the basis of the Nuremberg Laws passed by the Nazis. Much of the Nazi eugenics research was funded, even during the war, with money from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation. The Harrimans were also major financial backers of the movement."
"After the war, John Foster Dulles, with the aid of Rockefeller money, led a world tour of third-world nations stressing the danger of population expansion of non-Aryan races. George H. W. Bush, Prescott’s son, has followed in his father’s footsteps in setting up population control in third-world nations through the UN. In his first political race, George H. W. Bush campaigned against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and as a member of Congress he warned of the danger of too many Black babies. While population control may be a laudable goal, in the hands of the Bush family it becomes another eugenic tool aimed at eliminating non-Aryan races."
There is another fraudulent misuse of a word that belongs transient culture and Sanskrit language of India - Aarya or Aryan has nothing to do with any physical characteristics, especially colour, and has everything to do with inner state of enlightenment. It was falsified by those attempting to break India down into slavery of West, and the fraudulent theory of Aryan migration spread about.
But epitome, iconic image of Aarya is the hero of the grand epic Raamaayana by Vaalmieki, a hero extensively described in his physical beauty, and he is never portrayed as white, or light hued. That isn't because India did not see physical hues and shades, either. God Shiva has always been described as Karpoorgaura, literally, White As Camphor. But being Aarya isnt about physical colours.
................................................................................................
"Cold Springs Harbor, the center of eugenics research in the 1920s and 1930s, is still operating. It is currently a leader of the human genome project. While the genome project will undoubtedly provide many future medical benefits, Cold Springs remains firmly under the control of the same families involved in the American eugenics movement. Current directors William Gerry and Allen Dulles Jebsen are the grandsons of Harriman and Allan Dulles respectively.
"The genome project provides the ideal cover to develop a gene-specific bioweapon, a weapon with the sole purpose of committing genocide on a massive scale. Such a weapon has been described by the PNAC as a politically useful tool. The PNAC is the road map George W. Bush is following as a “War President.”
"This is not the only link between the Rockefeller Foundation and questionable programs. In 1931, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Cornelius Rhoads infected human subjects with cancer cells. Rhoads later established the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama. It was named the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he began a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
"Following the war, Allan Dulles faced an investigation for treason. While Dulles was crafty enough to escape the charges, one of those aiding him in covering up his crimes was Richard Nixon. While still serving in the navy, Nixon was given some captured documents to review. The contents would have revealed Allan Dulles as a traitor. In exchange for burying the documents, Dulles agreed to fund Nixon’s first political campaign. Nixon’s campaign also benefited from large contributions from a large New York bank connected with Brown Brothers and Harriman."
No wonder Nixon hated India, supported genocide of three million people of East Bengal by paki military, and abused - in vulgar words - the courageous woman of frail physique but immense stature who saved East Bengal from complete annihilation. What else could a Nazi do!
"Captured Nazi documents reveal they had a comeback plan. Their plan to regain power after the war revolved around using their friends and fascist sympathizers in other countries - particularly in the United States - to do their bidding while rebuilding Germany. The documents note that, as late as 1944, the Nazis were hoping for a Republican victory in the presidential election because they would get an easier peace. The second part of their plan aimed at provoking a war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which would allow the Nazis to retake power in Germany without U.S. intervention. Eisenhower was politically naïve. When John Foster Dulles approached him in Europe to run for election in 1948,
"Eisenhower had no foreign policy concept formulated. He was easily swayed by Dulles’ idea of massive nuclear retaliation, which led to the appointment of Dulles as secretary of state. While Eisenhower was no Nazi and expressed his hatred of Nazis and Germans in his letters to his wife, he allowed American Nazis like the Dulles brothers to gain a great deal of control over his administration. Eisenhower appointed Allan Dulles as CIA Director, and Prescott Bush and John Lovett were Eisenhower’s close golfing buddies. Prescott Bush was also the driving force in selecting Richard Nixon as Eisenhower’s running mate. Nelson Rockefeller was appointed to head the Psychological Strategy Board. Numerous employees of Sullivan & Cromwell, the two Wall Street firms most involved with the Nazis, held important positions within the administration."
................................................................................................
No wonder Nixon hated India, supported genocide of three million people of East Bengal by paki military, and abused - in vulgar words - the courageous woman of frail physique but immense stature who saved East Bengal from complete annihilation. What else would a Nazi do!
"John McCloy and General Draper, both from the former Control Council of Germany, fulfilled important roles in the Eisenhower administration. Nothing was left to chance in the rebirth of the Nazis. In postwar Germany, the three most powerful figures: John McCloy head of the Control Council, Lewis Douglas, the head of the Finance Division of the Control Council, and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, were all brothers-in-law. They all had wed daughters of John Zinsser, a partner of JP Morgan."
No wonder Nixon hated India, supported genocide of three million people of East Bengal by paki military, and abused - in vulgar words - the courageous woman of frail physique but immense stature who saved East Bengal from complete annihilation. What else would a Nazi do!
................................................................................................
"John McCloy and General Draper, both from the former Control Council of Germany, fulfilled important roles in the Eisenhower administration. Nothing was left to chance in the rebirth of the Nazis. In postwar Germany, the three most powerful figures: John McCloy head of the Control Council, Lewis Douglas, the head of the Finance Division of the Control Council, and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, were all brothers-in-law. They all had wed daughters of John Zinsser, a partner of JP Morgan."
................................................................................................
"While the American Nazis succeeded in gaining partial control of the Eisenhower administration and were able to stoke the fires of the Cold War, they failed to secure total control. Although these American Nazis managed to dupe the tired old general, they never succeeded in completely tricking him. Even after suffering a debilitating heart attack, the old general refused to turn over the reins of power to Nixon, a man he loathed. Before leaving office, Eisenhower realized he had been duped and left us his rather cryptic warning about the military-industrial complex, suggesting the dangers of corporate rule."
"A recently disclosed top-secret document from the NSC reveals that staff were instructed to cooperate fully with Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.” The document suggests that Cheney’s Energy Task Force was actually a discussion for geostrategic plans for oil, putting the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans. This would confirm Bush’s plans for regime change in 60 countries, and his support for rebel forces opposing the democratic government of Venezuela, as well as the increasing hostility of the Bush administration towards Iran."
"While the American Nazis succeeded in gaining partial control of the Eisenhower administration and were able to stoke the fires of the Cold War, they failed to secure total control. Although these American Nazis managed to dupe the tired old general, they never succeeded in completely tricking him. Even after suffering a debilitating heart attack, the old general refused to turn over the reins of power to Nixon, a man he loathed. Before leaving office, Eisenhower realized he had been duped and left us his rather cryptic warning about the military-industrial complex, suggesting the dangers of corporate rule."
................................................................................................
"A recently disclosed top-secret document from the NSC reveals that staff were instructed to cooperate fully with Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force as it considered the “melding” of two seemingly unrelated areas of policy: “the review of operational policies towards rogue states,” such as Iraq, and “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.” The document suggests that Cheney’s Energy Task Force was actually a discussion for geostrategic plans for oil, putting the issue of war in the context of the captains of the oil industry sitting down with Cheney and laying grand, global plans. This would confirm Bush’s plans for regime change in 60 countries, and his support for rebel forces opposing the democratic government of Venezuela, as well as the increasing hostility of the Bush administration towards Iran."
................................................................................................
The author discusses, after the introduction chapter which is really heart of the work, definition of fascism in his first chapter. He provides several, by various people, including Webster's dictionary. Many of the characteristics apply almost completely to most colonial empires, or any regimes established by invaders where the locals or natives were treated at far less than par with the invaders. This includes aĺl empires established by migrants from Europe, but also those by Mongols and others.
Most of them, he either does not say or plain forgets, would fit Roman empire and it's successor, church, especially the inquisition.
But more to the point, he identifies nationalism as essential characteristic of fascism. This is a common mistake due to the word nationalism being usurped and twisted into fraud by Nazi ideology with which it's identified. This is as huge a mistake as allowing the Nazi fraudulent usage and false interpretation of ancient Indian terms and symbols, the word Aryan and the symbol Swastika.
Love of nation does not equate with destruction of other nations or races by attacking them and taking their lands while reducing their people to slavery, or worse, causing them to perish in millions. Before nazis did that, few could point at them as much wrong.
Indeed, most indicative of what nazis did wrong was Kristallnacht, not the flagwaving or the assertion of German supremacy. Everyone is free to love ones nation as everyone is free to love one's own home and family, and to claim that one's own are the best. The trouble only begins when there is an assault against others with a demand to have them agree.
The most characteristic of fascism is the image of Mussolini's thugs beating up opposition leaders, including women, with truncheons, to death - Matteotti, and Barbara Pugliese, to name two. It wasn't about loving Italy.
And no leader loving one's nation would give the orders to call young boys - teenagers and even younger - to fight the war, and destroy all fields, factories and infrastructure, rather than surrender, just for egotistical reasons of not wanting personal humiliation. Nazis were definitely not about loving Germany. They knew Germans did not want war, before they went to war anyway.
Fascism is evil, pure and simple. It's about death and destruction of all civilisation, and slavery of others to ones own. It has nothing to do with love. Of anyone.
The various points presented by the author, a good many of which apply or fit the church in its dealings with humanity:-
"2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights" - certainly if there was the most flagrant example of such disdain, it was burning at stake all disfavoured for whatever reason.
"3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause:" witchhunting literally fits this, as does persecution of Jews by church.
"5. Rampant Sexism:" - is there a better definition of sexism than identifying women with devil, reducing them to chattel, nuns being required to serve while male priests loaded over flock, women not ordained as priests much less pope, ....?
"6. Controlled Mass Media:" - what better example than church, in every instance, from controlling people's thinking and beliefs, burning books that examined reality, forcing Galileo to recant observation of Jupiter's moons, ....?
"11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts:" - this fits church completely, between branding every other religion as evil or devil worship to requiring Galileo to recant to burning of witches - which, incidentally, is female equivalent of the word wizard, but vilified by church, thus disallowing females any knowledge, opinion, even thinking.
"14. Fraudulent Elections:" - this is indeed shared by the two examples the author compares often, as far apart as Germany in early thirties and U.S. at the new millennium.
"Totalitarian: Fascism does not tolerate dissent. Dissenters face imprisonment or execution. Fascism packs the courts with party ideologues, leaving no recourse for grievances.
Inquisition was this, and more. Dissenters were branded evil and burnt alive, not imprisoned.
The author discusses, after the introduction chapter which is really heart of the work, definition of fascism in his first chapter. He provides several, by various people, including Webster's dictionary. Many of the characteristics apply almost completely to most colonial empires, or any regimes established by invaders where the locals or natives were treated at far less than par with the invaders. This includes aĺl empires established by migrants from Europe, but also those by Mongols and others.
Most of them, he either does not say or plain forgets, would fit Roman empire and it's successor, church, especially the inquisition.
But more to the point, he identifies nationalism as essential characteristic of fascism. This is a common mistake due to the word nationalism being usurped and twisted into fraud by Nazi ideology with which it's identified. This is as huge a mistake as allowing the Nazi fraudulent usage and false interpretation of ancient Indian terms and symbols, the word Aryan and the symbol Swastika.
Love of nation does not equate with destruction of other nations or races by attacking them and taking their lands while reducing their people to slavery, or worse, causing them to perish in millions. Before nazis did that, few could point at them as much wrong.
Indeed, most indicative of what nazis did wrong was Kristallnacht, not the flagwaving or the assertion of German supremacy. Everyone is free to love ones nation as everyone is free to love one's own home and family, and to claim that one's own are the best. The trouble only begins when there is an assault against others with a demand to have them agree.
The most characteristic of fascism is the image of Mussolini's thugs beating up opposition leaders, including women, with truncheons, to death - Matteotti, and Barbara Pugliese, to name two. It wasn't about loving Italy.
And no leader loving one's nation would give the orders to call young boys - teenagers and even younger - to fight the war, and destroy all fields, factories and infrastructure, rather than surrender, just for egotistical reasons of not wanting personal humiliation. Nazis were definitely not about loving Germany. They knew Germans did not want war, before they went to war anyway.
Fascism is evil, pure and simple. It's about death and destruction of all civilisation, and slavery of others to ones own. It has nothing to do with love. Of anyone.
................................................................................................
The various points presented by the author, a good many of which apply or fit the church in its dealings with humanity:-
"2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights" - certainly if there was the most flagrant example of such disdain, it was burning at stake all disfavoured for whatever reason.
"3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause:" witchhunting literally fits this, as does persecution of Jews by church.
"5. Rampant Sexism:" - is there a better definition of sexism than identifying women with devil, reducing them to chattel, nuns being required to serve while male priests loaded over flock, women not ordained as priests much less pope, ....?
"6. Controlled Mass Media:" - what better example than church, in every instance, from controlling people's thinking and beliefs, burning books that examined reality, forcing Galileo to recant observation of Jupiter's moons, ....?
"11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts:" - this fits church completely, between branding every other religion as evil or devil worship to requiring Galileo to recant to burning of witches - which, incidentally, is female equivalent of the word wizard, but vilified by church, thus disallowing females any knowledge, opinion, even thinking.
"14. Fraudulent Elections:" - this is indeed shared by the two examples the author compares often, as far apart as Germany in early thirties and U.S. at the new millennium.
"Totalitarian: Fascism does not tolerate dissent. Dissenters face imprisonment or execution. Fascism packs the courts with party ideologues, leaving no recourse for grievances.
Inquisition was this, and more. Dissenters were branded evil and burnt alive, not imprisoned.
................................................................................................
"Extreme Nationalism: Excessive display of nationalism with flags, mottoes, slogans and other national symbolism is common to all fascist regimes. Fascist governments glorify the military and divert most of the government spending to the military and defense items. Often this extreme nationalism results in the expanding the country’s borders through wars."
The author is slightly simplistic here. Military dictatorships need not glorify military, they can simply disallow any real functioning of civil government while controlling most of the land and resources, and worse. Example, the author only need look at a so called friend of his nation - where the next President of his nation successfully hunted down the terrorist mastermind. When informed, the said friend nation was officially silent. Unofficially, internet still buzzes with denials, from the guy's ever having been there, to his being dead.
"It must be emphasized that not all of these traits need be present in a fascist state. For instance, Nazi Germany was the only fascist state to show extreme racism. There is scant evidence of it in Franco’s Spain, Peron’s Argentina and Pinochet’s Chile. Even in Italy, racism was minor before the Nazis took control."
Author forgets, Spain did it long ago, in 1492, with inquisition at full throttle. Subsequently question of racial or religious minorities in Spain was out of question. As to Peron or other nations in that neighbourhood, they all had an open preference for Germans and the opposite for Jewish migrants.
"Extreme Nationalism: Excessive display of nationalism with flags, mottoes, slogans and other national symbolism is common to all fascist regimes. Fascist governments glorify the military and divert most of the government spending to the military and defense items. Often this extreme nationalism results in the expanding the country’s borders through wars."
The author is slightly simplistic here. Military dictatorships need not glorify military, they can simply disallow any real functioning of civil government while controlling most of the land and resources, and worse. Example, the author only need look at a so called friend of his nation - where the next President of his nation successfully hunted down the terrorist mastermind. When informed, the said friend nation was officially silent. Unofficially, internet still buzzes with denials, from the guy's ever having been there, to his being dead.
................................................................................................
"It must be emphasized that not all of these traits need be present in a fascist state. For instance, Nazi Germany was the only fascist state to show extreme racism. There is scant evidence of it in Franco’s Spain, Peron’s Argentina and Pinochet’s Chile. Even in Italy, racism was minor before the Nazis took control."
Author forgets, Spain did it long ago, in 1492, with inquisition at full throttle. Subsequently question of racial or religious minorities in Spain was out of question. As to Peron or other nations in that neighbourhood, they all had an open preference for Germans and the opposite for Jewish migrants.
................................................................................................
"Corporatism and its theories of class collaboration, and economic and social relations can be traced to the model laid out by Pope Leo XII’s 1892 encyclical Rerum Novarum. ... Pope Leo XII proposed a kind of corporatism, organizing political societies along industrial lines, much like medieval guilds. The pope went so far as to reject the democratic ideal of “one person, one vote” in favor of representation by interest groups."
"Italian fascism as a political and economic system combined parts of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism and anti-communism. In many regards, it may be considered an ideology of negation: anti-liberal, anti-communist and antidemocratic. It was a reactionary ideology in that it promoted whatever views would be useful to further exploit the people. It was also a reaction against the French Revolution, that landmark event that launched a major shift in European culture and governments, whose motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” the European nobility hated the most.
"The concept of liberty from repressive regimes in the daily lives of the citizenry incensed the early philosophers of fascism. Freedom from forced religious values, the right to vote, majority rule in which the minority still held a set of inalienable rights - these were radical ideas in a time of debtor’s prisons, indentured servants and vassal states. Such ideas directly threatened kings, nobles, and the Church.
"Equality in the eyes of the law was unspeakable. How could a mere peasant have the same rights under the law as kings, nobles and merchants? There had been a time when the king’s word was the law. The social standing of one’s birth determined one’s rights. The only rights a person had were those the king was willing to extend - and which he could withdraw at any moment. Fraternity, in the sense that all men and women shared humanity, was considered heresy. Society had treated slaves as animals and women as property, not part of a greater humanity. All three terms meant a loss of control by those in power, and the 19th century saw a flourishing counter-revolution of obscurantist philosophy."
"Corporatism and its theories of class collaboration, and economic and social relations can be traced to the model laid out by Pope Leo XII’s 1892 encyclical Rerum Novarum. ... Pope Leo XII proposed a kind of corporatism, organizing political societies along industrial lines, much like medieval guilds. The pope went so far as to reject the democratic ideal of “one person, one vote” in favor of representation by interest groups."
................................................................................................
"Italian fascism as a political and economic system combined parts of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism and anti-communism. In many regards, it may be considered an ideology of negation: anti-liberal, anti-communist and antidemocratic. It was a reactionary ideology in that it promoted whatever views would be useful to further exploit the people. It was also a reaction against the French Revolution, that landmark event that launched a major shift in European culture and governments, whose motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” the European nobility hated the most.
"The concept of liberty from repressive regimes in the daily lives of the citizenry incensed the early philosophers of fascism. Freedom from forced religious values, the right to vote, majority rule in which the minority still held a set of inalienable rights - these were radical ideas in a time of debtor’s prisons, indentured servants and vassal states. Such ideas directly threatened kings, nobles, and the Church.
"Equality in the eyes of the law was unspeakable. How could a mere peasant have the same rights under the law as kings, nobles and merchants? There had been a time when the king’s word was the law. The social standing of one’s birth determined one’s rights. The only rights a person had were those the king was willing to extend - and which he could withdraw at any moment. Fraternity, in the sense that all men and women shared humanity, was considered heresy. Society had treated slaves as animals and women as property, not part of a greater humanity. All three terms meant a loss of control by those in power, and the 19th century saw a flourishing counter-revolution of obscurantist philosophy."
................................................................................................
"Hitler liked to be photographed staring at a bust of Nietzsche, the enfant terrible who theorized two sets of morals for the ruling and slave classes. He believed that ancient empires grew out of the ruling class and that religions - which denigrate the rich, the powerful, rationalism and sexuality - arose from the slave classes. “The unhealthy must at all costs be eliminated, lest the whole fall to pieces.” He developed the idea of an Übermensch, or overman, a superhuman, symbolizing man at his most creative and highest intellectual development. “A daring and ruler race is building itself up... to become the ‘lords of the earth.”"
"While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has eliminated much of the racial hate in the United States, a good deal remains just below the surface. In late 1998, Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia were exposed as members of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The group’s Web site, cofcc.org, still continues to bash blacks in a primitive fashion, and calls itself the No Longer Silent Majority."
"Hitler liked to be photographed staring at a bust of Nietzsche, the enfant terrible who theorized two sets of morals for the ruling and slave classes. He believed that ancient empires grew out of the ruling class and that religions - which denigrate the rich, the powerful, rationalism and sexuality - arose from the slave classes. “The unhealthy must at all costs be eliminated, lest the whole fall to pieces.” He developed the idea of an Übermensch, or overman, a superhuman, symbolizing man at his most creative and highest intellectual development. “A daring and ruler race is building itself up... to become the ‘lords of the earth.”"
................................................................................................
"While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has eliminated much of the racial hate in the United States, a good deal remains just below the surface. In late 1998, Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia were exposed as members of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The group’s Web site, cofcc.org, still continues to bash blacks in a primitive fashion, and calls itself the No Longer Silent Majority."
................................................................................................
"J.P. Morgan formed the American Legion to protect business interests and to act as a union-busting group of thugs. The Freikorps in Germany served the same purpose; Hitler himself was a member.
"During the 1920s and 1930s fascism came to be viewed as a bulwark against Bolshevism. The Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations actively sought to strengthen Mussolini’s hold on Italy to prevent the rise of socialism or communism there.
"During the 14 years of the Weimar Republic, the government repressed communists and socialists through violence, often assassination. Early on, it used the Freikorps to put down communist uprisings. Gen. Franz Epp, a leader of the Freikorps, led 30,000 soldiers to crush the Bavarian Socialist Republic, killing more than 600 communists and socialists. The Freikorps officially disbanded in 1921, but suppression of the Left continued, often resulting in street battles between the Right and Left.
"In 1926, the German army formed an Economic High Command to rearm and prepare for a new war. The Weimar government did nothing to suppress these actions. Instead, it conducted hundreds of treason trials in secret against any worker or journalist who revealed the truth.
"Hitler was a member of the List Regiment in Munich. During the attempted socialist takeover of Bavaria, historians believe that Hitler personally executed as many as 10 men. After the uprising was put down, Hitler was promoted in 1919 to a position as a Vertrauens-mann or undercover agent by Capt. Karl Mayr, who was in charge of Section I b/P of army intelligence, a bureau organized to investigate subversive political activities among the troop. Hitler remained an undercover agent until his discharge in late March 1920.
"Hitler’s first foray into politics came on Sept. 12, 1919, when his superior officers ordered him to investigate the German Workers’ Party. Hitler attended a mid-September meeting in a little beer hall named Sterneckerbrau to gather information for his report. The fledging party had aroused the attention of the military, which was suspicious of all workers’ groups. Anton Drexler had founded the party on March 7, 1918 under the name “Free Labor Committee for a Good Peace.” The party consisted of roughly 50 railroad men and Drexler friends. After the war, Drexler changed the name, but the same members and chairman remained.
"Hitler attended the meeting dressed in civilian clothes. Originally, Dietrich Eckart was slated as the main speaker, but canceled due to illness at the last moment, and Gottfried Feder took his place. Feder was an economic hack, and Hitler was glad when he finished his speech. After an attack on his views, Feder replied with a spirited defense. If the meeting had closed at this point, history might have taken a very different path. However, someone from the audience demanded Bavaria separate from Prussia and unite with Austria. Hitler had pronounced views on German unity and demanded the floor, delivering a rousing speech. It was the first time Hitler spoke before a political party, and the look of astonishment in the eyes of his audience pleased him. Hitler had no high opinion of the members of the tiny party, and had no intention of returning. However, before leaving the meeting, Drexler shoved a pamphlet into Hitler’s hands.
"The pamphlet outlined Drexler’s views. While sketching out a “new world order” based on National Socialism, the pamphlet was largely an anti-Jewish tract. A portion follows:
"There is a race - or perhaps we should call it a nation - which for over two thousand years has not possessed a state of its own, but has nevertheless spread over the entire earth. They are the Jews. They are not peasants, farmers or factory workers; they do not work in the coalmines or in the building trade. They are the secret “givers of bread” behind every limited liability company; they are the ones who barter everything fashioned by the intellectual and manual skill of mankind. They quickly conquered the money market, although they began in poverty, and were thereby made all the richer in vice, vermin and pestilence. All this they accomplished in the various countries they penetrated, and thus they became the indispensable bankers in all civilized countries and the economic leaders, exerting power over princes and rulers.
"Only one per cent of the total population is Jewish but for thousands of years the Jews, from the highest to the lowest, have grimly pursued the thought that this tiny people should never serve rulers but always govern them. Yet they are unable to form a state of their own. Consequently in every country they strive to monopolize the money market, the economy, politics, literature, the press, and this race has almost made themselves the masters of the world."
He didn't think much of the party, but when invited to join, did. Eckert began to tutor him with books, and provide money from funds he got from wealthy backers.
"One of the first such introductions was to Frau Helene Bechstein, wife of the piano manufacturer Carl Bechstein. Hitler intrigued Helene. She soon gave him sizable contributions and began urging her friends to do the same. Her patronage eased the way for Hitler’s acceptance in the highest social circles in Germany."
"At this time, the party changed its name to National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler also insisted on a party flag that could outdo the communist banner. A dentist from Stamberg suggested the design. The swastika has a long history dating back centuries and is found in various cultures, including American Indians. It had long been a symbol of the Teutonic Knights, and was used by the Thule Society and several Freikorp units."
That points at double racism by the author - one, denying roots of the symbol in India (the very word Swastik or Swastika is of Sanskrit language of ancient India, and literally means 'Symbol of Well-being'; it's an occult symbol, and it's misuse backfired on nazis and on Germany; in India, it's in everyday use since antiquity till date, painted or drawn fresh before homes by women early in morning every day, invoking blessings on the household) - and two, promoting the lie of nomenclature by calling natives of his continent Indian, although by now it ought to be clear to everyone they have, have never had, anything to do with India, although the latest theory in West is that they were migrants from Mongolia and Siberia who walked across the Bering strait.
This promotion of a lie by Columbus serves to annihilate India and her still living, flourishing culture, the annihilation being convenient for every invader culture and every colonial regime, equating all subjugated people of earth under the epithet Indian.
This is a much more humongous lie compared to the original one by Columbus, because India is a name given by outsiders, specifically by West, to the land. The name relates to the river Sindhu, called Indus by West as usual deforming words they can't pronounce, because that crossing was the only entry for them to the land protected by Himaalayan ranges and oceans on every other side.
India is named differently in India, and always was, since the river Sindhu wasn't identified (by those within India) with more than the small province that was the mouth of the river. Its one of the major rivers of India, but not amongst the first five, only about sixth or so. None of the Indian names for India relate to the river Sindhu in any way.
"J.P. Morgan formed the American Legion to protect business interests and to act as a union-busting group of thugs. The Freikorps in Germany served the same purpose; Hitler himself was a member.
"During the 1920s and 1930s fascism came to be viewed as a bulwark against Bolshevism. The Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations actively sought to strengthen Mussolini’s hold on Italy to prevent the rise of socialism or communism there.
"During the 14 years of the Weimar Republic, the government repressed communists and socialists through violence, often assassination. Early on, it used the Freikorps to put down communist uprisings. Gen. Franz Epp, a leader of the Freikorps, led 30,000 soldiers to crush the Bavarian Socialist Republic, killing more than 600 communists and socialists. The Freikorps officially disbanded in 1921, but suppression of the Left continued, often resulting in street battles between the Right and Left.
"In 1926, the German army formed an Economic High Command to rearm and prepare for a new war. The Weimar government did nothing to suppress these actions. Instead, it conducted hundreds of treason trials in secret against any worker or journalist who revealed the truth.
"Hitler was a member of the List Regiment in Munich. During the attempted socialist takeover of Bavaria, historians believe that Hitler personally executed as many as 10 men. After the uprising was put down, Hitler was promoted in 1919 to a position as a Vertrauens-mann or undercover agent by Capt. Karl Mayr, who was in charge of Section I b/P of army intelligence, a bureau organized to investigate subversive political activities among the troop. Hitler remained an undercover agent until his discharge in late March 1920.
"Hitler’s first foray into politics came on Sept. 12, 1919, when his superior officers ordered him to investigate the German Workers’ Party. Hitler attended a mid-September meeting in a little beer hall named Sterneckerbrau to gather information for his report. The fledging party had aroused the attention of the military, which was suspicious of all workers’ groups. Anton Drexler had founded the party on March 7, 1918 under the name “Free Labor Committee for a Good Peace.” The party consisted of roughly 50 railroad men and Drexler friends. After the war, Drexler changed the name, but the same members and chairman remained.
"Hitler attended the meeting dressed in civilian clothes. Originally, Dietrich Eckart was slated as the main speaker, but canceled due to illness at the last moment, and Gottfried Feder took his place. Feder was an economic hack, and Hitler was glad when he finished his speech. After an attack on his views, Feder replied with a spirited defense. If the meeting had closed at this point, history might have taken a very different path. However, someone from the audience demanded Bavaria separate from Prussia and unite with Austria. Hitler had pronounced views on German unity and demanded the floor, delivering a rousing speech. It was the first time Hitler spoke before a political party, and the look of astonishment in the eyes of his audience pleased him. Hitler had no high opinion of the members of the tiny party, and had no intention of returning. However, before leaving the meeting, Drexler shoved a pamphlet into Hitler’s hands.
"The pamphlet outlined Drexler’s views. While sketching out a “new world order” based on National Socialism, the pamphlet was largely an anti-Jewish tract. A portion follows:
"There is a race - or perhaps we should call it a nation - which for over two thousand years has not possessed a state of its own, but has nevertheless spread over the entire earth. They are the Jews. They are not peasants, farmers or factory workers; they do not work in the coalmines or in the building trade. They are the secret “givers of bread” behind every limited liability company; they are the ones who barter everything fashioned by the intellectual and manual skill of mankind. They quickly conquered the money market, although they began in poverty, and were thereby made all the richer in vice, vermin and pestilence. All this they accomplished in the various countries they penetrated, and thus they became the indispensable bankers in all civilized countries and the economic leaders, exerting power over princes and rulers.
"Only one per cent of the total population is Jewish but for thousands of years the Jews, from the highest to the lowest, have grimly pursued the thought that this tiny people should never serve rulers but always govern them. Yet they are unable to form a state of their own. Consequently in every country they strive to monopolize the money market, the economy, politics, literature, the press, and this race has almost made themselves the masters of the world."
He didn't think much of the party, but when invited to join, did. Eckert began to tutor him with books, and provide money from funds he got from wealthy backers.
"One of the first such introductions was to Frau Helene Bechstein, wife of the piano manufacturer Carl Bechstein. Hitler intrigued Helene. She soon gave him sizable contributions and began urging her friends to do the same. Her patronage eased the way for Hitler’s acceptance in the highest social circles in Germany."
................................................................................................
"At this time, the party changed its name to National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler also insisted on a party flag that could outdo the communist banner. A dentist from Stamberg suggested the design. The swastika has a long history dating back centuries and is found in various cultures, including American Indians. It had long been a symbol of the Teutonic Knights, and was used by the Thule Society and several Freikorp units."
That points at double racism by the author - one, denying roots of the symbol in India (the very word Swastik or Swastika is of Sanskrit language of ancient India, and literally means 'Symbol of Well-being'; it's an occult symbol, and it's misuse backfired on nazis and on Germany; in India, it's in everyday use since antiquity till date, painted or drawn fresh before homes by women early in morning every day, invoking blessings on the household) - and two, promoting the lie of nomenclature by calling natives of his continent Indian, although by now it ought to be clear to everyone they have, have never had, anything to do with India, although the latest theory in West is that they were migrants from Mongolia and Siberia who walked across the Bering strait.
This promotion of a lie by Columbus serves to annihilate India and her still living, flourishing culture, the annihilation being convenient for every invader culture and every colonial regime, equating all subjugated people of earth under the epithet Indian.
This is a much more humongous lie compared to the original one by Columbus, because India is a name given by outsiders, specifically by West, to the land. The name relates to the river Sindhu, called Indus by West as usual deforming words they can't pronounce, because that crossing was the only entry for them to the land protected by Himaalayan ranges and oceans on every other side.
India is named differently in India, and always was, since the river Sindhu wasn't identified (by those within India) with more than the small province that was the mouth of the river. Its one of the major rivers of India, but not amongst the first five, only about sixth or so. None of the Indian names for India relate to the river Sindhu in any way.
................................................................................................
"In the late summer of 1921, the party’s defense squads of volunteer brawlers reorganized under paramilitary lines. On Oct. 5, 1921 the party officially named them Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers (SA). It cost a great deal to equip the SA. Shelter and food had to be provided, uniforms, flags and weapons had to be purchased, and there was the cost of transporting them to and from rallies. The money came from the High Command of the Bavarian Army, the Reichswehr. According to author James Pool, the aid was given on the initiative of Capt. Ernst Roehm without the knowledge of his superiors in the Bavarian army, but there is reason to doubt this. Officially in charge of the press and propaganda for the Bavarian Reichswehr, Roehm had much more influence than his rank of captain suggested. Unofficially, the generals took his advice on political matters. He organized many of the Freikorp units and was responsible for hiding arms from the Allied Control Commission. Roehm also was the leader of the SA."
"Nov. 22, 1922, Ernst (Putzi) Hanfstaengl attended one of Hitler’s speeches on a suggestion from Capt. Truman Smith, the assistant military attaché of the U.S. Embassy. Hanfstaengl was an anti-communist, and his mother, who was from a wealthy American family, owned an art business in Munich. Impressed by Hitler’s speech, he joined the Nazi Party. Soon after, he loaned $1,000 to the party to buy a couple printing presses and convert the new party newspaper Völkischer Beobachter from a weekly to a daily.
"By the end of 1922, the German mark fell to 400 against the U.S. dollar. Hyperinflation continued through 1923. During the hyperinflation, Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter was the most important fund-raiser for the Nazi Party. The wealthy Scheubner-Richter approached aristocrats, big business leaders and leaders of heavy industry for contributions. Scheubner-Richter was a close friend of Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who channeled money to him from industrialists. Ludendorff was a prominent World War I general who fled to Sweden claiming left-wing politicians had stabbed the German army in the back. In 1924, he became one of the first Nazis to be seated in the Reichstag.
"Scheubner-Richter also was close to White Russian émigrés, and worked to bring about close cooperation between right-wing Russian émigrés and the Nazi Party. Through him, Hitler received the unqualified support of Gen. Vasili Biskupsky. In 1922, Biskupsky declared his support for Grand Duke Cyril, a pretender to the Russian throne. As a first cousin to Czar Nicholas II, he was a rightful heir to the crown. Both the Grand Duke and his wife, the Grand Duchess Victoria, took up the Nazi cause and gave generously.
"There also are credible reports that Hitler traveled to Switzerland to raise funds during the hyperinflation."
"In the late summer of 1921, the party’s defense squads of volunteer brawlers reorganized under paramilitary lines. On Oct. 5, 1921 the party officially named them Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers (SA). It cost a great deal to equip the SA. Shelter and food had to be provided, uniforms, flags and weapons had to be purchased, and there was the cost of transporting them to and from rallies. The money came from the High Command of the Bavarian Army, the Reichswehr. According to author James Pool, the aid was given on the initiative of Capt. Ernst Roehm without the knowledge of his superiors in the Bavarian army, but there is reason to doubt this. Officially in charge of the press and propaganda for the Bavarian Reichswehr, Roehm had much more influence than his rank of captain suggested. Unofficially, the generals took his advice on political matters. He organized many of the Freikorp units and was responsible for hiding arms from the Allied Control Commission. Roehm also was the leader of the SA."
................................................................................................
"Nov. 22, 1922, Ernst (Putzi) Hanfstaengl attended one of Hitler’s speeches on a suggestion from Capt. Truman Smith, the assistant military attaché of the U.S. Embassy. Hanfstaengl was an anti-communist, and his mother, who was from a wealthy American family, owned an art business in Munich. Impressed by Hitler’s speech, he joined the Nazi Party. Soon after, he loaned $1,000 to the party to buy a couple printing presses and convert the new party newspaper Völkischer Beobachter from a weekly to a daily.
"By the end of 1922, the German mark fell to 400 against the U.S. dollar. Hyperinflation continued through 1923. During the hyperinflation, Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter was the most important fund-raiser for the Nazi Party. The wealthy Scheubner-Richter approached aristocrats, big business leaders and leaders of heavy industry for contributions. Scheubner-Richter was a close friend of Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who channeled money to him from industrialists. Ludendorff was a prominent World War I general who fled to Sweden claiming left-wing politicians had stabbed the German army in the back. In 1924, he became one of the first Nazis to be seated in the Reichstag.
"Scheubner-Richter also was close to White Russian émigrés, and worked to bring about close cooperation between right-wing Russian émigrés and the Nazi Party. Through him, Hitler received the unqualified support of Gen. Vasili Biskupsky. In 1922, Biskupsky declared his support for Grand Duke Cyril, a pretender to the Russian throne. As a first cousin to Czar Nicholas II, he was a rightful heir to the crown. Both the Grand Duke and his wife, the Grand Duchess Victoria, took up the Nazi cause and gave generously.
"There also are credible reports that Hitler traveled to Switzerland to raise funds during the hyperinflation."
................................................................................................
"In October 1923, Gen. Eric Ludendorff suggested to Fritz Thyssen that he attend a speech by Hitler. Thyssen, whose family owned one of Germany’s largest steel firms, was immediately struck by Hitler’s views, and began contributing money to the Nazi Party. In October he gave Ludendorff 100,000 gold marks (not the inflated paper German marks) to divide between the Nazis and the Oberland Freikorps."
"While the Nazis and Hitler were well known around Munich, they were unknown elsewhere. The Nazis had yet to seat their first representative in the Reichstag. Thyssen must have had an extraordinary degree of faith in the Nazis to make such a generous donation at a time of economic strife."
"In essence, the Oberland Bund helped to provide Hitler with manpower for the Beer Hall Putsch. Looking at this evidence, the ridiculous claims by Pool and other writers that Thyssen’s donation to the Nazis is overrated are obvious. Thyssen’s donation went exclusively to Hitler and his thugs."
"Feb. 7, 1924, Herr Auer, vice president of the Bavarian Diet, testified:
"The Bavarian Diet has long had information that the Hitler movement was partly financed by an American anti-Semitic chief, who is Henry Ford. Mr. Ford’s interests 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 Diedrich Eichart the notorious Pan-German. Shortly after, Herr Eichart asked Mr. Ford’s agent for financial aid. The agent returned to America and immediately Mr. Ford’s money began coming to Munich.
"Herr Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford’s support and praises Mr. Ford as a great individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in Herr Hitler’s quarters, which is the center of the monarchist movement."
"Further confirmation of Ford’s funding comes from an interview Hitler gave seven months before the Beer Hall Putsch to Raymond Fendick, a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Fendick wrote:
"We look on Heinrich Ford as the leader of the growing fascisti movement in America. We admire particularly the anti-Jewish policy, which is the Bavarian Fascisti platform. We have just had his anti-Jewish articles translated and published. It is being circulated to millions throughout Germany."
"In 1924, Kurt Luedecke traveled to America to get more funding from Ford. Luedecke insists he was sent on the direct orders from Hitler. Luedecke had glowing remarks for Ford’s editor of the Dearborn Independent, William Cameron.
"Further confirmation of Ford’s support for Hitler comes from newspaper articles. The Berliner Tageblatt made an appeal to the American ambassador to investigate the report of Ford’s financing of the Nazis, noting that Hitler had money to spend during the hyperinflation period when marks were worthless. The Manchester Guardian reported Hitler received more than moral support from two American millionaires.
"While there is no direct proof, it can be surmised that the Guardian was referring to either the du Pont family or W. Averell Harriman. Irénée du Pont, heir apparent of the du Pont family, was a Hitler admirer who followed his career closely. The du Ponts quickly reestablished their cartel agreements with IG Farben as soon as World War I ended. Harriman traveled to Berlin in 1922 to set up the Berlin branch of W.A. Harriman & Co. George Herbert Walker was a director of the company; he was the father-in-law of Prescott Bush. Harriman and Thyssen had agreed to set up an American bank for Thyssen before 1924. The resulting bank, Union Bank, was seized from Prescott Bush in 1942 under the Trading With the Enemy Act."
"In October 1923, Gen. Eric Ludendorff suggested to Fritz Thyssen that he attend a speech by Hitler. Thyssen, whose family owned one of Germany’s largest steel firms, was immediately struck by Hitler’s views, and began contributing money to the Nazi Party. In October he gave Ludendorff 100,000 gold marks (not the inflated paper German marks) to divide between the Nazis and the Oberland Freikorps."
"While the Nazis and Hitler were well known around Munich, they were unknown elsewhere. The Nazis had yet to seat their first representative in the Reichstag. Thyssen must have had an extraordinary degree of faith in the Nazis to make such a generous donation at a time of economic strife."
"In essence, the Oberland Bund helped to provide Hitler with manpower for the Beer Hall Putsch. Looking at this evidence, the ridiculous claims by Pool and other writers that Thyssen’s donation to the Nazis is overrated are obvious. Thyssen’s donation went exclusively to Hitler and his thugs."
................................................................................................
"Feb. 7, 1924, Herr Auer, vice president of the Bavarian Diet, testified:
"The Bavarian Diet has long had information that the Hitler movement was partly financed by an American anti-Semitic chief, who is Henry Ford. Mr. Ford’s interests 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 Diedrich Eichart the notorious Pan-German. Shortly after, Herr Eichart asked Mr. Ford’s agent for financial aid. The agent returned to America and immediately Mr. Ford’s money began coming to Munich.
"Herr Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford’s support and praises Mr. Ford as a great individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in Herr Hitler’s quarters, which is the center of the monarchist movement."
"Further confirmation of Ford’s funding comes from an interview Hitler gave seven months before the Beer Hall Putsch to Raymond Fendick, a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Fendick wrote:
"We look on Heinrich Ford as the leader of the growing fascisti movement in America. We admire particularly the anti-Jewish policy, which is the Bavarian Fascisti platform. We have just had his anti-Jewish articles translated and published. It is being circulated to millions throughout Germany."
"In 1924, Kurt Luedecke traveled to America to get more funding from Ford. Luedecke insists he was sent on the direct orders from Hitler. Luedecke had glowing remarks for Ford’s editor of the Dearborn Independent, William Cameron.
"Further confirmation of Ford’s support for Hitler comes from newspaper articles. The Berliner Tageblatt made an appeal to the American ambassador to investigate the report of Ford’s financing of the Nazis, noting that Hitler had money to spend during the hyperinflation period when marks were worthless. The Manchester Guardian reported Hitler received more than moral support from two American millionaires.
"While there is no direct proof, it can be surmised that the Guardian was referring to either the du Pont family or W. Averell Harriman. Irénée du Pont, heir apparent of the du Pont family, was a Hitler admirer who followed his career closely. The du Ponts quickly reestablished their cartel agreements with IG Farben as soon as World War I ended. Harriman traveled to Berlin in 1922 to set up the Berlin branch of W.A. Harriman & Co. George Herbert Walker was a director of the company; he was the father-in-law of Prescott Bush. Harriman and Thyssen had agreed to set up an American bank for Thyssen before 1924. The resulting bank, Union Bank, was seized from Prescott Bush in 1942 under the Trading With the Enemy Act."
................................................................................................
"The perplexing question of why American big businessmen would support Hitler at this early date has never been addressed. Before the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was largely unknown outside the Munich area, even within Germany. Given Ford’s character as a miser who hated making donations to charities and organizations, why would he back a political party that had so far failed to seat a single representative in the Reichstag, at a time when the country was on the brink of a financial collapse? Only two explanations seem reasonable: Hitler’s strong anti-communist stance or his extreme anti-Semitism or Judeophobia. Both Harriman and Irénée du Pont were Judeophobes, although not fanatics like Ford. Throughout the 1920s, both U.S. foreign policy and trade policy show that American investors were sympathetic with Mussolini because of his anti-communist stance."
"Indeed, many large industrialists in Germany benefited handsomely from the hyperinflation, lending creditability to the theory of an organized plot to relieve them of their millions in wartime debt, which they paid off with worthless, inflated marks."
"The perplexing question of why American big businessmen would support Hitler at this early date has never been addressed. Before the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was largely unknown outside the Munich area, even within Germany. Given Ford’s character as a miser who hated making donations to charities and organizations, why would he back a political party that had so far failed to seat a single representative in the Reichstag, at a time when the country was on the brink of a financial collapse? Only two explanations seem reasonable: Hitler’s strong anti-communist stance or his extreme anti-Semitism or Judeophobia. Both Harriman and Irénée du Pont were Judeophobes, although not fanatics like Ford. Throughout the 1920s, both U.S. foreign policy and trade policy show that American investors were sympathetic with Mussolini because of his anti-communist stance."
................................................................................................
"Indeed, many large industrialists in Germany benefited handsomely from the hyperinflation, lending creditability to the theory of an organized plot to relieve them of their millions in wartime debt, which they paid off with worthless, inflated marks."
................................................................................................
"Less lenient sentences were handed out to others in secret trials conducted by the Weimar Republic during the 1920s. For instance, Walter Bullerjahn was sent to prison for 15 years for treason. The Allies had discovered that the arms maker Paul von Gontard had secretly cached an arsenal contrary to the Treaty of Versailles. Gontard disliked Bullerjahn and charged him with revealing to the Allies the fact he was secretly arming Germany. No evidence of any connection between Bullerjahn and the Allies was ever presented in court. Bullerjahn was one of hundreds of victims who received more severe sentences for far less serious crimes than an armed rebellion and coup attempt."
"However, 1925-29 marked a period of slow growth for the party. Inflation was under control and the communist threat had subsided. Without these two threats, voters turned away from the radical Nazi Party. Nazi records show the number of dues-paying members steadily increased from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1928, but the party records are suspect and the real figures may be only half those reported.
"Authors such as James Pool and Henry Ashby Turner, who minimize and distort the support of big business for the Nazi Party, suggest that Hitler’s financing from 1925 - 29 came mainly from dues and speaking fees. Yet the number of dues-paying members was inadequate, and Hitler was banned from speaking in much of Germany. On the other hand, author Carroll Quigley lists the following industrialists as supporters of Hitler during this time: Carl Bechstein, August Borsig, Emil Kirdorf, Fritz Thyssen and Albert Vogler.
"There is much evidence to support Quigley’s position. Even Turner is forced to acknowledge that Hitler started courting big business support. On June 20, 1926, the Essen newspaper Rheinisch-Westfalische Zeitung reported that two days before, Hitler spoke to a closed-door meeting of invited business leaders. Hitler closed the meeting to get around the Prussian state’s ban on public speeches. In the subsequent 18 months, he addressed three other such meetings. Hitler was softening his approach to big business thanks to past financial donations. By all reports, after these meetings the business leaders were in favor of Hitler’s views. The meetings grew in size from 40 for the first meeting to a high of 800 for the last one.
"Turner tries to minimize big business participation in these meetings by claiming that no record of attendance has ever been found in the files of the big businessmen, and that some records would have survived. However, many of these big business leaders supported Hitler in secret, and the need for secrecy was mutual. Hitler had to avoid losing a large number of party members who opposed big business. The big business leaders had to maintain secrecy to avoid consumer boycotts. Ford’s business suffered badly after his support of Hitler became known, and the lesson was not lost on these savvy executives. In 1926, even the Bechstein piano firm dismissed Edwin Bechstein after reports surfaced in the press of his fraternization with Hitler."
"Turner claims that an obscure man named Arnold, who held a managerial job at a midsize smelting firm, organized the first meeting. Then he assumes only people in similar positions were invited. It is unlikely that a group of midlevel managers from small to midsize firms meeting with Hitler would have attracted the attention of local newspapers. It also is unlikely Hitler would have traveled to Essen to speak at the request of midlevel business managers unless some prominent names were present.
"Turner also tries to distance big business from the Nazis by suggesting that company donations were made by junior or middle-level management. While such an argument sounds reasonable, it is patently false. Almost no business even today allows such decisions by middle-level managers; such daring decisions would likely lead to the employee’s dismissal. As an example, Ludwig Grauert, the managing director of the Arbeitnordwest, the iron and steel industry association in the Ruhr, made a $100,000 loan to the Nazis after receiving permission from Ernst Borbet, another director of United Steel. After his boss returned and discovered the loan, Grauert was nearly fired. If Thyssen had not replaced the funds, Grauert would have been dismissed."
"Less lenient sentences were handed out to others in secret trials conducted by the Weimar Republic during the 1920s. For instance, Walter Bullerjahn was sent to prison for 15 years for treason. The Allies had discovered that the arms maker Paul von Gontard had secretly cached an arsenal contrary to the Treaty of Versailles. Gontard disliked Bullerjahn and charged him with revealing to the Allies the fact he was secretly arming Germany. No evidence of any connection between Bullerjahn and the Allies was ever presented in court. Bullerjahn was one of hundreds of victims who received more severe sentences for far less serious crimes than an armed rebellion and coup attempt."
................................................................................................
"However, 1925-29 marked a period of slow growth for the party. Inflation was under control and the communist threat had subsided. Without these two threats, voters turned away from the radical Nazi Party. Nazi records show the number of dues-paying members steadily increased from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1928, but the party records are suspect and the real figures may be only half those reported.
"Authors such as James Pool and Henry Ashby Turner, who minimize and distort the support of big business for the Nazi Party, suggest that Hitler’s financing from 1925 - 29 came mainly from dues and speaking fees. Yet the number of dues-paying members was inadequate, and Hitler was banned from speaking in much of Germany. On the other hand, author Carroll Quigley lists the following industrialists as supporters of Hitler during this time: Carl Bechstein, August Borsig, Emil Kirdorf, Fritz Thyssen and Albert Vogler.
"There is much evidence to support Quigley’s position. Even Turner is forced to acknowledge that Hitler started courting big business support. On June 20, 1926, the Essen newspaper Rheinisch-Westfalische Zeitung reported that two days before, Hitler spoke to a closed-door meeting of invited business leaders. Hitler closed the meeting to get around the Prussian state’s ban on public speeches. In the subsequent 18 months, he addressed three other such meetings. Hitler was softening his approach to big business thanks to past financial donations. By all reports, after these meetings the business leaders were in favor of Hitler’s views. The meetings grew in size from 40 for the first meeting to a high of 800 for the last one.
"Turner tries to minimize big business participation in these meetings by claiming that no record of attendance has ever been found in the files of the big businessmen, and that some records would have survived. However, many of these big business leaders supported Hitler in secret, and the need for secrecy was mutual. Hitler had to avoid losing a large number of party members who opposed big business. The big business leaders had to maintain secrecy to avoid consumer boycotts. Ford’s business suffered badly after his support of Hitler became known, and the lesson was not lost on these savvy executives. In 1926, even the Bechstein piano firm dismissed Edwin Bechstein after reports surfaced in the press of his fraternization with Hitler."
"Turner claims that an obscure man named Arnold, who held a managerial job at a midsize smelting firm, organized the first meeting. Then he assumes only people in similar positions were invited. It is unlikely that a group of midlevel managers from small to midsize firms meeting with Hitler would have attracted the attention of local newspapers. It also is unlikely Hitler would have traveled to Essen to speak at the request of midlevel business managers unless some prominent names were present.
"Turner also tries to distance big business from the Nazis by suggesting that company donations were made by junior or middle-level management. While such an argument sounds reasonable, it is patently false. Almost no business even today allows such decisions by middle-level managers; such daring decisions would likely lead to the employee’s dismissal. As an example, Ludwig Grauert, the managing director of the Arbeitnordwest, the iron and steel industry association in the Ruhr, made a $100,000 loan to the Nazis after receiving permission from Ernst Borbet, another director of United Steel. After his boss returned and discovered the loan, Grauert was nearly fired. If Thyssen had not replaced the funds, Grauert would have been dismissed."
................................................................................................
"Kirdorf suggested Hitler write down his thoughts in a pamphlet to spread secretly among business leaders. Hitler complied and Kirdorf printed the pamphlet, The Road to Resurgence, listing Hitler as the author. In October, Kirdorf offered Hitler further aid by inviting him to his home to meet with 14 of his friends."
"In his shamefully apologetic diatribe to big business, Turner uses this fact to suggest the pamphlet was largely unread. However, as it was found in the library of a large industrial firm, it suggests that whoever received the pamphlet placed it there so others could read it. Further, it is equally probable that these industrialists passed the pamphlet within their own circle of friends. It is more likely these industrialists read the pamphlet eagerly, since they were intrigued by Hitler’s ability to rally the workers, along with his anti-socialist and anti-union views.
"Hitler continued to meet with business leaders, often in secret, until his appointment as chancellor. Many times, these meetings were so secret that they would take place in a lonely forest glade on the side of an isolated road.
"A complete list of Hitler’s financial backers may never be known. However, Walter Funk named many business leaders and industries as financial supporters of Hitler during his Nuremberg testimony: Georg von Schnitzler, a leading director of IG Farben; August Rosterg and August Diehn of the potash industry; Wilhelm Cuno of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, the shipping company seized from Prescott Bush for trading with the enemy; Otto Wolf, a powerful Cologne industrialist; and Kurt von Schroeder, a radical Nazi and Cologne banker. Also implicated were Deutsche Bank, Commerz Bank, Dresdner Bank, Deutsche Kredit Gesellschaft and Allianz, Germany’s largest insurer."
The author mentions Krupp associating with nazis, with heavy contribution to the party.
"In 1932, Kurt von Schroeder and Wilhelm Keppler formed the group known as “The Fraternity.” Members agreed to contribute an average of 1 million marks a year to Heinrich Himmler’s personally marked “S” account and the transferable, secret “R” account of the Gestapo.
"While Hitler continued to meet with the industrialists, he allowed Gregor Strasser, Goebbels and Gottfried Feder to continue to beguile the masses with socialist views. Hitler never expressed any solid economic views of his own. He would tailor his speech to the audience. Speaking in front of industrialists, he would soften his anti-Semitism and denounce the Nazi 25-point program. In fact, Hitler never did support the 25-point program and referred to it only once in Mein Kampf, and then in a derogatory manner. Hitler continued to evolve the party away from socialism and was successful in convincing Goebbels to desert the socialist faction of the Nazi Party led by Strasser. This softening of the Nazi position on capitalism and private property is clearly seen in an Erklärung, a clarification of the party position issued April 13, 1928.
""Since the NSDAP admits the principle of private property, it is self-evident that the expression “confiscation without compensation” merely refers to the possible legal powers to confiscate, if necessary, land illegally acquired, or administered in accordance with the national welfare. It is directed in the first instance against Jewish companies which speculate in land.""
"Besides receiving aid from German business leaders and the upper class of German society, Hitler and the Nazis received important support from corporate America, as shown in this excerpt from an interview with the American ambassador to Germany, William Dodd.
""Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help fascists occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there …
"Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress, they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."
"Dodd did not name any of the industrialists in the interview, but most historians believe he was referring to Henry Ford. Other foreign sources of support for Hitler came from Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of Royal Dutch Petroleum. Deterding was strongly opposed to communism and, as early as 1921, was a Hitler admirer. Deterding was interested in discovering those forces that would remove once and for all the dangers of social or colonial revolutions. At the inquiry into the Reichstag fire, Johannes Steel, a former agent of the German Economic Intelligence Service, testified to Deterding’s financial support for the Nazis. The Dutch press reported that Deterding had given Hitler about 4 million guilders. By the 1930s, Deterding began secret negotiations with the German military to provide a year’s supply of oil on credit. In 1931, Deterding made a 20 million pound loan to Hitler, allegedly for a promise of a petroleum monopoly once the Nazis were in power. In May 1933, Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler’s representative, met with Deterding, confirming the close link between big oil and the Nazis. In 1936, the board of directors forced Deterding to resign over his Nazi sympathies."
"Kirdorf suggested Hitler write down his thoughts in a pamphlet to spread secretly among business leaders. Hitler complied and Kirdorf printed the pamphlet, The Road to Resurgence, listing Hitler as the author. In October, Kirdorf offered Hitler further aid by inviting him to his home to meet with 14 of his friends."
"In his shamefully apologetic diatribe to big business, Turner uses this fact to suggest the pamphlet was largely unread. However, as it was found in the library of a large industrial firm, it suggests that whoever received the pamphlet placed it there so others could read it. Further, it is equally probable that these industrialists passed the pamphlet within their own circle of friends. It is more likely these industrialists read the pamphlet eagerly, since they were intrigued by Hitler’s ability to rally the workers, along with his anti-socialist and anti-union views.
"Hitler continued to meet with business leaders, often in secret, until his appointment as chancellor. Many times, these meetings were so secret that they would take place in a lonely forest glade on the side of an isolated road.
"A complete list of Hitler’s financial backers may never be known. However, Walter Funk named many business leaders and industries as financial supporters of Hitler during his Nuremberg testimony: Georg von Schnitzler, a leading director of IG Farben; August Rosterg and August Diehn of the potash industry; Wilhelm Cuno of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, the shipping company seized from Prescott Bush for trading with the enemy; Otto Wolf, a powerful Cologne industrialist; and Kurt von Schroeder, a radical Nazi and Cologne banker. Also implicated were Deutsche Bank, Commerz Bank, Dresdner Bank, Deutsche Kredit Gesellschaft and Allianz, Germany’s largest insurer."
The author mentions Krupp associating with nazis, with heavy contribution to the party.
"In 1932, Kurt von Schroeder and Wilhelm Keppler formed the group known as “The Fraternity.” Members agreed to contribute an average of 1 million marks a year to Heinrich Himmler’s personally marked “S” account and the transferable, secret “R” account of the Gestapo.
"While Hitler continued to meet with the industrialists, he allowed Gregor Strasser, Goebbels and Gottfried Feder to continue to beguile the masses with socialist views. Hitler never expressed any solid economic views of his own. He would tailor his speech to the audience. Speaking in front of industrialists, he would soften his anti-Semitism and denounce the Nazi 25-point program. In fact, Hitler never did support the 25-point program and referred to it only once in Mein Kampf, and then in a derogatory manner. Hitler continued to evolve the party away from socialism and was successful in convincing Goebbels to desert the socialist faction of the Nazi Party led by Strasser. This softening of the Nazi position on capitalism and private property is clearly seen in an Erklärung, a clarification of the party position issued April 13, 1928.
""Since the NSDAP admits the principle of private property, it is self-evident that the expression “confiscation without compensation” merely refers to the possible legal powers to confiscate, if necessary, land illegally acquired, or administered in accordance with the national welfare. It is directed in the first instance against Jewish companies which speculate in land.""
................................................................................................
"Besides receiving aid from German business leaders and the upper class of German society, Hitler and the Nazis received important support from corporate America, as shown in this excerpt from an interview with the American ambassador to Germany, William Dodd.
""Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help fascists occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there …
"Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress, they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."
"Dodd did not name any of the industrialists in the interview, but most historians believe he was referring to Henry Ford. Other foreign sources of support for Hitler came from Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of Royal Dutch Petroleum. Deterding was strongly opposed to communism and, as early as 1921, was a Hitler admirer. Deterding was interested in discovering those forces that would remove once and for all the dangers of social or colonial revolutions. At the inquiry into the Reichstag fire, Johannes Steel, a former agent of the German Economic Intelligence Service, testified to Deterding’s financial support for the Nazis. The Dutch press reported that Deterding had given Hitler about 4 million guilders. By the 1930s, Deterding began secret negotiations with the German military to provide a year’s supply of oil on credit. In 1931, Deterding made a 20 million pound loan to Hitler, allegedly for a promise of a petroleum monopoly once the Nazis were in power. In May 1933, Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler’s representative, met with Deterding, confirming the close link between big oil and the Nazis. In 1936, the board of directors forced Deterding to resign over his Nazi sympathies."
................................................................................................
"The objective of the meeting at the Cologne home of Kurt von Schroeder was to form a new government led by Hitler and von Papen.
"Baron von Schroeder was a member of the most influential group in Germany, the Herrenklub, as well as the Thule Society. He later held several high positions in the Nazi government and directed ITT’s Germany subsidiaries. Moreover, von Schroeder had extensive financial contacts in New York and London. He was a co-director of the Thyssen foundry with Johann Groeninger, Prescott Bush’s New York bank partner. Schroeder also was vice president and director of Prescott Bush’s Hamburg-Amerika Line.
"The meeting took place in utmost secrecy on Jan. 4, 1933 with two Americans present: John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles. The Dulles brothers were there representing their client, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., which had extended large, short-term credits to Germany and needed assurance of repayment from Hitler before committing to support him. Goebbels recorded the success of the meeting in his diary on Jan. 5, 1933: “If this coup succeeds, we are not far from power ... Our finances have suddenly improved.”
"Hitler now had the backing of both von Papen and the business leaders. Facing pressure from these quarters, Hindenburg relented and appointed Hitler as chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933.Von Papen assumed the vice-chancellor position."
He wasn't elected to power by people, but came as a result of backroom deals and flaws in the constitution.
"Fascism is generally a desperate reaction by the elite to preserve their power and wealth in periods of economic crisis and political strife. The resurgence of fascism since the 1980s may be linked to the stresses of shifting from an industrial to an information-based economy. This is especially troubling in the United States, where U.S. supremacy is threatened by increasing dependence on imported oil and manufactures. The fortunes of the American elite depend on an oil-driven economy and the ability of the U.S. to project power with a navy, army and air force running largely on oil."
"The objective of the meeting at the Cologne home of Kurt von Schroeder was to form a new government led by Hitler and von Papen.
"Baron von Schroeder was a member of the most influential group in Germany, the Herrenklub, as well as the Thule Society. He later held several high positions in the Nazi government and directed ITT’s Germany subsidiaries. Moreover, von Schroeder had extensive financial contacts in New York and London. He was a co-director of the Thyssen foundry with Johann Groeninger, Prescott Bush’s New York bank partner. Schroeder also was vice president and director of Prescott Bush’s Hamburg-Amerika Line.
"The meeting took place in utmost secrecy on Jan. 4, 1933 with two Americans present: John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles. The Dulles brothers were there representing their client, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., which had extended large, short-term credits to Germany and needed assurance of repayment from Hitler before committing to support him. Goebbels recorded the success of the meeting in his diary on Jan. 5, 1933: “If this coup succeeds, we are not far from power ... Our finances have suddenly improved.”
"Hitler now had the backing of both von Papen and the business leaders. Facing pressure from these quarters, Hindenburg relented and appointed Hitler as chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933.Von Papen assumed the vice-chancellor position."
He wasn't elected to power by people, but came as a result of backroom deals and flaws in the constitution.
................................................................................................
"Fascism is generally a desperate reaction by the elite to preserve their power and wealth in periods of economic crisis and political strife. The resurgence of fascism since the 1980s may be linked to the stresses of shifting from an industrial to an information-based economy. This is especially troubling in the United States, where U.S. supremacy is threatened by increasing dependence on imported oil and manufactures. The fortunes of the American elite depend on an oil-driven economy and the ability of the U.S. to project power with a navy, army and air force running largely on oil."
................................................................................................
"IG Farben, the giant chemical cartel, always preserved a close association with the German military. Initially, the company had several Jews among its directors and was attacked by the Nazis. Once the Jews were replaced and a few rabid Nazis rose to director positions, the company ideology merged with that of the party. One of the critical materials IG Farben supplied to the Nazis was gasoline derived from coal. By the end of the war, IG Farben was using a series of slave labor camps, including Auschwitz. Another product IG Farben supplied was Zyklon-B."
"In 1929, Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) gave Hitler a large cache of church money, allegedly because of Hitler’s strong opposition to communism. Sister Pascalina witnessed the transfer of money."
"Catholics were prominent in all the countries which adopted fascism: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Hungary. And the Vatican was the primary sponsor of the ratlines that allowed Nazi war criminals to escape from Europe and justice after the war."
"IG Farben, the giant chemical cartel, always preserved a close association with the German military. Initially, the company had several Jews among its directors and was attacked by the Nazis. Once the Jews were replaced and a few rabid Nazis rose to director positions, the company ideology merged with that of the party. One of the critical materials IG Farben supplied to the Nazis was gasoline derived from coal. By the end of the war, IG Farben was using a series of slave labor camps, including Auschwitz. Another product IG Farben supplied was Zyklon-B."
................................................................................................
"In 1929, Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) gave Hitler a large cache of church money, allegedly because of Hitler’s strong opposition to communism. Sister Pascalina witnessed the transfer of money."
"Catholics were prominent in all the countries which adopted fascism: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Hungary. And the Vatican was the primary sponsor of the ratlines that allowed Nazi war criminals to escape from Europe and justice after the war."
................................................................................................
"Today, America’s Right Wing has twisted this protection of citizens to only include protection from foreign powers. It knowingly misleads people in classifying environmental protection, the minimum wage, Social Security and a host of other social welfare programs as socialism."
"A survey of early state constitutions confirms the seriousness with which the founders viewed the threat from corporations. In an effort to cover up their past support for fascism and to install global fascism through what is falsely termed free trade agreements, America’s Right Wing is engaged in a desperate effort to label the Nazis as socialists and to attribute to them any trait they find distasteful."
"America’s Right Wing regarded Mussolini as a bastion against communism. Their high regard is obvious in the foreign policies and trade agreements throughout the 1920s, and in the three Republican administrations of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. In the 1930s, the Right still respected Mussolini for revitalizing the Italian economy."
"Yet America’s right-wing support for fascism extended far beyond favorable foreign policies and trade agreements with Mussolini. Henry Ford’s anti-Jewish views had a major impact on Germany and Hitler. Ford owned the Dearborn Independent newspaper, which published anti-Jewish articles that were later reprinted in four volumes known as The International Jew. In Germany, the latter appeared in a translated version, The Eternal Jew, which soon became the Bible for the Nazis. Theodore Fritsch published six printings of The Eternal Jew between 1920-22. By 1933, he had published 29. Once Hitler gained power, it became a stock item of Nazi propaganda. Some passages in Mein Kampf appear to have been copied directly from Ford."
"Today, America’s Right Wing has twisted this protection of citizens to only include protection from foreign powers. It knowingly misleads people in classifying environmental protection, the minimum wage, Social Security and a host of other social welfare programs as socialism."
"A survey of early state constitutions confirms the seriousness with which the founders viewed the threat from corporations. In an effort to cover up their past support for fascism and to install global fascism through what is falsely termed free trade agreements, America’s Right Wing is engaged in a desperate effort to label the Nazis as socialists and to attribute to them any trait they find distasteful."
................................................................................................
"America’s Right Wing regarded Mussolini as a bastion against communism. Their high regard is obvious in the foreign policies and trade agreements throughout the 1920s, and in the three Republican administrations of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. In the 1930s, the Right still respected Mussolini for revitalizing the Italian economy."
"Yet America’s right-wing support for fascism extended far beyond favorable foreign policies and trade agreements with Mussolini. Henry Ford’s anti-Jewish views had a major impact on Germany and Hitler. Ford owned the Dearborn Independent newspaper, which published anti-Jewish articles that were later reprinted in four volumes known as The International Jew. In Germany, the latter appeared in a translated version, The Eternal Jew, which soon became the Bible for the Nazis. Theodore Fritsch published six printings of The Eternal Jew between 1920-22. By 1933, he had published 29. Once Hitler gained power, it became a stock item of Nazi propaganda. Some passages in Mein Kampf appear to have been copied directly from Ford."
................................................................................................
"Judeophobia was deeply rooted in Germany, dating back as far as Luther’s time:"
"Nov. 9 marks the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 “Night of Shattered Glass” unleashed by the Nazis to terrorize Germany’s Jews. The date was chosen specially by Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist, to honor the birthday of Martin Luther, the 16th century monk who was a father of the Protestant Reformation and the founder of what became the Lutheran church.
"Hitler greatly admired Luther: “He saw the Jew as we are only beginning to see him today.” Indeed, Luther saw the Jews as “hopeless, wicked, venomous, and devilish ... our pest, torment, and misfortune.”"
"Initially, certain that his version of Christianity would appeal to Jews, he expected large numbers of them to covert. When that failed to happen, he turned violently against them. In 1543, Luther Published On the Jews and Their Lies, a work that would become known throughout Germany, perhaps the most widely disseminated work of Judeophobia by a German until the rise of the Nazis 400 years later.
"“What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?” Luther asked.
"“First, their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt, so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it... ”
"“Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed... ”
"“Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught.”
"“Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more...”
"“Fifthly, passports and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews... ”
"“Sixthly, I advise that ... all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them... ”
"“Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them... If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs, so we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy and all their other vices. I have done my duty. Now let everyone see to his.”
"This is hate speech.
"Sixty years ago next Monday on the night of Luther’s birthday, Nazi gangs rampaged across Germany. In every Jewish neighborhood, windows were smashed and buildings were torched. All told, 101 synagogues were destroyed, and nearly 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses were demolished. On that night, 91 Jews were murdered; 26,000 were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. It was the greatest pogrom in history. And it was nothing compared with what was to come.
"The yellow star the Nazis forced Jews to wear had originated in earlier centuries. The Vatican confined Jews to ghettos that were locked at night. During the day, the Jews could go about the cities to conduct business, but only if they wore a badge.
................................................................................................
"But it was the financial and commercial rather than moral support from America that was the key. As time goes by, more reports surface, suggesting US corporate involvement was much greater than previously believed.
"Bernd Greiner said 26 of the top 100 U.S. companies in the 1930s collaborated to some degree with the Nazis before, and in some cases after, Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941. Company headquarters in the U.S. have denied they knew what was going on in Germany, but there is evidence to suggest they knew their German subsidiaries used slave labor, tolerated it and in some cases were actively involved, Greiner said.
"Greiner confirmed a report in the newspaper Die Zeit, based on his findings of U.S. corporate involvement in Nazi Germany. The findings went beyond allegations of U.S. lawyers and historians last year that automakers General Motors and Ford collaborated with the Nazi regime."
"Besides direct financial aid to Hitler, American industrialists began building factories inside Germany in the 1920s. When the Nazis seized power, these American factories were allowed to continue operation, manufacturing war material. Sewing machine factories owned by Singer were converted to manufacture machine guns.
"The greatest benefits the Nazis reaped from these factories was the transfer of technology. Before Ford and GM built factories in Germany, automobiles were largely assembled one at a time there. Ford’s introduction of the assembly line streamlined German manufacturing. It allowed the Nazis to rapidly produce large numbers of tanks, airplanes, trucks and even the V2 rockets."
................................................................................................
"But it was the financial and commercial rather than moral support from America that was the key. As time goes by, more reports surface, suggesting US corporate involvement was much greater than previously believed.
"Bernd Greiner said 26 of the top 100 U.S. companies in the 1930s collaborated to some degree with the Nazis before, and in some cases after, Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941. Company headquarters in the U.S. have denied they knew what was going on in Germany, but there is evidence to suggest they knew their German subsidiaries used slave labor, tolerated it and in some cases were actively involved, Greiner said.
"Greiner confirmed a report in the newspaper Die Zeit, based on his findings of U.S. corporate involvement in Nazi Germany. The findings went beyond allegations of U.S. lawyers and historians last year that automakers General Motors and Ford collaborated with the Nazi regime."
"Besides direct financial aid to Hitler, American industrialists began building factories inside Germany in the 1920s. When the Nazis seized power, these American factories were allowed to continue operation, manufacturing war material. Sewing machine factories owned by Singer were converted to manufacture machine guns.
"The greatest benefits the Nazis reaped from these factories was the transfer of technology. Before Ford and GM built factories in Germany, automobiles were largely assembled one at a time there. Ford’s introduction of the assembly line streamlined German manufacturing. It allowed the Nazis to rapidly produce large numbers of tanks, airplanes, trucks and even the V2 rockets."
................................................................................................
"The two Wall Street firms that aided the Nazis the most were Sullivan & Cromwell, and Brown Brothers Harriman. Sullivan & Cromwell was the Wall Street law firm that employed Allen and John Foster Dulles. Brown Brothers Harriman was the Wall Street investment firm that employed George Herbert “Bert” Walker and his son-in-law, Prescott Bush. In one three-year period, Brown Brothers Harriman sold American investors more than $50 million of German bonds."
"Albert Voegler served on the board of Hamburg-Amerika Line and as a director of the Thyssen-controlled Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. Voegler also was the chief executive of Thyssen-Flick German Steel Trust, for which Bush’s Union Bank was the New York office. Voegler, Thyssen and Cuno all contributed heavily to the Nazis from 1930-32. Baron Rudolph von Schroeder was vice president and director of the Hamburg-Amerika Line.
"One of the great merchants of death, Samuel Pryor, was included in the deal from the beginning. Pryor, then chairman of the executive committee of Remington Arms, helped arrange it. Walker served on the board of Harriman’s shipping front organization, the American Ship & Commerce Co."
"Samuel P. Bush, Prescott’s father, became chief of the Ordinance, Small Arms and Ammunition Section of the War Industries Board, which was headed by Wall Street speculator and advisor to President Wilson, Bernard Baruch. ... Previously, Bush owned a company that supplied parts for railroad lines that transported Rockefeller oil. In the arrangement with Rockefeller, the railroad lines had to buy their parts from Bush’s foundry. Most of Samuel Bush’s arms-related records and correspondence in government archives have been burned. However, Samuel Bush’s appointment placed him close to Pryor.
"The Schroeder family of bankers was a linchpin for the Nazi activities of Harriman and Prescott Bush. Closely associated with the Schroeders were John Foster and Allen Dulles. Baron Kurt von Schroeder was co-director of the massive Thyssen-Hütte foundry, along with Johann Groeninger, Prescott Bush’s New York bank partner. A rabid Nazi, he also was the treasurer of the support organization for the Nazi Party’s private armies. As previously noted, both John Foster and Allen Dulles were present at the pivotal meeting between von Papen and Hitler. While representing their client Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and seeking assurances from Hitler, their principal contribution was in hiding Nazi ownership and involvement in American firms through a maze of paperwork."
"Albert Voegler served on the board of Hamburg-Amerika Line and as a director of the Thyssen-controlled Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. Voegler also was the chief executive of Thyssen-Flick German Steel Trust, for which Bush’s Union Bank was the New York office. Voegler, Thyssen and Cuno all contributed heavily to the Nazis from 1930-32. Baron Rudolph von Schroeder was vice president and director of the Hamburg-Amerika Line.
"One of the great merchants of death, Samuel Pryor, was included in the deal from the beginning. Pryor, then chairman of the executive committee of Remington Arms, helped arrange it. Walker served on the board of Harriman’s shipping front organization, the American Ship & Commerce Co."
"Samuel P. Bush, Prescott’s father, became chief of the Ordinance, Small Arms and Ammunition Section of the War Industries Board, which was headed by Wall Street speculator and advisor to President Wilson, Bernard Baruch. ... Previously, Bush owned a company that supplied parts for railroad lines that transported Rockefeller oil. In the arrangement with Rockefeller, the railroad lines had to buy their parts from Bush’s foundry. Most of Samuel Bush’s arms-related records and correspondence in government archives have been burned. However, Samuel Bush’s appointment placed him close to Pryor.
"The Schroeder family of bankers was a linchpin for the Nazi activities of Harriman and Prescott Bush. Closely associated with the Schroeders were John Foster and Allen Dulles. Baron Kurt von Schroeder was co-director of the massive Thyssen-Hütte foundry, along with Johann Groeninger, Prescott Bush’s New York bank partner. A rabid Nazi, he also was the treasurer of the support organization for the Nazi Party’s private armies. As previously noted, both John Foster and Allen Dulles were present at the pivotal meeting between von Papen and Hitler. While representing their client Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and seeking assurances from Hitler, their principal contribution was in hiding Nazi ownership and involvement in American firms through a maze of paperwork."
................................................................................................
"In 1932, the German government took steps to defend the republic and national freedom by ordering the disbanding of Nazi private armies. The U.S. embassy in Berlin reported the high costs of election campaigns and of keeping a private army of up to 400,000 men had raised questions about the Nazis’ financial backers. The Nazi Brown Shirts had intimidated or shot thousands of Germans who opposed Hitler.
"After Remington Arms signed a cartel agreement with IG Farben, the U.S. Senate conducted an investigation that found that German political associations like the Nazis and others were nearly all equipped with American guns. The arms were shipped across the Atlantic aboard the Harriman-Bush Hamburg-Amerika Line. Before reaching Antwerp, the weapons were transferred to river barges, which allowed them to be smuggled through Holland without inspection. Besides revolvers, the principal arms were Thompson submachine guns.
"On March 7, 1933, Prescott Bush’s American Ship and Commerce Corp., notified Max Warburg that he was to be the corporation’s official representative on the board of Hamburg-Amerika. Kuhn, Loeb was directly connected with the Warburgs through marriage. Paul Moritz Warburg and Felix Moritz Warburg married Nina Jenny Loeb, Solomon’s youngest, and Frieda Schiff, Jacob’s only daughter, respectively. Both Warburgs became partners of Kuhn, Loeb & Co."
"In 1934, testimony before Congress proved that a supervisor from the Nazi Labor Front was aboard every ship of the Harriman-Bush line. The Bush-controlled shipping lines subsidized Nazi propaganda in the United States and functioned as a den of spies for the Nazis until the government seized Hamburg-Amerika in 1942 for violating the Trading with the Enemy Act. Below is an extract from Vesting Order No. 126.
""Seizure of all the assets of the Hamburg-American Line and of the North German Lloyd and of all the American branches jointly operated by them. Prescott Bush, George Herbert Walker and others operated the U.S. arm of Hamburg-American Line, seized herewith. Among other things, the company offered a cash reward to any American who would travel to Germany on a one-way ticket and proselytize for Hitler. The line also smuggled Nazi spies into the U.S., even after America had entered the war."
"President Roosevelt felt this constituted treason."
Hence the recent decades of writing, internet posts as well as some books, by U.S. right wingers, painting FDR and Churchill as warmongers, while claiming that not only Hitler but Kaiser Wilhelm II were peaceful men with no interest in war, only forced into it by the said warmongers?
"By 1934, with Hitler in solid control of Germany, the profits from the Thyssen-Flick union soared to more than 100 million. Both Union Bank and the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart were overflowing with money. Prescott Bush became managing director of Union Bank and took over the day-to-day operations of the German plan.
"Instead of divesting himself of Nazi money and activities, Prescott Bush hired Allen Dulles to hide the Nazi assets. Dulles’ client list from Sullivan & Cromwell shows his first assignment at Brown Brothers Harriman as June 18, 1936. The entry listed his work at Brown Brothers Harriman as “Disposal of Standard Oil Investing Stock.”
"Standard Oil was another of Dulles’ clients who hired him to cloak agreements with IG Farben. By January 1937, all of Standard Oil’s Nazi activities were in one account, “Brown Brothers Harriman-Schroeder Rock.” Schroeder was the Nazi bank in which Dulles served as a director. The Rock referred to the Rockefellers. In May 1939, Dulles handled another problem for Brown Brothers Harriman listed as “Securities Custodian Accounts.”
"In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland, ending a dispute over taxes between Consolidated and the Polish government. The original Nazi plan was to replace the workers in Polish factories with Soviet prisoners, but that portion of the plan was never implemented. Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp. was located near the Polish town of Oswiecim. When the plan to use Soviet prisoners as forced labor fell through, the Nazis began shipping Jews, communists, gypsies and other minority populations to the camp. This was the beginning of Auschwitz. IG Farben soon built a plant near Auschwitz to take advantage not only of the nearby coal deposits, but also of slave labor. According to a Dutch intelligence agent, Prescott Bush even managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland; what’s clear is that he profited handsomely from it."
"It’s obvious from this quote that the danger posed by cartels and their monopoly agreements were well known at the highest levels of government. Yet the most stunning aspect of the aftermath of WWI was the speed at which IG Farben reestablished its cartel agreements. This could only have occurred with the full cooperation of Republican administrations and the leaders of corporate America.
"Even during the peace conference, there were those in this country who acted fraudulently, if not treasonously. Throughout the war, lawyer John Foster Dulles sought to protect the Kaiser’s assets from seizure by the Alien Property Custodian, the APC. Dulles sought to subvert the peace conference by smoothing the way for cartels. As a member of the postwar U.S. War Trade Board, Dulles had good information for sale. He was well aware that German bribes went all the way to the Harding administration’s crooked Attorney General, Harry Daugherty. In a later corruption trial, Daugherty’s defense counsel pointed out a bigger crook behind the bribery scandal - John Foster Dulles, “who strutted about the Peace Conference promoting himself as [Secretary of State] Lansing’s nephew while carrying a ‘bag looking for a bribe,’ misdirecting his clients and comporting himself as a man who should be disbarred.”"
"Dulles continued to work his mischief in the corrupt Harding administration, where he had access to its highest levels of power. Later, as WWII approached, he and his brother, Allen, helped hide Nazi ownership of, and involvement in, American corporations from the U.S. government.
"Daugherty was not the only Harding administration member seeking to form alliances and cartel agreements with IG Farben. Before becoming Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon controlled interests such as Alcoa, and formed several cartel agreements with IG Farben. Mellon also supported several pro-fascist groups in the 1930s, and was part of the fascist plot against FDR in 1934.
"Mellon and Daugherty were not the only officials sympathetic toward IG Farben and Germany. There were many more, some of whom became Nazi supporters in the 1930s. Besides supporters in the government, IG Farben found a multitude of support on Wall Street. Many from Wall Street later rose to high government positions, particularly in the OSS during the war, and as economic advisers during the postwar denazification period."
"However, during the Harding administration, officials openly sympathetic to IG Farben and German interests headed the two departments charged with enforcing these laws - Daugherty at the Justice Department and Mellon at the Treasury.
"Mellon was Secretary of Treasury throughout the Harding and Coolidge administrations, and most of the Hoover administration. Holding his portfolio throughout the 1920s, Mellon was able to quash almost all investigations into reforming cartels. Thus, by the end of the decade, IG Farben had regained control of all its assets seized by the APC. In fact, the Mellon-owned Alcoa Corp. signed a cartel agreement with IG Farben while Mellon was still heading the Treasury."
"These actions by 1920s Republican administrations had an enormous effect on the US war effort in the 1940s. Cartel agreements signed in the 1920s caused supply shortages of many vital materials and production delays of munitions during WWII. Particularly damaging was a shortage of aluminum, the result of the cartel of IG Farben and Alcoa. Only recently has information surfaced on this damage to the second war effort, as evident from a recent Newsweek.com article:
""The fresh look at wartime culpability may extend to other American icons. In 1940 one of the nation’s most prestigious law firms, Sullivan & Cromwell, joined together with the Wallenberg family of Sweden - famed for producing Raoul, a Holocaust martyr who saved Jews in Budapest - to represent Nazi German interests, says Abe Weissbrodt, a former Treasury Department lawyer who prosecuted the case in 1946. The scam? Sullivan & Cromwell drafted a voting trust agreement making the Wallenbergs’ Enskilda Bank a dummy owner of the U.S. subsidiary of Bosch, a German engine-parts maker, so the Nazis could retain control. The papers were drawn up by John Foster Dulles, a Germanophile who later became Secretary of State and whose name today graces Washington’s international airport. (The scheme worked during the war, but in 1948 Bosch was finally auctioned to a U.S. buyer.) “The record is compelling in terms of warranting questions about Dulles’ motives and his own allegiances,” says historian Masurovsky. “One might say about him what Treasury said about Chase and J.P. Morgan, that they had allegiance to their own corporate interests and not to their country.”
"Sullivan & Cromwell was established by Algernon Sullivan in New York following the economic panic of 1857 which had bankrupted his practice in Indiana. The young Sullivan had just married a George Washington descendent from Virginia. Before the Civil War broke out, Sullivan built his firm based on his wife’s southern contacts. In the last two decades of the 20th century, these southern connections also played an important role in moving industry from the Rust Belt to the South. Moreover, they were key to the financial shenanigans of the Bush family."
"After Remington Arms signed a cartel agreement with IG Farben, the U.S. Senate conducted an investigation that found that German political associations like the Nazis and others were nearly all equipped with American guns. The arms were shipped across the Atlantic aboard the Harriman-Bush Hamburg-Amerika Line. Before reaching Antwerp, the weapons were transferred to river barges, which allowed them to be smuggled through Holland without inspection. Besides revolvers, the principal arms were Thompson submachine guns.
"On March 7, 1933, Prescott Bush’s American Ship and Commerce Corp., notified Max Warburg that he was to be the corporation’s official representative on the board of Hamburg-Amerika. Kuhn, Loeb was directly connected with the Warburgs through marriage. Paul Moritz Warburg and Felix Moritz Warburg married Nina Jenny Loeb, Solomon’s youngest, and Frieda Schiff, Jacob’s only daughter, respectively. Both Warburgs became partners of Kuhn, Loeb & Co."
"In 1934, testimony before Congress proved that a supervisor from the Nazi Labor Front was aboard every ship of the Harriman-Bush line. The Bush-controlled shipping lines subsidized Nazi propaganda in the United States and functioned as a den of spies for the Nazis until the government seized Hamburg-Amerika in 1942 for violating the Trading with the Enemy Act. Below is an extract from Vesting Order No. 126.
""Seizure of all the assets of the Hamburg-American Line and of the North German Lloyd and of all the American branches jointly operated by them. Prescott Bush, George Herbert Walker and others operated the U.S. arm of Hamburg-American Line, seized herewith. Among other things, the company offered a cash reward to any American who would travel to Germany on a one-way ticket and proselytize for Hitler. The line also smuggled Nazi spies into the U.S., even after America had entered the war."
"President Roosevelt felt this constituted treason."
Hence the recent decades of writing, internet posts as well as some books, by U.S. right wingers, painting FDR and Churchill as warmongers, while claiming that not only Hitler but Kaiser Wilhelm II were peaceful men with no interest in war, only forced into it by the said warmongers?
................................................................................................
"By 1934, with Hitler in solid control of Germany, the profits from the Thyssen-Flick union soared to more than 100 million. Both Union Bank and the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart were overflowing with money. Prescott Bush became managing director of Union Bank and took over the day-to-day operations of the German plan.
"Instead of divesting himself of Nazi money and activities, Prescott Bush hired Allen Dulles to hide the Nazi assets. Dulles’ client list from Sullivan & Cromwell shows his first assignment at Brown Brothers Harriman as June 18, 1936. The entry listed his work at Brown Brothers Harriman as “Disposal of Standard Oil Investing Stock.”
"Standard Oil was another of Dulles’ clients who hired him to cloak agreements with IG Farben. By January 1937, all of Standard Oil’s Nazi activities were in one account, “Brown Brothers Harriman-Schroeder Rock.” Schroeder was the Nazi bank in which Dulles served as a director. The Rock referred to the Rockefellers. In May 1939, Dulles handled another problem for Brown Brothers Harriman listed as “Securities Custodian Accounts.”
"In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland, ending a dispute over taxes between Consolidated and the Polish government. The original Nazi plan was to replace the workers in Polish factories with Soviet prisoners, but that portion of the plan was never implemented. Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp. was located near the Polish town of Oswiecim. When the plan to use Soviet prisoners as forced labor fell through, the Nazis began shipping Jews, communists, gypsies and other minority populations to the camp. This was the beginning of Auschwitz. IG Farben soon built a plant near Auschwitz to take advantage not only of the nearby coal deposits, but also of slave labor. According to a Dutch intelligence agent, Prescott Bush even managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland; what’s clear is that he profited handsomely from it."
................................................................................................
"Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, leaks from Washington suggested Prescott Bush was under investigation for aiding the Nazis in time of war. Once again, rather than divesting himself of the Nazi accounts and his pro-Nazi activities, Prescott Bush wrapped himself in the flag. He became the national chairman of the United Service Organization’s annual fund campaign. However, his subterfuge didn’t work; the government’s investigation continued.
"How the government was able to unravel all the cloaking activities of Allen Dulles and deception by Bush and other ranking officers of Union Bank was typical of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was well aware of Americans aiding the Nazis. As a means to counter these traitors, Roosevelt employed numerous private spies. In the case of Brown Brothers Harriman, the spy was an employee of Bert Walker named Dan Harkins. Harkins kept up his pretense of being an ardent Nazi sympathizer while he blew the whistle on Brown Brothers Harriman’s spy apparatus to Congress, and continued to report to Naval Intelligence."
"Oct. 20, 1942, under authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act, the U.S. Congress seized UBC and liquidated its assets. ... The order listed the following stockholders: E. Roland Harriman - 3,991 shares, Cornelis Lievense - 4 shares, Harold D. Pennington - 1 share, Ray Morris - 1 share, Prescott Bush - 1 share, H.J. Kouwenhoven - 1 share, Johann G. Groeninger - 1 share. All those listed were directors of Union Bank. Groeninger was a Nazi industrial executive.
"Government documents show that Union Bank was a clearinghouse for several Thyssen-controlled enterprises and assets, including as many as a dozen individual businesses. They show Union Bank shipped valuable U.S. assets, including gold, coal, steel, and U.S. Treasury and war bonds to their foreign clients overseas as Hitler geared up for his 1939 invasion of Poland.
"Moreover, the records show that Bush and Harriman not only hid their Nazi activities from the government, but also continued dealing with the Nazis unabated. These activities included financial dealing with the city of Hanover and several industrial firms while Averell Harriman was serving as President Roosevelt’s personal emissary to the United Kingdom."
"While the Allied investigators focused on the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart and the large number of transactions conducted with the Nazis, they were unable to discover where the money had gone. They did not know was that Allen Dulles was secretly the lawyer for the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart and Thyssen. Baron Kurt Von Schroeder was the Nazi trustee for the Thyssen companies, which now claimed to be owned by the Dutch.
"The Dutch bank was the key to Dulles’ Tarnung or cloaking scheme. Moreover, it was his most successful effort at Tarnung. It has taken investigators more than 50 years to untangle the intricacies of Dulles’ web. Despite one small problem, Thyssen’s empire would remain intact. Once Germany fell to the Allies, it was time to ship the documents back to Holland so that the “neutral” bank could claim ownership under the friendly supervision of Allen Dulles, who, as the OSS intelligence chief in 1945 Berlin, was in a position to handle any troublesome investigations. Thyssen had hedged his bets with positions on both sides and the middle.
"However, the August Thyssen Bank had been bombed during the war, and the documents were buried in the underground vaults beneath the rubble. Even more perplexing was that the August Thyssen Bank was located in the Soviet sector of Berlin. Under the pretext of recovering the crown jewels stolen by the Nazis, Prince Bernhard commanded a unit of Dutch intelligence in Operation Juliana. The Russians gave the prince permission to recover the jewels. Bernhard was a Nazi SS officer and successfully recovered the corporate papers to keep the Thyssen empire intact.
"The treachery of Allen Dulles, Prescott Bush and the Rockefellers can only be measured in the enormity of this pipeline to launder Nazi assets. Brown Brothers Harriman was the conduit to invest money into Nazi Germany, Union Bank was the return pipe for the profits."
"Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, leaks from Washington suggested Prescott Bush was under investigation for aiding the Nazis in time of war. Once again, rather than divesting himself of the Nazi accounts and his pro-Nazi activities, Prescott Bush wrapped himself in the flag. He became the national chairman of the United Service Organization’s annual fund campaign. However, his subterfuge didn’t work; the government’s investigation continued.
"How the government was able to unravel all the cloaking activities of Allen Dulles and deception by Bush and other ranking officers of Union Bank was typical of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was well aware of Americans aiding the Nazis. As a means to counter these traitors, Roosevelt employed numerous private spies. In the case of Brown Brothers Harriman, the spy was an employee of Bert Walker named Dan Harkins. Harkins kept up his pretense of being an ardent Nazi sympathizer while he blew the whistle on Brown Brothers Harriman’s spy apparatus to Congress, and continued to report to Naval Intelligence."
"Oct. 20, 1942, under authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act, the U.S. Congress seized UBC and liquidated its assets. ... The order listed the following stockholders: E. Roland Harriman - 3,991 shares, Cornelis Lievense - 4 shares, Harold D. Pennington - 1 share, Ray Morris - 1 share, Prescott Bush - 1 share, H.J. Kouwenhoven - 1 share, Johann G. Groeninger - 1 share. All those listed were directors of Union Bank. Groeninger was a Nazi industrial executive.
"Government documents show that Union Bank was a clearinghouse for several Thyssen-controlled enterprises and assets, including as many as a dozen individual businesses. They show Union Bank shipped valuable U.S. assets, including gold, coal, steel, and U.S. Treasury and war bonds to their foreign clients overseas as Hitler geared up for his 1939 invasion of Poland.
"Moreover, the records show that Bush and Harriman not only hid their Nazi activities from the government, but also continued dealing with the Nazis unabated. These activities included financial dealing with the city of Hanover and several industrial firms while Averell Harriman was serving as President Roosevelt’s personal emissary to the United Kingdom."
................................................................................................
"While the Allied investigators focused on the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart and the large number of transactions conducted with the Nazis, they were unable to discover where the money had gone. They did not know was that Allen Dulles was secretly the lawyer for the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart and Thyssen. Baron Kurt Von Schroeder was the Nazi trustee for the Thyssen companies, which now claimed to be owned by the Dutch.
"The Dutch bank was the key to Dulles’ Tarnung or cloaking scheme. Moreover, it was his most successful effort at Tarnung. It has taken investigators more than 50 years to untangle the intricacies of Dulles’ web. Despite one small problem, Thyssen’s empire would remain intact. Once Germany fell to the Allies, it was time to ship the documents back to Holland so that the “neutral” bank could claim ownership under the friendly supervision of Allen Dulles, who, as the OSS intelligence chief in 1945 Berlin, was in a position to handle any troublesome investigations. Thyssen had hedged his bets with positions on both sides and the middle.
"However, the August Thyssen Bank had been bombed during the war, and the documents were buried in the underground vaults beneath the rubble. Even more perplexing was that the August Thyssen Bank was located in the Soviet sector of Berlin. Under the pretext of recovering the crown jewels stolen by the Nazis, Prince Bernhard commanded a unit of Dutch intelligence in Operation Juliana. The Russians gave the prince permission to recover the jewels. Bernhard was a Nazi SS officer and successfully recovered the corporate papers to keep the Thyssen empire intact.
"The treachery of Allen Dulles, Prescott Bush and the Rockefellers can only be measured in the enormity of this pipeline to launder Nazi assets. Brown Brothers Harriman was the conduit to invest money into Nazi Germany, Union Bank was the return pipe for the profits."
................................................................................................
"In August 1942, under the same authority, Congress seized the first of the Bush-Harriman-managed Thyssen entities, Hamburg-Amerika Line, under Vesting Order No. 126, also signed by Crowley. Eight days after the seizure of UBC, Congress invoked the Trading with the Enemy Act again to take control of two more Bush-Harriman-Thyssen businesses - Holland-American Trading Corp. (Vesting Order No. 261) and Seamless Steel Equipment Corp (Vesting Order No. 259). In November, Congress seized the Nazi interests in Silesian-American Corp., which allegedly profited from slave labor at Auschwitz via a partnership with IG Farben, Hitler’s third major industrial patron and partner in the infrastructure of the Third Reich.
"After the war, the U.S. government seized another 18 companies related to the Harriman-Bush Union Bank for violations of the Trading with the Enemy Act. Several companies seized had continued the Thyssen relationship after takeover of Union Bank in 1942.
"In October 1950, the government conducted one of the last seizures of Nazi assets under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The seizure concerned the U.S. assets of a Nazi baroness named Theresia Maria Ida Benedikta Huberta Stanislava Martina von Schwarzenberg. Brown Brothers Harriman continued with the subterfuge, claiming the baroness was a victim of Nazi persecution. However, government investigators concluded she was a member of the Nazi Party.
"Meanwhile, in 1951, after the death of Fritz Thyssen, the Alien Property Custodian released the assets of the Union Banking Corp., to Brown Brothers Harriman. Prescott Bush received $1.5 million for his share in Union Bank’s blood money, and filed for his 1952 Senate race.
"Further examination of the documents show that Bush and Harriman conducted business after the war with related concerns, moving assets into Switzerland, Panama, Argentina and Brazil, which were critical destinations for Nazi war criminals and flight capital."
"By 1972, the Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan bank in New York secretly owned 38 percent of Thyssen’s company. The Thyssen-Krupp Corp. is now the wealthiest conglomerate in Europe.
"In the 1970s, Brown Brothers Harriman convinced the docile New York State Banking Commission to issue an order allowing it to shred all records from the Nazi period."
"In August 1942, under the same authority, Congress seized the first of the Bush-Harriman-managed Thyssen entities, Hamburg-Amerika Line, under Vesting Order No. 126, also signed by Crowley. Eight days after the seizure of UBC, Congress invoked the Trading with the Enemy Act again to take control of two more Bush-Harriman-Thyssen businesses - Holland-American Trading Corp. (Vesting Order No. 261) and Seamless Steel Equipment Corp (Vesting Order No. 259). In November, Congress seized the Nazi interests in Silesian-American Corp., which allegedly profited from slave labor at Auschwitz via a partnership with IG Farben, Hitler’s third major industrial patron and partner in the infrastructure of the Third Reich.
"After the war, the U.S. government seized another 18 companies related to the Harriman-Bush Union Bank for violations of the Trading with the Enemy Act. Several companies seized had continued the Thyssen relationship after takeover of Union Bank in 1942.
"In October 1950, the government conducted one of the last seizures of Nazi assets under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The seizure concerned the U.S. assets of a Nazi baroness named Theresia Maria Ida Benedikta Huberta Stanislava Martina von Schwarzenberg. Brown Brothers Harriman continued with the subterfuge, claiming the baroness was a victim of Nazi persecution. However, government investigators concluded she was a member of the Nazi Party.
"Meanwhile, in 1951, after the death of Fritz Thyssen, the Alien Property Custodian released the assets of the Union Banking Corp., to Brown Brothers Harriman. Prescott Bush received $1.5 million for his share in Union Bank’s blood money, and filed for his 1952 Senate race.
"Further examination of the documents show that Bush and Harriman conducted business after the war with related concerns, moving assets into Switzerland, Panama, Argentina and Brazil, which were critical destinations for Nazi war criminals and flight capital."
................................................................................................
"By 1972, the Rockefeller-controlled Chase Manhattan bank in New York secretly owned 38 percent of Thyssen’s company. The Thyssen-Krupp Corp. is now the wealthiest conglomerate in Europe.
"In the 1970s, Brown Brothers Harriman convinced the docile New York State Banking Commission to issue an order allowing it to shred all records from the Nazi period."
................................................................................................
The second chapter quotes so many cases of corporate bad behaviour, including that of hospitals, that one is reminded of The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair - with a halfway certainty that he would've seen this work as competition by someone much younger!
................................................................................................
The second chapter quotes so many cases of corporate bad behaviour, including that of hospitals, that one is reminded of The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair - with a halfway certainty that he would've seen this work as competition by someone much younger!
................................................................................................
"Another 29 deaths were attributed to Firestone tires - tires not included in the first recall after the government received assurances and pressure from corporate management. In other news, California experienced an electricity shortage following the deregulation of its power companies - a shortage, it turns out, that was at least partially self-made by the utilities.
"In the early 1990s, the local media in Portland, Ore., carried several stories about a poor lad with leukemia who needed a life-saving bone marrow transplant. When health insurance refused to pay for the transplant, family and friends raised money by holding community car washes and bake sales. But once they had the amount quoted by a Seattle hospital to cover the cost of the transplant, the family members were told that the price had since doubled. The local media picked up the story as a cause célèbre. The community was outraged and within two weeks, the Seattle hospital relented and agreed to do the transplant for the original price. The hospital was basing the cost of the transplant on the highest dollar figure it could extract from that family.
"In another case of price gouging in the mid-1990s, it was reported that manufacturers were hoarding interferon supplies in an attempt to drive up the price.
"After the Exxon Valdez ran aground, all the oil companies raised their prices by a third, claiming a shortage of crude.
"In Kentucky, an explosion killed seven miners. The mining corporation was cited for gross violations of safety regulations; no fans to draw out methane gas were even present. Many of the women left widowed by this explosion ended up on welfare. Annually, more than 6,000 people - roughly 17 a day - are killed on the job, yet we never hear of a corporate operating officer being brought to trial for murder or manslaughter. That number omits the thousands who have died as a direct result of exposure to toxic substances or disease-causing agents in the workplace.
"It is now common to hear news of managers altering employees’ time cards, requiring them to work after punching out. Or to hear of yet another sweatshop in operation, not in a Third World banana republic, but in our own large cities, where employees are virtual slaves.
"By the mid-1990’s corporate welfare totaled more than $167 billion a year. For the average taxpayer, that meant paying thousands annually in taxes to support corporations. Meanwhile, social welfare costs are less than one-third of the cost of corporate welfare.
"By 1990, just 10 corporations accounted for 22 percent of all profits in the United States. Only 400 corporations controlled 80 percent of all capital assets in the non-Socialist world. Forty-nine American banks hold a controlling interest in 500 of the largest corporations. According to The New Media Monopoly, five or six corporations control most of the media of all types in the U.S., including the three largest television networks.
"Were the crimes of corporate America just another product of the greed and immorality of the Reagan administration and its agenda of “free enterprise”? Or are these symptoms of a much deeper problem? Fascism is a top-down, elite revolution. Large industrialists brought Hitler to power in a backroom deal. In 2000, special interest money was behind the candidacy of George W. Bush."
"Senior citizens are forced to make monthly pilgrimages to Canada to refill their prescription drugs at lower prices. Maine even adopted a law requiring that future drug prices be competitive with those in Canada. A Web site exists to help seniors obtain mail-order prescriptions from Canada. But because American drug companies were losing millions in these cross-border sales, the George W. Bush administration banned such sales.
"So what is the difference between Canadian and American healthcare systems? The extreme Right and the Republican Party scream that Canada’s healthcare system is socialistic. This is nonsense. The same corporations make the prescription drugs, yet Americans are being gouged. If those corporations were owned and run by the government, then it would be a socialistic system. So, why the lie? It’s simple. Canada chooses to regulate its corporations. In America, we have the same choice, but the right-wing politicians are shills bought and paid for by the corporations they are supposed to be regulating. It is simply a diversion and scare tactic perfected by the Republicans to scream communism or socialism whenever anything threatens their meal ticket."
"Another 29 deaths were attributed to Firestone tires - tires not included in the first recall after the government received assurances and pressure from corporate management. In other news, California experienced an electricity shortage following the deregulation of its power companies - a shortage, it turns out, that was at least partially self-made by the utilities.
"In the early 1990s, the local media in Portland, Ore., carried several stories about a poor lad with leukemia who needed a life-saving bone marrow transplant. When health insurance refused to pay for the transplant, family and friends raised money by holding community car washes and bake sales. But once they had the amount quoted by a Seattle hospital to cover the cost of the transplant, the family members were told that the price had since doubled. The local media picked up the story as a cause célèbre. The community was outraged and within two weeks, the Seattle hospital relented and agreed to do the transplant for the original price. The hospital was basing the cost of the transplant on the highest dollar figure it could extract from that family.
"In another case of price gouging in the mid-1990s, it was reported that manufacturers were hoarding interferon supplies in an attempt to drive up the price.
"After the Exxon Valdez ran aground, all the oil companies raised their prices by a third, claiming a shortage of crude.
"In Kentucky, an explosion killed seven miners. The mining corporation was cited for gross violations of safety regulations; no fans to draw out methane gas were even present. Many of the women left widowed by this explosion ended up on welfare. Annually, more than 6,000 people - roughly 17 a day - are killed on the job, yet we never hear of a corporate operating officer being brought to trial for murder or manslaughter. That number omits the thousands who have died as a direct result of exposure to toxic substances or disease-causing agents in the workplace.
"It is now common to hear news of managers altering employees’ time cards, requiring them to work after punching out. Or to hear of yet another sweatshop in operation, not in a Third World banana republic, but in our own large cities, where employees are virtual slaves.
"By the mid-1990’s corporate welfare totaled more than $167 billion a year. For the average taxpayer, that meant paying thousands annually in taxes to support corporations. Meanwhile, social welfare costs are less than one-third of the cost of corporate welfare.
"By 1990, just 10 corporations accounted for 22 percent of all profits in the United States. Only 400 corporations controlled 80 percent of all capital assets in the non-Socialist world. Forty-nine American banks hold a controlling interest in 500 of the largest corporations. According to The New Media Monopoly, five or six corporations control most of the media of all types in the U.S., including the three largest television networks.
"Were the crimes of corporate America just another product of the greed and immorality of the Reagan administration and its agenda of “free enterprise”? Or are these symptoms of a much deeper problem? Fascism is a top-down, elite revolution. Large industrialists brought Hitler to power in a backroom deal. In 2000, special interest money was behind the candidacy of George W. Bush."
................................................................................................
"Senior citizens are forced to make monthly pilgrimages to Canada to refill their prescription drugs at lower prices. Maine even adopted a law requiring that future drug prices be competitive with those in Canada. A Web site exists to help seniors obtain mail-order prescriptions from Canada. But because American drug companies were losing millions in these cross-border sales, the George W. Bush administration banned such sales.
"So what is the difference between Canadian and American healthcare systems? The extreme Right and the Republican Party scream that Canada’s healthcare system is socialistic. This is nonsense. The same corporations make the prescription drugs, yet Americans are being gouged. If those corporations were owned and run by the government, then it would be a socialistic system. So, why the lie? It’s simple. Canada chooses to regulate its corporations. In America, we have the same choice, but the right-wing politicians are shills bought and paid for by the corporations they are supposed to be regulating. It is simply a diversion and scare tactic perfected by the Republicans to scream communism or socialism whenever anything threatens their meal ticket."
................................................................................................
"Still, some states required more than a simple majority of the legislature to grant, renew or alter a corporate charter. In the 1840s, citizens in New York, Delaware, Michigan and Florida required a two-thirds vote of their state legislatures to do so. In Wisconsin and four other states, every bank charter had to be approved by the voters, then recommended by legislatures.
"Even under a general incorporation law, states still treated the corporate charters as privileges and restricted the activities of corporations. The following are some of the common limitations that were placed on corporations by various states.
"Limited Duration: Charters were granted only for a period of 10, 20 or 30 years after which the corporation had to be liquidated and the earnings distributed among the shareholders.
"Limited Land Holdings: Many states imposed limits on the extent of land a corporation could own. Most often, this was limited to the needs of the factory or mill site.
"Limited Capital Holdings: Once again, many states limited the amount of money or financial assets a corporation could have. Some states banned corporations from owning other corporations or stock in them. Once a corporation exceeded the limit, it had to be either dissolved or split.
"Specific Purpose Charters: This was perhaps the most common of all restrictions in the early years of this country. Corporations were chartered only for a specific purpose such as building a canal or road. Once the stated purpose was completed, the corporation dissolved. Today charters are issued that enable a corporation to engage in any type of business.
"No Limitations on Liability: Directors, managers and shareholders were held to be fully liable for any debts or damages. Sometimes the lender or injured party was entitled to double or triple the damages. Other states imposed extremely high interest rates until the debt was fully paid."
"Restrictions on Pricing: Some states kept the right to set prices on corporate products. Wisconsin, for one, gave the state legislature the power to set prices on products after reviewing the corporations’ expenses.
"Revocable Charters: States kept the right to revoke or change a charter at the will of the legislature. Almost all the states adopted this clause after 1820."
"With 24 sections, California’s Constitution of 1849 as amended by Article XII in 1879 had perhaps the longest listing of restrictions on corporations. Sadly, 20 of the 24 sections have already been repealed. In Section 3, the state holds all shareholders responsible for the debts of the corporation. Once again, another myth - the myth of limited liability - is destroyed. Notice in the Section 3 text that follows, the shareholder need not be a present owner, but only a shareholder at the time the debt was incurred. In Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas, stockholders were liable over and above the stock they actually owned. In the 1870s, seven state constitutions made bank shareholders doubly liable for any debts:
"Each stockholder of a corporation or joint stock association, shall be individually and personally liable for such proportion of all its debts and liabilities contracted or incurred, during the time he was a stockholder, as the amount of stock or shares owned by him bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock, or shares of the corporation or association. The directors or trustees of corporations and joint-stock associations shall be jointly and severally liable to the creditors and stockholders for all moneys embezzled or misappropriated by the officers of such corporation or joint stock association during the term of office of such director or trustee."
"Still, some states required more than a simple majority of the legislature to grant, renew or alter a corporate charter. In the 1840s, citizens in New York, Delaware, Michigan and Florida required a two-thirds vote of their state legislatures to do so. In Wisconsin and four other states, every bank charter had to be approved by the voters, then recommended by legislatures.
"Even under a general incorporation law, states still treated the corporate charters as privileges and restricted the activities of corporations. The following are some of the common limitations that were placed on corporations by various states.
"Limited Duration: Charters were granted only for a period of 10, 20 or 30 years after which the corporation had to be liquidated and the earnings distributed among the shareholders.
"Limited Land Holdings: Many states imposed limits on the extent of land a corporation could own. Most often, this was limited to the needs of the factory or mill site.
"Limited Capital Holdings: Once again, many states limited the amount of money or financial assets a corporation could have. Some states banned corporations from owning other corporations or stock in them. Once a corporation exceeded the limit, it had to be either dissolved or split.
"Specific Purpose Charters: This was perhaps the most common of all restrictions in the early years of this country. Corporations were chartered only for a specific purpose such as building a canal or road. Once the stated purpose was completed, the corporation dissolved. Today charters are issued that enable a corporation to engage in any type of business.
"No Limitations on Liability: Directors, managers and shareholders were held to be fully liable for any debts or damages. Sometimes the lender or injured party was entitled to double or triple the damages. Other states imposed extremely high interest rates until the debt was fully paid."
"Restrictions on Pricing: Some states kept the right to set prices on corporate products. Wisconsin, for one, gave the state legislature the power to set prices on products after reviewing the corporations’ expenses.
"Revocable Charters: States kept the right to revoke or change a charter at the will of the legislature. Almost all the states adopted this clause after 1820."
................................................................................................
"With 24 sections, California’s Constitution of 1849 as amended by Article XII in 1879 had perhaps the longest listing of restrictions on corporations. Sadly, 20 of the 24 sections have already been repealed. In Section 3, the state holds all shareholders responsible for the debts of the corporation. Once again, another myth - the myth of limited liability - is destroyed. Notice in the Section 3 text that follows, the shareholder need not be a present owner, but only a shareholder at the time the debt was incurred. In Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas, stockholders were liable over and above the stock they actually owned. In the 1870s, seven state constitutions made bank shareholders doubly liable for any debts:
"Each stockholder of a corporation or joint stock association, shall be individually and personally liable for such proportion of all its debts and liabilities contracted or incurred, during the time he was a stockholder, as the amount of stock or shares owned by him bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock, or shares of the corporation or association. The directors or trustees of corporations and joint-stock associations shall be jointly and severally liable to the creditors and stockholders for all moneys embezzled or misappropriated by the officers of such corporation or joint stock association during the term of office of such director or trustee."
................................................................................................
"As more and more corporations were chartered, their power increased through judicial activism. With the increase in corporate power, wealth became concentrated in the hands of a few. As president, Lincoln lamented:
""I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.""
"In 1882, Sawyer ruled in the San Mateo Railroad case that corporations were persons. It is a matter of record that Sawyer owned stock in the Central Pacific Railroad. Both Sawyer and Field were close friends of Leland Stanford and other parties involved in the rail cases. Sawyer was uniquely positioned to expand the powers of corporations, using unorthodox interpretations of statutes and judicial review.
"In 1886, the high point of pro-business judicial activism, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down state Granger laws regulating railroad rates in Wabash v. Illinois. In this year alone, the U.S. Supreme court struck down 230 state laws passed to regulate corporations. This also was the year of the most grievous act of all in furthering corporate power: the court handed down the ruling in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, declaring that corporations were persons under the Fourteenth Amendment. At the outset of the case, Chief Justice Morrison Waite stated:
"The Court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Four-teenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a state to deny to any person the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.
"This outrageous ruling has done more to damage our liberty and freedom than any other in the history of the country. In effect, it gave corporations the same rights as persons, but with none of the obligations or social responsibility. It paved the way to rendering people subservient to corporations. It is important to note when year this ruling came down: at the height of the robber barons.
"A look at the judges on this Supreme Court shows it was the most antagonistic toward individual freedom and liberty in U.S. history, with the possible exception of the Rehnquist court. Much as the Rehnquist court voided the results of the 2000 election and appointed George W. Bush president, Associate Justice Joseph Bradley cast the deciding vote giving Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency.
"This was the same court that rendered the Civil Rights Act of 1875 invalid in Plessy v. Ferguson. In essence, the court threw out the Fourteenth Amendment in its ruling. Even more telling of the court’s abusive nature on civil rights, of all the Fourteenth Amendment cases between 1890-1910, only 19 dealt with blacks, while 288 dealt with corporations.
"This court was not any more friendly to women’s suffrage. In Bradwell v. Illinois, it upheld an Illinois ruling that denied women a license to practice law. In 1886, the Supreme Court Justices were Samuel F. Miller, Stephen J. Field, Joseph P. Bradley, John M. Harlan, Stanley Matthews, William B. Woods, Samuel Blatchford, Horace Gray, and Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite. Chief Justice Waite, who shared similar views with Field, believed the first 10 amendments applied only to the federal government and were not intended to limit the powers of the various states. In 1874, Samuel Miller declared that any taxation was robbery.
"Subsequent Supreme Court justices ridiculed the invoking of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Santa Clara case. Among these were William Douglas, and Justice Hugo Black, who 70 years later in Connecticut General Life Insurance Company v. Johnson wrote:
""Certainly when the Fourteenth Amendment was submitted for approval, the people were not told that ratifying an amendment granting new and revolutionary rights to corporations… was intended to remove corporations in any fashion from the control of the state governments. The fourteenth followed the freedom of a race from slavery... Corporations have neither race nor color.""
"As more and more corporations were chartered, their power increased through judicial activism. With the increase in corporate power, wealth became concentrated in the hands of a few. As president, Lincoln lamented:
""I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.""
................................................................................................
"In 1882, Sawyer ruled in the San Mateo Railroad case that corporations were persons. It is a matter of record that Sawyer owned stock in the Central Pacific Railroad. Both Sawyer and Field were close friends of Leland Stanford and other parties involved in the rail cases. Sawyer was uniquely positioned to expand the powers of corporations, using unorthodox interpretations of statutes and judicial review.
"In 1886, the high point of pro-business judicial activism, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down state Granger laws regulating railroad rates in Wabash v. Illinois. In this year alone, the U.S. Supreme court struck down 230 state laws passed to regulate corporations. This also was the year of the most grievous act of all in furthering corporate power: the court handed down the ruling in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, declaring that corporations were persons under the Fourteenth Amendment. At the outset of the case, Chief Justice Morrison Waite stated:
"The Court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Four-teenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a state to deny to any person the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.
"This outrageous ruling has done more to damage our liberty and freedom than any other in the history of the country. In effect, it gave corporations the same rights as persons, but with none of the obligations or social responsibility. It paved the way to rendering people subservient to corporations. It is important to note when year this ruling came down: at the height of the robber barons.
"A look at the judges on this Supreme Court shows it was the most antagonistic toward individual freedom and liberty in U.S. history, with the possible exception of the Rehnquist court. Much as the Rehnquist court voided the results of the 2000 election and appointed George W. Bush president, Associate Justice Joseph Bradley cast the deciding vote giving Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency.
"This was the same court that rendered the Civil Rights Act of 1875 invalid in Plessy v. Ferguson. In essence, the court threw out the Fourteenth Amendment in its ruling. Even more telling of the court’s abusive nature on civil rights, of all the Fourteenth Amendment cases between 1890-1910, only 19 dealt with blacks, while 288 dealt with corporations.
"This court was not any more friendly to women’s suffrage. In Bradwell v. Illinois, it upheld an Illinois ruling that denied women a license to practice law. In 1886, the Supreme Court Justices were Samuel F. Miller, Stephen J. Field, Joseph P. Bradley, John M. Harlan, Stanley Matthews, William B. Woods, Samuel Blatchford, Horace Gray, and Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite. Chief Justice Waite, who shared similar views with Field, believed the first 10 amendments applied only to the federal government and were not intended to limit the powers of the various states. In 1874, Samuel Miller declared that any taxation was robbery.
"Subsequent Supreme Court justices ridiculed the invoking of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Santa Clara case. Among these were William Douglas, and Justice Hugo Black, who 70 years later in Connecticut General Life Insurance Company v. Johnson wrote:
""Certainly when the Fourteenth Amendment was submitted for approval, the people were not told that ratifying an amendment granting new and revolutionary rights to corporations… was intended to remove corporations in any fashion from the control of the state governments. The fourteenth followed the freedom of a race from slavery... Corporations have neither race nor color.""
................................................................................................
"From 1894-1905, the court issued a host of anti-labor rulings. Before this, it was common under state law to limit the number of hours a person worked. In 1894, the court struck down the eight-hour shift for mechanics and laborers in Low v. Rees Printing. Colorado eliminated its eight-hour day for mining and manufacturing with House Bill 203. In 1895, in Ritchie v. People, the eight-hour day was removed for female garment workers. Lochner v. New York eliminated the 10-hour day for bakers in New York in 1905. In 1895, the court ruled that the Sherman Antitrust Act could be used against interstate labor strikes because they restrained trade."
"In 1911, the court broke Standard Oil into 33 corporations in Standard Oil of New Jersey v. United States. This case ended a short period of generally fair rulings against monopolies and trusts. For the most part, it was the climax of the antitrust sentiment started by the muckrakers and Teddy Roosevelt. The Clayton Act of 1914 legislated price discrimination within the same industry and further stipulated that labor unions were not trusts.
"In 1917, Idaho became the first state to pass criminal syndicalism laws; 23 other states soon followed. The laws were used to suppress labor organizers, political activists and foreigners."
"Between 1920-24, the court granted corporations protection under the Fourth Amendment, ruling that government officers seizing corporate documents violated the provisions against unreasonable searches in Silverthorne Lumber v. U.S and FTC v. American Tobacco. This decision came just as investigations were heating up into profiteering by arms makers during WWI. Likewise, the decision provided protection for those corporations that signed cartel agreements with IG Farben and other German corporations during WWII."
"In 1938, in Subcommittee on Federal Licensing of Corporations hearings, Sen. Joseph O’Mahoney of Wyoming argued that “a corporation has no rights; it has only privileges.”"
"In 1969, the Newspaper Preservation Act was passed, exempting newspapers from antitrust laws. Wholesale consolidation of newspapers followed until only a handful of corporations owned all the major papers.
"In 1976, the court granted the second most grievous extension to corporate power when, in Buckley v. Valeo, corporations were granted freedom of speech. That meant corporations were free to contribute unlimited funds to federal election campaigns, in effect buying the candidate of their choice."
"Most states, through general law, had restricted the activities of corporations by limiting the amount of wealth or land they could accumulate. It was liberalism at its finest hour protecting the rights of the common man against the plutocrats.
"Judicial activism and corruption, and some state legislatures themselves eroded most of the laws governing corporations in the 19th century. This erosion accompanied the rise of a rich elite and the corporatization of America. Before the Civil War, most corporations consisted of railroads or banks. It was only after the Civil War that corporations began significant expansion into other businesses. This is the primary reason so many of the early court decisions and clauses in state constitutions were specific to banks and railroads, as other types of corporations were simply insignificant.
"It should be clear that the rich elite as a class did not begin to emerge until after the Civil War, which was concurrent with the court’s pro-business rulings that reached a climax with the robber barons of the 1880s. By the end of the 1880s, the Waite court granted the rights of personhood to corporations.
"When the judicial system conferred citizenship on corporations without any of the obligations and responsibilities, it left this country in the precarious position of capital - the almighty dollar - having more rights than the owner of the capital.
"A case in point: In World War II, the U.S. experienced a shortage of supplies. Moreover, munitions and armaments were slow to come. Corporations refused to produce war munitions instead of consumer goods. In effect, they engaged in a sit-down strike until they had gained outrageously beneficial terms. America faced corporations that openly violated the law, that blackmailed the government with threats of an interruption in the gasoline supply, and that conspired to fix prices. Yet no corporation ever faced charges of price fixing, war profiteering and treason, and more than 300 corporations did business with the Third Reich during the war.
"Certainly, the legacy of the Waite court with its many antagonistic rulings against the civil rights of individuals and their liberties, and its extremely pro-business agenda spanning almost 30 years, should be reviewed today. All too often, justices have been chosen for their political ideology rather than their judicial abilities.
"The erosion of protections from corporations built into the various state constitutions has led to the present problems we face. Our government is for sale to the highest bidder. The calamitous decision of the court in 1976 equating corruption with free speech has left us citizens with unequal rights. A citizen’s voice is not equal to that of a multinational corporation with unlimited financial resources. The court has allowed corporations to grow to gargantuan proportions, precisely the fear Jefferson expressed in his opposition to national charters.
"In 1996, 51 of the world’s largest economies were corporations, with General Motors larger than Denmark, and Wal-Mart, the 12th largest corporation, larger than 161 countries. The combined sales of these top 200 corporations are larger than all but the world’s nine largest countries, equivalent to 28.3 percent of the world’s GDP. These top 200 corporations employ 18.8 million people - less than one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population - a percentage 100 times smaller. The world’s top five employers are General Motors, Wal-Mart, PepsiCo, Ford and Siemens.
"The wealthiest 1 percent in America own 40 percent of all U.S. assets. The corporate share of income taxes has fallen from roughly 40 percent in the 1940s to less than 15 percent today. While corporate profits rose by an astounding 130 percent from 1980-1995, the average family saw a net decrease in its real wages. The problem was first detailed in America: What Went Wrong? by Barlett and Steele."
"From 1894-1905, the court issued a host of anti-labor rulings. Before this, it was common under state law to limit the number of hours a person worked. In 1894, the court struck down the eight-hour shift for mechanics and laborers in Low v. Rees Printing. Colorado eliminated its eight-hour day for mining and manufacturing with House Bill 203. In 1895, in Ritchie v. People, the eight-hour day was removed for female garment workers. Lochner v. New York eliminated the 10-hour day for bakers in New York in 1905. In 1895, the court ruled that the Sherman Antitrust Act could be used against interstate labor strikes because they restrained trade."
"In 1911, the court broke Standard Oil into 33 corporations in Standard Oil of New Jersey v. United States. This case ended a short period of generally fair rulings against monopolies and trusts. For the most part, it was the climax of the antitrust sentiment started by the muckrakers and Teddy Roosevelt. The Clayton Act of 1914 legislated price discrimination within the same industry and further stipulated that labor unions were not trusts.
"In 1917, Idaho became the first state to pass criminal syndicalism laws; 23 other states soon followed. The laws were used to suppress labor organizers, political activists and foreigners."
"Between 1920-24, the court granted corporations protection under the Fourth Amendment, ruling that government officers seizing corporate documents violated the provisions against unreasonable searches in Silverthorne Lumber v. U.S and FTC v. American Tobacco. This decision came just as investigations were heating up into profiteering by arms makers during WWI. Likewise, the decision provided protection for those corporations that signed cartel agreements with IG Farben and other German corporations during WWII."
"In 1938, in Subcommittee on Federal Licensing of Corporations hearings, Sen. Joseph O’Mahoney of Wyoming argued that “a corporation has no rights; it has only privileges.”"
"In 1969, the Newspaper Preservation Act was passed, exempting newspapers from antitrust laws. Wholesale consolidation of newspapers followed until only a handful of corporations owned all the major papers.
"In 1976, the court granted the second most grievous extension to corporate power when, in Buckley v. Valeo, corporations were granted freedom of speech. That meant corporations were free to contribute unlimited funds to federal election campaigns, in effect buying the candidate of their choice."
................................................................................................
"Most states, through general law, had restricted the activities of corporations by limiting the amount of wealth or land they could accumulate. It was liberalism at its finest hour protecting the rights of the common man against the plutocrats.
"Judicial activism and corruption, and some state legislatures themselves eroded most of the laws governing corporations in the 19th century. This erosion accompanied the rise of a rich elite and the corporatization of America. Before the Civil War, most corporations consisted of railroads or banks. It was only after the Civil War that corporations began significant expansion into other businesses. This is the primary reason so many of the early court decisions and clauses in state constitutions were specific to banks and railroads, as other types of corporations were simply insignificant.
"It should be clear that the rich elite as a class did not begin to emerge until after the Civil War, which was concurrent with the court’s pro-business rulings that reached a climax with the robber barons of the 1880s. By the end of the 1880s, the Waite court granted the rights of personhood to corporations.
"When the judicial system conferred citizenship on corporations without any of the obligations and responsibilities, it left this country in the precarious position of capital - the almighty dollar - having more rights than the owner of the capital.
"A case in point: In World War II, the U.S. experienced a shortage of supplies. Moreover, munitions and armaments were slow to come. Corporations refused to produce war munitions instead of consumer goods. In effect, they engaged in a sit-down strike until they had gained outrageously beneficial terms. America faced corporations that openly violated the law, that blackmailed the government with threats of an interruption in the gasoline supply, and that conspired to fix prices. Yet no corporation ever faced charges of price fixing, war profiteering and treason, and more than 300 corporations did business with the Third Reich during the war.
"Certainly, the legacy of the Waite court with its many antagonistic rulings against the civil rights of individuals and their liberties, and its extremely pro-business agenda spanning almost 30 years, should be reviewed today. All too often, justices have been chosen for their political ideology rather than their judicial abilities.
"The erosion of protections from corporations built into the various state constitutions has led to the present problems we face. Our government is for sale to the highest bidder. The calamitous decision of the court in 1976 equating corruption with free speech has left us citizens with unequal rights. A citizen’s voice is not equal to that of a multinational corporation with unlimited financial resources. The court has allowed corporations to grow to gargantuan proportions, precisely the fear Jefferson expressed in his opposition to national charters.
"In 1996, 51 of the world’s largest economies were corporations, with General Motors larger than Denmark, and Wal-Mart, the 12th largest corporation, larger than 161 countries. The combined sales of these top 200 corporations are larger than all but the world’s nine largest countries, equivalent to 28.3 percent of the world’s GDP. These top 200 corporations employ 18.8 million people - less than one-third of 1 percent of the world’s population - a percentage 100 times smaller. The world’s top five employers are General Motors, Wal-Mart, PepsiCo, Ford and Siemens.
"The wealthiest 1 percent in America own 40 percent of all U.S. assets. The corporate share of income taxes has fallen from roughly 40 percent in the 1940s to less than 15 percent today. While corporate profits rose by an astounding 130 percent from 1980-1995, the average family saw a net decrease in its real wages. The problem was first detailed in America: What Went Wrong? by Barlett and Steele."
................................................................................................
"The result of the deregulation in the 1980s-1990s is literally punctuated with dismal failures. The era is marked in the beginning by a multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout of the savings and loan industry. For much of the 1980s, the savings and loan bailout was a black hole for taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. The deregulated industry had gambled on high-interest junk bonds and foreign loans. When the junk bond market collapsed with the foreign loans, the industry was devastated. Fallout from the resulting carnage led to the Keating Five scandal and Michael Milken trials. Keating had lobbied Congress heavily for deregulation of the savings and loan, but in the end his Lincoln Savings and Loan went bankrupt, as did the reputation of the five congressmen most heavily involved with him. Milken, the junk bond king, faced a 98-count indictment."
"Milken was fined heavily and sentenced to a short prison term. His fortune was somewhat reduced, but he was still a multimillionaire.
"Evidence exists that in 1988, presidential candidate George H. W. Bush was implicated in delaying the closure of Silverado Savings and Loan until after the election, because his son Neil was on the board.
"Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the junk bond fiasco was the spawning of a mania of mergers. Even more than a decade later, mergers continue unabated. The huge corporations that received tax bonanzas from the Reagan administration under the ruse that lower taxes would spur growth did not invest their newfound wealth in research; instead they bought out smaller corporations. Moreover, with each new merger and buyout, power and wealth concentrated. For the employees, it meant massive layoffs. Congress and the Justice Department have both been comfortably asleep at the wheel, allowing corporations to remerge, as in the case of Exxon and Mobil and a couple of the regional “Baby Bell” phone companies.
"Among the first industries to be deregulated were the airlines. Fares did come down, but at the high price of safety. Delays are more likely than on-time departures and arrivals. Luggage is lost or damaged all too often. It is now commonplace to hear of an airline crash with possibly 100 or more deaths resulting. Yet, studies reveal that most deaths are not the result of the impact, but of excessively weak seats. On impact, the seats tear loose and passengers are propelled forward at 120 mph. The luckier ones may indeed be those killed when they are thrown against the bulkhead. More often than not, limbs or spines are shattered and, unable to move, passengers perish in the flames or from the toxic fumes. The FAA has known for years of the weak seat design. Car seats can resist the strain of 20-G forces; airline seats, only 9-Gs."
"The real problem lies with Congress that creates a toothless agency to placate the public. Why does the agency need a Congressional bill to require stronger seats? A regulatory agency should be allowed to implement reasonable controls over its charges. However, time and again in response to a problem, Congress creates an agency with little or no authority to complete its mission."
"The Reagan transition team in 1980 went far beyond the normal bounds of corruption. Reagan turned a blind eye on ethics and a free rein on his transition team, the largest by far of any president. Many members had obvious conflicts of interests. Carter appointees refused to turn over lists of prospective enforcement cases to one member of the transition team (who just happened to be an independent oil producer) and his deputy (whose firm represented Standard Oil of California). At the Labor Department, Reagan’s deputy team leader filed a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court challenging the enforcement of OSHA laws. Such confrontations were visible in every department. In short, Reagan’s transition team was given a license to loot on behalf of corporate benefactors."
"Bush also showed his allegiance to corporate America during the California electrical power shortage and Enron scandal.
"This leaves American citizens as pawns. While the corporate media blare report after report of crime in the streets, the real crime story of corporate fraud goes unreported. In 1998, the FBI estimated the annual cost of robberies and burglaries at $3.8 billion. The annual cost of corporate or white-collar fraud has been placed in the $100 billion range, although the FBI does not estimate corporate or white-collar fraud - it does not really even have a white-collar fraud unit. Estimates of healthcare fraud alone were between $100 billion and $400 billion. Securities fraud is in the minor leagues at only $15 billion. The two figures point to one glaring and unmistakable fact: regulation works. The securities market is tightly regulated, while the healthcare field is wide open. What little healthcare regulation does exist is primarily on state and local levels. The Savings and Loan scandal alone cost U.S. taxpayers between $300 billion-$500 billion.
"The FBI also reported in 1998 that 19,000 Americans were murdered. In contrast, 56,000 Americans died of job-related diseases, such as black lung. No estimate is even available for the number of Americans whose lives were cut short from cancer because of environmental pollution or workplace exposure. Federal contractors routinely violate the Wagner Act on National Labor Relations and other laws, but are still allowed to continue to provide government services.
"However, Americans (and indeed all the world’s people) face an even greater threat to their freedoms. The threat comes from the drive to take fascism worldwide through the WTO and so-called free-trade agreements."
"The result of the deregulation in the 1980s-1990s is literally punctuated with dismal failures. The era is marked in the beginning by a multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout of the savings and loan industry. For much of the 1980s, the savings and loan bailout was a black hole for taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. The deregulated industry had gambled on high-interest junk bonds and foreign loans. When the junk bond market collapsed with the foreign loans, the industry was devastated. Fallout from the resulting carnage led to the Keating Five scandal and Michael Milken trials. Keating had lobbied Congress heavily for deregulation of the savings and loan, but in the end his Lincoln Savings and Loan went bankrupt, as did the reputation of the five congressmen most heavily involved with him. Milken, the junk bond king, faced a 98-count indictment."
"Milken was fined heavily and sentenced to a short prison term. His fortune was somewhat reduced, but he was still a multimillionaire.
"Evidence exists that in 1988, presidential candidate George H. W. Bush was implicated in delaying the closure of Silverado Savings and Loan until after the election, because his son Neil was on the board.
"Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the junk bond fiasco was the spawning of a mania of mergers. Even more than a decade later, mergers continue unabated. The huge corporations that received tax bonanzas from the Reagan administration under the ruse that lower taxes would spur growth did not invest their newfound wealth in research; instead they bought out smaller corporations. Moreover, with each new merger and buyout, power and wealth concentrated. For the employees, it meant massive layoffs. Congress and the Justice Department have both been comfortably asleep at the wheel, allowing corporations to remerge, as in the case of Exxon and Mobil and a couple of the regional “Baby Bell” phone companies.
"Among the first industries to be deregulated were the airlines. Fares did come down, but at the high price of safety. Delays are more likely than on-time departures and arrivals. Luggage is lost or damaged all too often. It is now commonplace to hear of an airline crash with possibly 100 or more deaths resulting. Yet, studies reveal that most deaths are not the result of the impact, but of excessively weak seats. On impact, the seats tear loose and passengers are propelled forward at 120 mph. The luckier ones may indeed be those killed when they are thrown against the bulkhead. More often than not, limbs or spines are shattered and, unable to move, passengers perish in the flames or from the toxic fumes. The FAA has known for years of the weak seat design. Car seats can resist the strain of 20-G forces; airline seats, only 9-Gs."
"The real problem lies with Congress that creates a toothless agency to placate the public. Why does the agency need a Congressional bill to require stronger seats? A regulatory agency should be allowed to implement reasonable controls over its charges. However, time and again in response to a problem, Congress creates an agency with little or no authority to complete its mission."
................................................................................................
"The Reagan transition team in 1980 went far beyond the normal bounds of corruption. Reagan turned a blind eye on ethics and a free rein on his transition team, the largest by far of any president. Many members had obvious conflicts of interests. Carter appointees refused to turn over lists of prospective enforcement cases to one member of the transition team (who just happened to be an independent oil producer) and his deputy (whose firm represented Standard Oil of California). At the Labor Department, Reagan’s deputy team leader filed a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court challenging the enforcement of OSHA laws. Such confrontations were visible in every department. In short, Reagan’s transition team was given a license to loot on behalf of corporate benefactors."
"Bush also showed his allegiance to corporate America during the California electrical power shortage and Enron scandal.
"This leaves American citizens as pawns. While the corporate media blare report after report of crime in the streets, the real crime story of corporate fraud goes unreported. In 1998, the FBI estimated the annual cost of robberies and burglaries at $3.8 billion. The annual cost of corporate or white-collar fraud has been placed in the $100 billion range, although the FBI does not estimate corporate or white-collar fraud - it does not really even have a white-collar fraud unit. Estimates of healthcare fraud alone were between $100 billion and $400 billion. Securities fraud is in the minor leagues at only $15 billion. The two figures point to one glaring and unmistakable fact: regulation works. The securities market is tightly regulated, while the healthcare field is wide open. What little healthcare regulation does exist is primarily on state and local levels. The Savings and Loan scandal alone cost U.S. taxpayers between $300 billion-$500 billion.
"The FBI also reported in 1998 that 19,000 Americans were murdered. In contrast, 56,000 Americans died of job-related diseases, such as black lung. No estimate is even available for the number of Americans whose lives were cut short from cancer because of environmental pollution or workplace exposure. Federal contractors routinely violate the Wagner Act on National Labor Relations and other laws, but are still allowed to continue to provide government services.
"However, Americans (and indeed all the world’s people) face an even greater threat to their freedoms. The threat comes from the drive to take fascism worldwide through the WTO and so-called free-trade agreements."
................................................................................................
Here is a confirmation of the above. If one reflects, the screen offerings of U.S. often do reflect social realities of the era. 1990s had You've Got Mail, very beautiful, touching and a modernised version of a b&w film that had department store employees using post office mail for penfriendships.
But the central part of the modern version is about the private serendipitous find that is locked in reverse step dance in the courtship with the small bookstore forced to close down, the feisty owner discovering romance - while she is sick in bed with flu - with the big not bad fox, and the fox discovering he can't do without her and must court her; all this, while she the fragile small bookstore comes to terms with closure forced by the big chain he owns, turns to writing, and admits to wishing it was him.
As romanticised a tale as it gets, of big business without heart killing small stores that knew their customers personally, and were enchanting to them.
"For instance under GATT, the United States was forced to accept shrimp imports from Thailand. The imports had been banned under U.S. law because Thai law did not require shrimpers to use protective nets for sea turtles."
"However, under these so-called free trade agreements, Canada and Mexico have both suffered more grievous blows. Under NAFTA, Canada was forced to pay a multimillion-dollar ransom to U.S.-based Ethyl Corp. In 1997, Ethyl sued Canada under the provisions in Chapter 11 of NAFTA. Canada had the foresight to ban the hazardous and toxic MMT gasoline additive. Ethyl claimed that such a ban on MMT constituted an expropriation of its assets and sought $250 million in damages. In 1998, the Canadian government, under extreme pressure, removed the ban on MMT and settled the suit with Ethyl for $13 million.
"In 1996, Mexico suffered a similar indignity. The Mexican state of San Luis Potosi refused to give U.S.-based Metalclad Corp. a permit to reopen its waste disposal site. The state governor ordered the site to be closed after a geological survey showed it would contaminate the local water supply. Then the governor declared the area part of a 600,000-acre ecological zone. Metalclad sued under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, seeking $90 million in compensation. Eventually, the case was settled with an award to Metalclad for $17 million. Under GATS, Mexico would have faced additional trade sanctions.
"Awards against Canada and Mexico were granted under a tribunal set up under NAFTA. The tribunal is, of course, beholden only to the multinational corporations. Canadian or Mexican courts and laws were voided in both cases."
"Under GATS, any expansion of the National Park System could trigger a lawsuit forcing the taxpayer to pay millions to some multinational corporation. Likewise, any expansion of a city’s public water supply or waste disposal would trigger lawsuits, as would cities that chose to implement a light rail system to ease traffic congestion. Further, under the current rules of GATS, any increase in funding or expansion of additional programs in our public schools would trigger lawsuits. All such suits would be brought before a tribunal established by GATS, without regard to the U.S. court system."
"Present trade agreements have little to do with increasing trade and more to do with eliminating any capital risk by requiring compensation for any government actions to protect the public."
"Franklin Roosevelt described fascism best when he said:
""The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power.""
Here is a confirmation of the above. If one reflects, the screen offerings of U.S. often do reflect social realities of the era. 1990s had You've Got Mail, very beautiful, touching and a modernised version of a b&w film that had department store employees using post office mail for penfriendships.
But the central part of the modern version is about the private serendipitous find that is locked in reverse step dance in the courtship with the small bookstore forced to close down, the feisty owner discovering romance - while she is sick in bed with flu - with the big not bad fox, and the fox discovering he can't do without her and must court her; all this, while she the fragile small bookstore comes to terms with closure forced by the big chain he owns, turns to writing, and admits to wishing it was him.
As romanticised a tale as it gets, of big business without heart killing small stores that knew their customers personally, and were enchanting to them.
................................................................................................
"For instance under GATT, the United States was forced to accept shrimp imports from Thailand. The imports had been banned under U.S. law because Thai law did not require shrimpers to use protective nets for sea turtles."
"However, under these so-called free trade agreements, Canada and Mexico have both suffered more grievous blows. Under NAFTA, Canada was forced to pay a multimillion-dollar ransom to U.S.-based Ethyl Corp. In 1997, Ethyl sued Canada under the provisions in Chapter 11 of NAFTA. Canada had the foresight to ban the hazardous and toxic MMT gasoline additive. Ethyl claimed that such a ban on MMT constituted an expropriation of its assets and sought $250 million in damages. In 1998, the Canadian government, under extreme pressure, removed the ban on MMT and settled the suit with Ethyl for $13 million.
"In 1996, Mexico suffered a similar indignity. The Mexican state of San Luis Potosi refused to give U.S.-based Metalclad Corp. a permit to reopen its waste disposal site. The state governor ordered the site to be closed after a geological survey showed it would contaminate the local water supply. Then the governor declared the area part of a 600,000-acre ecological zone. Metalclad sued under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, seeking $90 million in compensation. Eventually, the case was settled with an award to Metalclad for $17 million. Under GATS, Mexico would have faced additional trade sanctions.
"Awards against Canada and Mexico were granted under a tribunal set up under NAFTA. The tribunal is, of course, beholden only to the multinational corporations. Canadian or Mexican courts and laws were voided in both cases."
"Under GATS, any expansion of the National Park System could trigger a lawsuit forcing the taxpayer to pay millions to some multinational corporation. Likewise, any expansion of a city’s public water supply or waste disposal would trigger lawsuits, as would cities that chose to implement a light rail system to ease traffic congestion. Further, under the current rules of GATS, any increase in funding or expansion of additional programs in our public schools would trigger lawsuits. All such suits would be brought before a tribunal established by GATS, without regard to the U.S. court system."
................................................................................................
"Present trade agreements have little to do with increasing trade and more to do with eliminating any capital risk by requiring compensation for any government actions to protect the public."
"Franklin Roosevelt described fascism best when he said:
""The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power.""
................................................................................................
"Most Americans view the Roaring ’20s as a decade of speakeasies, bootleg liquor, flappers and the Charleston. But without a doubt, the 1920s were the most repressive decade of the century, beginning with the Palmer Raids of 1919 and ending with the massacre of the Bonus Marchers in the midst of the Great Depression. As a society, Americans fail to recall the brutal repression unleashed on the labor movement or the many race riots of the decade.
"America’s collective “apple pie” view of the 1950s, another decade of repression, is similar, consisting of images of “Leave It to Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet.” Few recall the madness of McCarthyism or images of the developing Cold War.
"As a society, Americans are led to overlook great threats to our freedoms that took place during repressive times. If the Palmer Raids or McCarthyism had taken place in any country behind the Iron Curtain, Americans would have been quick to condemn the actions as massive purges of dissidents.
"The 1920s held a bountiful promise of progress at the end of WWI. The United States could have seized the chance to become a world power and leader. Instead, the nation retreated into itself and rejected President Wilson’s League of Nations in favor of isolationism."
"A repressive period has followed every major war this country has fought. The aftermath of the Civil War fits the pattern. McCarthyism followed WWII and coincided with the Korean War. Even with the Vietnam War, repression increased, during the war with the exposure of COINTELPRO and Project Chaos, and afterward in the 1980s, with the Reagan administration."
"In 1917, even before the war’s end, Van Deman had already opened a file on Martin Luther King Jr.’s maternal grandfather.
"Van Deman was an anti-Semite credited with establishing military intelligence as a part of the modern army. Most officers within the Military Intelligence Division (MID) at that time also were virulently Judeophobic . MID officers promoted every anti-Jewish publication, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was commonly accepted in MID that communists and Jews were one and the same. Military officers were greatly influenced by the teaching of eugenics and Judeophobia at West Point.
"The almost universal anti-Semitism and racism of military officers allowed them to overlook the pogroms of the 1920s in Poland and other countries. It lasted until well after WWII, and factored into the failure of the United States to offer sanctuary to Jewish refugees in the late 1930s. It also contributed to the poor treatment of Jewish survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Such beliefs also contributed to the passage of the 1924 bill that restricted immigration of “undesirables.”
"During WWI, fearing that Germans would exploit black unrest, Van Deman preoccupied himself with black churches as suspected centers of sedition."
................................................................................................
"Most Americans view the Roaring ’20s as a decade of speakeasies, bootleg liquor, flappers and the Charleston. But without a doubt, the 1920s were the most repressive decade of the century, beginning with the Palmer Raids of 1919 and ending with the massacre of the Bonus Marchers in the midst of the Great Depression. As a society, Americans fail to recall the brutal repression unleashed on the labor movement or the many race riots of the decade.
"America’s collective “apple pie” view of the 1950s, another decade of repression, is similar, consisting of images of “Leave It to Beaver” and “Ozzie and Harriet.” Few recall the madness of McCarthyism or images of the developing Cold War.
"As a society, Americans are led to overlook great threats to our freedoms that took place during repressive times. If the Palmer Raids or McCarthyism had taken place in any country behind the Iron Curtain, Americans would have been quick to condemn the actions as massive purges of dissidents.
"The 1920s held a bountiful promise of progress at the end of WWI. The United States could have seized the chance to become a world power and leader. Instead, the nation retreated into itself and rejected President Wilson’s League of Nations in favor of isolationism."
"A repressive period has followed every major war this country has fought. The aftermath of the Civil War fits the pattern. McCarthyism followed WWII and coincided with the Korean War. Even with the Vietnam War, repression increased, during the war with the exposure of COINTELPRO and Project Chaos, and afterward in the 1980s, with the Reagan administration."
"In 1917, even before the war’s end, Van Deman had already opened a file on Martin Luther King Jr.’s maternal grandfather.
"Van Deman was an anti-Semite credited with establishing military intelligence as a part of the modern army. Most officers within the Military Intelligence Division (MID) at that time also were virulently Judeophobic . MID officers promoted every anti-Jewish publication, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was commonly accepted in MID that communists and Jews were one and the same. Military officers were greatly influenced by the teaching of eugenics and Judeophobia at West Point.
"The almost universal anti-Semitism and racism of military officers allowed them to overlook the pogroms of the 1920s in Poland and other countries. It lasted until well after WWII, and factored into the failure of the United States to offer sanctuary to Jewish refugees in the late 1930s. It also contributed to the poor treatment of Jewish survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Such beliefs also contributed to the passage of the 1924 bill that restricted immigration of “undesirables.”
"During WWI, fearing that Germans would exploit black unrest, Van Deman preoccupied himself with black churches as suspected centers of sedition."
................................................................................................
"During the war, corporations reaped fat profits. In 1919, the Wilson administration lifted wartime controls, freeing businesses to raise their prices. Business leaders at that time craved a chance to get back to normal. Before the war, Teddy Roosevelt had followed a policy of breaking up monopolies; during the war, the government had frozen prices. The only threat to reestablishing their monopolies and dominating the economy came from the new labor movement and communism. In the aftermath of the Red Scare of 1919, the pro-business candidate, Warren Harding, won the presidential election, setting the stage for rebuilding the cartels.
"WWI should have taught the Allied nations that Germany used international cartels as its spearhead of aggression. The German military mind had long understood the concept of total war. The father of modern German militarism, Karl von Clausewitz, best summarized the idea:
""War is no independent thing, the main lineaments of all strategic plans are of a political nature, the more so the more they include the totality of War and State. Disarm your enemy in peace by diplomacy and trade if you would conquer him more readily on the field of battle.""
"Bayer 205 best illustrates the mind-set of IG Farben, including its use of patents and cartels to establish a German empire. In 1920, IG Farben claimed that Bayer 205, or Germanin, was a cure for sleeping sickness. Through indirect channels, IG Farben made an offer to the British government: the secret of Germanin in exchange for the return of German colonies in Africa lost in WWI. The British government declined the offer. However, a British medical journal in 1922 preserved the resourcefulness of IG Farben:
""A curious illustration of German desire, not unnatural in itself, to regain the tropical colonies lost by the folly of the rulers of the German Empire, is afforded by a discussion which took place at a meeting of the German Association of Tropical Medicine at Hamburg. The Times correspondent in Hamburg reports that one of the speakers said that Bayer 205 is the key to tropical Africa, and consequently the key to all the colonies. The German government must, therefore, be required to safeguard this discovery for Germany. Its value is such that any privilege of a share in it granted to other nations must be made conditional upon the restoration to Germany of her colonial empire.""
"In 1926, the German army formed the Economic High Command. Robert Strausz-Hupe summed up its express purpose as follows:
""Studying the deficiencies of German economy and laying plans for transforming it into Wehrwirtschaft [a military economy]. Rapid conquests alone could provide new resources before Germany’s reserves, accumulated by barter, ruthless rationing, and synthetic chemistry, had been exhausted in the initial war effort.
"These new resources could then be poured into the war machine, rolling on to ever larger territorial conquests, and as long as it kept on rolling, the economy of greater space need never fear a crisis.""
"In 1932, Col. Taylor of du Pont reported:
"One of the motives back of the French proposal, that all countries should establish a conscription, is to upset the present German system of handling their Reichswehr. The Reichswehr is limited to 100,000 men of 12 year enlistment, and it would appear reasonable to suppose that there should be at present a number of soldiers around the age of 33 or 34; the fact is that when one meets a soldier of the Reichswehr he is a young man in the early twenties, and it is pretty well accepted that there are several men available under the same name and hence training a much larger number of men than permitted.
"During the 1920s, there were more than 100 secret treason trials in Germany of journalists and others who revealed the truth. Quoting Dr. H.C. Englebrecht and F.C. Hanighen:
""It would seem then that despite the Versailles treaty that Germany is again a manufacturer and exporter of arms. This interference is confirmed by various incidents from the past ten years. There was the Bullerjahn case of 1925. On December 11, 1925 Walter Bullerjahn was sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason. The trial was held in secret and the public was excluded. Both the crime with which the condemned was charged and the name of the accuser were kept deep and dark secrets. After years of agitation by Dr. Paul Levi and the League for Human Rights, the facts were finally disclosed. The accuser was Paul von Gontard, general director of the Berlin-Karlsruhe Industriewerke, the same man who used the French press in 1907 in order to increase his machine gun business. Gontard had been establishing secret arsenals, contrary to treaty provisions, and the Allies discovered this fact. Gontard disliked Bullerjahn and had serious disagreements with him. In order to get rid of him he charged him with revealing to the Allies the fact that Gontard was secretly arming Germany. This was termed treason by the court and Bullerjahn was condemned, although not a shred of evidence was ever produced to show his connection with the Allies. The exposure of the facts in the case finally brought the release of Bullerjahn.
"A little later, Carl von Ossietzky, the courageous editor of the Weltbühne, was convicted of treason by a German court because he had revealed military secrets in his journal. The secrets he had published were closely related to the secret rearming of Germany contrary to treaty provisions."
"There is also some evidence that Germany is importing arms and munitions from other countries. In a confidential report of the exports of Skoda for 1930 and 1931, classified by countries, Germany appears as importer of comparatively large amounts of rifles, portable firearms, aero engines, nitrocellulose, dynamite and other explosives."
"Time has blurred one simple fact: Hitler had the support of the ruling class as early as 1923. He entered politics on the order of his commanding officer to attend a meeting of what evolved into the Nazi Party.
"In the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was guilty of a far more serious crime, armed rebellion, but received a much lighter sentence than Bullerjahn. Hitler served less than two years in prison, and his accommodations were more like a hotel with room service."
"From the files of J. K. Jenny of du Pont’s Foreign Relations Department, a memo dated March 22, 1932 - a full year before Hitler assumed power - reveals that IG and other German industrialists financed Hitler:
""It is a matter of common gossip in Germany that IG is financing Hitler. Other German firms who are also supposed to be doing so are Krupp and Thyssen. How much truth there is in the gossip we are unable to state, but there seems to be no doubt whatever that Dr. Schmitz (director-general of IG) is at least a large contributor to the Nazi Party."
"The foregoing quotes clearly establish the complacency of the three American administrations of the 1920s toward German violations of the Treaty of Versailles. They detail the ever-increasing role of IG Farben as an agent of the German government, culminating with support of the Nazis, and leave no doubt that the Republican administrations of the 1920s were aware of the violations, as well as of IG Farben’s efforts to reestablish its supremacy.
"Isolationist policies of the 1920s Republican administrations were clearly a dismal failure that provided a fertile environment for rebuilding Germany’s war machine. IG Farben had a long history of supporting German nationalism. Perhaps most alarming was IG Farben’s increasing boldness and aggressiveness in violating the treaty. By the mid 1920s, there were clear signs that Germany was preparing for another war."
"The cartel agreements with IG Farben were anticompetitive and used to set up monopolies. In essence, anticompetitive agreements increased the profits of larger firms at the expense of smaller companies and consumers. Such agreements were the reverse of Roosevelt’s trust-busting days and a free enterprise system.
"However, to the business leaders of the 1920s, “competition” was a foul word. Competition, like unionism, had to be avoided. In the view of leading industrialists of that time, competition was destructive. Thus, the empire builders of the 1920s were eager to sign such agreements, and the policies of successive Republican administrations willingly turned a blind eye toward anticompetitive practices.
"The full extent of IG Farben’s ability to disrupt the U.S. war effort can be seen from the number of patents seized by the U.S. in WWII. After the United States entered WWII, the Roosevelt administration established the Alien Property Custodian (APC) and seized 12,300 patents - 5,000 of which covered chemicals, pharmaceuticals and munitions. This situation was allowed to occur for the second time even though the APC and the Trading With the Enemy Act date from 1917."
"Perhaps one of the clearest examples of how IG Farben hindered the WWI effort is the case of Dr. Hugo Schweitzer. An American citizen and head of Bayer Co., he conducted an effective industrial espionage campaign. Known in Berlin as No. 963,192,637, he led German espionage in America."
"Schweitzer’s work not only shows how IG Farben was an integral part of the German war machine, but also illustrates the role of German immigrants. While the vast majority were citizens loyal to their adopted country, during both wars, German espionage relied heavily on German-Americans. The German spies apprehended landing on Long Island during WWII had all previously lived in the United States. Immigrants like Schweitzer who chose to remain loyal to their fatherland had a considerable impact hindering the war effort.
"On Schweitzer’s death, government agents searching his apartment found an unpublished document, The Chemists’ War. It detailed Germany’s plan for self-sufficiency and foretold of the strategic value of its scientific advances for the next war."
"Before U.S. entry into WWI, Bosch practices delayed American aircraft production for the Allies. It was not until the United States entered the war that any action could be taken against Bosch. The same tactics were common before the United States entered WWII."
"During the war, corporations reaped fat profits. In 1919, the Wilson administration lifted wartime controls, freeing businesses to raise their prices. Business leaders at that time craved a chance to get back to normal. Before the war, Teddy Roosevelt had followed a policy of breaking up monopolies; during the war, the government had frozen prices. The only threat to reestablishing their monopolies and dominating the economy came from the new labor movement and communism. In the aftermath of the Red Scare of 1919, the pro-business candidate, Warren Harding, won the presidential election, setting the stage for rebuilding the cartels.
"WWI should have taught the Allied nations that Germany used international cartels as its spearhead of aggression. The German military mind had long understood the concept of total war. The father of modern German militarism, Karl von Clausewitz, best summarized the idea:
""War is no independent thing, the main lineaments of all strategic plans are of a political nature, the more so the more they include the totality of War and State. Disarm your enemy in peace by diplomacy and trade if you would conquer him more readily on the field of battle.""
"Bayer 205 best illustrates the mind-set of IG Farben, including its use of patents and cartels to establish a German empire. In 1920, IG Farben claimed that Bayer 205, or Germanin, was a cure for sleeping sickness. Through indirect channels, IG Farben made an offer to the British government: the secret of Germanin in exchange for the return of German colonies in Africa lost in WWI. The British government declined the offer. However, a British medical journal in 1922 preserved the resourcefulness of IG Farben:
""A curious illustration of German desire, not unnatural in itself, to regain the tropical colonies lost by the folly of the rulers of the German Empire, is afforded by a discussion which took place at a meeting of the German Association of Tropical Medicine at Hamburg. The Times correspondent in Hamburg reports that one of the speakers said that Bayer 205 is the key to tropical Africa, and consequently the key to all the colonies. The German government must, therefore, be required to safeguard this discovery for Germany. Its value is such that any privilege of a share in it granted to other nations must be made conditional upon the restoration to Germany of her colonial empire.""
"In 1926, the German army formed the Economic High Command. Robert Strausz-Hupe summed up its express purpose as follows:
""Studying the deficiencies of German economy and laying plans for transforming it into Wehrwirtschaft [a military economy]. Rapid conquests alone could provide new resources before Germany’s reserves, accumulated by barter, ruthless rationing, and synthetic chemistry, had been exhausted in the initial war effort.
"These new resources could then be poured into the war machine, rolling on to ever larger territorial conquests, and as long as it kept on rolling, the economy of greater space need never fear a crisis.""
"In 1932, Col. Taylor of du Pont reported:
"One of the motives back of the French proposal, that all countries should establish a conscription, is to upset the present German system of handling their Reichswehr. The Reichswehr is limited to 100,000 men of 12 year enlistment, and it would appear reasonable to suppose that there should be at present a number of soldiers around the age of 33 or 34; the fact is that when one meets a soldier of the Reichswehr he is a young man in the early twenties, and it is pretty well accepted that there are several men available under the same name and hence training a much larger number of men than permitted.
"During the 1920s, there were more than 100 secret treason trials in Germany of journalists and others who revealed the truth. Quoting Dr. H.C. Englebrecht and F.C. Hanighen:
""It would seem then that despite the Versailles treaty that Germany is again a manufacturer and exporter of arms. This interference is confirmed by various incidents from the past ten years. There was the Bullerjahn case of 1925. On December 11, 1925 Walter Bullerjahn was sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason. The trial was held in secret and the public was excluded. Both the crime with which the condemned was charged and the name of the accuser were kept deep and dark secrets. After years of agitation by Dr. Paul Levi and the League for Human Rights, the facts were finally disclosed. The accuser was Paul von Gontard, general director of the Berlin-Karlsruhe Industriewerke, the same man who used the French press in 1907 in order to increase his machine gun business. Gontard had been establishing secret arsenals, contrary to treaty provisions, and the Allies discovered this fact. Gontard disliked Bullerjahn and had serious disagreements with him. In order to get rid of him he charged him with revealing to the Allies the fact that Gontard was secretly arming Germany. This was termed treason by the court and Bullerjahn was condemned, although not a shred of evidence was ever produced to show his connection with the Allies. The exposure of the facts in the case finally brought the release of Bullerjahn.
"A little later, Carl von Ossietzky, the courageous editor of the Weltbühne, was convicted of treason by a German court because he had revealed military secrets in his journal. The secrets he had published were closely related to the secret rearming of Germany contrary to treaty provisions."
"There is also some evidence that Germany is importing arms and munitions from other countries. In a confidential report of the exports of Skoda for 1930 and 1931, classified by countries, Germany appears as importer of comparatively large amounts of rifles, portable firearms, aero engines, nitrocellulose, dynamite and other explosives."
"Time has blurred one simple fact: Hitler had the support of the ruling class as early as 1923. He entered politics on the order of his commanding officer to attend a meeting of what evolved into the Nazi Party.
"In the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was guilty of a far more serious crime, armed rebellion, but received a much lighter sentence than Bullerjahn. Hitler served less than two years in prison, and his accommodations were more like a hotel with room service."
"From the files of J. K. Jenny of du Pont’s Foreign Relations Department, a memo dated March 22, 1932 - a full year before Hitler assumed power - reveals that IG and other German industrialists financed Hitler:
""It is a matter of common gossip in Germany that IG is financing Hitler. Other German firms who are also supposed to be doing so are Krupp and Thyssen. How much truth there is in the gossip we are unable to state, but there seems to be no doubt whatever that Dr. Schmitz (director-general of IG) is at least a large contributor to the Nazi Party."
"The foregoing quotes clearly establish the complacency of the three American administrations of the 1920s toward German violations of the Treaty of Versailles. They detail the ever-increasing role of IG Farben as an agent of the German government, culminating with support of the Nazis, and leave no doubt that the Republican administrations of the 1920s were aware of the violations, as well as of IG Farben’s efforts to reestablish its supremacy.
"Isolationist policies of the 1920s Republican administrations were clearly a dismal failure that provided a fertile environment for rebuilding Germany’s war machine. IG Farben had a long history of supporting German nationalism. Perhaps most alarming was IG Farben’s increasing boldness and aggressiveness in violating the treaty. By the mid 1920s, there were clear signs that Germany was preparing for another war."
"The cartel agreements with IG Farben were anticompetitive and used to set up monopolies. In essence, anticompetitive agreements increased the profits of larger firms at the expense of smaller companies and consumers. Such agreements were the reverse of Roosevelt’s trust-busting days and a free enterprise system.
"However, to the business leaders of the 1920s, “competition” was a foul word. Competition, like unionism, had to be avoided. In the view of leading industrialists of that time, competition was destructive. Thus, the empire builders of the 1920s were eager to sign such agreements, and the policies of successive Republican administrations willingly turned a blind eye toward anticompetitive practices.
"The full extent of IG Farben’s ability to disrupt the U.S. war effort can be seen from the number of patents seized by the U.S. in WWII. After the United States entered WWII, the Roosevelt administration established the Alien Property Custodian (APC) and seized 12,300 patents - 5,000 of which covered chemicals, pharmaceuticals and munitions. This situation was allowed to occur for the second time even though the APC and the Trading With the Enemy Act date from 1917."
"Perhaps one of the clearest examples of how IG Farben hindered the WWI effort is the case of Dr. Hugo Schweitzer. An American citizen and head of Bayer Co., he conducted an effective industrial espionage campaign. Known in Berlin as No. 963,192,637, he led German espionage in America."
"Schweitzer’s work not only shows how IG Farben was an integral part of the German war machine, but also illustrates the role of German immigrants. While the vast majority were citizens loyal to their adopted country, during both wars, German espionage relied heavily on German-Americans. The German spies apprehended landing on Long Island during WWII had all previously lived in the United States. Immigrants like Schweitzer who chose to remain loyal to their fatherland had a considerable impact hindering the war effort.
"On Schweitzer’s death, government agents searching his apartment found an unpublished document, The Chemists’ War. It detailed Germany’s plan for self-sufficiency and foretold of the strategic value of its scientific advances for the next war."
"Before U.S. entry into WWI, Bosch practices delayed American aircraft production for the Allies. It was not until the United States entered the war that any action could be taken against Bosch. The same tactics were common before the United States entered WWII."
................................................................................................
"It’s obvious from this quote that the danger posed by cartels and their monopoly agreements were well known at the highest levels of government. Yet the most stunning aspect of the aftermath of WWI was the speed at which IG Farben reestablished its cartel agreements. This could only have occurred with the full cooperation of Republican administrations and the leaders of corporate America.
"Even during the peace conference, there were those in this country who acted fraudulently, if not treasonously. Throughout the war, lawyer John Foster Dulles sought to protect the Kaiser’s assets from seizure by the Alien Property Custodian, the APC. Dulles sought to subvert the peace conference by smoothing the way for cartels. As a member of the postwar U.S. War Trade Board, Dulles had good information for sale. He was well aware that German bribes went all the way to the Harding administration’s crooked Attorney General, Harry Daugherty. In a later corruption trial, Daugherty’s defense counsel pointed out a bigger crook behind the bribery scandal - John Foster Dulles, “who strutted about the Peace Conference promoting himself as [Secretary of State] Lansing’s nephew while carrying a ‘bag looking for a bribe,’ misdirecting his clients and comporting himself as a man who should be disbarred.”"
"Dulles continued to work his mischief in the corrupt Harding administration, where he had access to its highest levels of power. Later, as WWII approached, he and his brother, Allen, helped hide Nazi ownership of, and involvement in, American corporations from the U.S. government.
"Daugherty was not the only Harding administration member seeking to form alliances and cartel agreements with IG Farben. Before becoming Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon controlled interests such as Alcoa, and formed several cartel agreements with IG Farben. Mellon also supported several pro-fascist groups in the 1930s, and was part of the fascist plot against FDR in 1934.
"Mellon and Daugherty were not the only officials sympathetic toward IG Farben and Germany. There were many more, some of whom became Nazi supporters in the 1930s. Besides supporters in the government, IG Farben found a multitude of support on Wall Street. Many from Wall Street later rose to high government positions, particularly in the OSS during the war, and as economic advisers during the postwar denazification period."
"However, during the Harding administration, officials openly sympathetic to IG Farben and German interests headed the two departments charged with enforcing these laws - Daugherty at the Justice Department and Mellon at the Treasury.
"Mellon was Secretary of Treasury throughout the Harding and Coolidge administrations, and most of the Hoover administration. Holding his portfolio throughout the 1920s, Mellon was able to quash almost all investigations into reforming cartels. Thus, by the end of the decade, IG Farben had regained control of all its assets seized by the APC. In fact, the Mellon-owned Alcoa Corp. signed a cartel agreement with IG Farben while Mellon was still heading the Treasury."
"These actions by 1920s Republican administrations had an enormous effect on the US war effort in the 1940s. Cartel agreements signed in the 1920s caused supply shortages of many vital materials and production delays of munitions during WWII. Particularly damaging was a shortage of aluminum, the result of the cartel of IG Farben and Alcoa. Only recently has information surfaced on this damage to the second war effort, as evident from a recent Newsweek.com article:
""The fresh look at wartime culpability may extend to other American icons. In 1940 one of the nation’s most prestigious law firms, Sullivan & Cromwell, joined together with the Wallenberg family of Sweden - famed for producing Raoul, a Holocaust martyr who saved Jews in Budapest - to represent Nazi German interests, says Abe Weissbrodt, a former Treasury Department lawyer who prosecuted the case in 1946. The scam? Sullivan & Cromwell drafted a voting trust agreement making the Wallenbergs’ Enskilda Bank a dummy owner of the U.S. subsidiary of Bosch, a German engine-parts maker, so the Nazis could retain control. The papers were drawn up by John Foster Dulles, a Germanophile who later became Secretary of State and whose name today graces Washington’s international airport. (The scheme worked during the war, but in 1948 Bosch was finally auctioned to a U.S. buyer.) “The record is compelling in terms of warranting questions about Dulles’ motives and his own allegiances,” says historian Masurovsky. “One might say about him what Treasury said about Chase and J.P. Morgan, that they had allegiance to their own corporate interests and not to their country.”
"Sullivan & Cromwell was established by Algernon Sullivan in New York following the economic panic of 1857 which had bankrupted his practice in Indiana. The young Sullivan had just married a George Washington descendent from Virginia. Before the Civil War broke out, Sullivan built his firm based on his wife’s southern contacts. In the last two decades of the 20th century, these southern connections also played an important role in moving industry from the Rust Belt to the South. Moreover, they were key to the financial shenanigans of the Bush family."
................................................................................................
"In 1901, J.P. Morgan used Sullivan & Cromwell to organize U.S. Steel, the first American corporation with more than $1 billion capital."
"By 1900, Sullivan & Cromwell emerged as the law firm of the robber barons. Cromwell was willing to use unethical means to achieve victory for any client who could afford his fees, while he worked behind the scenes to weaken corporate laws. It was at this time that Cromwell developed an interest in the Panama Canal. In 1911, Dulles’ grandfather, John Watson Foster, a former Secretary of State, urged Cromwell to hire his grandson. The elder Foster had known both founding partners and had clerked for Sullivan when he was in Ohio. Cromwell complied with the request and hired John Foster Dulles."
"However, the real story of treason by Sullivan & Cromwell and the Dulles brothers, John Foster and Allen, begins with the end of WWI. Cromwell stayed in Paris and John Foster Dulles, while not formally in charge of the New York office, was the leading expert there. In 1926, Allen Dulles resigned from the State Department and went into private practice with his brother at Sullivan & Cromwell. In the 1920s-1930s, several Wall Street firms figured prominently in guiding investments into Germany, but almost every deal involved the services of Sullivan & Cromwell.
"Coinciding with the Dawes Plan, John Foster Dulles arranged a large loan for Krupp. To obtain it, Dulles called Leland Harrison, Assistant Secretary of State, to soft-pedal the item in the news. Harrison was infuriated because the department had issued a circular asking to see foreign loans before American funds were exported. However, Dulles knew that Harrison had no authority to stop the loan. Wanting to avoid the State Department’s scrutiny of German factories producing military hardware, he chose a Saturday to call Harrison. At Dulles’ bidding, Sullivan & Cromwell blandly accepted Krupp’s assurances that all military hardware had been destroyed.
"The Krupp loan opened a new era at Sullivan & Cromwell. It was the start of a massive investment in Germany by U.S. banks, who competed with each other for the services of Sullivan & Cromwell in arranging German loans. Within a year, America had loaned Germany $150 million. Such massive lending worried both the German and U.S. governments. The State Department privately warned bankers and lawyers of the growing indebtedness of Germany. Dulles actively promoted the loans, and Sullivan & Cromwell supervised an endless stream of German bonds. Many of the prospectuses contained errors and were never proofread in the frantic pace; others were deliberately deceptive. A Bavarian bond prospectus said the country “has an excellent credit history” when, in reality, Bavaria had defaulted on its debt the year before. Almost 70 percent of the money flowing into Germany during the 1930s came from U.S. investors.
"Dulles gained much of his and his clients’ profits from investments in Nazi Germany. In the 1930s, he created an incredible interlocking financial network between Nazi corporations, American Oil and Saudi Arabia. Here, Allen had help from his brother, Foster. Perhaps the best-known deal arranged by Dulles was between IG Farben and Standard Oil of New Jersey. What is generally not known is that IG Farben was the second largest shareholder in Standard Oil of New Jersey, second to only John D. Rockefeller."
"In the 1930s, Dulles arranged for the wealthy Czech family, the Petscheks, to sell their interest in Silesian Coal to George Murnane. Murnane was used merely to hide the Petscheks’ interest. Dulles then sold the shares to his friend, Schacht, the Nazi economic minister. After the sale, Dulles became director of Consolidated Silesian Steel Co. Its sole asset was a one-third interest in Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Co. Friedrich Flick controlled the balance of the shares. This was one of the companies seized from Prescott Bush for trading with the enemy."
"By 1934, John Foster Dulles was publicly supporting Nazi philosophy. In 1935, he wrote a long article for the Atlantic Monthly, “The Road to Peace.” He excused Germany’s secret rearmament as an action to take back its freedom. Knowing what he did about Inco and Germany’s munitions industry, Dulles misled his readers in asserting the wishes of Germany, Italy and Japan for peace. Later in the 1930s, Dulles helped organize the America First group, to which he gave $500 a month before Pearl Harbor. Later, he would claim no association with the organization. Dulles continued his support for the Nazi line right up to the time Germany invaded Poland. Dulles’ excuse for the invasion of Poland was much like blaming the victim for the crime."
................................................................................................
"After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, John Foster Dulles wrote the company policy for Sullivan & Cromwell on the rehiring of those who had joined the army to fight. This policy refused to guarantee that employees could return to their former positions. Nonetheless, more than half of the firm enlisted, including four partners and 35 associates. The OSS assigned many of the enlistees to top-level positions. In an act of poetic justice, Dulles’ policy to refuse to guarantee the enlistees’ jobs on their return from service came back to haunt him in his 1950 race for the Senate, and figured prominently in his defeat."
"With the outbreak of WWII, John Foster Dulles’ praise of Nazi Germany severely tarnished his image. Throughout the war, he stayed home and used sanctimonious pronouncements to rebuild his image, but he did not give up his secret Nazi ties.
"The most significant action Dulles took during the war severely crippled America’s war effort. The military depended on diesel motors for trucks, tanks, submarines, ships and aircraft. There was no substitute for the direct fuel injection in diesel engines. While the United States plotted to bomb Nazi diesel plants in Germany, the legal maneuvers of John Foster prevented America from manufacturing more efficient diesel engines at home."
"Throughout this period, American Bosch Co. tried to get the German company to reduce the 5 percent royalty it had to pay. In exchange, American Bosch volunteered information about costs, prices and other competitive data. The deal delighted the Nazi government, because it provided an outline of American war production before the U.S. entered the war.
"As the war approached, the Nazis sought to further camouflage the true owner of American Bosch, and Dulles and Murnane arranged another sale. This time, the Wallenbergs of Sweden appeared to have bought American Bosch. Besides the critical fuel injectors, Bosch also produced walkie-talkies for the Third Reich. To further cloak German ownership, Dulles fabricated a maze of corporations that seemed American, without transferring control outside Germany. He had the Wallenbergs put their shares in Providentia, a Delaware corporation. Dulles was the sole voting trustee of the corporation and had full authority to dispose of the shares.
"In July 1941, the Navy Department approached American Bosch on behalf of Caterpillar with the intention of manufacturing diesel equipment. American Bosch responded that it was willing to change its exclusive rights; however, the corporation’s rights were indivisible and thus the company was unable to grant the request.
"In May 1942, authorities confiscated American Bosch under APC. A secret government document dated Oct. 11, 1944 concluded that Dulles must have known that American Bosch was German owned. Nevertheless, Dulles was successful in delaying the widespread manufacturing of diesel engines for five years during the critical period when America sought to rebuild its military might.
"The Justice Department’s antitrust lawyers found that other Sullivan & Cromwell clients were prominent causes of bottlenecks in war production. However, prosecution was delayed until the end of the war; otherwise, war production would have suffered adversely. In 1946, the chemical companies signed a consent decree paying a minimal fine of $5,000. A list of those who faced or signed consent decrees reads like a list of Fortune 500 corporations, including Allied Chemical, American Agricultural Chemical and Merck."
"The money Dulles siphoned from the American economy to invest in Nazi Germany undoubtedly prolonged and deepened the Depression. To put it in another perspective, in 1940, the Nazi war machine’s budget was about 5 billion marks. In effect, what Dulles alone invested was enough for almost an entire year for the Nazi war machine. (This is one way to get an airport named for you in the capital of the U.S. - as if the airport of Paris were named Adolf Hitler International instead of Charles de Gaulle.)"
"In 1901, J.P. Morgan used Sullivan & Cromwell to organize U.S. Steel, the first American corporation with more than $1 billion capital."
"By 1900, Sullivan & Cromwell emerged as the law firm of the robber barons. Cromwell was willing to use unethical means to achieve victory for any client who could afford his fees, while he worked behind the scenes to weaken corporate laws. It was at this time that Cromwell developed an interest in the Panama Canal. In 1911, Dulles’ grandfather, John Watson Foster, a former Secretary of State, urged Cromwell to hire his grandson. The elder Foster had known both founding partners and had clerked for Sullivan when he was in Ohio. Cromwell complied with the request and hired John Foster Dulles."
"However, the real story of treason by Sullivan & Cromwell and the Dulles brothers, John Foster and Allen, begins with the end of WWI. Cromwell stayed in Paris and John Foster Dulles, while not formally in charge of the New York office, was the leading expert there. In 1926, Allen Dulles resigned from the State Department and went into private practice with his brother at Sullivan & Cromwell. In the 1920s-1930s, several Wall Street firms figured prominently in guiding investments into Germany, but almost every deal involved the services of Sullivan & Cromwell.
"Coinciding with the Dawes Plan, John Foster Dulles arranged a large loan for Krupp. To obtain it, Dulles called Leland Harrison, Assistant Secretary of State, to soft-pedal the item in the news. Harrison was infuriated because the department had issued a circular asking to see foreign loans before American funds were exported. However, Dulles knew that Harrison had no authority to stop the loan. Wanting to avoid the State Department’s scrutiny of German factories producing military hardware, he chose a Saturday to call Harrison. At Dulles’ bidding, Sullivan & Cromwell blandly accepted Krupp’s assurances that all military hardware had been destroyed.
"The Krupp loan opened a new era at Sullivan & Cromwell. It was the start of a massive investment in Germany by U.S. banks, who competed with each other for the services of Sullivan & Cromwell in arranging German loans. Within a year, America had loaned Germany $150 million. Such massive lending worried both the German and U.S. governments. The State Department privately warned bankers and lawyers of the growing indebtedness of Germany. Dulles actively promoted the loans, and Sullivan & Cromwell supervised an endless stream of German bonds. Many of the prospectuses contained errors and were never proofread in the frantic pace; others were deliberately deceptive. A Bavarian bond prospectus said the country “has an excellent credit history” when, in reality, Bavaria had defaulted on its debt the year before. Almost 70 percent of the money flowing into Germany during the 1930s came from U.S. investors.
"Dulles gained much of his and his clients’ profits from investments in Nazi Germany. In the 1930s, he created an incredible interlocking financial network between Nazi corporations, American Oil and Saudi Arabia. Here, Allen had help from his brother, Foster. Perhaps the best-known deal arranged by Dulles was between IG Farben and Standard Oil of New Jersey. What is generally not known is that IG Farben was the second largest shareholder in Standard Oil of New Jersey, second to only John D. Rockefeller."
"In the 1930s, Dulles arranged for the wealthy Czech family, the Petscheks, to sell their interest in Silesian Coal to George Murnane. Murnane was used merely to hide the Petscheks’ interest. Dulles then sold the shares to his friend, Schacht, the Nazi economic minister. After the sale, Dulles became director of Consolidated Silesian Steel Co. Its sole asset was a one-third interest in Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Co. Friedrich Flick controlled the balance of the shares. This was one of the companies seized from Prescott Bush for trading with the enemy."
"By 1934, John Foster Dulles was publicly supporting Nazi philosophy. In 1935, he wrote a long article for the Atlantic Monthly, “The Road to Peace.” He excused Germany’s secret rearmament as an action to take back its freedom. Knowing what he did about Inco and Germany’s munitions industry, Dulles misled his readers in asserting the wishes of Germany, Italy and Japan for peace. Later in the 1930s, Dulles helped organize the America First group, to which he gave $500 a month before Pearl Harbor. Later, he would claim no association with the organization. Dulles continued his support for the Nazi line right up to the time Germany invaded Poland. Dulles’ excuse for the invasion of Poland was much like blaming the victim for the crime."
................................................................................................
"After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, John Foster Dulles wrote the company policy for Sullivan & Cromwell on the rehiring of those who had joined the army to fight. This policy refused to guarantee that employees could return to their former positions. Nonetheless, more than half of the firm enlisted, including four partners and 35 associates. The OSS assigned many of the enlistees to top-level positions. In an act of poetic justice, Dulles’ policy to refuse to guarantee the enlistees’ jobs on their return from service came back to haunt him in his 1950 race for the Senate, and figured prominently in his defeat."
"With the outbreak of WWII, John Foster Dulles’ praise of Nazi Germany severely tarnished his image. Throughout the war, he stayed home and used sanctimonious pronouncements to rebuild his image, but he did not give up his secret Nazi ties.
"The most significant action Dulles took during the war severely crippled America’s war effort. The military depended on diesel motors for trucks, tanks, submarines, ships and aircraft. There was no substitute for the direct fuel injection in diesel engines. While the United States plotted to bomb Nazi diesel plants in Germany, the legal maneuvers of John Foster prevented America from manufacturing more efficient diesel engines at home."
"Throughout this period, American Bosch Co. tried to get the German company to reduce the 5 percent royalty it had to pay. In exchange, American Bosch volunteered information about costs, prices and other competitive data. The deal delighted the Nazi government, because it provided an outline of American war production before the U.S. entered the war.
"As the war approached, the Nazis sought to further camouflage the true owner of American Bosch, and Dulles and Murnane arranged another sale. This time, the Wallenbergs of Sweden appeared to have bought American Bosch. Besides the critical fuel injectors, Bosch also produced walkie-talkies for the Third Reich. To further cloak German ownership, Dulles fabricated a maze of corporations that seemed American, without transferring control outside Germany. He had the Wallenbergs put their shares in Providentia, a Delaware corporation. Dulles was the sole voting trustee of the corporation and had full authority to dispose of the shares.
"In July 1941, the Navy Department approached American Bosch on behalf of Caterpillar with the intention of manufacturing diesel equipment. American Bosch responded that it was willing to change its exclusive rights; however, the corporation’s rights were indivisible and thus the company was unable to grant the request.
"In May 1942, authorities confiscated American Bosch under APC. A secret government document dated Oct. 11, 1944 concluded that Dulles must have known that American Bosch was German owned. Nevertheless, Dulles was successful in delaying the widespread manufacturing of diesel engines for five years during the critical period when America sought to rebuild its military might.
"The Justice Department’s antitrust lawyers found that other Sullivan & Cromwell clients were prominent causes of bottlenecks in war production. However, prosecution was delayed until the end of the war; otherwise, war production would have suffered adversely. In 1946, the chemical companies signed a consent decree paying a minimal fine of $5,000. A list of those who faced or signed consent decrees reads like a list of Fortune 500 corporations, including Allied Chemical, American Agricultural Chemical and Merck."
"The money Dulles siphoned from the American economy to invest in Nazi Germany undoubtedly prolonged and deepened the Depression. To put it in another perspective, in 1940, the Nazi war machine’s budget was about 5 billion marks. In effect, what Dulles alone invested was enough for almost an entire year for the Nazi war machine. (This is one way to get an airport named for you in the capital of the U.S. - as if the airport of Paris were named Adolf Hitler International instead of Charles de Gaulle.)"
................................................................................................
"As Secretary of State, Dulles used Sullivan & Cromwell to help carry on his support for former Nazi businessmen. He supported Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen’s bill to return all property held by APC to its previous owners. The value of the property confiscated was worth up to $200 million. The proposal horrified former Allies. Releasing the property would have returned the property to the Nazis and their collaborators.
"John Foster Dulles became a director of IG Farben, while his brother served on the board of a leading German bank that became closely associated with the Nazis. Both were masters at drawing up arrangements hiding American corporations’ Nazi involvement. Following WWII, as head of the CIA, Allen Dulles was in an ideal position to continue the cover-up of American corporate involvement with the Nazis, as well as helping scores of war criminals escape justice."
"The Dulles brothers also were the masterminds behind the Dawes Plan, which had the support and backing of J.P. Morgan. Under the Dawes Plan, the United States loaned money to Germany so it could pay international reparations to England and France. In turn, England and France repaid the United States. For a while, this financial merry-go-round was successful and the Dulles brothers’ clients reaped a financial windfall. From 1924-31, Germany paid the Allies about 36 billion marks in reparations, but received about 33 billion marks borrowed under the Dawes and Young Plans. This resulted in shifting the burden of German reparations to the buyers of German bonds sold by Wall Street firms at hefty commissions."
"One of the more striking aspects of the history of fascism in the United States was the removal of people like Maloney from office. Maloney was relentless in his pursuit of native fascists. After getting indictments on July 21, 1942 against 28 suspects, he was depicted as a stooge of the International Jewish bankers by Joe Kamp, a pro-Nazi propagandist. Sen. Burton Wheeler demanded that Attorney General Biddle remove Maloney. When Biddle objected to such pressure, Wheeler announced he would blow the whistle on the Department of Justice. It is unknown what leverage Wheeler had on the Department of Justice, but Biddle immediately dismissed Maloney and made it clear that he could not act even as a consultant to his successor. His successor, John Rogge, was a capable and able prosecutor who handled the sedition trial in 1944. He also was abruptly removed.
"Without exception, those who sought to expose the fascists and bring them to trial were forced from office or otherwise discredited. Gen. Butler, who exposed the fascist plot against Roosevelt, was mocked in the press in a successful effort to discredit him. Meanwhile openly pro-fascist operators continued to rise in power."
"The two groups associated with Viereck could have opened charges against many of the congressmen above. Wheeler as chairman on the Senate Judiciary Committee brought strong pressure on Attorney General Biddle. A trial would have exposed all those connected to additional charges of sedition. The big fascists had to be protected.
"The end to the prosecution of seditionists and Nazi collaborators came with the death of Judge Eicher on Nov. 30, 1944 in the midst of the trial. The next morning, the new judge declared a mistrial. The trial had been delayed and disrupted by the defendants since its start in February.
"Rogge, like Maloney, was relentless in his pursuit of Nazi supporters. In spring 1946, he received news from U.S. Army Capt. Sam Harris, a member of the prosecuting team at Nuremberg, of indisputable evidence linking the former Nazi government with leading citizens of the United States. On April 4, Attorney General Tom Clark allowed Rogge and four aides to fly to Germany. Over the course of 11 weeks, Rogge and his team questioned 66 people, including Goering and Ribbentrop, and dozens of other top Nazi officials, including friends of William Davis. Rogge’s findings were decisive and explosive:
""Our investigation showed us that we had completely underestimated the scope and scale of Nazi activities in the United States. When I went to Germany I felt that the biggest threat to American democracy emanated from the machinations of persons like the defendants in the sedition trial (i.e. the little fascist crackpots). I found that a far more dangerous threat lay in the inner-connection between German and American industrialists, and that some of the best known names in America were involved in Nazi intrigue."
"On returning to the United States, Rogge started preparing a comprehensive report for Attorney General Clark. In July, Rogge submitted the first draft. Clark was clearly distraught over the references linking business and political leaders with the defeated Nazi government. Clark specifically mentioned the links to Sen. Burton Wheeler, a close friend. A Clark aide then asked that he omit all names of American politicians and business leaders. Rogge refused, already realizing the report would never be published."
"As Secretary of State, Dulles used Sullivan & Cromwell to help carry on his support for former Nazi businessmen. He supported Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen’s bill to return all property held by APC to its previous owners. The value of the property confiscated was worth up to $200 million. The proposal horrified former Allies. Releasing the property would have returned the property to the Nazis and their collaborators.
"John Foster Dulles became a director of IG Farben, while his brother served on the board of a leading German bank that became closely associated with the Nazis. Both were masters at drawing up arrangements hiding American corporations’ Nazi involvement. Following WWII, as head of the CIA, Allen Dulles was in an ideal position to continue the cover-up of American corporate involvement with the Nazis, as well as helping scores of war criminals escape justice."
"The Dulles brothers also were the masterminds behind the Dawes Plan, which had the support and backing of J.P. Morgan. Under the Dawes Plan, the United States loaned money to Germany so it could pay international reparations to England and France. In turn, England and France repaid the United States. For a while, this financial merry-go-round was successful and the Dulles brothers’ clients reaped a financial windfall. From 1924-31, Germany paid the Allies about 36 billion marks in reparations, but received about 33 billion marks borrowed under the Dawes and Young Plans. This resulted in shifting the burden of German reparations to the buyers of German bonds sold by Wall Street firms at hefty commissions."
................................................................................................
"Between the cartel agreements of IG Farben and the monopolistic behavior of American robber barons, the Dulles brothers had no shortage of investors for Germany. In 1940, Professor Gaetano Salvemini of Harvard was quoted as saying that 100 percent of American big business was sympathetic to fascism. Corporate America’s support for fascism was so great that U.S. Ambassador to Germany William Dodd proclaimed:
""A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime...
"Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there.
"Propagandists for the fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."
"Americans have never been told the truth about the extent of corporate America’s involvement with the Nazis. The media has spoon-fed Americans into believing that only a handful of companies were involved. In reality, more than 300 American corporations were illegally arming Nazi Germany during the war.
"Many of these corporations took extraordinary steps to preserve communication with their German offices and to hide their Nazi involvement from the U.S. government. They could have severed all links with Nazi Germany, but instead chose to continue to support a regime at war with their own country. In doing so, these corporations became willing accomplices to the Holocaust, traitors to their country and guilty of war crimes. The traitors responsible for such actions and crimes should have received justice at the end of a hangman’s noose. Sadly, not one American corporation was charged for aiding the Nazis."
"Between the cartel agreements of IG Farben and the monopolistic behavior of American robber barons, the Dulles brothers had no shortage of investors for Germany. In 1940, Professor Gaetano Salvemini of Harvard was quoted as saying that 100 percent of American big business was sympathetic to fascism. Corporate America’s support for fascism was so great that U.S. Ambassador to Germany William Dodd proclaimed:
""A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime...
"Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there.
"Propagandists for the fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."
"Americans have never been told the truth about the extent of corporate America’s involvement with the Nazis. The media has spoon-fed Americans into believing that only a handful of companies were involved. In reality, more than 300 American corporations were illegally arming Nazi Germany during the war.
"Many of these corporations took extraordinary steps to preserve communication with their German offices and to hide their Nazi involvement from the U.S. government. They could have severed all links with Nazi Germany, but instead chose to continue to support a regime at war with their own country. In doing so, these corporations became willing accomplices to the Holocaust, traitors to their country and guilty of war crimes. The traitors responsible for such actions and crimes should have received justice at the end of a hangman’s noose. Sadly, not one American corporation was charged for aiding the Nazis."
................................................................................................
"Before the ink was dry on the Treaty of Versailles, American corporations were rushing to invest and support Germany. The first to support what became the Nazi line was Henry Ford. Ford began publishing an anti-Jewish newspaper in the early 1920s. He was an early financial supporter of Hitler when the Nazis were still virtually unknown.
"Other early backers of Hitler and the Nazis were the du Ponts. The power behind the du Pont throne in the 1920s was Irénée du Pont who, like Ford, was a supporter of Hitler before he was known outside Munich. Irénée du Pont avidly followed Hitler’s career beginning in the early 1920s. Du Pont representatives traveled to Germany almost immediately after the armistice to renew their alliance with IG Farben."
"An agreement between du Pont and Dynamit in 1929 controlled the production of tetrazine, a substance that greatly improved ammunition primers. When WWII began in 1939, Remington (controlled by du Pont) received huge British ammunition orders. Because of a clause in the agreement with IG Farben, the British received an inferior cartridge lacking tetrazine."
................................................................................................
"More than 100 American corporations had cartel agreements with IG Farben. None of the agreements were legal under U.S. trust laws, as all monopolized or restricted trade. Many were also illegal under Alien Property Custodian laws, since they transferred control to IG Farben and other German corporations seized during WWI.
"Once war broke out in Europe, cartel agreements had an enormous impact on global geopolitics. Almost all cartel agreements banned American corporations from South America. Germany did not need to fight for South American markets; American businesses willingly handed them over to IG Farben when they signed the cartel agreements. It was only after war broke out that the cartel agreements allowed American corporations to expand their markets into South America, and then often only to German firms already there.
"It was through these South American outlets that American corporations continued to supply Nazi Germany during the war. They served as the method of choice to evade the British blockade. By using a South American firm, either under the control of IG Farben or one of its American cartel partners, shipments to Germany were first exported to a so-called neutral country, such as Spain or Switzerland, and then to Germany. It was through a South American subsidiary that Standard Oil of New Jersey continued to supply Nazi Germany with oil and munitions. The company also distributed pro-Nazi propaganda throughout South America during the war.
"Corporate apologists try to dismiss these cartel agreements simply as good business practices. However, legal documents from IG Farben suggest they were an integral part of Germany’s war plan."
"The Treasury report went on to discuss IG Farben’s practice of sending spies and agents into the United States to become citizens. The report also discusses the need of dismissing 100 American citizens from General Aniline, including five key executives, as Nazi spies or agents.
"IG Farben’s employment of spies and its relationship to the Gestapo were made vividly clear to Congress months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Richard Krebs, a former Gestapo agent, testified before the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities."
"From his personal knowledge of German cartels, Krebs testified at length about the organization of Nazi propaganda, espionage and sabotage in the Western Hemisphere. In his testimony, Krebs stated that Hamburg-Amerika Lines and Zapp Transocean News Services were nothing more than appendages of the Gestapo. Hamburg-Amerika was one of the firms seized from Prescott Bush for trading with the enemy.
"Krebs detailed how businesses in the United States employed Gestapo agents who were placed in other firms that were not a part of pro-Nazi cartels. Krebs’ testimony revealed that the Gestapo’s Industrial Reports Department had special schools to train Germans and Americans of German descent to work in the U.S. as mechanics, engineers, drafters, newsmen and even teachers. Krebs specifically stated that the relationship of IG Farben with the Gestapo was “to obtain information about our security program and to produce choke points, or to sabotage our war efforts. In 1934, IG Farbenundustrie was completely in the hands of the Gestapo. It went so far as to have its own Gestapo prison on the factory grounds of the large works at Leuna and, particularly after Hitler’s ascent to power, began to branch out in the foreign field through subsidiary factories. It is the greatest poison gas industry in the world, concentrated under the title of IG Farbenindustrie.”
"While there was less sabotage during WWII than in WWI, the new tactics were just as useful in delaying the production of war equipment and munitions. For example, Standard Oil of New Jersey managed to delay any increase in toluol production until 1941 out of obedience to IG Farben. Toluol is the vital starting material for producing both TNT and butadiene, the feedstock for synthetic rubber.
"There is at least one report that Standard Oil of New Jersey intended to resume its cartel link with IG Farben following WWII. In May 1942, Walter Winchell stated that CBS effectively silenced a news reporter covering both the Truman and Boone Committees. This reporter had included in his script reports that Standard Oil of New Jersey intended to resume ties with IG Farben when the war ended. A CBS censor who killed the item reportedly told the reporter to “go easy on Standard, you know we carry plenty of their business.”
"By the time Pearl Harbor was bombed, support for fascism was widespread, especially within large corporations. Some of the support was the direct result of IBM President Tom Watson’s tenure as president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which enthusiastically promoted trade with Nazi Germany. In 1937, the International Chamber of Commerce held its world congress in Berlin, during which Schacht presented Watson with Hitler’s medal. Watson later returned the medal, but only after it was clear that war was imminent.
"Throughout the 1930s, several large newspaper chains were openly pro-Nazi, as were many members of Congress. By the end of 1942, the proclaimed list of blacklisted companies (Nazi front corporations in Europe and South America) grew to more than 5,000. In the process, many American corporations were shown to be still trading with the Nazis. None of these companies would ever face charges, because by 1942, support for fascism and the corporate state was thoroughly entrenched in American corporate culture."
"Before the ink was dry on the Treaty of Versailles, American corporations were rushing to invest and support Germany. The first to support what became the Nazi line was Henry Ford. Ford began publishing an anti-Jewish newspaper in the early 1920s. He was an early financial supporter of Hitler when the Nazis were still virtually unknown.
"Other early backers of Hitler and the Nazis were the du Ponts. The power behind the du Pont throne in the 1920s was Irénée du Pont who, like Ford, was a supporter of Hitler before he was known outside Munich. Irénée du Pont avidly followed Hitler’s career beginning in the early 1920s. Du Pont representatives traveled to Germany almost immediately after the armistice to renew their alliance with IG Farben."
"An agreement between du Pont and Dynamit in 1929 controlled the production of tetrazine, a substance that greatly improved ammunition primers. When WWII began in 1939, Remington (controlled by du Pont) received huge British ammunition orders. Because of a clause in the agreement with IG Farben, the British received an inferior cartridge lacking tetrazine."
................................................................................................
"More than 100 American corporations had cartel agreements with IG Farben. None of the agreements were legal under U.S. trust laws, as all monopolized or restricted trade. Many were also illegal under Alien Property Custodian laws, since they transferred control to IG Farben and other German corporations seized during WWI.
"Once war broke out in Europe, cartel agreements had an enormous impact on global geopolitics. Almost all cartel agreements banned American corporations from South America. Germany did not need to fight for South American markets; American businesses willingly handed them over to IG Farben when they signed the cartel agreements. It was only after war broke out that the cartel agreements allowed American corporations to expand their markets into South America, and then often only to German firms already there.
"It was through these South American outlets that American corporations continued to supply Nazi Germany during the war. They served as the method of choice to evade the British blockade. By using a South American firm, either under the control of IG Farben or one of its American cartel partners, shipments to Germany were first exported to a so-called neutral country, such as Spain or Switzerland, and then to Germany. It was through a South American subsidiary that Standard Oil of New Jersey continued to supply Nazi Germany with oil and munitions. The company also distributed pro-Nazi propaganda throughout South America during the war.
"Corporate apologists try to dismiss these cartel agreements simply as good business practices. However, legal documents from IG Farben suggest they were an integral part of Germany’s war plan."
"The Treasury report went on to discuss IG Farben’s practice of sending spies and agents into the United States to become citizens. The report also discusses the need of dismissing 100 American citizens from General Aniline, including five key executives, as Nazi spies or agents.
"IG Farben’s employment of spies and its relationship to the Gestapo were made vividly clear to Congress months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Richard Krebs, a former Gestapo agent, testified before the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities."
"From his personal knowledge of German cartels, Krebs testified at length about the organization of Nazi propaganda, espionage and sabotage in the Western Hemisphere. In his testimony, Krebs stated that Hamburg-Amerika Lines and Zapp Transocean News Services were nothing more than appendages of the Gestapo. Hamburg-Amerika was one of the firms seized from Prescott Bush for trading with the enemy.
"Krebs detailed how businesses in the United States employed Gestapo agents who were placed in other firms that were not a part of pro-Nazi cartels. Krebs’ testimony revealed that the Gestapo’s Industrial Reports Department had special schools to train Germans and Americans of German descent to work in the U.S. as mechanics, engineers, drafters, newsmen and even teachers. Krebs specifically stated that the relationship of IG Farben with the Gestapo was “to obtain information about our security program and to produce choke points, or to sabotage our war efforts. In 1934, IG Farbenundustrie was completely in the hands of the Gestapo. It went so far as to have its own Gestapo prison on the factory grounds of the large works at Leuna and, particularly after Hitler’s ascent to power, began to branch out in the foreign field through subsidiary factories. It is the greatest poison gas industry in the world, concentrated under the title of IG Farbenindustrie.”
"While there was less sabotage during WWII than in WWI, the new tactics were just as useful in delaying the production of war equipment and munitions. For example, Standard Oil of New Jersey managed to delay any increase in toluol production until 1941 out of obedience to IG Farben. Toluol is the vital starting material for producing both TNT and butadiene, the feedstock for synthetic rubber.
"There is at least one report that Standard Oil of New Jersey intended to resume its cartel link with IG Farben following WWII. In May 1942, Walter Winchell stated that CBS effectively silenced a news reporter covering both the Truman and Boone Committees. This reporter had included in his script reports that Standard Oil of New Jersey intended to resume ties with IG Farben when the war ended. A CBS censor who killed the item reportedly told the reporter to “go easy on Standard, you know we carry plenty of their business.”
"By the time Pearl Harbor was bombed, support for fascism was widespread, especially within large corporations. Some of the support was the direct result of IBM President Tom Watson’s tenure as president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which enthusiastically promoted trade with Nazi Germany. In 1937, the International Chamber of Commerce held its world congress in Berlin, during which Schacht presented Watson with Hitler’s medal. Watson later returned the medal, but only after it was clear that war was imminent.
"Throughout the 1930s, several large newspaper chains were openly pro-Nazi, as were many members of Congress. By the end of 1942, the proclaimed list of blacklisted companies (Nazi front corporations in Europe and South America) grew to more than 5,000. In the process, many American corporations were shown to be still trading with the Nazis. None of these companies would ever face charges, because by 1942, support for fascism and the corporate state was thoroughly entrenched in American corporate culture."
................................................................................................
"In 1919, the Morgan family and its allies also bankrolled the creation of the American Legion and crafted it into a union-busting organization of thugs. The first acting officers of the legion were bankers, stockbrokers and the like.
"The Legion took on a fascist character almost from its inception and, in the 1930s, played a prominent role in the fascist plot against Roosevelt. In 1923, the Legion’s Commander, Alvin Owsley, openly embraced Mussolini and approved fascism as a policy for the United States. In the Journal of the National Education Association, Owsley equated the Legion in America with the Fascisti in Italy.
""... the American Legion stands ready to protect our country’s institutions and ideals as the Fascisti dealt with the destructionists who menaced Italy... The American Legion is fighting every element that threatens our democratic government - soviets, anarchists, I.W.W., revolutionary socialists and every other Red... Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States."
"The Legion took on a racist character through the 1920s and 1930s, and served as a recruiting base for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. In the South, many Legion posts were also local Klan cells.
"This should not be taken as a besmirching of those who have honorably served their country. In fact, disgruntled veterans who resented the wealthy elite for using them as cannon fodder went on to create the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). It was the VFW that led the fight for early payment of veterans’ bonuses after the 1929 stock market crash. The American Legion stood idly by, supporting the failed policies of Wall Street and the Hoover administration."
"President Wilson had foreseen the upcoming struggle of unions, as shown in his remark to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in 1917, just before the United States intervention in the war in Europe: “Every reform we have won will be lost if we go into this war. We have been making a fight on special privilege. War means autocracy. The people we have unhorsed will inevitably come into control of the country for we shall be dependent upon steel, ore and financial magnates. They will ruin the nation.”"
"Secondary to the plight of organized labor, but central to the 1919 Red Scare, were various espionage laws passed during the war aimed at German agents and cartels. After the war, politicians and law enforcement officials used these laws against leftists and the leaders of the labor movement."
"On April 20, 1914, in an effort to break a strike against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., more than 40 striking miners and their families were murdered in Ludlow, Colo., by the Colorado National Guard and Rockefeller-hired thugs from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency."
"In 1919, the Morgan family and its allies also bankrolled the creation of the American Legion and crafted it into a union-busting organization of thugs. The first acting officers of the legion were bankers, stockbrokers and the like.
"The Legion took on a fascist character almost from its inception and, in the 1930s, played a prominent role in the fascist plot against Roosevelt. In 1923, the Legion’s Commander, Alvin Owsley, openly embraced Mussolini and approved fascism as a policy for the United States. In the Journal of the National Education Association, Owsley equated the Legion in America with the Fascisti in Italy.
""... the American Legion stands ready to protect our country’s institutions and ideals as the Fascisti dealt with the destructionists who menaced Italy... The American Legion is fighting every element that threatens our democratic government - soviets, anarchists, I.W.W., revolutionary socialists and every other Red... Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States."
"The Legion took on a racist character through the 1920s and 1930s, and served as a recruiting base for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. In the South, many Legion posts were also local Klan cells.
"This should not be taken as a besmirching of those who have honorably served their country. In fact, disgruntled veterans who resented the wealthy elite for using them as cannon fodder went on to create the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). It was the VFW that led the fight for early payment of veterans’ bonuses after the 1929 stock market crash. The American Legion stood idly by, supporting the failed policies of Wall Street and the Hoover administration."
"President Wilson had foreseen the upcoming struggle of unions, as shown in his remark to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in 1917, just before the United States intervention in the war in Europe: “Every reform we have won will be lost if we go into this war. We have been making a fight on special privilege. War means autocracy. The people we have unhorsed will inevitably come into control of the country for we shall be dependent upon steel, ore and financial magnates. They will ruin the nation.”"
"Secondary to the plight of organized labor, but central to the 1919 Red Scare, were various espionage laws passed during the war aimed at German agents and cartels. After the war, politicians and law enforcement officials used these laws against leftists and the leaders of the labor movement."
................................................................................................
"On April 20, 1914, in an effort to break a strike against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., more than 40 striking miners and their families were murdered in Ludlow, Colo., by the Colorado National Guard and Rockefeller-hired thugs from the Baldwin-Felts detective agency."
................................................................................................
"In 1924, the Hearst papers, the American Legion and the Ku Klux Klan led the charge for the “Americanization” of schoolbooks, loyalty oaths for teachers and harsher immigration legislation. The three organizations became deeply tied to fascism in the following decade. Several members of the American Legion were involved in the fascist plot of 1934 against FDR. The Hearst papers became an open propaganda outlet for the Nazis and fascism. The Klan went on to form an alliance with the American Bund.
"W. J. Simmons, a former Methodist circuit rider from Atlanta, established the second Klan in 1915. The original Klan had died out and disbanded. (The second Klan would be disbanded later, only to be reborn once again.) In the first four years of rebirth, the Klan was relatively small. Not until 1920 did it grow mammoth.
"Two factors with roots in the late 1800s set the stage for the rebirth of the Klan. The first was massive immigration from Europe. The American Protective Association, formed in 1887, was virulently anti-alien. The group was particularly strong in the Midwest, where the Klan gained strength in the 1920s. The other reason was the populist movement of the 1890s, which sought to unite blacks and poor whites against mill owners and the conservative elite of the South.
"It was not until Simmons met publicists Edward Young Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler in 1920 that membership increased, peaking around 4.5 million. Simmons had a contract with the two, giving them 80 percent of all membership dues. Clarke and Tyler promoted the Klan as rabidly pro-America, antiblack, anti-Jewish, anti-union and, most importantly, anti-Catholic."
"The early 1920s saw a rash of lynchings, shootings and whippings; the victims were most often black, Jewish, Catholic or immigrant. “Women of scandalous behavior,” as determined by the Klan, were subject to abuse. In Alabama, a divorcee was flogged for remarrying. In Georgia, the Klan, led by a minister, administered 60 lashes to a woman for the vague charge of immorality and failure to go to church. In Oklahoma, Klansmen whipped girls found riding in automobiles with young men. In the San Joaquin Valley of California, the Klan flogged and tortured women for morality charges. In Chicago, Mildred Erick was beaten nearly unconscious and had crosses carved on her arms, legs and back by Klansmen. The attack was provoked by her conversion to Catholicism."
"The campaign was similar to an earlier one in Athens, Ga., launched by the Rev. M.B. Miller of the First Christian Church. Miller headed the Klan in Athens.
"Scores of women received much harsher treatment. Asheville got national attention because it was the home of William Dudley Pelly and the Silver Shirts. Many regions where the Klan was strong in the 1920s later became centers of pro-fascist groups in the 1930s. Pelly moved his Silver Shirt organization to Indiana, an area that had a strong Klan in the 1920s.
"With its antiblack, anti-union, anti-communist, anti-socialist, anti-Jew and extreme nationalist agenda, the Klan’s platform was remarkably similar to that of the Nazis. By the 1930s, the Klan served as a bridge between nativist groups and fascists. On Aug. 18, 1940, the Klan formalized an alliance with the American Bund at the Nazi encampment of Nordland in Andover, N. J. Before this, a Nazi agent offered former Grand Wizard Hiram Evans $75,000 to control the Klan’s voice. When James Colescott succeeded Evans, the Klan began its collaboration with the American Bund. After forming the alliance, the Klan embarked on a plan to infiltrate unions in an effort to Americanize them.
"After Pearl Harbor, the Klan intensified these efforts, particularly in the Detroit area. Once inside the unions, Klansmen spread pro-fascist literature and succeeded in provoking wildcat strikes to hinder the war effort. Their efforts went so far as organizing opposition to buying war bonds.
"Probably the Klan’s most successful effort to disrupt the war effort was the Detroit riot, an attempt to prevent blacks from occupying their new homes in the Sojourner Truth Settlement housing project. The riot left several dead, interrupted war production and was propaganda for America’s enemies. Germany and Japan seized on the riot, airing lurid broadcasts of it to demoralize American troops.
"Today, one cannot understand the Detroit area without looking at the influence of fascism there. The Klan provoked the riot and was closely associated with the Bund at that time. However, many other fascist organizations were active in Detroit, including the Black Legion, the Wolverine Republican League, and Father Coughlin and several other fundamentalist ministers of hate. Michigan was one of the hot spots for fascism, electing several of the strongest supporters of fascism in the halls of Congress.
"Detroit was not the only riot inspired by the Klan that was designed to stop war production. Another race riot occurred on June 15, 1943 in Beaumont, Texas. A mob of more than 4,000 attacked the black section of the city, looting stores and burning buildings. The riot killed 21 people and war production in the area was slowed for months.
"Today’s modern Klan formed an alliance with neo-Nazis domestically and in England, Sweden, Canada and Australia. An American sergeant stationed in Bitburg served as the Klan’s recruiting officer in Germany. Currently, much of the hate and pro-Nazi literature in Germany (where it is illegal) comes from the United States.
"In the 1920s, Klan-inspired lynchings and riots were common. More than 450 people were lynched; almost all were black. Lynchings became so frequent that Rep. L.C. Dyer of Missouri introduced a bill in 1921 to make them a federal crime. The bill passed the House, but was killed in the Senate by a southern filibuster. On Dec. 9, 1922, a mob in Perry, Fla. burned a black man at the stake after accusing him of murder.
"The most noted act of Klan-inspired violence was in Rosewood, Fla., which was chronicled in a recent movie. In January 1923, the tiny town of Rosewood came under attack by a mob incited by a report of a black man assaulting a white woman in the nearby town of Summer. The riot resulted in several murders of Rosewood residents; the black portion of town was burned to the ground. Fearing for their lives, black residents fled into the nearby swamps. No charges were ever filed against the mob, which was reported to have included several Klansmen from outside the area.
"Although Rosewood is the most widely known race riot of the 1920s, it was not the bloodiest. The Tulsa, Okla. riot of 1920 was far more horrific. A mob of more than 10,000, some wielding machine guns, attacked the black section of the city, destroying 35 square blocks and leaving more than 300 dead. The mob used at least eight airplanes to spy on the blacks and possibly to bomb some areas."
"The evolution of the present Religious Right from the 1920s Klan can best be shown by the careers of Gerald Winrod and Gerald Smith."
"The Scopes “monkey trial” would become a watershed event in shaping later movements. The issue of teaching evolution defined the evolution of the Religious Right itself. Although there were fundamentalists before the 1920s, the Scopes trial revitalized and redefined the fundamentalist religious movement. In fact, the term “fundamentalist” was coined in the 1920s. Many early fundamentalists, such as John Franklyn Norris, were openly sympathetic to the Klan."
"In 1926, Winrod led a campaign to ban teaching evolution locally, as well as in California and Minnesota. He appointed a committee to examine textbooks, and in Minnesota, he helped William Bell Riley draft the bill introduced in the Minnesota legislature. Riley was a force in the conservative wing of the Baptist Church during the 1920s.
"Like Winrod, Riley rabidly opposed teaching evolution, and was also extremely anti-Semitic. In 1934, he published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and an article on communism, attempting to show they were part of a conspiracy at work in Roosevelt’s New Deal. Riley preached: “Today in our land many of the biggest trusts, banks and manufacturing interests are controlled by Jews. Most of our department stores they own. The motion pictures, the most vicious of all immoral, educational and communistic influences, are their creation.”
"This quote from one of Riley’s sermons is indistinguishable from Hitler’s propaganda. It is a clue that if Riley was not outright pro-Nazi, he certainly harbored sympathy for fascism.
"Riley was not the first cleric to tout the Protocols. On Feb. 12, 1919, the Rev. George Simons testified in front of the Senate’s Overman Committee, shocking listeners with the tale of a secret, worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Simons cited the Protocols as evidence. It is generally assumed that Simons got his copy of the Protocols from Dr. Harris Houghton of military intelligence. Houghton got his copy from the Czarist immigrant Boris Brasol.
"With his congregation of 3,500, Riley exerted tremendous influence in the upper Midwest. Jewish leaders regarded his church as the center of anti-Semitism in the area, but Riley’s influence extended far beyond. In 1902, Riley founded Northwestern Bible Training School, which in 1935 became the Northwestern Theological Seminary. He also assisted in preparing The Fundamentals, a statement of fundamentalist belief. Just before his death, Riley placed the leadership of Northwestern under Billy Graham’s direction.
"On March 2, 2002, the ghost came home to roost on the head of Riley’s chosen successor. On that day, an additional 500 hours of Nixon tapes were released."
"In 1924, the Hearst papers, the American Legion and the Ku Klux Klan led the charge for the “Americanization” of schoolbooks, loyalty oaths for teachers and harsher immigration legislation. The three organizations became deeply tied to fascism in the following decade. Several members of the American Legion were involved in the fascist plot of 1934 against FDR. The Hearst papers became an open propaganda outlet for the Nazis and fascism. The Klan went on to form an alliance with the American Bund.
"W. J. Simmons, a former Methodist circuit rider from Atlanta, established the second Klan in 1915. The original Klan had died out and disbanded. (The second Klan would be disbanded later, only to be reborn once again.) In the first four years of rebirth, the Klan was relatively small. Not until 1920 did it grow mammoth.
"Two factors with roots in the late 1800s set the stage for the rebirth of the Klan. The first was massive immigration from Europe. The American Protective Association, formed in 1887, was virulently anti-alien. The group was particularly strong in the Midwest, where the Klan gained strength in the 1920s. The other reason was the populist movement of the 1890s, which sought to unite blacks and poor whites against mill owners and the conservative elite of the South.
"It was not until Simmons met publicists Edward Young Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler in 1920 that membership increased, peaking around 4.5 million. Simmons had a contract with the two, giving them 80 percent of all membership dues. Clarke and Tyler promoted the Klan as rabidly pro-America, antiblack, anti-Jewish, anti-union and, most importantly, anti-Catholic."
"The early 1920s saw a rash of lynchings, shootings and whippings; the victims were most often black, Jewish, Catholic or immigrant. “Women of scandalous behavior,” as determined by the Klan, were subject to abuse. In Alabama, a divorcee was flogged for remarrying. In Georgia, the Klan, led by a minister, administered 60 lashes to a woman for the vague charge of immorality and failure to go to church. In Oklahoma, Klansmen whipped girls found riding in automobiles with young men. In the San Joaquin Valley of California, the Klan flogged and tortured women for morality charges. In Chicago, Mildred Erick was beaten nearly unconscious and had crosses carved on her arms, legs and back by Klansmen. The attack was provoked by her conversion to Catholicism."
"The campaign was similar to an earlier one in Athens, Ga., launched by the Rev. M.B. Miller of the First Christian Church. Miller headed the Klan in Athens.
"Scores of women received much harsher treatment. Asheville got national attention because it was the home of William Dudley Pelly and the Silver Shirts. Many regions where the Klan was strong in the 1920s later became centers of pro-fascist groups in the 1930s. Pelly moved his Silver Shirt organization to Indiana, an area that had a strong Klan in the 1920s.
"With its antiblack, anti-union, anti-communist, anti-socialist, anti-Jew and extreme nationalist agenda, the Klan’s platform was remarkably similar to that of the Nazis. By the 1930s, the Klan served as a bridge between nativist groups and fascists. On Aug. 18, 1940, the Klan formalized an alliance with the American Bund at the Nazi encampment of Nordland in Andover, N. J. Before this, a Nazi agent offered former Grand Wizard Hiram Evans $75,000 to control the Klan’s voice. When James Colescott succeeded Evans, the Klan began its collaboration with the American Bund. After forming the alliance, the Klan embarked on a plan to infiltrate unions in an effort to Americanize them.
"After Pearl Harbor, the Klan intensified these efforts, particularly in the Detroit area. Once inside the unions, Klansmen spread pro-fascist literature and succeeded in provoking wildcat strikes to hinder the war effort. Their efforts went so far as organizing opposition to buying war bonds.
"Probably the Klan’s most successful effort to disrupt the war effort was the Detroit riot, an attempt to prevent blacks from occupying their new homes in the Sojourner Truth Settlement housing project. The riot left several dead, interrupted war production and was propaganda for America’s enemies. Germany and Japan seized on the riot, airing lurid broadcasts of it to demoralize American troops.
"Today, one cannot understand the Detroit area without looking at the influence of fascism there. The Klan provoked the riot and was closely associated with the Bund at that time. However, many other fascist organizations were active in Detroit, including the Black Legion, the Wolverine Republican League, and Father Coughlin and several other fundamentalist ministers of hate. Michigan was one of the hot spots for fascism, electing several of the strongest supporters of fascism in the halls of Congress.
"Detroit was not the only riot inspired by the Klan that was designed to stop war production. Another race riot occurred on June 15, 1943 in Beaumont, Texas. A mob of more than 4,000 attacked the black section of the city, looting stores and burning buildings. The riot killed 21 people and war production in the area was slowed for months.
"Today’s modern Klan formed an alliance with neo-Nazis domestically and in England, Sweden, Canada and Australia. An American sergeant stationed in Bitburg served as the Klan’s recruiting officer in Germany. Currently, much of the hate and pro-Nazi literature in Germany (where it is illegal) comes from the United States.
"In the 1920s, Klan-inspired lynchings and riots were common. More than 450 people were lynched; almost all were black. Lynchings became so frequent that Rep. L.C. Dyer of Missouri introduced a bill in 1921 to make them a federal crime. The bill passed the House, but was killed in the Senate by a southern filibuster. On Dec. 9, 1922, a mob in Perry, Fla. burned a black man at the stake after accusing him of murder.
"The most noted act of Klan-inspired violence was in Rosewood, Fla., which was chronicled in a recent movie. In January 1923, the tiny town of Rosewood came under attack by a mob incited by a report of a black man assaulting a white woman in the nearby town of Summer. The riot resulted in several murders of Rosewood residents; the black portion of town was burned to the ground. Fearing for their lives, black residents fled into the nearby swamps. No charges were ever filed against the mob, which was reported to have included several Klansmen from outside the area.
"Although Rosewood is the most widely known race riot of the 1920s, it was not the bloodiest. The Tulsa, Okla. riot of 1920 was far more horrific. A mob of more than 10,000, some wielding machine guns, attacked the black section of the city, destroying 35 square blocks and leaving more than 300 dead. The mob used at least eight airplanes to spy on the blacks and possibly to bomb some areas."
................................................................................................
"The evolution of the present Religious Right from the 1920s Klan can best be shown by the careers of Gerald Winrod and Gerald Smith."
"The Scopes “monkey trial” would become a watershed event in shaping later movements. The issue of teaching evolution defined the evolution of the Religious Right itself. Although there were fundamentalists before the 1920s, the Scopes trial revitalized and redefined the fundamentalist religious movement. In fact, the term “fundamentalist” was coined in the 1920s. Many early fundamentalists, such as John Franklyn Norris, were openly sympathetic to the Klan."
"In 1926, Winrod led a campaign to ban teaching evolution locally, as well as in California and Minnesota. He appointed a committee to examine textbooks, and in Minnesota, he helped William Bell Riley draft the bill introduced in the Minnesota legislature. Riley was a force in the conservative wing of the Baptist Church during the 1920s.
"Like Winrod, Riley rabidly opposed teaching evolution, and was also extremely anti-Semitic. In 1934, he published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and an article on communism, attempting to show they were part of a conspiracy at work in Roosevelt’s New Deal. Riley preached: “Today in our land many of the biggest trusts, banks and manufacturing interests are controlled by Jews. Most of our department stores they own. The motion pictures, the most vicious of all immoral, educational and communistic influences, are their creation.”
"This quote from one of Riley’s sermons is indistinguishable from Hitler’s propaganda. It is a clue that if Riley was not outright pro-Nazi, he certainly harbored sympathy for fascism.
"Riley was not the first cleric to tout the Protocols. On Feb. 12, 1919, the Rev. George Simons testified in front of the Senate’s Overman Committee, shocking listeners with the tale of a secret, worldwide Jewish conspiracy. Simons cited the Protocols as evidence. It is generally assumed that Simons got his copy of the Protocols from Dr. Harris Houghton of military intelligence. Houghton got his copy from the Czarist immigrant Boris Brasol.
"With his congregation of 3,500, Riley exerted tremendous influence in the upper Midwest. Jewish leaders regarded his church as the center of anti-Semitism in the area, but Riley’s influence extended far beyond. In 1902, Riley founded Northwestern Bible Training School, which in 1935 became the Northwestern Theological Seminary. He also assisted in preparing The Fundamentals, a statement of fundamentalist belief. Just before his death, Riley placed the leadership of Northwestern under Billy Graham’s direction.
"On March 2, 2002, the ghost came home to roost on the head of Riley’s chosen successor. On that day, an additional 500 hours of Nixon tapes were released."
................................................................................................
"Moreover, eugenic laws passed in the United States served as the model for the Nazi Nuremberg Laws."
"Starting in the early 1500s, English agriculture underwent a change from small to large estate farming, idling thousands of farmers and contributing their numbers to the masses of needy."
"By the end of the century, a distinct pauper class had emerged in England. Compulsory poor law taxes were assessed to each community to pay for housing the poor. The pauper class was viewed largely as arrogant and ripe for riots or revolution. The advancing Industrial Revolution only compounded the problems, as the poor were concentrated in urban slums, where sweatshops sprang up to exploit cheap labor. For 300 years after Henry VIII, many reforms were made in the poor laws, and the ruling class became ever more resentful of the poor tax. By the 1800s, they looked down on the poor as subhuman.
"In 1798, English economist Thomas Malthus published a watershed theory on the nature of poverty and the social economic system. Malthus believed the population was growing at a geometric rate, while the food supply was only increasing linearly. The solution he called for was population control. He also maintained that charity promoted generation-to-generation poverty. Many of his supporters ignored his criticisms of an unjust social and economic system, and instead merely rejected the value of helping the poor.
"Since the 1980s, the same attitude has been a mainstay of the Republican Party. Yet even in the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was no shortage of food, coal or any of the needs for a normal living standard for every American. There wasn’t even a money shortage. The Depression was the result of an inequitable distribution of wealth, with no means of delivering food to the hungry other than through private charity soup kitchens.
"In 1851, Herbert Spencer, an editor on the free-trade journal The Economist, published his Social Statics. Spencer argued that man and society followed the laws of science, not of a caring God. He popularized the familiar term: “survival of the fittest.” He argued that the fittest would continue to prosper while the poor would become more impoverished until they died out naturally. Spencer denounced charity and aid to the poor. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his famous theory of evolution in Origin of Species. Spencer then published Principles of Biology in 1863, arguing that heredity is under the control of physiological units. In 1886, the Moravian monk Gregor Mendel published his classic experiments with peas from which he modeled a predictable heredity system.
"Heredity provided a false basis for eugenics. In 1869, Francis Galton, the father of eugenics, published Hereditary Genius. Galton had never finished his medical studies at London’s King College, but instead had studied mathematics at Cambridge, where he became a devotee of the emerging field of statistics. Galton distinguished himself by recognizing patterns. In his book, Galton studied the genealogies of eminent scholars, artists and military men. He found that many of them were descendents of the same family and decided the frequency was too impressive to ignore. Galton then assumed that not only physical characteristics, but also mental, emotional and creative qualities were hereditary. Further, Galton reasoned that talent and quality could be sharpened by judicious marriages in a few generations into a race of highly gifted individuals. Galton suggested that by selective breeding of the very best, the human race could evolve into a prime species. Galton hoped to develop a regulated marriage process in which members of the finest families only married carefully chosen spouses."
"Galton developed a protoscience in search of justifying data. His ideas of marriage became known as positive eugenics. However, with the 20th century arrived, a new form of eugenics developed: negative eugenics, calling for sterilization of the unfit. The spotlight of eugenics soon shifted from England to the United States, where it immediately took on a racist characteristic."
"As the new century approached and the number of emigrants from eastern and southern Europe increased, eugenics became more popular as a means to purify American society. However, one would be amiss to blame the rise of eugenics in America solely on the massive immigration during the last half of the 19th century. Contributing to its rise was a good deal of racism and group hatred. American Indians were isolated on reservations. The isolation of groups judged as unfit became a cornerstone of negative eugenics. In the Southwest, much of the race hatred stemmed from the Mexican-American War, and absorbing thousands of Mexicans in the territory taken by the United States. On the West Coast, the race hatred took the form of the Chinese Exclusion Act barring immigration from China and blocking naturalization of those already here. In the South, race hatred reached a feverish peak, and a network of Jim Crow laws were passed to keep society pure."
"In 1896, former census director Francis Walker published “Restriction of Immigration” in Atlantic Monthly, evoking the specter of racial suicide beneath a rising tide of non-Anglo-Saxon immigration. Roughly 18 million immigrants arrived between 1890-1920.
"By the turn of the 20th century, women were still barred from voting, and racial hatred was the norm. Reservations isolated Native Americans. White society considered blacks and Asians as second-class citizens and undesirables. Vigilantes often dispensed what passed for justice at the end of a hangman’s rope: from 1889-1918, mobs lynched 3,224 people. More often than not, the victims were black; 702 were white. Moreover, trivial reasons such as staring at a white woman, offensive language or other such minor infractions often sufficed as provocation for hanging a nonwhite person."
"In 1904, the Carnegie Institute formally inaugurated the evolution center at Cold Spring Harbor, with Davenport as director.
"Davenport’s work impressed the wealthy elite of New England and attracted more funding from the Carnegie Institute and Mary Harriman, the widowed heir to the railroad fortune of E.H. Harriman. Others who jumped aboard the movement were Henry Ford, John Kellogg, Clarence Gamble, J.P. Morgan and E.B. Scripps."
" ... Not only did the ABA target the individuals afflicted, but also their extended families. The group agreed that sterilization of the extended families was desirable."
"The committee sought to bypass the courts in ordering the sterilization. It tried to define sterilization as a police function. ... They called for restrictive marriage laws, forced segregation of undesirables and compulsory birth control in a global movement."
"While there were many evangelical ministers who served as officers in the eugenics movement and more were members, the connection to religion seems informal, depending solely on the individual minister involved. Yet few ministers spoke out against eugenics, and those who did so waited until the 1930s, after it was discredited and associated with the Nazis. The connection between eugenics, the Klan and religion is an area open to further research.
"David Jordan, president of the University of Indiana, also lectured his students that paupers were parasites. In 1902 in his book Blood of a Nation, he first proposed the concept of blood as the immutable basis for race. Jordan left Indiana to accept a position as the first president of Stanford University."
"Moreover, eugenic laws passed in the United States served as the model for the Nazi Nuremberg Laws."
"Starting in the early 1500s, English agriculture underwent a change from small to large estate farming, idling thousands of farmers and contributing their numbers to the masses of needy."
"By the end of the century, a distinct pauper class had emerged in England. Compulsory poor law taxes were assessed to each community to pay for housing the poor. The pauper class was viewed largely as arrogant and ripe for riots or revolution. The advancing Industrial Revolution only compounded the problems, as the poor were concentrated in urban slums, where sweatshops sprang up to exploit cheap labor. For 300 years after Henry VIII, many reforms were made in the poor laws, and the ruling class became ever more resentful of the poor tax. By the 1800s, they looked down on the poor as subhuman.
"In 1798, English economist Thomas Malthus published a watershed theory on the nature of poverty and the social economic system. Malthus believed the population was growing at a geometric rate, while the food supply was only increasing linearly. The solution he called for was population control. He also maintained that charity promoted generation-to-generation poverty. Many of his supporters ignored his criticisms of an unjust social and economic system, and instead merely rejected the value of helping the poor.
"Since the 1980s, the same attitude has been a mainstay of the Republican Party. Yet even in the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was no shortage of food, coal or any of the needs for a normal living standard for every American. There wasn’t even a money shortage. The Depression was the result of an inequitable distribution of wealth, with no means of delivering food to the hungry other than through private charity soup kitchens.
"In 1851, Herbert Spencer, an editor on the free-trade journal The Economist, published his Social Statics. Spencer argued that man and society followed the laws of science, not of a caring God. He popularized the familiar term: “survival of the fittest.” He argued that the fittest would continue to prosper while the poor would become more impoverished until they died out naturally. Spencer denounced charity and aid to the poor. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his famous theory of evolution in Origin of Species. Spencer then published Principles of Biology in 1863, arguing that heredity is under the control of physiological units. In 1886, the Moravian monk Gregor Mendel published his classic experiments with peas from which he modeled a predictable heredity system.
"Heredity provided a false basis for eugenics. In 1869, Francis Galton, the father of eugenics, published Hereditary Genius. Galton had never finished his medical studies at London’s King College, but instead had studied mathematics at Cambridge, where he became a devotee of the emerging field of statistics. Galton distinguished himself by recognizing patterns. In his book, Galton studied the genealogies of eminent scholars, artists and military men. He found that many of them were descendents of the same family and decided the frequency was too impressive to ignore. Galton then assumed that not only physical characteristics, but also mental, emotional and creative qualities were hereditary. Further, Galton reasoned that talent and quality could be sharpened by judicious marriages in a few generations into a race of highly gifted individuals. Galton suggested that by selective breeding of the very best, the human race could evolve into a prime species. Galton hoped to develop a regulated marriage process in which members of the finest families only married carefully chosen spouses."
................................................................................................
"Galton developed a protoscience in search of justifying data. His ideas of marriage became known as positive eugenics. However, with the 20th century arrived, a new form of eugenics developed: negative eugenics, calling for sterilization of the unfit. The spotlight of eugenics soon shifted from England to the United States, where it immediately took on a racist characteristic."
"As the new century approached and the number of emigrants from eastern and southern Europe increased, eugenics became more popular as a means to purify American society. However, one would be amiss to blame the rise of eugenics in America solely on the massive immigration during the last half of the 19th century. Contributing to its rise was a good deal of racism and group hatred. American Indians were isolated on reservations. The isolation of groups judged as unfit became a cornerstone of negative eugenics. In the Southwest, much of the race hatred stemmed from the Mexican-American War, and absorbing thousands of Mexicans in the territory taken by the United States. On the West Coast, the race hatred took the form of the Chinese Exclusion Act barring immigration from China and blocking naturalization of those already here. In the South, race hatred reached a feverish peak, and a network of Jim Crow laws were passed to keep society pure."
"In 1896, former census director Francis Walker published “Restriction of Immigration” in Atlantic Monthly, evoking the specter of racial suicide beneath a rising tide of non-Anglo-Saxon immigration. Roughly 18 million immigrants arrived between 1890-1920.
"By the turn of the 20th century, women were still barred from voting, and racial hatred was the norm. Reservations isolated Native Americans. White society considered blacks and Asians as second-class citizens and undesirables. Vigilantes often dispensed what passed for justice at the end of a hangman’s rope: from 1889-1918, mobs lynched 3,224 people. More often than not, the victims were black; 702 were white. Moreover, trivial reasons such as staring at a white woman, offensive language or other such minor infractions often sufficed as provocation for hanging a nonwhite person."
"In 1904, the Carnegie Institute formally inaugurated the evolution center at Cold Spring Harbor, with Davenport as director.
"Davenport’s work impressed the wealthy elite of New England and attracted more funding from the Carnegie Institute and Mary Harriman, the widowed heir to the railroad fortune of E.H. Harriman. Others who jumped aboard the movement were Henry Ford, John Kellogg, Clarence Gamble, J.P. Morgan and E.B. Scripps."
" ... Not only did the ABA target the individuals afflicted, but also their extended families. The group agreed that sterilization of the extended families was desirable."
"The committee sought to bypass the courts in ordering the sterilization. It tried to define sterilization as a police function. ... They called for restrictive marriage laws, forced segregation of undesirables and compulsory birth control in a global movement."
"While there were many evangelical ministers who served as officers in the eugenics movement and more were members, the connection to religion seems informal, depending solely on the individual minister involved. Yet few ministers spoke out against eugenics, and those who did so waited until the 1930s, after it was discredited and associated with the Nazis. The connection between eugenics, the Klan and religion is an area open to further research.
"David Jordan, president of the University of Indiana, also lectured his students that paupers were parasites. In 1902 in his book Blood of a Nation, he first proposed the concept of blood as the immutable basis for race. Jordan left Indiana to accept a position as the first president of Stanford University."
................................................................................................
"Shortly after WWI, Virginia confined Carrie’s mother, Emma, to a home for the feeble-minded. Virginia had a well-established program of sweeping social outcasts into such homes. Carrie’s mother was a destitute widow convicted of prostitution, making her an ideal candidate for the home for the feebleminded, where she remained for the rest of her life.
"Carrie, an only child, was placed with the Dobbs family. Although she was a good student, she was taken out of school when she reached sixth grade. In 1923, Carrie became pregnant after she was raped - by a relative of the foster parents. The Dobbses filed commitment papers, declaring Carrie feebleminded and promiscuous.
"In 1924, Virginia passed a sterilization law for the feebleminded. The case attracted the attention of Laughlin and other prominent individuals from the eugenics movement. To further their efforts and strengthen their court case, they had Carrie’s daughter declared feebleminded at age 3 - although she did well in school. Eventually, the case reached the Supreme Court. Chief Justice was William Howard Taft. Only Justice Pierce Butler ruled against sterilizing Carrie. The opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. closed with words that still echo throughout time: “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Yet in 2000, the Court elected George W. Bush, a fifth-generation racketeer, to be president."
"Until the Buck ruling, many states with sterilization laws avoided using them. Of the 23 states with such laws, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, South Dakota and Utah recorded no sterilizations. Idaho and Washington State recorded one each; Delaware recorded five cases. Kansas had recorded 335; Nebraska, 262; Oregon, 313; and Wisconsin 144. California recorded 4,636 cases.
"From 1927-40, the totals increased at a horrific rate. North Carolina recorded 1,017 cases of forced sterilization; Michigan, 2,145; Virginia, 3,924; and California, 14,568. In total, no less than 35,878 people were sterilized. Following Laughlin, the Nazis adopted a law in 1933 that opened the way to sterilizing more than 350,000 people. “Laughlin proudly published a translation of the German Law for the Prevention of Defective Progeny in The Eugenical News. In 1936, Laughlin was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Heidelberg as a tribute for his work in ‘the science of racial cleansing.’”"
"Shortly after WWI, Virginia confined Carrie’s mother, Emma, to a home for the feeble-minded. Virginia had a well-established program of sweeping social outcasts into such homes. Carrie’s mother was a destitute widow convicted of prostitution, making her an ideal candidate for the home for the feebleminded, where she remained for the rest of her life.
"Carrie, an only child, was placed with the Dobbs family. Although she was a good student, she was taken out of school when she reached sixth grade. In 1923, Carrie became pregnant after she was raped - by a relative of the foster parents. The Dobbses filed commitment papers, declaring Carrie feebleminded and promiscuous.
"In 1924, Virginia passed a sterilization law for the feebleminded. The case attracted the attention of Laughlin and other prominent individuals from the eugenics movement. To further their efforts and strengthen their court case, they had Carrie’s daughter declared feebleminded at age 3 - although she did well in school. Eventually, the case reached the Supreme Court. Chief Justice was William Howard Taft. Only Justice Pierce Butler ruled against sterilizing Carrie. The opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. closed with words that still echo throughout time: “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Yet in 2000, the Court elected George W. Bush, a fifth-generation racketeer, to be president."
................................................................................................
"Until the Buck ruling, many states with sterilization laws avoided using them. Of the 23 states with such laws, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, South Dakota and Utah recorded no sterilizations. Idaho and Washington State recorded one each; Delaware recorded five cases. Kansas had recorded 335; Nebraska, 262; Oregon, 313; and Wisconsin 144. California recorded 4,636 cases.
"From 1927-40, the totals increased at a horrific rate. North Carolina recorded 1,017 cases of forced sterilization; Michigan, 2,145; Virginia, 3,924; and California, 14,568. In total, no less than 35,878 people were sterilized. Following Laughlin, the Nazis adopted a law in 1933 that opened the way to sterilizing more than 350,000 people. “Laughlin proudly published a translation of the German Law for the Prevention of Defective Progeny in The Eugenical News. In 1936, Laughlin was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Heidelberg as a tribute for his work in ‘the science of racial cleansing.’”"
................................................................................................
"With the gathering strength of the eugenics movement, Harry Laughlin sought to integrate the movement inside various government agencies. One long-standing target for Laughlin was the Census Bureau. The bureau ignored Laughlin’s suggestion that each person be classified by race, such as German Jew or Dutch Jew. It did allow Laughlin to conduct a survey of those in state custodial and charitable facilities, as well as jails.
"Unable to gain further inroads into the Census Bureau, Laughlin turned to other government agencies. He found ready acceptance in Virginia, largely due to Walter Plecker, the registrar of vital statistics. Plecker, an extreme racist, soon used his hatred of race mixing, or “mongrelization of the white race by lesser races,” to shape one of the nation’s most restrictive marriage laws. With the help of Anglo-Saxon clubs, the 1924 Virginia legislator passed the Racial Integrity Act, labeling anyone with more than one-sixteenth nonwhite blood as a nonwhite. Originally, the act called for one sixty-fourth, but the legislature amended it because too many of the leading families of Virginia boasted of their Indian ancestry. The penalty for falsely registering one’s race was a year in jail."
Here's yet another racist, colonial perpetration of a falsehood by Columbus, who knew he'd not found India, but lied. Perpetrating that lie, knowing that natives of U.S. have nothing to do with India, and still calling them Indian, is racist, based on a subliminal assumption that all colonial invaders are superior, and natives of such lands do not matter, no matter how ancient their culture, how rich the treasure of their ancient knowledge. It's a falsehood on par with, say, Mongol invaders calling Europe "Afghanistan". Yet the latter is less fraudulent than the author calling natives of his continent Indian.
India was a name given by outsiders in West to the ancient land that was India, because crossing the river Sindhu - name deformed to Indus by West - was their only access to this land, for millennia. India had other names for the land. The river Sindhu had never been of paramount importance to those that belonged to India. And they were the real Aarya, unlike European thieves who stole and appropriated the term for themselves.
Aarya is a Sanskrit word and has nothing to do with physical colours. "Land of Aarya " is a translation of one of the indigenous names for India. The quintessential Aarya was Raamaayana hero, who's described for his perfect beauty specifically, as dark hued. Another much worshipped God Shiva is described as literally "Camphor-light hued", so light colours have never been unfamiliar either. They just are neither here nor there when implications of qualities, even beauty, are in question.
"The dilution of the bill incensed Plecker. His fury was further inflamed when Congress granted citizenship to all Indians not already naturalized, less than two weeks after the passage of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Plecker’s problem was with Indians mixing with both whites and blacks, so under the act, they could claim exemption from being classed as non-white. Most of Virginia’s Indian population were poor and lived in rural areas, making them an easy target for reclassification as Negroid, despite vigorous protest. In one case, Plecker ruled that if a comb could pass through the hair of an individual, he or she would be classified as Indian; if not, as Negroid. The comb test was perhaps as good as any other method Plecker used in reclassifying Virginia’s Native Americans. He used his racist tactics to expunge the Indian as a racial classification in Virginia."
Disgusting. And no, such people as Plecker never could qualify as Aarya, any more than a Nazi could; for the word relates to Light, and connotes someone with a level of enlightenment incorporated in ones breeding, as in being brought up.
"With the gathering strength of the eugenics movement, Harry Laughlin sought to integrate the movement inside various government agencies. One long-standing target for Laughlin was the Census Bureau. The bureau ignored Laughlin’s suggestion that each person be classified by race, such as German Jew or Dutch Jew. It did allow Laughlin to conduct a survey of those in state custodial and charitable facilities, as well as jails.
"Unable to gain further inroads into the Census Bureau, Laughlin turned to other government agencies. He found ready acceptance in Virginia, largely due to Walter Plecker, the registrar of vital statistics. Plecker, an extreme racist, soon used his hatred of race mixing, or “mongrelization of the white race by lesser races,” to shape one of the nation’s most restrictive marriage laws. With the help of Anglo-Saxon clubs, the 1924 Virginia legislator passed the Racial Integrity Act, labeling anyone with more than one-sixteenth nonwhite blood as a nonwhite. Originally, the act called for one sixty-fourth, but the legislature amended it because too many of the leading families of Virginia boasted of their Indian ancestry. The penalty for falsely registering one’s race was a year in jail."
Here's yet another racist, colonial perpetration of a falsehood by Columbus, who knew he'd not found India, but lied. Perpetrating that lie, knowing that natives of U.S. have nothing to do with India, and still calling them Indian, is racist, based on a subliminal assumption that all colonial invaders are superior, and natives of such lands do not matter, no matter how ancient their culture, how rich the treasure of their ancient knowledge. It's a falsehood on par with, say, Mongol invaders calling Europe "Afghanistan". Yet the latter is less fraudulent than the author calling natives of his continent Indian.
India was a name given by outsiders in West to the ancient land that was India, because crossing the river Sindhu - name deformed to Indus by West - was their only access to this land, for millennia. India had other names for the land. The river Sindhu had never been of paramount importance to those that belonged to India. And they were the real Aarya, unlike European thieves who stole and appropriated the term for themselves.
Aarya is a Sanskrit word and has nothing to do with physical colours. "Land of Aarya " is a translation of one of the indigenous names for India. The quintessential Aarya was Raamaayana hero, who's described for his perfect beauty specifically, as dark hued. Another much worshipped God Shiva is described as literally "Camphor-light hued", so light colours have never been unfamiliar either. They just are neither here nor there when implications of qualities, even beauty, are in question.
................................................................................................
"The dilution of the bill incensed Plecker. His fury was further inflamed when Congress granted citizenship to all Indians not already naturalized, less than two weeks after the passage of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Plecker’s problem was with Indians mixing with both whites and blacks, so under the act, they could claim exemption from being classed as non-white. Most of Virginia’s Indian population were poor and lived in rural areas, making them an easy target for reclassification as Negroid, despite vigorous protest. In one case, Plecker ruled that if a comb could pass through the hair of an individual, he or she would be classified as Indian; if not, as Negroid. The comb test was perhaps as good as any other method Plecker used in reclassifying Virginia’s Native Americans. He used his racist tactics to expunge the Indian as a racial classification in Virginia."
Disgusting. And no, such people as Plecker never could qualify as Aarya, any more than a Nazi could; for the word relates to Light, and connotes someone with a level of enlightenment incorporated in ones breeding, as in being brought up.
................................................................................................
"The eugenics movement was largely unable to penetrate the federal government and affect policy decision, with one notable exception, the immigration law. After 1890, the American eugenicists considered the immigrants arriving from Europe to be genetically inferior. The massive number of people fleeing Europe heightened their fears. More than 8 million immigrants arrived between 1900-09. The newly arrived came mostly from southern and eastern Europe. Many of them were Catholic or Jewish. The influx of immigrants contributed to the urbanizing of the country. The 1920 census revealed for the first time that more people lived in urban rather than rural areas. The resulting reapportionment was hard-fought. The House increased the number of representatives to 415 to preserve as much as possible the old districts and power structure. The Red Scare and the rise of the Klan added further fuel to the fury."
Racism within Europe that was incorporated in U.S., where an Archie Bunker insults his son-in-law for being Polish, a Rhett Butler looks down on O'Hara for being Irish but respects Ellen O'Hara because of her French heritage, higher than English and therefore all others, ....
"Hitler was acutely aware of the progress of eugenics in the United States, as evident in Mein Kampf in which he notes the passage of quotas for immigration. Hitler attributed the superior culture of the United States compared to South America to a large Germanic population that did not interbreed with the lesser, native population like the Spanish. Throughout the pages of Mein Kampf, one can note the similarity of Hitler’s rantings to the policies of the American eugenicists. Perhaps the best summarization of Hitler’s views comes from Mein Kampf: “The Germanic inhabitant of the American continent, who has remained racially pure and unmixed, rose to be master of the continent; he will remain the master as long as he does not fall victim to defilement of the blood.”"
Ironic, since German population of U.S. isn't at the top of U.S. caste system. But n Germany, Germans nevertheless share that misconcept.
"The eugenics movement was largely unable to penetrate the federal government and affect policy decision, with one notable exception, the immigration law. After 1890, the American eugenicists considered the immigrants arriving from Europe to be genetically inferior. The massive number of people fleeing Europe heightened their fears. More than 8 million immigrants arrived between 1900-09. The newly arrived came mostly from southern and eastern Europe. Many of them were Catholic or Jewish. The influx of immigrants contributed to the urbanizing of the country. The 1920 census revealed for the first time that more people lived in urban rather than rural areas. The resulting reapportionment was hard-fought. The House increased the number of representatives to 415 to preserve as much as possible the old districts and power structure. The Red Scare and the rise of the Klan added further fuel to the fury."
Racism within Europe that was incorporated in U.S., where an Archie Bunker insults his son-in-law for being Polish, a Rhett Butler looks down on O'Hara for being Irish but respects Ellen O'Hara because of her French heritage, higher than English and therefore all others, ....
................................................................................................
"Hitler was acutely aware of the progress of eugenics in the United States, as evident in Mein Kampf in which he notes the passage of quotas for immigration. Hitler attributed the superior culture of the United States compared to South America to a large Germanic population that did not interbreed with the lesser, native population like the Spanish. Throughout the pages of Mein Kampf, one can note the similarity of Hitler’s rantings to the policies of the American eugenicists. Perhaps the best summarization of Hitler’s views comes from Mein Kampf: “The Germanic inhabitant of the American continent, who has remained racially pure and unmixed, rose to be master of the continent; he will remain the master as long as he does not fall victim to defilement of the blood.”"
Ironic, since German population of U.S. isn't at the top of U.S. caste system. But n Germany, Germans nevertheless share that misconcept.
................................................................................................
"During the first two decades of the 20th century, American eugenicists led the way. With the rise of Hitler in Europe, Germans became copartners in eugenic research, but it was American money that kept German eugenic research and science alive during the hyperinflation of the early 1920s. One noted beneficiary of Rockefeller Foundation money was the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for eugenic research, with its own institutes for psychiatry, anthropology and brain research."
"On July 14, 1933, Hitler issued the Reich Statute Part 1 No. 86, the Law for the Prevention of Defective Progeny, calling for compulsory sterilization of defectives."
"The law was essentially the same one that Davenport and Laughlin proposed for the United States and passed in a majority of states. While most of the world reacted in shock and horror to the inhumane regime of the Nazis, American eugenicists covered developments in Germany with fascination and joy. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on the Nazi law as if it were a routine health measure, like vaccines. The Rockefeller Foundation continued to fund additional Nazi eugenics studies until the outbreak of war in Europe.
"In 1933, after an aggressive campaign to secure a contract with Germany, IBM designed the first Nazi census. It was IBM technology that aided the Nazis in carrying out the Holocaust. It would have taken an army of workers years to manually sort through all the records, but with the IBM’s Hollerith machines, the same task could be completed in hours."
"The chief beneficiary of the Rockefeller seed money was Dr. Otmar Freiherr (Baron) von Verschuer. Von Verschuer was a violent anti-Semitic and German nationalist who had taken part in the Kapp Putsch in 1920."
"After the Nazis seized power, the American eugenicists and medical media still praised von Verschuer’s work. Such prestigious American medical journals as the Journal of the American Medical Association cited his research. Rockefeller money continued to flow to him. It was not until 1936, after Raymond Fosdick became president of the Rockefeller Foundation, that funding for German eugenics research slowed. However, funds were readily available if the research omitted the word eugenics and was repackaged as research in genetics, the brain, serology, etc.
"In June 1939, the Rockefeller Foundation tried to deny that it was funding Nazi science. This was a lie, because the Rockefeller trust was sending money through the Emergency Fund for German Science. The sleight of hand provided the foundation with a window of deniability. Funds to von Verschuer continued through the war years, supporting several concentration camp experiments. In 1943, he received funding from the German Research Society for experiments packaged under the label of serology. The experiments required large volumes of blood from twins at Auschwitz.
"Most readers have probably never heard of von Verschuer, yet everyone is aware of the horrendous and hideous experiments carried out on Auschwitz prisoners at his beckoning by a former Ph.D. candidate of his, who remained his collaborator throughout the war. This former student who provided the blood samples for the study was Dr. Joseph Mengele, the notorious “Angel of Death.” Hence the trail of Rockefeller money leads directly to the gates of Auschwitz and some of the most gruesome experiments ever carried out on humans.
"While Mengele escaped to South America to avoid war crimes charges and a sure date with the hangman, the Allies never charged von Verschuer with war crimes or crimes against humanity. In 1946, the Die Neue Zeitung, an organ of the U.S. occupying power, published an article listing all the doctors who fled Germany. On May 3, it followed with accusations against von Verschuer by Robert Havemann, a communist and chemist who had resisted the Nazis. He openly accused von Verschuer of using Mengele to get eyeballs and blood from those murdered at Auschwitz. Von Verschuer dictated a sworn statement to the occupation-appointed administrator of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute that he had always opposed racial ideas. He further swore that Mengele himself was transferred to Auschwitz against his will. In fact Mengele could not wait to get involved in the war, and enlisted.
"Havemann organized a committee of scientists at Kaiser Wilhelm Institute to examine the evidence against von Verschuer. The committee concluded that he had engaged in despicable acts in concert with Mengele. The report was sealed for the next 15 years. Then a second board found von Verschuer innocent of committing any crimes or transgressions against inmates of Auschwitz. Von Verschuer’s record was expunged of any transgressions, and he soon became a respectable scientist in Germany and the United States.
"In 1949, Verschuer became a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, newly created by eugenicists. The first president of the society was Hermann Muller of Texas, a former Rockefeller fellow who had worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1932. In 1960, under international pressure to continue the hunt for Nazis, an investigation opened to examine the connection between von Verschuer and Mengele. It concluded there was none. Von Verschuer’s record, like those of so many other Nazis, had been completely whitewashed. In 1969, he was killed in a car accident; he never faced justice for his crimes."
"During the first two decades of the 20th century, American eugenicists led the way. With the rise of Hitler in Europe, Germans became copartners in eugenic research, but it was American money that kept German eugenic research and science alive during the hyperinflation of the early 1920s. One noted beneficiary of Rockefeller Foundation money was the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for eugenic research, with its own institutes for psychiatry, anthropology and brain research."
"On July 14, 1933, Hitler issued the Reich Statute Part 1 No. 86, the Law for the Prevention of Defective Progeny, calling for compulsory sterilization of defectives."
"The law was essentially the same one that Davenport and Laughlin proposed for the United States and passed in a majority of states. While most of the world reacted in shock and horror to the inhumane regime of the Nazis, American eugenicists covered developments in Germany with fascination and joy. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on the Nazi law as if it were a routine health measure, like vaccines. The Rockefeller Foundation continued to fund additional Nazi eugenics studies until the outbreak of war in Europe.
"In 1933, after an aggressive campaign to secure a contract with Germany, IBM designed the first Nazi census. It was IBM technology that aided the Nazis in carrying out the Holocaust. It would have taken an army of workers years to manually sort through all the records, but with the IBM’s Hollerith machines, the same task could be completed in hours."
................................................................................................
"The chief beneficiary of the Rockefeller seed money was Dr. Otmar Freiherr (Baron) von Verschuer. Von Verschuer was a violent anti-Semitic and German nationalist who had taken part in the Kapp Putsch in 1920."
"After the Nazis seized power, the American eugenicists and medical media still praised von Verschuer’s work. Such prestigious American medical journals as the Journal of the American Medical Association cited his research. Rockefeller money continued to flow to him. It was not until 1936, after Raymond Fosdick became president of the Rockefeller Foundation, that funding for German eugenics research slowed. However, funds were readily available if the research omitted the word eugenics and was repackaged as research in genetics, the brain, serology, etc.
"In June 1939, the Rockefeller Foundation tried to deny that it was funding Nazi science. This was a lie, because the Rockefeller trust was sending money through the Emergency Fund for German Science. The sleight of hand provided the foundation with a window of deniability. Funds to von Verschuer continued through the war years, supporting several concentration camp experiments. In 1943, he received funding from the German Research Society for experiments packaged under the label of serology. The experiments required large volumes of blood from twins at Auschwitz.
"Most readers have probably never heard of von Verschuer, yet everyone is aware of the horrendous and hideous experiments carried out on Auschwitz prisoners at his beckoning by a former Ph.D. candidate of his, who remained his collaborator throughout the war. This former student who provided the blood samples for the study was Dr. Joseph Mengele, the notorious “Angel of Death.” Hence the trail of Rockefeller money leads directly to the gates of Auschwitz and some of the most gruesome experiments ever carried out on humans.
"While Mengele escaped to South America to avoid war crimes charges and a sure date with the hangman, the Allies never charged von Verschuer with war crimes or crimes against humanity. In 1946, the Die Neue Zeitung, an organ of the U.S. occupying power, published an article listing all the doctors who fled Germany. On May 3, it followed with accusations against von Verschuer by Robert Havemann, a communist and chemist who had resisted the Nazis. He openly accused von Verschuer of using Mengele to get eyeballs and blood from those murdered at Auschwitz. Von Verschuer dictated a sworn statement to the occupation-appointed administrator of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute that he had always opposed racial ideas. He further swore that Mengele himself was transferred to Auschwitz against his will. In fact Mengele could not wait to get involved in the war, and enlisted.
"Havemann organized a committee of scientists at Kaiser Wilhelm Institute to examine the evidence against von Verschuer. The committee concluded that he had engaged in despicable acts in concert with Mengele. The report was sealed for the next 15 years. Then a second board found von Verschuer innocent of committing any crimes or transgressions against inmates of Auschwitz. Von Verschuer’s record was expunged of any transgressions, and he soon became a respectable scientist in Germany and the United States.
"In 1949, Verschuer became a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, newly created by eugenicists. The first president of the society was Hermann Muller of Texas, a former Rockefeller fellow who had worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1932. In 1960, under international pressure to continue the hunt for Nazis, an investigation opened to examine the connection between von Verschuer and Mengele. It concluded there was none. Von Verschuer’s record, like those of so many other Nazis, had been completely whitewashed. In 1969, he was killed in a car accident; he never faced justice for his crimes."
................................................................................................
"In December 1946, the United Nations passed Resolution 96 (I), which embedded genocide into international law. It reads as follows:
"“Genocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, results in great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and other contributions represented by these human groups and is contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations.”
"Shortly after the passage of Resolution 96, the UN ratified the Treaty Against Genocide. The treaty listed five categories of genocide:
"Killing members of the group.
"Causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group.
"Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
"Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
"Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The last one certainly applies to the treatment received by natives of Australia at hands of the European invaders of Australia.
"Under the categories listed above, aspects of past and present policies of the United States and Canada, including ghetto-like reservations, are considered genocidal under the international treaty. Also, the policies of many international companies, especially those engaged in oil exploration and mining, are equally guilty of genocide in the remote areas of South America, Asia and Africa. However, the UN has failed to pursue a single case of genocide against any corporation."
"Following Allan’s death in 1943, Dr. C. Nash Herndon took over. Herndon was an advocate of forced sterilization. By 1943, he claimed to have sterilized about 30 individuals, mostly blacks."
"In 1950-1951, John Foster Dulles, chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation, led John D. Rockefeller III on a world tour, focusing on the need to stop the expansion of the nonwhite populations. In the fall of 1952, Rockefeller and Dulles established the Population Council with money from the Rockefeller fortune. The American Eugenics Society soon moved its Yale University headquarters into the offices of the Population Council, and the two groups merged. In 1953, Dr. Herndon became president of the American Eugenic Society, and its work continued to expand with money from the Rockefellers."
"In 1958, Prescott Bush and Gordon Gray, who were President Eisenhower’s frequent golfing partners, helped secure an appointment for William Draper to chair a committee advising Eisenhower on the use of military aid to other countries. He was a relative of Wickliffe Draper. Dillon and Read employed him the 1930s. He helped Prescott Bush float the largest bond issue for Nazi Germany, and later served in postwar Germany as head of the economic unit in charge of dismantling the cartel system.
"Draper was a racist and major funding source for the eugenics movement. He used his position as committee head to direct its focus away from military aid to the danger of overpopulation in third world countries. The Eisenhower administration dismissed his racist views. Draper went on to fund the Population Crisis Committee with money from the Rockefellers and du Ponts. In the 1960s, he served as an adviser to LBJ. He was instrumental in getting the Johnson administration to use the overseas aid program to fund birth control in nonwhite countries."
"George H. W. Bush, Prescott’s son, was a vocal supporter of Draper’s policies. In 1964, he campaigned in Texas against the Civil Rights Act. In 1969, as a member of Congress, Bush arranged hearings on the dangers posed by the birth of too many black babies.
"In 1972, as ambassador to the United Nations, George H. W. Bush arranged the first official contract between the American government and the Sterilization League of America. By then, the league had changed its name, yet again, to the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception. This contract burdens the United States taxpayer with the cost of sterilization programs in the nonwhite third world. Dr. Clarence Gamble later set up the Pathfinder Fund, whose primary objective is to break down the resistance to sterilization in third world countries.
"In the 1980s, as vice president, George H. W. Bush urged Reagan to appoint William Draper’s son Bill as administrator of the United Nations Development Program, an organization connected with the World Bank and charged with supervising population control. Bush also was in on the appointment of Bill Draper to the Export-Import Bank. During the 1980s, the Export-Import Bank, at the urging of the Reagan administration, served as a funnel to provide Saddam Hussein with funds and credits during the Iran-Iraq war.
"The Bush and Draper families shared close friendships going back to the 1920s. Bill Draper was co-chairman for finance and head of fund raising for the 1980 George H. W. Bush for President campaign. The Pioneer Fund was established by Wickliffe Draper. Charles Murray, the Pioneer Fund’s best-known expert, has served as adviser to many of George W’s top consultants, and is often quoted by them. He directly influenced the repressive welfare programs of Tommy Thompson and NYC Mayor Giuliani, and was a consultant to Thompson on changes in the Wisconsin welfare system. Murray’s books, The Bell Curve and Losing Ground, both about the inferiority of blacks, serve as bibles for the school privatization and anti-welfare movements in the United States. Thus the racist policies of the Bush family extend into George W. Bush’s administration."
"In December 1946, the United Nations passed Resolution 96 (I), which embedded genocide into international law. It reads as follows:
"“Genocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, results in great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and other contributions represented by these human groups and is contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations.”
"Shortly after the passage of Resolution 96, the UN ratified the Treaty Against Genocide. The treaty listed five categories of genocide:
"Killing members of the group.
"Causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group.
"Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
"Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
"Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The last one certainly applies to the treatment received by natives of Australia at hands of the European invaders of Australia.
"Under the categories listed above, aspects of past and present policies of the United States and Canada, including ghetto-like reservations, are considered genocidal under the international treaty. Also, the policies of many international companies, especially those engaged in oil exploration and mining, are equally guilty of genocide in the remote areas of South America, Asia and Africa. However, the UN has failed to pursue a single case of genocide against any corporation."
................................................................................................
"Following Allan’s death in 1943, Dr. C. Nash Herndon took over. Herndon was an advocate of forced sterilization. By 1943, he claimed to have sterilized about 30 individuals, mostly blacks."
"In 1950-1951, John Foster Dulles, chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation, led John D. Rockefeller III on a world tour, focusing on the need to stop the expansion of the nonwhite populations. In the fall of 1952, Rockefeller and Dulles established the Population Council with money from the Rockefeller fortune. The American Eugenics Society soon moved its Yale University headquarters into the offices of the Population Council, and the two groups merged. In 1953, Dr. Herndon became president of the American Eugenic Society, and its work continued to expand with money from the Rockefellers."
"In 1958, Prescott Bush and Gordon Gray, who were President Eisenhower’s frequent golfing partners, helped secure an appointment for William Draper to chair a committee advising Eisenhower on the use of military aid to other countries. He was a relative of Wickliffe Draper. Dillon and Read employed him the 1930s. He helped Prescott Bush float the largest bond issue for Nazi Germany, and later served in postwar Germany as head of the economic unit in charge of dismantling the cartel system.
"Draper was a racist and major funding source for the eugenics movement. He used his position as committee head to direct its focus away from military aid to the danger of overpopulation in third world countries. The Eisenhower administration dismissed his racist views. Draper went on to fund the Population Crisis Committee with money from the Rockefellers and du Ponts. In the 1960s, he served as an adviser to LBJ. He was instrumental in getting the Johnson administration to use the overseas aid program to fund birth control in nonwhite countries."
"George H. W. Bush, Prescott’s son, was a vocal supporter of Draper’s policies. In 1964, he campaigned in Texas against the Civil Rights Act. In 1969, as a member of Congress, Bush arranged hearings on the dangers posed by the birth of too many black babies.
"In 1972, as ambassador to the United Nations, George H. W. Bush arranged the first official contract between the American government and the Sterilization League of America. By then, the league had changed its name, yet again, to the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception. This contract burdens the United States taxpayer with the cost of sterilization programs in the nonwhite third world. Dr. Clarence Gamble later set up the Pathfinder Fund, whose primary objective is to break down the resistance to sterilization in third world countries.
"In the 1980s, as vice president, George H. W. Bush urged Reagan to appoint William Draper’s son Bill as administrator of the United Nations Development Program, an organization connected with the World Bank and charged with supervising population control. Bush also was in on the appointment of Bill Draper to the Export-Import Bank. During the 1980s, the Export-Import Bank, at the urging of the Reagan administration, served as a funnel to provide Saddam Hussein with funds and credits during the Iran-Iraq war.
"The Bush and Draper families shared close friendships going back to the 1920s. Bill Draper was co-chairman for finance and head of fund raising for the 1980 George H. W. Bush for President campaign. The Pioneer Fund was established by Wickliffe Draper. Charles Murray, the Pioneer Fund’s best-known expert, has served as adviser to many of George W’s top consultants, and is often quoted by them. He directly influenced the repressive welfare programs of Tommy Thompson and NYC Mayor Giuliani, and was a consultant to Thompson on changes in the Wisconsin welfare system. Murray’s books, The Bell Curve and Losing Ground, both about the inferiority of blacks, serve as bibles for the school privatization and anti-welfare movements in the United States. Thus the racist policies of the Bush family extend into George W. Bush’s administration."
................................................................................................
"It will be noted from the foregoing what a tight, small group the postwar eugenics movement is. American fascism is not broadly based; it is concentrated in a few key wealthy families, with links by marriage to a larger circle. Many of these people also had key posts in the Eisenhower administration. Ike was certainly no supporter of fascism; he expressed hatred for the Nazis, and Germans in general, countless times in letters to his wife. Yet his administration was littered with Nazi supporters. In essence, he was duped. However, the old general was not a complete fool. In his farewell address, he forewarned about the military-industrial complex, a polite description for postwar fascism."
"Summing up, the Nazis’ plan for world domination involved several facets, like a many-headed hydra. The cartel agreements went far beyond establishing monopolies and, in fact, were a major part of the Nazi war plan readily entered into by the leaders of corporate America. With fascism’s support for big business came extreme anti-unionism.
"Cartel agreements had two effects on WWII. First, they hindered production of munitions. Second, they shifted the geopolitical balance in South America to the Nazis. Most of the cartel agreements excluded American companies from expanding into South America, while German firms were free to do so. Once the war started, these German firms in South America were used to evade the British blockade, prolonging the war.
"Nazi influence in South America continued after the war. Once safely in South America, Nazi war criminals became military advisers and trained their host country’s security forces. The result has been a series of coups overthrowing reformist governments, followed by brutal dictatorships with their accompanying death squads. The Nazi influence in Argentina was apparent as recently as the Falkland Islands War, in which the Argentine air force achieved some success. The Argentine aircraft industry is the direct product of ex-Nazi engineers."
"It will be noted from the foregoing what a tight, small group the postwar eugenics movement is. American fascism is not broadly based; it is concentrated in a few key wealthy families, with links by marriage to a larger circle. Many of these people also had key posts in the Eisenhower administration. Ike was certainly no supporter of fascism; he expressed hatred for the Nazis, and Germans in general, countless times in letters to his wife. Yet his administration was littered with Nazi supporters. In essence, he was duped. However, the old general was not a complete fool. In his farewell address, he forewarned about the military-industrial complex, a polite description for postwar fascism."
................................................................................................
"Summing up, the Nazis’ plan for world domination involved several facets, like a many-headed hydra. The cartel agreements went far beyond establishing monopolies and, in fact, were a major part of the Nazi war plan readily entered into by the leaders of corporate America. With fascism’s support for big business came extreme anti-unionism.
"Cartel agreements had two effects on WWII. First, they hindered production of munitions. Second, they shifted the geopolitical balance in South America to the Nazis. Most of the cartel agreements excluded American companies from expanding into South America, while German firms were free to do so. Once the war started, these German firms in South America were used to evade the British blockade, prolonging the war.
"Nazi influence in South America continued after the war. Once safely in South America, Nazi war criminals became military advisers and trained their host country’s security forces. The result has been a series of coups overthrowing reformist governments, followed by brutal dictatorships with their accompanying death squads. The Nazi influence in Argentina was apparent as recently as the Falkland Islands War, in which the Argentine air force achieved some success. The Argentine aircraft industry is the direct product of ex-Nazi engineers."
................................................................................................
"In 1940, a group of Republican congressmen accepted money from Hitler for their election campaigns."
"After the failure of Landon in the presidential race, and in defiance of Roosevelt’s desire to improve working conditions for the average person, Knudsen and du Pont launched a speed-up system at General Motors. The system forced men to work at a horrifying pace, and many line workers died of the heat and pressure.
"Irénée du Pont personally paid almost $1 million to hire armed storm troopers modeled after the Gestapo and equipped with gas to sweep through his plants and beat any rebellious workers. ... Concurrently, he started to finance the notorious Black Legion in the Detroit area. He encouraged foremen at General Motors to join this group of terrorists.
"The prime purpose of the Black Legion was to firebomb union meetings, murder union leaders and terrorize all workers to prevent unionization. The Black Legion was linked to the Klan and to the even more terrifying Wolverine Republican League. Members of this later group included several big business leaders. The Black Legion murdered at least 50 people, many of them black."
"Collaboration between the Republican Party and the Nazis was a continuing effort throughout the 1930s. However, it would not reach epidemic proportions until the 1940 election. With the European continent already embroiled in war, and President Roosevelt espousing pro-British views, the Nazis were desperate to keep the United States out of the war. In a bizarre plot full of intrigue involving Texas oilman William Rhodes Davis, labor leader John L. Lewis, and Mexico, Nazis provided extensive funding to the Republican Party for the 1940 election."
"The outbreak of war in Europe jeopardized Davis’ road to riches. He used his friendship with John L. Lewis to arrange a meeting with Roosevelt early in 1940, in which he proposed a far-out peace plan. Roosevelt was cool to the proposal and told Davis that any peace plan would have to come through official channels. Davis then traveled to Germany to meet with Goering. Central to his plan was the removal of Hitler; the Nazis would remain in power under Goering. On Davis’ return, Roosevelt refused to meet with him."
"The Nazis were desperately seeking the defeat of Roosevelt, although they were less than enthusiastic about the Republican candidates. They agreed the best chance of defeating Roosevelt was to back the Republicans rather than run a third party. Davis knew that Lewis opposed another war and told the Nazis that Lewis had control over the election with his large block of union voters. Lewis was not pro-fascist. Instead, he feared that a new war would lead to a dictatorship and placing the CIO under emergency laws. Because of the Red Scare of 1919, one can hardly blame Lewis for his fears. Talks soon settled on how much money was needed to defeat Roosevelt; the final sum settled on was $5 million."
"On the eve of the Republican National Convention, money from this Nazi slush fund was used in a propaganda blitz for the isolationists. One Republican member of Congress received $3,000 for heading a contingent of 50 isolationists. The Nazi money was well spent, because the convention closed with a party platform plank firmly opposing U.S. involvement in the war. The Nazis were especially pleased to note the platform plank was taken almost verbatim from the full-page German propaganda ads placed in the New York Times on June 25. The Nazis paid Stephen Day thousands of dollars to form the committee publishing the ad. Maloney named Day, a Republican representative from Illinois, as a fascist collaborator. Reps. Samuel Pettingill, Harold Knudsen, John O’Conner and Hamilton Fish, and Sens. Edwin Johnson Bennett Clark, David Walsh, Burton Wheeler and Rush Holt signed the ad. Both Lewis and Democratic Sen. Burton Wheeler, a leading isolationist, spoke before the convention.
"With this success behind them, the Nazis then decided to spring a similar effort on the Democratic convention. Davis distributed $100,000 to buy 40 delegates from Pennsylvania to vote against Roosevelt. The Nazi press agent, Kurt Sell, arranged for several other Democratic congressmen to attend the convention on German Embassy funds. Sell also funded several anti-war ads in the Chicago Tribune on July 15.
"Although the Nazis were not enthused over Willkie’s nomination, they thought any president would be better than Roosevelt. With their slush fund of $5 million, the Nazis surreptitiously helped Willkie through secret donations to various pro-Willkie clubs. Thomsen, the charge d’affairs of the German embassy, destroyed all receipts, so it may never be known how much money the Nazis funneled into the Republican Party, or to whom. It is not clear if it all was spent. Supposedly, $3 million was found in the embassy when the FBI seized it in December 1941. Nevertheless, the embassy had other sources of funding than Herslet’s funds. In fact, Thomsen did not cooperate with Herslet and ran his own campaign."
................................................................................................
"In 1940, a group of Republican congressmen accepted money from Hitler for their election campaigns."
"After the failure of Landon in the presidential race, and in defiance of Roosevelt’s desire to improve working conditions for the average person, Knudsen and du Pont launched a speed-up system at General Motors. The system forced men to work at a horrifying pace, and many line workers died of the heat and pressure.
"Irénée du Pont personally paid almost $1 million to hire armed storm troopers modeled after the Gestapo and equipped with gas to sweep through his plants and beat any rebellious workers. ... Concurrently, he started to finance the notorious Black Legion in the Detroit area. He encouraged foremen at General Motors to join this group of terrorists.
"The prime purpose of the Black Legion was to firebomb union meetings, murder union leaders and terrorize all workers to prevent unionization. The Black Legion was linked to the Klan and to the even more terrifying Wolverine Republican League. Members of this later group included several big business leaders. The Black Legion murdered at least 50 people, many of them black."
"Collaboration between the Republican Party and the Nazis was a continuing effort throughout the 1930s. However, it would not reach epidemic proportions until the 1940 election. With the European continent already embroiled in war, and President Roosevelt espousing pro-British views, the Nazis were desperate to keep the United States out of the war. In a bizarre plot full of intrigue involving Texas oilman William Rhodes Davis, labor leader John L. Lewis, and Mexico, Nazis provided extensive funding to the Republican Party for the 1940 election."
"The outbreak of war in Europe jeopardized Davis’ road to riches. He used his friendship with John L. Lewis to arrange a meeting with Roosevelt early in 1940, in which he proposed a far-out peace plan. Roosevelt was cool to the proposal and told Davis that any peace plan would have to come through official channels. Davis then traveled to Germany to meet with Goering. Central to his plan was the removal of Hitler; the Nazis would remain in power under Goering. On Davis’ return, Roosevelt refused to meet with him."
"The Nazis were desperately seeking the defeat of Roosevelt, although they were less than enthusiastic about the Republican candidates. They agreed the best chance of defeating Roosevelt was to back the Republicans rather than run a third party. Davis knew that Lewis opposed another war and told the Nazis that Lewis had control over the election with his large block of union voters. Lewis was not pro-fascist. Instead, he feared that a new war would lead to a dictatorship and placing the CIO under emergency laws. Because of the Red Scare of 1919, one can hardly blame Lewis for his fears. Talks soon settled on how much money was needed to defeat Roosevelt; the final sum settled on was $5 million."
"On the eve of the Republican National Convention, money from this Nazi slush fund was used in a propaganda blitz for the isolationists. One Republican member of Congress received $3,000 for heading a contingent of 50 isolationists. The Nazi money was well spent, because the convention closed with a party platform plank firmly opposing U.S. involvement in the war. The Nazis were especially pleased to note the platform plank was taken almost verbatim from the full-page German propaganda ads placed in the New York Times on June 25. The Nazis paid Stephen Day thousands of dollars to form the committee publishing the ad. Maloney named Day, a Republican representative from Illinois, as a fascist collaborator. Reps. Samuel Pettingill, Harold Knudsen, John O’Conner and Hamilton Fish, and Sens. Edwin Johnson Bennett Clark, David Walsh, Burton Wheeler and Rush Holt signed the ad. Both Lewis and Democratic Sen. Burton Wheeler, a leading isolationist, spoke before the convention.
"With this success behind them, the Nazis then decided to spring a similar effort on the Democratic convention. Davis distributed $100,000 to buy 40 delegates from Pennsylvania to vote against Roosevelt. The Nazi press agent, Kurt Sell, arranged for several other Democratic congressmen to attend the convention on German Embassy funds. Sell also funded several anti-war ads in the Chicago Tribune on July 15.
"Although the Nazis were not enthused over Willkie’s nomination, they thought any president would be better than Roosevelt. With their slush fund of $5 million, the Nazis surreptitiously helped Willkie through secret donations to various pro-Willkie clubs. Thomsen, the charge d’affairs of the German embassy, destroyed all receipts, so it may never be known how much money the Nazis funneled into the Republican Party, or to whom. It is not clear if it all was spent. Supposedly, $3 million was found in the embassy when the FBI seized it in December 1941. Nevertheless, the embassy had other sources of funding than Herslet’s funds. In fact, Thomsen did not cooperate with Herslet and ran his own campaign."
................................................................................................
"In the end, labor chose to remain loyal to FDR and Roosevelt won the election with 27 million votes to Willkie’s 22 million votes.
"Top Republican leaders, including former President Hoover, closely collaborated with high-level Nazi officials in Berlin to bring about Roosevelt’s defeat. Postwar interviews of Goering and Ribbentrop confirm Hoover connived with the Nazis in the 1940 election. Hoover was also a secret member of the fascist America First group, dedicated to Roosevelt’s defeat.
"Captured Nazi documents confirm the close association of the Republican Party with the Nazis. In one captured document written in anticipation of defeat, the Nazis expressed hope for a Republican victory so they might achieve an “easy peace.” A short excerpt from the document in Appendix 10 follows:
""Right now, the chances for a separate peace with the West are a little better, especially if we succeed, through our propaganda campaign and our confidential channels, to convince the enemy that Roosevelt’s policy of unconditional surrender drives the German people towards Communism.
""There is great fear in the U.S.A. of Bolshevism. The opposition against Roosevelt’s alliance with Stalin grows constantly. Our chances for success are good, if we succeed to stir up influential circles against Roosevelt’s policy. This can be done through clever pieces of information, or by references to unsuspicious neutral ecclesiastical contact men.
""We have at our command in the United States efficient contacts which have been carefully kept up even during the war. The campaign of hatred stirred up by Roosevelt and the Jews against everything German has temporarily silenced the pro-German bloc in the U.S.A. However, there is every hope that this situation will be completely changed within a few months. If the Republicans succeed in defeating Roosevelt in the coming presidential election, it would greatly influence the American conduct of war towards us."
"With the Battle of the Bulge raging in Europe, the Republican candidate, Dewey, lashed out against Roosevelt, saying that his call for unconditional surrender was prolonging the war and costing American lives.
"The Nazi involvement in the 1940 election was extensive, including congressional races. Evidence gathered by British intelligence on Americans at Roosevelt’s request also netted information about FDR’s political enemies, confirming that seven U.S. senators and 13 representatives received campaign contributions from the Nazis. Berlin directly financed much of the isolationist wing of Congress.
"From at least 1932, the Nazis were deeply involved in the U.S. political process, although the extent of that involvement is still shrouded. Somewhere in the vaults of the United States and England lie incriminating files that will expose the collaboration of many more individuals and corporations with the Nazis."
"Before U.S. entry into the war, the biggest scandal was in aviation. The government awarded contracts for 4,000 planes in 1940, but by Aug. 9, corporate America had only built 33 planes. General Motors, controlled by the du Ponts, dominated the aviation industry. The press suppressed the real story of a “sit-down strike” by big business and distracted the public’s attention by blaming labor. In fact, it was a capitalist’s strike, and until big business got special tax breaks, it refused to produce planes. For six months, from May to October 1940, corporate America produced no airplanes at all. It was using the aviation industry as a front to thwart President Roosevelt’s plan.
"Throughout this strike, the press failed to mention the refusal of General Motors to accept contracts already awarded for planes. The strike by corporate America had the support of the newspaper chains, as well as the War and Navy departments.
"During WWI, the automobile industry came close to committing treason. Throughout 1917, the auto companies refused to cut production by 25 percent in the second half of the year, thereby denying the defense industry production space and a substantial amount of iron and coal that was needed for defense production. In 1941, General Motors announced it would produce no new models until 1943. General Motors quickly broke that pledge in 1942.
"On March 26, 1942, Sen. Truman accused Standard Oil of treason for delivering the new tetraethyl lead gas additive to both Germany and Japan. Standard was the major supplier of oil to both the Nazis and Japanese. In his appearance before the Senate committee, Farish, the president of Standard, was asked if his company delivered the oil to Japan that made the attack on Pearl Harbor possible. He answered that Standard Oil was an international company. Standard buffed its image with an advertising campaign that promoted the virtues of its products, helped along by the major papers.
"Like oil, steel is a highly strategic material, and the one most needed in arms productions. The record of big steel was one of sabotage, as shown in some of the following quotes pulled from Labor, a union magazine published by Seldes:
""“Truman Accuses Steel Companies of Sabotage,” PM Magazine, June 6, 1942. Subtitle: “Senator Black charges that big corporations hamstring production.”"
""The Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp., a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, and the Jones and Laughlin Steel Co. were charged by the War Production Board with having refused to fill government armament orders while diverting iron and steel to favorite civilian customers for nonessential purposes. The result is that shipbuilding and other war construction have been held up.
""The President directed the Navy to take over three plants of the Brewster Aero Co., accused of sabotaging the aviation program.""
"In the end, labor chose to remain loyal to FDR and Roosevelt won the election with 27 million votes to Willkie’s 22 million votes.
"Top Republican leaders, including former President Hoover, closely collaborated with high-level Nazi officials in Berlin to bring about Roosevelt’s defeat. Postwar interviews of Goering and Ribbentrop confirm Hoover connived with the Nazis in the 1940 election. Hoover was also a secret member of the fascist America First group, dedicated to Roosevelt’s defeat.
"Captured Nazi documents confirm the close association of the Republican Party with the Nazis. In one captured document written in anticipation of defeat, the Nazis expressed hope for a Republican victory so they might achieve an “easy peace.” A short excerpt from the document in Appendix 10 follows:
""Right now, the chances for a separate peace with the West are a little better, especially if we succeed, through our propaganda campaign and our confidential channels, to convince the enemy that Roosevelt’s policy of unconditional surrender drives the German people towards Communism.
""There is great fear in the U.S.A. of Bolshevism. The opposition against Roosevelt’s alliance with Stalin grows constantly. Our chances for success are good, if we succeed to stir up influential circles against Roosevelt’s policy. This can be done through clever pieces of information, or by references to unsuspicious neutral ecclesiastical contact men.
""We have at our command in the United States efficient contacts which have been carefully kept up even during the war. The campaign of hatred stirred up by Roosevelt and the Jews against everything German has temporarily silenced the pro-German bloc in the U.S.A. However, there is every hope that this situation will be completely changed within a few months. If the Republicans succeed in defeating Roosevelt in the coming presidential election, it would greatly influence the American conduct of war towards us."
"With the Battle of the Bulge raging in Europe, the Republican candidate, Dewey, lashed out against Roosevelt, saying that his call for unconditional surrender was prolonging the war and costing American lives.
"The Nazi involvement in the 1940 election was extensive, including congressional races. Evidence gathered by British intelligence on Americans at Roosevelt’s request also netted information about FDR’s political enemies, confirming that seven U.S. senators and 13 representatives received campaign contributions from the Nazis. Berlin directly financed much of the isolationist wing of Congress.
"From at least 1932, the Nazis were deeply involved in the U.S. political process, although the extent of that involvement is still shrouded. Somewhere in the vaults of the United States and England lie incriminating files that will expose the collaboration of many more individuals and corporations with the Nazis."
................................................................................................
"Before U.S. entry into the war, the biggest scandal was in aviation. The government awarded contracts for 4,000 planes in 1940, but by Aug. 9, corporate America had only built 33 planes. General Motors, controlled by the du Ponts, dominated the aviation industry. The press suppressed the real story of a “sit-down strike” by big business and distracted the public’s attention by blaming labor. In fact, it was a capitalist’s strike, and until big business got special tax breaks, it refused to produce planes. For six months, from May to October 1940, corporate America produced no airplanes at all. It was using the aviation industry as a front to thwart President Roosevelt’s plan.
"Throughout this strike, the press failed to mention the refusal of General Motors to accept contracts already awarded for planes. The strike by corporate America had the support of the newspaper chains, as well as the War and Navy departments.
"During WWI, the automobile industry came close to committing treason. Throughout 1917, the auto companies refused to cut production by 25 percent in the second half of the year, thereby denying the defense industry production space and a substantial amount of iron and coal that was needed for defense production. In 1941, General Motors announced it would produce no new models until 1943. General Motors quickly broke that pledge in 1942.
"On March 26, 1942, Sen. Truman accused Standard Oil of treason for delivering the new tetraethyl lead gas additive to both Germany and Japan. Standard was the major supplier of oil to both the Nazis and Japanese. In his appearance before the Senate committee, Farish, the president of Standard, was asked if his company delivered the oil to Japan that made the attack on Pearl Harbor possible. He answered that Standard Oil was an international company. Standard buffed its image with an advertising campaign that promoted the virtues of its products, helped along by the major papers.
"Like oil, steel is a highly strategic material, and the one most needed in arms productions. The record of big steel was one of sabotage, as shown in some of the following quotes pulled from Labor, a union magazine published by Seldes:
""“Truman Accuses Steel Companies of Sabotage,” PM Magazine, June 6, 1942. Subtitle: “Senator Black charges that big corporations hamstring production.”"
""The Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp., a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, and the Jones and Laughlin Steel Co. were charged by the War Production Board with having refused to fill government armament orders while diverting iron and steel to favorite civilian customers for nonessential purposes. The result is that shipbuilding and other war construction have been held up.
""The President directed the Navy to take over three plants of the Brewster Aero Co., accused of sabotaging the aviation program.""
................................................................................................
"One of the necessary war materials hamstrung by these cartel agreements was carboloy or cemented tungsten carbide. Carboloy’s abrasive properties were vital in the machining of hardened steel products. Without it, parts for tanks and other instruments of war were next to impossible to machine. General Electric held the patent, with a cartel agreement with Krupp that limited the production and restricted sales.
"As soon as General Electric cemented its deal with Krupp, the price of tungsten carbide jumped from $48 a pound to $453 a pound. With the cartel agreement in place, General Electric used its position to buy out or cripple domestic competition in the abrasive market. General Electric paid royalties to Krupp on every pound of carboloy produced. Not only did this arrangement tell the Nazis how much carboloy America was using in its build-up for war, but the royalties, in effect, ended up in Hitler’s war chest.
"In September 1940, following a complaint by the Firth-Sterling Steel Co., the agreement was broken up when the court issued two federal antitrust indictments against General Electric and Krupp. Firth-Sterling had run afoul of General Electric’s price levels as it sought to sell shell-turning blanks to the U.S. Army. The cartel’s hindrance of war production outraged the Senate Committee on Military Affairs.
"On Jan. 26, 1947, the trial of General Electric resumed in New York City. Under indict-ment were GE Vice President Zay Jeffries; President W.G. Robbins of the Carboloy Co.; Walter M. Stearns, former GE trade manager; and Gustav Krupp. Krupp was not present; he was under arrest in Germany for war crimes. Ironically, during the trial, Jeffries accused union leaders of having “un-American objectives” and denounced high wages.
"Throughout the trial, General Electric’s lawyers fought bitterly against the introduction of captured Nazi documents. In one such document, Walter Stearns was quoted as telling the Germans that while GE intended to fix prices, “this must never be expressed in the contract itself or in any correspondence which might come into the files of GE.” Other documents quoted Jeffries threatening the president of a competitor: “We’ll either buy you out or break you.”
"The jury found General Electric, its subsidiaries and company officials guilty on five counts of criminal conspiracy. Ironically, no further charges, such as sedition or hindering the war effort, were leveled. Despite pleas from the Department of Justice for heavy sentences, Judge John C. Knox handed down only minor fines. The court fined Stearns and Jefferies $2,500 each; Robbins, $1,000. Judge Knox fined GE and Carboloy $20,000 each; Inter-national General Electric, only $10,000. Once again, the rich and powerful escaped justice with a mere slap on the wrist.
"The fine for General Electric was particularly lax, considering the firm had made millions on carboloy. In 1935 and 1936 alone, General Electric’s subsidiary that made and sold carboloy realized a $694,000 profit. Newspapers failed to cover the trial and the convictions, but found plenty of space on their front pages for General Electric’s charges that members of the Union of Electricians working at atomic energy plants were potential security risks. The union’s UE News was the only paper to report on the trial and convictions."
"Next to the du Ponts and their friends, Henry Ford was the most notorious pro-Hitler backer. In 1919, he first announced, “International financiers are behind all wars. They are what is called the International Jew: German-Jews, French Jews, English-Jews, American-Jews. … the Jew is the threat.”
"Again, the same rhetoric is familiar today with many right-wing groups, particularly the Posse Comitatus. The quote above is almost unchanged from the Posse’s rhetoric in the 1980s. They uses code words, such as international bankers to mean Jews. Similarly, they and others still promote The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a malicious anti-Jewish pamphlet based on a known forgery, first published in this country by Ford in his Dearborn Independent.
"Ford’s involvement went much further than publishing anti-Jewish propaganda. He was an early financier of Hitler. Getting hard evidence of funding for Hitler is a rarity, but with Ford, it is irrefutable. The most credible evidence comes from Hitler’s treason trial after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, from the testimony of Herr Auer, vice president of the Bavarian Diet (Parliament) on Feb. 7, 1923.
""The Bavarian Diet has long had 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 Diedrich Eichart the notorious Pan-German. Shortly after, Herr Eichart asked Mr. Ford’s agent for financial aid. The agent returned to America and immediately Mr. Ford’s money began coming to Munich.
""Herr Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford’s support and praises Mr. Ford as a great individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in Herr Hitler’s quarters, which is the center of the monarchist movement."
"Like Hart, Ford supported the Nazi agenda, harboring a rabid hatred of Jews and unions. One of the myths that Ford successfully created was that he paid his workers more than other firms. In fact, he paid less; the United Autoworkers printed tables showing that wages for every category of worker were lower than those paid by Chrysler and Briggs (General Motors). The maximum wage paid by Ford was below the minimum wage of the union."
"To deal with labor, Ford employed Harry Bennett, who had one of the largest spy and thug services in America, which battered, killed and otherwise intimidated workers. Wherever Ford located a plant, there was a long record of murders and beatings of workers at the hands of Bennett’s thugs. Ford even went so far as to fire workers who took part in the 1932 hunger march. Bennett employed Father Coughlin, the rabid fascist radio priest, to undermine the efforts to unionize Ford. Coughlin bribed United Auto Workers leader Homer Martin to betray the workers by pushing for a company union rather than join the AFL or CIO.
"The plight of the American worker during the ’30s is hardly imaginable today. Working conditions were so intolerable that numerous congressional committees held hearings on the issue. Employers routinely used spies, and hired stool pigeons, thugs, gangsters and murderers. They were well equipped with arms, including Thompson machine guns and “poisonous gas,” the term at that time for tear gas."
"One of the necessary war materials hamstrung by these cartel agreements was carboloy or cemented tungsten carbide. Carboloy’s abrasive properties were vital in the machining of hardened steel products. Without it, parts for tanks and other instruments of war were next to impossible to machine. General Electric held the patent, with a cartel agreement with Krupp that limited the production and restricted sales.
"As soon as General Electric cemented its deal with Krupp, the price of tungsten carbide jumped from $48 a pound to $453 a pound. With the cartel agreement in place, General Electric used its position to buy out or cripple domestic competition in the abrasive market. General Electric paid royalties to Krupp on every pound of carboloy produced. Not only did this arrangement tell the Nazis how much carboloy America was using in its build-up for war, but the royalties, in effect, ended up in Hitler’s war chest.
"In September 1940, following a complaint by the Firth-Sterling Steel Co., the agreement was broken up when the court issued two federal antitrust indictments against General Electric and Krupp. Firth-Sterling had run afoul of General Electric’s price levels as it sought to sell shell-turning blanks to the U.S. Army. The cartel’s hindrance of war production outraged the Senate Committee on Military Affairs.
"On Jan. 26, 1947, the trial of General Electric resumed in New York City. Under indict-ment were GE Vice President Zay Jeffries; President W.G. Robbins of the Carboloy Co.; Walter M. Stearns, former GE trade manager; and Gustav Krupp. Krupp was not present; he was under arrest in Germany for war crimes. Ironically, during the trial, Jeffries accused union leaders of having “un-American objectives” and denounced high wages.
"Throughout the trial, General Electric’s lawyers fought bitterly against the introduction of captured Nazi documents. In one such document, Walter Stearns was quoted as telling the Germans that while GE intended to fix prices, “this must never be expressed in the contract itself or in any correspondence which might come into the files of GE.” Other documents quoted Jeffries threatening the president of a competitor: “We’ll either buy you out or break you.”
"The jury found General Electric, its subsidiaries and company officials guilty on five counts of criminal conspiracy. Ironically, no further charges, such as sedition or hindering the war effort, were leveled. Despite pleas from the Department of Justice for heavy sentences, Judge John C. Knox handed down only minor fines. The court fined Stearns and Jefferies $2,500 each; Robbins, $1,000. Judge Knox fined GE and Carboloy $20,000 each; Inter-national General Electric, only $10,000. Once again, the rich and powerful escaped justice with a mere slap on the wrist.
"The fine for General Electric was particularly lax, considering the firm had made millions on carboloy. In 1935 and 1936 alone, General Electric’s subsidiary that made and sold carboloy realized a $694,000 profit. Newspapers failed to cover the trial and the convictions, but found plenty of space on their front pages for General Electric’s charges that members of the Union of Electricians working at atomic energy plants were potential security risks. The union’s UE News was the only paper to report on the trial and convictions."
................................................................................................
"Next to the du Ponts and their friends, Henry Ford was the most notorious pro-Hitler backer. In 1919, he first announced, “International financiers are behind all wars. They are what is called the International Jew: German-Jews, French Jews, English-Jews, American-Jews. … the Jew is the threat.”
"Again, the same rhetoric is familiar today with many right-wing groups, particularly the Posse Comitatus. The quote above is almost unchanged from the Posse’s rhetoric in the 1980s. They uses code words, such as international bankers to mean Jews. Similarly, they and others still promote The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a malicious anti-Jewish pamphlet based on a known forgery, first published in this country by Ford in his Dearborn Independent.
"Ford’s involvement went much further than publishing anti-Jewish propaganda. He was an early financier of Hitler. Getting hard evidence of funding for Hitler is a rarity, but with Ford, it is irrefutable. The most credible evidence comes from Hitler’s treason trial after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, from the testimony of Herr Auer, vice president of the Bavarian Diet (Parliament) on Feb. 7, 1923.
""The Bavarian Diet has long had 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 Diedrich Eichart the notorious Pan-German. Shortly after, Herr Eichart asked Mr. Ford’s agent for financial aid. The agent returned to America and immediately Mr. Ford’s money began coming to Munich.
""Herr Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford’s support and praises Mr. Ford as a great individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in Herr Hitler’s quarters, which is the center of the monarchist movement."
"Like Hart, Ford supported the Nazi agenda, harboring a rabid hatred of Jews and unions. One of the myths that Ford successfully created was that he paid his workers more than other firms. In fact, he paid less; the United Autoworkers printed tables showing that wages for every category of worker were lower than those paid by Chrysler and Briggs (General Motors). The maximum wage paid by Ford was below the minimum wage of the union."
"To deal with labor, Ford employed Harry Bennett, who had one of the largest spy and thug services in America, which battered, killed and otherwise intimidated workers. Wherever Ford located a plant, there was a long record of murders and beatings of workers at the hands of Bennett’s thugs. Ford even went so far as to fire workers who took part in the 1932 hunger march. Bennett employed Father Coughlin, the rabid fascist radio priest, to undermine the efforts to unionize Ford. Coughlin bribed United Auto Workers leader Homer Martin to betray the workers by pushing for a company union rather than join the AFL or CIO.
"The plight of the American worker during the ’30s is hardly imaginable today. Working conditions were so intolerable that numerous congressional committees held hearings on the issue. Employers routinely used spies, and hired stool pigeons, thugs, gangsters and murderers. They were well equipped with arms, including Thompson machine guns and “poisonous gas,” the term at that time for tear gas."
................................................................................................
"La Follette reports on corporate America. George Seldes lists the following seven facts from the reports:
"1. American business employs a vast espionage system whose purpose is to fight labor.
"2. 200 agencies employ 40,000-50,000 spies in industry.
"3. $80 million a year is spent by big corporations in fighting labor, employing spies, buying gas and guns, hiring gangs.
"4. Almost all the great corporations are in the spy racket, including Ford, General Motors, U.S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Consolidated Edison, Weir, Frick, Coke, etc.
"5. 2,500 companies comprising what Sen. La Follette called the “Blue Book of American Industry” are part of the American Gestapo."
"Here is the heart of fascist ideology of the 1930s and of the far-right, corporate rule today. It is the basis for the visceral level of hate for unions, fueled by the corporate elite and their propaganda organizations. There is no better example to show the power of the pro-fascists in the United States than to compare the plight of the American worker with his counterpart in the rest of the industrial nations. In every category, the American worker comes up short. For example, the American worker earns 44 percent less than his German counterpart and 15 percent (1994 figures) less than his Japanese counterpart. While the average American worker is lucky to receive a two-week vacation, his European counterpart typically enjoys five weeks vacation and a list of benefits the U.S. worker can only dream about. An exception is the UAW, one of the most successful unions in gaining workers’ benefits; nonunion workers and members of other unions in America earn far less."
"Nor has the plight of the worker seeking to unionize changed much from the 1930s-1940s. Today, corporate America outsources security to private, non-union companies, which can be used as hired thugs and union busters. Although muggings and factory death squads are not as great a threat today, corporate America still has no qualms about murdering union organizers in other countries. A recent report revealed that Coca-Cola hired right-wing death squads to murder union organizers in Columbia. The United Steel workers union filed suit in Miami alleging that Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages, its principal bottler in Latin America, waged what union leaders describe as a campaign of terror, using paramilitaries to kill, torture and kidnap union leaders in Columbia."
"At its 1942 convention, NAM went on record in support of du Pont’s Free Enterprise. The convention adopted a plank of full support for free enterprise, even if it hindered the war effort. In contrast, the 1942 CIO convention went on the record for winning the war first, ahead of any union issues. In other words, labor was willing to make the sacrifices needed to win the war, while big business put profits first."
"The media were overtly pro-fascist during the 1930s, especially the major newspaper chains. Hearst admired Mussolini and even paid him to write articles for his upstart United Press wire services. Mussolini received $1,750 for each article, an amount equivalent to about $17,000 today. The articles were poorly written by Margherita Sarfatti, Mussolini’s mistress.
"Hearst attempted to hire Hitler to write for him, too. According to U.S. ambassador to Germany Dodd, Hearst met with Hanfstangel and Rosenberg, two of Hitler’s most trusted propagandists, in September 1934 at Baden Baden. After leaving Baden Baden, Hearst traveled to Berlin, where he met personally with Hitler. A deal was sealed between Hearst and Goebbels worth $400,000. After receiving the money, Hearst quickly ordered all of his writers for his International News Service to present all events in Germany in a friendly manner. Following the agreement, Hearst papers printed uncensored propaganda from the Nazis throughout the 1930s. The Hearst press consisted of 25 daily newspapers, 24 weekly newspapers, 12 radio stations, and two world news services. The other major newspaper chains owned by McCormick and Scripps-Howard also presented pro-fascist views.
"Many members of the National Publishers Association were also members of NAM. William Warner, publisher of McCall’s and Redbook, was the head of NAM. P.S. Collins represented the Curtis Publishing Co., publisher of the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies Home Journal. Collins also was a spokesman for W.D. Fuller, a NAM president. The Luce family publications of Time, Life and Fortune were closely associated with NAM."
The Brass Check!
"Curtiss-Wright demonstrated its dive-bombing planes in air shows in Europe, helping the Nazis to develop the Stuka. In the first six months of 1933, Pratt & Whitney’s sales jumped to almost $1.5 million, as the Nye report exposed the company as one of the largest smugglers of planes to Hitler. Other suppliers of aircraft parts to Hitler in the early years included Curtiss-Wright and Douglas."
Budd?
"La Follette reports on corporate America. George Seldes lists the following seven facts from the reports:
"1. American business employs a vast espionage system whose purpose is to fight labor.
"2. 200 agencies employ 40,000-50,000 spies in industry.
"3. $80 million a year is spent by big corporations in fighting labor, employing spies, buying gas and guns, hiring gangs.
"4. Almost all the great corporations are in the spy racket, including Ford, General Motors, U.S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Consolidated Edison, Weir, Frick, Coke, etc.
"5. 2,500 companies comprising what Sen. La Follette called the “Blue Book of American Industry” are part of the American Gestapo."
"Here is the heart of fascist ideology of the 1930s and of the far-right, corporate rule today. It is the basis for the visceral level of hate for unions, fueled by the corporate elite and their propaganda organizations. There is no better example to show the power of the pro-fascists in the United States than to compare the plight of the American worker with his counterpart in the rest of the industrial nations. In every category, the American worker comes up short. For example, the American worker earns 44 percent less than his German counterpart and 15 percent (1994 figures) less than his Japanese counterpart. While the average American worker is lucky to receive a two-week vacation, his European counterpart typically enjoys five weeks vacation and a list of benefits the U.S. worker can only dream about. An exception is the UAW, one of the most successful unions in gaining workers’ benefits; nonunion workers and members of other unions in America earn far less."
"Nor has the plight of the worker seeking to unionize changed much from the 1930s-1940s. Today, corporate America outsources security to private, non-union companies, which can be used as hired thugs and union busters. Although muggings and factory death squads are not as great a threat today, corporate America still has no qualms about murdering union organizers in other countries. A recent report revealed that Coca-Cola hired right-wing death squads to murder union organizers in Columbia. The United Steel workers union filed suit in Miami alleging that Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages, its principal bottler in Latin America, waged what union leaders describe as a campaign of terror, using paramilitaries to kill, torture and kidnap union leaders in Columbia."
................................................................................................
"At its 1942 convention, NAM went on record in support of du Pont’s Free Enterprise. The convention adopted a plank of full support for free enterprise, even if it hindered the war effort. In contrast, the 1942 CIO convention went on the record for winning the war first, ahead of any union issues. In other words, labor was willing to make the sacrifices needed to win the war, while big business put profits first."
"The media were overtly pro-fascist during the 1930s, especially the major newspaper chains. Hearst admired Mussolini and even paid him to write articles for his upstart United Press wire services. Mussolini received $1,750 for each article, an amount equivalent to about $17,000 today. The articles were poorly written by Margherita Sarfatti, Mussolini’s mistress.
"Hearst attempted to hire Hitler to write for him, too. According to U.S. ambassador to Germany Dodd, Hearst met with Hanfstangel and Rosenberg, two of Hitler’s most trusted propagandists, in September 1934 at Baden Baden. After leaving Baden Baden, Hearst traveled to Berlin, where he met personally with Hitler. A deal was sealed between Hearst and Goebbels worth $400,000. After receiving the money, Hearst quickly ordered all of his writers for his International News Service to present all events in Germany in a friendly manner. Following the agreement, Hearst papers printed uncensored propaganda from the Nazis throughout the 1930s. The Hearst press consisted of 25 daily newspapers, 24 weekly newspapers, 12 radio stations, and two world news services. The other major newspaper chains owned by McCormick and Scripps-Howard also presented pro-fascist views.
"Many members of the National Publishers Association were also members of NAM. William Warner, publisher of McCall’s and Redbook, was the head of NAM. P.S. Collins represented the Curtis Publishing Co., publisher of the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies Home Journal. Collins also was a spokesman for W.D. Fuller, a NAM president. The Luce family publications of Time, Life and Fortune were closely associated with NAM."
The Brass Check!
"Curtiss-Wright demonstrated its dive-bombing planes in air shows in Europe, helping the Nazis to develop the Stuka. In the first six months of 1933, Pratt & Whitney’s sales jumped to almost $1.5 million, as the Nye report exposed the company as one of the largest smugglers of planes to Hitler. Other suppliers of aircraft parts to Hitler in the early years included Curtiss-Wright and Douglas."
Budd?
................................................................................................
"Another scandal left unreported was the sale of defective wire by Anaconda. One notable newscaster of the time who failed to report the story was Lowell Thomas. Pew, owner of Sun Oil, sponsored Thomas’ broadcasts. Thomas had also worked for NAM.
"The St. Louis Star-Times accused U.S. Cartridge Co. of producing defective cartridges and had submitted its findings to the Office of Censorship. The AP wire failed to pick up the story and, thus, it went unreported outside the St. Louis area."
"The press certainly did not report on the profiteering by corporate America. James Hayes, general counsel for the ILWU Dispatcher, testified before the Congressional Merchant Marine subcommittee, giving proof of the obscene profiteering in shipping. Due to the sit-down strike by corporate America, the government was forced to lease private ships. The American Foreign Steamship Corp. made a profit of $895,974 on two voyages. The American Export Line made a profit of $1,572,144 on ships worth only $232,350. The American President Line made a profit of $814,242 on ships worth $307,828 in three trips."
"Today, the media is even more consolidated than in the 1940s; six corporations control more than 80 percent of the airwaves and press. Republicans have repeated the lie that the media are biased to the left so often that many people buy into the mantra, even though the reverse is true. In fact, corporations censor the media. Two-thirds of editors questioned reported that their advertisers threatened to withdraw because of the content of news stories. In a 1992 survey, 75 percent report that large advertisers have tried to influence the content of news stories."
"In the 60 years following WWII, the Republican Party and far right-wing extremists have adopted the philosophy at the heart of fascism - corporate rule. It is the basis for the intense hatred of unions and working people. In the entire eight years of the Reagan administration, the minimum wage was not raised once, although inflation raged through the early ’80s."
"An insight into the plight of labor in the ’30s comes from the Robert La Follette committee:
""The committee found that purchasing and storing arsenals of firearms and tear and sickening gas weapons is a common practice of large employers of labor who refuse to bargain collectively with legitimate labor unions, and that there exists a large business of supplying gas weapons to industry... During the years 1933 through June 1937, $1,255,392.55 worth of tear and sickening gas was purchased by employers and law enforcement agencies, chiefly during or in anticipation of strikes … all of the largest individual purchasers are corporations and their totals far surpass those of large law-enforcement purchases. In fact the largest purchaser of gas equipment in the country, the Republic Steel Corp., bought four times as much as the largest law-enforcement purchaser."
"This was during the Depression, when a new car sold for less than $1,000."
"Another scandal left unreported was the sale of defective wire by Anaconda. One notable newscaster of the time who failed to report the story was Lowell Thomas. Pew, owner of Sun Oil, sponsored Thomas’ broadcasts. Thomas had also worked for NAM.
"The St. Louis Star-Times accused U.S. Cartridge Co. of producing defective cartridges and had submitted its findings to the Office of Censorship. The AP wire failed to pick up the story and, thus, it went unreported outside the St. Louis area."
"The press certainly did not report on the profiteering by corporate America. James Hayes, general counsel for the ILWU Dispatcher, testified before the Congressional Merchant Marine subcommittee, giving proof of the obscene profiteering in shipping. Due to the sit-down strike by corporate America, the government was forced to lease private ships. The American Foreign Steamship Corp. made a profit of $895,974 on two voyages. The American Export Line made a profit of $1,572,144 on ships worth only $232,350. The American President Line made a profit of $814,242 on ships worth $307,828 in three trips."
"Today, the media is even more consolidated than in the 1940s; six corporations control more than 80 percent of the airwaves and press. Republicans have repeated the lie that the media are biased to the left so often that many people buy into the mantra, even though the reverse is true. In fact, corporations censor the media. Two-thirds of editors questioned reported that their advertisers threatened to withdraw because of the content of news stories. In a 1992 survey, 75 percent report that large advertisers have tried to influence the content of news stories."
................................................................................................
"In the 60 years following WWII, the Republican Party and far right-wing extremists have adopted the philosophy at the heart of fascism - corporate rule. It is the basis for the intense hatred of unions and working people. In the entire eight years of the Reagan administration, the minimum wage was not raised once, although inflation raged through the early ’80s."
"An insight into the plight of labor in the ’30s comes from the Robert La Follette committee:
""The committee found that purchasing and storing arsenals of firearms and tear and sickening gas weapons is a common practice of large employers of labor who refuse to bargain collectively with legitimate labor unions, and that there exists a large business of supplying gas weapons to industry... During the years 1933 through June 1937, $1,255,392.55 worth of tear and sickening gas was purchased by employers and law enforcement agencies, chiefly during or in anticipation of strikes … all of the largest individual purchasers are corporations and their totals far surpass those of large law-enforcement purchases. In fact the largest purchaser of gas equipment in the country, the Republic Steel Corp., bought four times as much as the largest law-enforcement purchaser."
"This was during the Depression, when a new car sold for less than $1,000."
................................................................................................
"Failing physically to beat labor into submission, the fascists turned to legal tactics, such as the anti-union right-to-work law. Those laws are still highly regarded in right-wing circles today, but few know that the fascist group, Christian America, first sponsored it in the early 1940s. The forces behind the Christian American group were wealthy Texans tied to the Kirby family. Vance Muse formed Christian America after Kirby’s death. Both Kirby and Muse had a long history of opposing the New Deal and supporting racism. Muse was an associate of Gerald Smith.
"Another member of the Christian America was Lewis Ulrey, who took over the distribution of Gerald Winrod’s propaganda, in which he openly advocated a 12-hour workday. Ulrey penned the following for Gerald Winrod’s Defender:
""Into this bedlam and chaos in Germany Adolf Hitler injected himself as a new … messiah to lead ORDERLY GERMANS from political confusion to SYSTEMATIC UNITY.
"Hitler put it up to the Germans to decide between the Jewish ownership and domination of the country or DOMINATION AND OWNERSHIP BY THE NINETY NINE PERCENT OF THE GERMAN POPULATION.
"HUMAN NATURE BEING WHAT IT IS, IT IS NOT STRANGE THAT THE GERMANS DECIDED AGAINST THE JEWS AND IN FAVOR OF HITLER.
"OUR PRESIDENT HAS SENT TWO INSULTING MESSAGES TO HITLER AND A NUMBER OF HIS PINK CABINETEERS HAVE MOST BLATANTLY AND VIOLENTLY BROADCAST SILLY INSULTS TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.""
"Others associated with Christian America were Alfred Sloan, CEO of GM; the du Ponts; bankers George and Joseph Widener; and Wall Street lawyer Odgen Mills."
"The 1942 American Newspaper Publishers Association convention voted for a “second front now” and went on to denounce the fascist appeasement forces in America, naming the McCormick-Patterson chain, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, The Washington Times-Herald and the Hearst chain. It accused the American press of anti-unionism, suppressing and slanting the news to fit the publisher’s views. William Green, president of the AFL, confirmed the depth of this support for fascism:
"Recently a bitter campaign of malicious propaganda to poison the public’s mind against organized labor has been carried on by the subsidized press which is composed of reactionary daily newspapers controlled, through ownership and advertising, by exploiting profiteers and union haters. Together with the bourbon politicians, idle rich and anti-labor columnists, they are the real parasites of our country... By peddling falsehoods about labor, the subsidized press is creating factionalism, disunity and class hatred. If Hitler were not so busy running away from a victorious Russian army he would take time to pin medals on the editors and columnist who are misleading the public. The reactionary editors of the newspapers are doing just what Hitler predicted he could accomplish here through his agents.
"Congressman Elmer Holland of Pennsylvania characterized Joseph Patterson, owner of the New York Daily News, and Eleanor Patterson, owner of the Washington Times-Herald, as America’s No. 1 and No. 2 exponents of the Nazi propaganda line.
"In 1942, The Chicago Tribune and part of the McCormick chain were on trial for betraying secrets to the Japanese by publishing the names and locations of the ships in the Battle of Midway, a clear case of treason. The Tribune got the information through one of its war correspondents, Stanley Johnson, who was sailing aboard the New Orleans en route to Hawaii and had seen a decrypt of JN25 (a Japanese naval code) on the captain’s desk. It revealed what the U.S. Navy knew of the Japanese fleet deployment and strategy. The headline in the Chicago Tribune published three days after the battle read “Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea.” The Tribune avoided conviction by claiming that part of the article was false and much of it had been faked. Roosevelt and the Justice Department were hamstrung and could not prosecute the case fully. In a rigorous trial, the government would have had to reveal that it had indeed broken the Japanese naval code. Protecting that secret and the lives of American GIs was worth far more than bringing the traitors to justice."
"Republican Rep. Louis McFadden of Pennsylvania also supported True. McFadden believed in the international Jewish conspiracy, and that Jews were not being persecuted in Germany under Hitler. He was virulent in his opposition to Roosevelt’s plan to allow 200,000 Jews to immigrate to the United States. He believed the plan’s supporters, like Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, were part of the conspiracy by the “Jewish-controlled administration.” McFadden believed Perkins’ real name was that of a Russian Jewess, Matilda Wutski.
"Another pro-fascist was Sen. Robert Reynolds, a Democrat from North Carolina, who also openly praised Hitler on the floor of the Senate. Reynolds was a resident of Asheville, the home of Pelly’s Silver Shirts."
"Failing physically to beat labor into submission, the fascists turned to legal tactics, such as the anti-union right-to-work law. Those laws are still highly regarded in right-wing circles today, but few know that the fascist group, Christian America, first sponsored it in the early 1940s. The forces behind the Christian American group were wealthy Texans tied to the Kirby family. Vance Muse formed Christian America after Kirby’s death. Both Kirby and Muse had a long history of opposing the New Deal and supporting racism. Muse was an associate of Gerald Smith.
"Another member of the Christian America was Lewis Ulrey, who took over the distribution of Gerald Winrod’s propaganda, in which he openly advocated a 12-hour workday. Ulrey penned the following for Gerald Winrod’s Defender:
""Into this bedlam and chaos in Germany Adolf Hitler injected himself as a new … messiah to lead ORDERLY GERMANS from political confusion to SYSTEMATIC UNITY.
"Hitler put it up to the Germans to decide between the Jewish ownership and domination of the country or DOMINATION AND OWNERSHIP BY THE NINETY NINE PERCENT OF THE GERMAN POPULATION.
"HUMAN NATURE BEING WHAT IT IS, IT IS NOT STRANGE THAT THE GERMANS DECIDED AGAINST THE JEWS AND IN FAVOR OF HITLER.
"OUR PRESIDENT HAS SENT TWO INSULTING MESSAGES TO HITLER AND A NUMBER OF HIS PINK CABINETEERS HAVE MOST BLATANTLY AND VIOLENTLY BROADCAST SILLY INSULTS TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.""
"Others associated with Christian America were Alfred Sloan, CEO of GM; the du Ponts; bankers George and Joseph Widener; and Wall Street lawyer Odgen Mills."
"The 1942 American Newspaper Publishers Association convention voted for a “second front now” and went on to denounce the fascist appeasement forces in America, naming the McCormick-Patterson chain, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, The Washington Times-Herald and the Hearst chain. It accused the American press of anti-unionism, suppressing and slanting the news to fit the publisher’s views. William Green, president of the AFL, confirmed the depth of this support for fascism:
"Recently a bitter campaign of malicious propaganda to poison the public’s mind against organized labor has been carried on by the subsidized press which is composed of reactionary daily newspapers controlled, through ownership and advertising, by exploiting profiteers and union haters. Together with the bourbon politicians, idle rich and anti-labor columnists, they are the real parasites of our country... By peddling falsehoods about labor, the subsidized press is creating factionalism, disunity and class hatred. If Hitler were not so busy running away from a victorious Russian army he would take time to pin medals on the editors and columnist who are misleading the public. The reactionary editors of the newspapers are doing just what Hitler predicted he could accomplish here through his agents.
"Congressman Elmer Holland of Pennsylvania characterized Joseph Patterson, owner of the New York Daily News, and Eleanor Patterson, owner of the Washington Times-Herald, as America’s No. 1 and No. 2 exponents of the Nazi propaganda line.
"In 1942, The Chicago Tribune and part of the McCormick chain were on trial for betraying secrets to the Japanese by publishing the names and locations of the ships in the Battle of Midway, a clear case of treason. The Tribune got the information through one of its war correspondents, Stanley Johnson, who was sailing aboard the New Orleans en route to Hawaii and had seen a decrypt of JN25 (a Japanese naval code) on the captain’s desk. It revealed what the U.S. Navy knew of the Japanese fleet deployment and strategy. The headline in the Chicago Tribune published three days after the battle read “Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea.” The Tribune avoided conviction by claiming that part of the article was false and much of it had been faked. Roosevelt and the Justice Department were hamstrung and could not prosecute the case fully. In a rigorous trial, the government would have had to reveal that it had indeed broken the Japanese naval code. Protecting that secret and the lives of American GIs was worth far more than bringing the traitors to justice."
................................................................................................
"Republican Rep. Louis McFadden of Pennsylvania also supported True. McFadden believed in the international Jewish conspiracy, and that Jews were not being persecuted in Germany under Hitler. He was virulent in his opposition to Roosevelt’s plan to allow 200,000 Jews to immigrate to the United States. He believed the plan’s supporters, like Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, were part of the conspiracy by the “Jewish-controlled administration.” McFadden believed Perkins’ real name was that of a Russian Jewess, Matilda Wutski.
"Another pro-fascist was Sen. Robert Reynolds, a Democrat from North Carolina, who also openly praised Hitler on the floor of the Senate. Reynolds was a resident of Asheville, the home of Pelly’s Silver Shirts."
................................................................................................
"Grand jury investigations conducted in 1940 produced abundant evidence that several members of Congress received funds from Nazi sources. The sedition trial stemmed from three separate grand jury investigations. The special assistant to the Attorney General William Maloney convened the first on which finished on July 21, 1942, indicting 28 individuals and listing 30 publications and 26 organizations.
"Because of intense pressure from several sides, including from Sen. Burton Wheeler, the Justice Department removed Maloney from the investigation. Wheeler used his position as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to exert extreme pressures on Attorney General Biddle for Maloney’s removal."
"The congressmen Maloney listed as dupes of the Nazis have several interesting characteristics. First, members of the Republican Party dominate the list. This should not be surprising because the Republican Party employed known Nazis in election campaigns. Two of the Democrats on the list, Holt and Reynolds, were removed by party leadership.
"Most of these members of Congress came from the upper Midwest, especially Minnesota and Michigan where there were strong anti-union movements, and several ministries that preached the Nazi line of hatred of Jews.. The Teutonia Association, founded in Detroit on Oct. 12, 1924, was something of a forerunner of the American Bund.
"Viereck was the highest-ranking Nazi agent arrested during the two world wars. He was a V-agent or “Vertrauensleute” (confidant) for the Abwehr. Following the war, another exposed V-agent was William Rhodes Davis, the Texas oilman. Very little is known about Viereck and the network of V-agents because the Nazis destroyed most of their files. Documents on most known V-agents suggest they were employed to spread propaganda.
"What is certain is that Viereck received more than $500,000 from the charge d’affairs of the German embassy, Thomsen, to bribe, corrupt and undermine members of Congress, and spread propaganda. Viereck also received funds from Hansen Sturm, chairman of the Romanoff Caviar Co., and from General Aniline and Film. Thomsen had valuable friends in high places, including Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long and Ambassador to France William Bullitt. Long had publicly approved Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia."
"Lundeen was secretly pro-Nazi, and received money directly from Viereck, the German Board of Trade and the Steuben Society. Maloney determined that other members of Congress had accepted Nazi money in deals to publish books through the notorious Flanders Hall, a fascist publisher closely associated with Viereck: Burton Wheeler of Montana, Gerald Nye of North Dakota, Jennings Randolph and Rush Holt of West Virginia, and William Stratton of Illinois.
"On June 13, 1940, Thomsen reported to Germany that it was necessary to take literary countermeasures against Roosevelt. In this plan, Thomsen contacted New York literary agent William Lengel and proposed a series of five books. One by Theodore Dreiser was to warn of the dangers of intervention, another by Sylvia Porter was to provide a woman’s perspective about what the war would mean. The other three were to be written by journalist George Creel, novelist Kathleen Norris and publicist Burton Rascoe. Pearl Harbor preempted the deal before any were written.
"In September 1941, Maloney convened a grand jury to investigate the Congressional Nazi connections. The results of the grand jury were classified for years. Viereck was indicted, as was George Hill, a mailroom aide to Hamilton Fish. Maloney was deeply annoyed that he could not get indictments against any congressmen. Once again, the little, expendable people were prosecuted, while the powerful were protected. Many of the congressmen Maloney subpoenaed managed to avoid testifying until after Pearl Harbor. After the attack, public interest was directed to the war effort, and prosecution of the pro-fascists was neglected. Maloney successfully prosecuted George Hill and was getting ready for Viereck’s trial when Judge Allen Goldsborough suddenly told Maloney he only had two weeks to prepare. Goldsborough was associated with the extreme elements of the right wing.
"Maloney was successful in having Goldsborough replaced after swearing out an affidavit giving details of their meeting and the demand by Viereck’s attorney, Daniel Colahan, that Goldsborough handle the case. He also successfully prosecuted Viereck, who received a prison term of two to six years. On March 20, presiding Judge Letts reduced Hill’s sentence. One year later, the Supreme Court reversed Viereck’s conviction, and both he and Hill were set free."
"Grand jury investigations conducted in 1940 produced abundant evidence that several members of Congress received funds from Nazi sources. The sedition trial stemmed from three separate grand jury investigations. The special assistant to the Attorney General William Maloney convened the first on which finished on July 21, 1942, indicting 28 individuals and listing 30 publications and 26 organizations.
"Because of intense pressure from several sides, including from Sen. Burton Wheeler, the Justice Department removed Maloney from the investigation. Wheeler used his position as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to exert extreme pressures on Attorney General Biddle for Maloney’s removal."
"The congressmen Maloney listed as dupes of the Nazis have several interesting characteristics. First, members of the Republican Party dominate the list. This should not be surprising because the Republican Party employed known Nazis in election campaigns. Two of the Democrats on the list, Holt and Reynolds, were removed by party leadership.
"Most of these members of Congress came from the upper Midwest, especially Minnesota and Michigan where there were strong anti-union movements, and several ministries that preached the Nazi line of hatred of Jews.. The Teutonia Association, founded in Detroit on Oct. 12, 1924, was something of a forerunner of the American Bund.
"Viereck was the highest-ranking Nazi agent arrested during the two world wars. He was a V-agent or “Vertrauensleute” (confidant) for the Abwehr. Following the war, another exposed V-agent was William Rhodes Davis, the Texas oilman. Very little is known about Viereck and the network of V-agents because the Nazis destroyed most of their files. Documents on most known V-agents suggest they were employed to spread propaganda.
"What is certain is that Viereck received more than $500,000 from the charge d’affairs of the German embassy, Thomsen, to bribe, corrupt and undermine members of Congress, and spread propaganda. Viereck also received funds from Hansen Sturm, chairman of the Romanoff Caviar Co., and from General Aniline and Film. Thomsen had valuable friends in high places, including Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long and Ambassador to France William Bullitt. Long had publicly approved Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia."
................................................................................................
"Lundeen was secretly pro-Nazi, and received money directly from Viereck, the German Board of Trade and the Steuben Society. Maloney determined that other members of Congress had accepted Nazi money in deals to publish books through the notorious Flanders Hall, a fascist publisher closely associated with Viereck: Burton Wheeler of Montana, Gerald Nye of North Dakota, Jennings Randolph and Rush Holt of West Virginia, and William Stratton of Illinois.
"On June 13, 1940, Thomsen reported to Germany that it was necessary to take literary countermeasures against Roosevelt. In this plan, Thomsen contacted New York literary agent William Lengel and proposed a series of five books. One by Theodore Dreiser was to warn of the dangers of intervention, another by Sylvia Porter was to provide a woman’s perspective about what the war would mean. The other three were to be written by journalist George Creel, novelist Kathleen Norris and publicist Burton Rascoe. Pearl Harbor preempted the deal before any were written.
"In September 1941, Maloney convened a grand jury to investigate the Congressional Nazi connections. The results of the grand jury were classified for years. Viereck was indicted, as was George Hill, a mailroom aide to Hamilton Fish. Maloney was deeply annoyed that he could not get indictments against any congressmen. Once again, the little, expendable people were prosecuted, while the powerful were protected. Many of the congressmen Maloney subpoenaed managed to avoid testifying until after Pearl Harbor. After the attack, public interest was directed to the war effort, and prosecution of the pro-fascists was neglected. Maloney successfully prosecuted George Hill and was getting ready for Viereck’s trial when Judge Allen Goldsborough suddenly told Maloney he only had two weeks to prepare. Goldsborough was associated with the extreme elements of the right wing.
"Maloney was successful in having Goldsborough replaced after swearing out an affidavit giving details of their meeting and the demand by Viereck’s attorney, Daniel Colahan, that Goldsborough handle the case. He also successfully prosecuted Viereck, who received a prison term of two to six years. On March 20, presiding Judge Letts reduced Hill’s sentence. One year later, the Supreme Court reversed Viereck’s conviction, and both he and Hill were set free."
................................................................................................
"One of the more striking aspects of the history of fascism in the United States was the removal of people like Maloney from office. Maloney was relentless in his pursuit of native fascists. After getting indictments on July 21, 1942 against 28 suspects, he was depicted as a stooge of the International Jewish bankers by Joe Kamp, a pro-Nazi propagandist. Sen. Burton Wheeler demanded that Attorney General Biddle remove Maloney. When Biddle objected to such pressure, Wheeler announced he would blow the whistle on the Department of Justice. It is unknown what leverage Wheeler had on the Department of Justice, but Biddle immediately dismissed Maloney and made it clear that he could not act even as a consultant to his successor. His successor, John Rogge, was a capable and able prosecutor who handled the sedition trial in 1944. He also was abruptly removed.
"Without exception, those who sought to expose the fascists and bring them to trial were forced from office or otherwise discredited. Gen. Butler, who exposed the fascist plot against Roosevelt, was mocked in the press in a successful effort to discredit him. Meanwhile openly pro-fascist operators continued to rise in power."
"The two groups associated with Viereck could have opened charges against many of the congressmen above. Wheeler as chairman on the Senate Judiciary Committee brought strong pressure on Attorney General Biddle. A trial would have exposed all those connected to additional charges of sedition. The big fascists had to be protected.
"The end to the prosecution of seditionists and Nazi collaborators came with the death of Judge Eicher on Nov. 30, 1944 in the midst of the trial. The next morning, the new judge declared a mistrial. The trial had been delayed and disrupted by the defendants since its start in February.
"Rogge, like Maloney, was relentless in his pursuit of Nazi supporters. In spring 1946, he received news from U.S. Army Capt. Sam Harris, a member of the prosecuting team at Nuremberg, of indisputable evidence linking the former Nazi government with leading citizens of the United States. On April 4, Attorney General Tom Clark allowed Rogge and four aides to fly to Germany. Over the course of 11 weeks, Rogge and his team questioned 66 people, including Goering and Ribbentrop, and dozens of other top Nazi officials, including friends of William Davis. Rogge’s findings were decisive and explosive:
""Our investigation showed us that we had completely underestimated the scope and scale of Nazi activities in the United States. When I went to Germany I felt that the biggest threat to American democracy emanated from the machinations of persons like the defendants in the sedition trial (i.e. the little fascist crackpots). I found that a far more dangerous threat lay in the inner-connection between German and American industrialists, and that some of the best known names in America were involved in Nazi intrigue."
"On returning to the United States, Rogge started preparing a comprehensive report for Attorney General Clark. In July, Rogge submitted the first draft. Clark was clearly distraught over the references linking business and political leaders with the defeated Nazi government. Clark specifically mentioned the links to Sen. Burton Wheeler, a close friend. A Clark aide then asked that he omit all names of American politicians and business leaders. Rogge refused, already realizing the report would never be published."
................................................................................................
"Four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the National Copperheads, a West Coast group closely associated with the America First Committee, met in Los Angeles. Appearing before the meeting, Ellis Jones stated that “the Japanese have a right to Hawaii. I would rather be in this war on the side of Germany than on the side of the British.”
"Thus began the battle for the minds of the people. Similar calls, combined with cries to impeach Roosevelt, were repeated across America. Many followers, sensibilities firmly offended, deserted the pro-fascist groups in droves. However, the hard-core fascists and their leaders resorted to a whispering campaign to destroy the morale of the soldiers and the public. Among the often-heard comments: Our armed forces are weak. The war will bankrupt the nation. The Chinese and British will make a separate peace with Japan and Germany. Stalin is getting too strong, and Bolshevism will sweep over Europe."
"But starting in February 1942, the pro-Nazis had their hopes dashed. There was no panic in America, just anger directed at the Axis nations and their conspirators, and fifth column agents inside the country. Beginning that month, the FBI arrested and sent to prison several unregistered agents for Germany, the most notable being Laura Ingalls. By April, the postal service banned Father Coughlin’s Social Justice and William Pelly’s The Galilean newsletters because of seditious content. Special grand juries met across America to investigate propaganda and seditious acts.
"One of those indicted, William Dudley Pelly and his group, the Silver Shirts, warrant a closer look. Pelly founded the Silver Shirts on Jan. 31, 1933 in Asheville, N.C., the day Hitler took power in Germany. He described it as a Christian militia. Throughout the ’30s and until Pelly’s indictment for sedition, the Silver Shirts were one of the largest and most violent pro-Nazi groups. Pelly was the son of a Methodist minister who believed that Jews were the children of Satan. He acquired his intense hate for Jews from White Russians during his missionary work with the American Expeditionary Force in Russia at the end of WWI. This hatred was later reinforced when Pelly was fired as a Hollywood screenwriter."
"The Silver Shirts were openly pro-Hitler, and formed alliances with the American Bund and the Klan."
................................................................................................
"The association between fascism and religion extended beyond the fringe religious hacks of the 1940s and included mainstream religion. For example, the Southern Baptist leader and minister M. E. Dodd of Louisiana made headlines for attending the 1934 Baptist World Convention in Berlin. Dodd was an extreme racist who praised the Nazis. Dodd justified Hitler’s Gestapo tactics by linking Jews with communism. He considered the Jews in Germany to be outside agitators similar to racial agitators in the South. To be fair, some Baptists did denounce the Nazis, but the Alabama Baptists followed Dodd’s views.
"Dodd also was the first Baptist minister to preach a sermon over the airwaves on Jan. 5, 1941. With people like Dodd holding leading positions of authority in the South, it should not be surprising that until the 1960s, the churches were a bulwark of segregation. Dodd’s views on Jews may linger on with Southern Baptists, who attended the 1997 Fourth Annual Super Conference of Christian Israel Churches in 1997. Pastor Everett Ramsey of the Faith Baptist Church of Houston, Mo. hosted this conference promoting the Identity religion. This close association with the Identity religion led to the recent announcement by the Baptists to try to convert Jews to Christianity. Jewish leaders have described the proscribed guidelines of this Southern Baptist conversion as insulting and condescending."
"A greater source of concern is the Pioneer Fund, a group that had direct links to Hitler and the Nazis. In 1937, Wickliffe Draper, heir to the giant textile machinery manufacturer, Draper Corp., established the Fund. Draper was an extreme racist and a staunch anti-unionist as early as the days of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial of the 1920’s. Other objects of his hatred were the United Nations, John Kennedy, the Nye Committee and liberals. His hatred for the members of the Nye Committee for trying to charge the du Ponts with war profiteering led to his deliberate persecution of Alger Hiss between 1948-51.
"Draper and associate Harry Laughlin created The Model Eugenics Laws in America, which Hitler used to write the Nuremberg Laws. In 1936, Laughlin received an honorary degree from the University of Heidelburg. Both Draper and Laughlin advocated the involuntary sterilization of institutionalized Americans. Twenty-four states adopted such laws that led directly to sterilizing more than 75,000 Americans."
"On Sept. 12, 1963, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission received notice from Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. that it received an anonymous gift of $100,000 to fight against civil rights. Additional money was forthcoming from the Pioneer Fund and used in a broadside attack on civil rights. The Pioneer Fund also was a source of funding for anti-bussing programs. It is also the source of much of the funding for book titles like The Bell Curve, a piece of racist drivel disguised as science. The Bell Curve is inherently false and used much of the work provided by the Pioneer Fund. One of the chief beneficiaries of the Pioneer Fund has been Roger Pearson, who is closely linked to the Liberty Lobby. In addition, the Pioneer Fund was one of the driving forces behind Proposition 187, the anti-alien measure on the 1994 California ballot. Presently, two noteworthy Republican politicians are linked with the Pioneer Fund: Jesse Helms and Steve Forbes."
"The Pioneer Fund was established on racial hate and remains an institution based on hate. An example from the 1930s comes from a member of the Mother’s Movement, Lucinda Benge. Benge charged that white sailors were given blood transfusions from blacks and “Orientals,” making them ill and likely to father black or yellow children."
"The person most responsible for establishing the America First Committee and ACS was the reactionary head of Sears Roebuck, retired Gen. Robert Wood."
"Big business leaders underwrote the America First group and John Foster Dulles wrote the charter. Eight business leaders supplied more than $100,000 each, including H. Smith Richardson and William H. Regnery. Both Regnery Publishing Co. and the Smith Richardson Foundation played prominent roles in the effort to derail the Clinton administration.
"William R. Castle, a former under secretary of state under Hoover, also was instrumental in launching the America First Committee. Castle was a scion of a wealthy family from Hawaii. He believed that only the wealthy should serve in the diplomatic corps. Castle opposed sending any aid to China, despite Japanese aggression there. Former President Hoover remained a secret member of the committee."
"Four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the National Copperheads, a West Coast group closely associated with the America First Committee, met in Los Angeles. Appearing before the meeting, Ellis Jones stated that “the Japanese have a right to Hawaii. I would rather be in this war on the side of Germany than on the side of the British.”
"Thus began the battle for the minds of the people. Similar calls, combined with cries to impeach Roosevelt, were repeated across America. Many followers, sensibilities firmly offended, deserted the pro-fascist groups in droves. However, the hard-core fascists and their leaders resorted to a whispering campaign to destroy the morale of the soldiers and the public. Among the often-heard comments: Our armed forces are weak. The war will bankrupt the nation. The Chinese and British will make a separate peace with Japan and Germany. Stalin is getting too strong, and Bolshevism will sweep over Europe."
"But starting in February 1942, the pro-Nazis had their hopes dashed. There was no panic in America, just anger directed at the Axis nations and their conspirators, and fifth column agents inside the country. Beginning that month, the FBI arrested and sent to prison several unregistered agents for Germany, the most notable being Laura Ingalls. By April, the postal service banned Father Coughlin’s Social Justice and William Pelly’s The Galilean newsletters because of seditious content. Special grand juries met across America to investigate propaganda and seditious acts.
"One of those indicted, William Dudley Pelly and his group, the Silver Shirts, warrant a closer look. Pelly founded the Silver Shirts on Jan. 31, 1933 in Asheville, N.C., the day Hitler took power in Germany. He described it as a Christian militia. Throughout the ’30s and until Pelly’s indictment for sedition, the Silver Shirts were one of the largest and most violent pro-Nazi groups. Pelly was the son of a Methodist minister who believed that Jews were the children of Satan. He acquired his intense hate for Jews from White Russians during his missionary work with the American Expeditionary Force in Russia at the end of WWI. This hatred was later reinforced when Pelly was fired as a Hollywood screenwriter."
"The Silver Shirts were openly pro-Hitler, and formed alliances with the American Bund and the Klan."
................................................................................................
"The association between fascism and religion extended beyond the fringe religious hacks of the 1940s and included mainstream religion. For example, the Southern Baptist leader and minister M. E. Dodd of Louisiana made headlines for attending the 1934 Baptist World Convention in Berlin. Dodd was an extreme racist who praised the Nazis. Dodd justified Hitler’s Gestapo tactics by linking Jews with communism. He considered the Jews in Germany to be outside agitators similar to racial agitators in the South. To be fair, some Baptists did denounce the Nazis, but the Alabama Baptists followed Dodd’s views.
"Dodd also was the first Baptist minister to preach a sermon over the airwaves on Jan. 5, 1941. With people like Dodd holding leading positions of authority in the South, it should not be surprising that until the 1960s, the churches were a bulwark of segregation. Dodd’s views on Jews may linger on with Southern Baptists, who attended the 1997 Fourth Annual Super Conference of Christian Israel Churches in 1997. Pastor Everett Ramsey of the Faith Baptist Church of Houston, Mo. hosted this conference promoting the Identity religion. This close association with the Identity religion led to the recent announcement by the Baptists to try to convert Jews to Christianity. Jewish leaders have described the proscribed guidelines of this Southern Baptist conversion as insulting and condescending."
"A greater source of concern is the Pioneer Fund, a group that had direct links to Hitler and the Nazis. In 1937, Wickliffe Draper, heir to the giant textile machinery manufacturer, Draper Corp., established the Fund. Draper was an extreme racist and a staunch anti-unionist as early as the days of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial of the 1920’s. Other objects of his hatred were the United Nations, John Kennedy, the Nye Committee and liberals. His hatred for the members of the Nye Committee for trying to charge the du Ponts with war profiteering led to his deliberate persecution of Alger Hiss between 1948-51.
"Draper and associate Harry Laughlin created The Model Eugenics Laws in America, which Hitler used to write the Nuremberg Laws. In 1936, Laughlin received an honorary degree from the University of Heidelburg. Both Draper and Laughlin advocated the involuntary sterilization of institutionalized Americans. Twenty-four states adopted such laws that led directly to sterilizing more than 75,000 Americans."
"On Sept. 12, 1963, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission received notice from Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. that it received an anonymous gift of $100,000 to fight against civil rights. Additional money was forthcoming from the Pioneer Fund and used in a broadside attack on civil rights. The Pioneer Fund also was a source of funding for anti-bussing programs. It is also the source of much of the funding for book titles like The Bell Curve, a piece of racist drivel disguised as science. The Bell Curve is inherently false and used much of the work provided by the Pioneer Fund. One of the chief beneficiaries of the Pioneer Fund has been Roger Pearson, who is closely linked to the Liberty Lobby. In addition, the Pioneer Fund was one of the driving forces behind Proposition 187, the anti-alien measure on the 1994 California ballot. Presently, two noteworthy Republican politicians are linked with the Pioneer Fund: Jesse Helms and Steve Forbes."
"The Pioneer Fund was established on racial hate and remains an institution based on hate. An example from the 1930s comes from a member of the Mother’s Movement, Lucinda Benge. Benge charged that white sailors were given blood transfusions from blacks and “Orientals,” making them ill and likely to father black or yellow children."
"The person most responsible for establishing the America First Committee and ACS was the reactionary head of Sears Roebuck, retired Gen. Robert Wood."
"Big business leaders underwrote the America First group and John Foster Dulles wrote the charter. Eight business leaders supplied more than $100,000 each, including H. Smith Richardson and William H. Regnery. Both Regnery Publishing Co. and the Smith Richardson Foundation played prominent roles in the effort to derail the Clinton administration.
"William R. Castle, a former under secretary of state under Hoover, also was instrumental in launching the America First Committee. Castle was a scion of a wealthy family from Hawaii. He believed that only the wealthy should serve in the diplomatic corps. Castle opposed sending any aid to China, despite Japanese aggression there. Former President Hoover remained a secret member of the committee."
................................................................................................
"The America First Committee was not founded to help the Nazis, but under Gen. Wood’s direction, the group soon let pro-Nazis join, including Dudley’s Silver Shirts and Klan members, and it became the mouthpiece of their propaganda. Even Laura Ingalls, the Nazi agent, was a member. Ralph Townsend, who held a leadership role in San Francisco, also was a paid agent of the Japanese government. Garland Alderman was in a leadership role in Michigan, and was a member of the Nazi-inspired National Workers League. He was later indicted on sedition charges. Dellmore Lessard was the Oregon chairman of the America First Committee, but was forced to resign after it was disclosed he had accepted funds from the Nazi-controlled Kyffhaeuserbund. The America First Committee was successful in bringing many of the pro-fascist groups under one umbrella group.
"America First grew quickly, reaching a membership of around 800,000, thanks in part to wealthy founders and slick promotion. It benefited from the publicity operations of Quaker Oats, Sears and Hormel. Thanks to the ties with Hormel, the large advertising firm of Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn also contributed to the group’s promotion."
"Such background on the America First Committee makes it difficult to defend as a patriotic organization. However, in a venom-laced diatribe in response to former mayor of New York Ed Koch, perennial presidential candidate Pat Buchanan did just that. Buchanan himself has other embarrassing ties to fascism. In his response, Buchanan named four people who signed a recruiting poster for the America First Committee at Yale Law School: Bob Stuart, Eugene Loche, Potter Stewart and Gerald Ford. He also listed three other members: Sen. Peter Dominick, Sargent Shriver and Kingman Brewster.
"Brewster later became president of Yale, a university that has employed former Nazi war criminals. At Yale, Brewster appointed Tracy Barnes as a special assistant for community relations. Barnes, an OSS operations officer during the war, resigned from a high-level CIA position to accept the offer. At the CIA, Barnes organized the overthrow of the Arbenz government of Guatemala and selected E. Howard Hunt as his political officer for the team.
"William Regnery also was one of the founders of the American Security Council; his son, Henry, later replaced him. ... Interestingly enough, the first two titles published by Regnery were critical of the Nuremberg Trials. The third was another pro-Nazi book attacking the Allied air campaign. In 1954, Regnery published two books for the John Birch Society. He also was the publisher of William F. Buckley Jr.’s God and Man at Yale. According to Howard Hunt, the CIA subsidized Regnery Publishing because of its pro-Nazi stance."
"In the 1990s, the Regnery publishing house released many venomous smears attacking President Clinton."
"Hitler’s dream of uniting all German-Americans under the fascist American Bund was a resounding failure because most chose to remain loyal to their adopted country. Hitler’s grandiose plan of creating widespread racial strife met with only limited success. The Detroit, Michigan and Beaumont, Texas race riots were both inflamed by the Nazi-affiliated Klan and other fascist groups. Hitler must have been overjoyed to see Republicans conduct vicious anti-Jewish campaigns in several states."
"Unfortunately, we must conclude that the 4Ds program of denazification, decartelization, demilitarization and democratization was sabotaged from the beginning. This sabotage reached epidemic proportions after the Morgenthau plan was made public, following the Quebec meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. Morgenthau was one of the few in the Roosevelt administration who pushed for a “hard peace” following the war. After the Quebec meeting, Morgenthau was counted as the most hated man in America, largely due to the propaganda of pro-Nazi leaders of American industry. Key to sabotaging the 4Ds program was the marginalization and finally the removal of Morgenthau.
"Following the success of the Normandy invasion, Morgenthau had lunch with Gen. Eisenhower in Portsmouth. Morgenthau and his aides, Dexter White and Fred Smith, were eager to sound out Eisenhower’s opinions on postwar Germany. Eisenhower said: “I’m not interested in the German economy and personally would not like to bolster it, if that will make it easier for the Germans.” As far as he was concerned, “the German General Staff should be utterly eliminated and the Nazi ringleaders given the death penalty.” Ike felt that by supporting Hitler, the Germans had been accomplices to everything done in their name, and must not be allowed to escape a sense of guilt of complicity in the tragedy that engulfed the world.
"Eisenhower realized that Morgenthau became his severest critic after he arranged a pragmatic deal with Vichy Admiral Darlan. Nevertheless, Eisenhower was truthful in expressing his views on Germany. In letters to his wife, he often wrote of how he hated Germans. As the war progressed, Ike’s view of the Germans hardened, especially after the first concentration camp was liberated.
"Eisenhower also expressed his opinions on the Soviets to Morgenthau. He felt that a policy of a hard peace would motivate the Soviets to redouble their efforts to help win the European war. He staunchly felt the Russians deserved the right to capture Berlin after suffering horrendous losses. Moreover, Eisenhower was optimistic about postwar relationships with the Soviet Union. He expressed to Morgenthau that Russia had problems of its own that would keep it busy long after they were dead.
"On Jan. 5, 1944, with the Battle of the Bulge raging, Roosevelt’s policy of unconditional surrender came under brutal assault from Sen. Burton Wheeler, the pro-Nazi demagogue, who insisted that most Americans were unwilling to sanction a peace of vengeance against Germany. Nor would they accept America acting as Europe’s policeman, he said. The British embassy in Washington took note, asserting Wheeler’s assault made him anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic."
"As early as 1942, there were clear signals of corporate America’s connivance to continue doing business with the German cartels as if the war had never taken place. In a speech on June 3, 1942 before the Illinois Bar Association, Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold warned:
""The secret influence of the international cartel is going to be thrown in favor of peace without victory when the first opportunity arises - just as it was thrown in that direction at Munich.
""The small group of American businessmen who are parties to these international rings are not unpatriotic, but they still think of war as a temporary recess from business as usual with a strong Germany. They expect to begin the game all over again after the war.
""It is significant that all these cartel leaders still talk and think as if the war would end in a stalemate, and that therefore, they must be in a position to continue their arrangements with a strong Germany after the war. This is not shown by their speeches, but by actual documents and memoranda of business policy which we find in their files.""
" ... As of June 1942, corporate America had not given up hope of negotiating a peace with the Nazis. Arnold effectively predicted the outbreak of the Cold War. Perhaps the only error Arnold made in his speech was to say that these treasonous corporate leaders were “not unpatriotic.”"
"From the start, the debate between Washington and London on what comprised a war crime was haunted by the failure of the Leipzig trials following WWI.
"In 1940, the exiled government of Poland first raised the question of punishing war criminals in WWII, but the British Foreign Office opposed the initiative. The issue of war crimes then remained stalled until after the German invasion of Russia, characterized by a horrendous increase in Nazi brutality. Existing international law was inadequate to address the crimes committed. An agreement was needed between the three big powers to adjust the international law to address the horrors of the war.
"Periodically, the British issued statements to fortify the morale of the people trapped in occupied countries. On Oct. 21, 1940, Churchill stated that all crimes of Hitler would be on him and on all who belonged to his system. In May 1941, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden spoke of a reckoning that would be wide and fierce. On June 12, 1941, following the Nazi invasion of Russia, Churchill stated: “These quislings, like Nazi leaders, if not disposed of by their fellow countrymen - which would save trouble - will be delivered by us on the morrow of victory to the justice of Allied tribunals.”
:Germany’s invasion of Russia marked a turning point in the relations between Poland and Britain. Britain, seeking allies against Germany, was now intent on improving relations with the Soviet Union. The exiled Polish government wanted to preserve its 1939 borders, while Moscow was insistent on keeping the Polish territory ceded to Russia following the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement. Therefore, Polish wishes rested on the greater goals of British geopolitics.
"By the autumn of 1941, the Foreign Office had to contend with growing unrest in both the Cabinet and Parliament in response to reports of German atrocities. In September 1941, Hugh Dalton, Labor MP and minister of Economic Warfare, called Eden’s attention to the German practice of executing hostages whenever partisan forces attacked. Dalton proposed telling the people of Europe to keep a list of names of all those involved in executing hostages, including the commanding officer. After liberation, those on the lists would be hunted down and summarily executed. The Foreign Office remained cold to Dalton’s proposal and warned against a repetition of the “Hang the Kaiser” campaign after WWI.
"Recognizing the growing concern over Nazi atrocities, Eden asked the War Cabinet on Oct. 1, 1941 to approve a statement similar to the Ango-Franco-Polish declaration of April 1940. The draft declaration was a vague statement unacceptable to the War Cabinet. The Foreign Office quickly revised the declaration as follows:
""We therefore publicly declare that brutalities which are being committed in occupied countries are contrary to the dictates of humanity; are a reversion to barbarism; and will meet with sure retribution. To this end, we are united in our resolve to win freedom of the oppressed peoples and to execute justice. The methods of oppression and terror used by Hitler are such that many people, including Germans and Italians, are ignorant of the full facts. When these things are known, world opinion will not allow the criminals to escape just punishment for their crimes. The facts are being put on record so that in due time the world may pronounce its judgment. With victory will come retribution."
"Leaders in Parliament called for a stronger declaration. The Foreign Office did not deliver the declaration to the United States and Soviet Union until Oct. 21, which signaled the low priority it gave the war crimes issue. Four days later, in an unexpected move, Roosevelt issued a statement condemning the execution of 50 hostages in Nantes in reprisal for the shooting of the military commander of the region. Roosevelt’s statement compelled the Foreign Office to make several quick decisions. Churchill responded immediately to Roosevelt’s statement, concluding: “Retribution for these crimes must henceforth take its place among the major purposes of the war.”
"Also plaguing the establishment of a unified war crimes declaration was the tendency of both London and Washington to dismiss the Soviet reports as exaggerations, or worse, as imaginary. Yet some of the most brutal war crimes, such as the Babi Yar massacre, were occurring on the Eastern Front."
"No other agency had so much ridicule, embarrassment and criticism heaped on it during the war than OSS. The fate of OSS was as predetermined as if it had been created under a dark star. The embarrassing incidents, the criticism and congressional investigations served as fuel for its final death. At the center of this controversy was Bill Donovan, an intensely loyal and honest man.
"Facing increasing wrath from the Republican Party and an uphill election for the Democrats in 1946, Truman had little use for an agency derisively referred to as the Republican Club throughout the war. Donovan was a Republican, but he had angered conservatives and Republicans by hiring liberals, socialists and even some communists. From the day Roosevelt appointed Donovan to head OSS, he had but one job: to destroy the Axis war machine, and he hired anyone who could help him do that.
"Donovan did the honorable thing and stood by his men, even in the face of a congressional investigation labeling some of his agents as communist in the Goff affair. Lesser men would have stood idly by. There lies the root cause for the short-lived fate of the OSS. Donovan came with too much political baggage. As the Assistant Attorney General in the 1920s, he almost cost J. Edgar Hoover his job. However, Hoover was not Donovan’s only heavyweight enemy. During the same period, Donovan approved a case to go to trial that charged Sen. Burton Wheeler with using influence to get oil and gas leases for a friend and client. The court acquitted Wheeler of the charges, and when he returned to Washington he never stopped attacking Donovan.
"FDR believed Hoover had treated Donovan badly in passing him by for a cabinet position, which was one reason he selected Donovan to head the OSS. Hoover only offered Donovan the position of Governor-General of the Philippines, which was considered a stepping-stone to greater political heights. It was the same one Taft used on his way to the White House. Donovan refused the position. A myriad of reasons have been given for Hoover passing Donovan over for a cabinet position, but most likely it was due to Donovan’s firsthand knowledge of the Belgium Relief Fund. This fund was merely a front to supply Germany with food and prolong World War I. Donovan had been one of the investigators the United States sent to Belgium to investigate the fund.
"Donovan’s lack of administrative experience (he was a poor administrator who preferred being in the field) and his opposition to prohibition were advanced as reasons for being passed over. However, Donovan’s record on upholding prohibition was well known from his days as city prosecutor in Buffalo. There, he raided an elite club where he was a member. City elders were less than pleased, but to Donovan, if an Irish railroad worker could be arrested for prohibition, so could the community leaders. The law was the law and to hell with the commotion; it applied equally to the rich, and Donovan was not afraid to apply it.
"Hoover also wanted to isolate Donovan outside the United States in case any of Hoover’s past dealings with the Belgium Relief Fund or stock swindles surfaced. Donovan would have been relentless in investigating his boss if he was appointed Attorney General.
"By 1928, Donovan also incurred the wrath of William Howard Taft. The former President and then Chief Justice wrote a letter to his son that found its way to Hoover, claiming that Donovan would be an unsuitable candidate for Attorney General. Besides these heavyweight enemies, Donovan also faced opposition from the State Department and military intelligence units that viewed the OSS as infringing on their territory. Facing plentiful political foes, Truman disbanded the OSS."
"With Roosevelt’s death, his pledge to bring all war criminals to justice evaporated in less than a year. The first sabotage effort came almost immediately. On April 25, 1945, Drew Pearson reported in his column that an inside group of military planners had dropped Roosevelt’s plan for postwar Germany in favor of a soft peace. This small circle of military planners included representatives of big business who had served in the military planning groups during the war.
"This group adopted former President Herbert Hoover’s plan for a “cooling-off period” and a soft peace. The Hoover administration was instrumental in helping IG Farben reestablish its cartels after WWI.
"On May 16, 1945, Stimson warned President Truman of the likely pestilence and famine in central Europe, which would lead to a communist uprising. Stimson hoped Truman would appoint Herbert Hoover to review the relief situation and demand revitalization of the German economy and industrial base. In his diary, Stimson deprecated FDR and Morgenthau, referring to Hoover as a master of the subject, and FDR and his administration as amateurs.
"Stimson’s diary reveals deep opposition to Roosevelt and a hard peace for Germany. Stimson was an integral part of the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to eliminate the Nazi menace, but his diary reveals that he bitterly opposed FDR’s plan for postwar peace. Truman did appoint Hoover to tour Europe to seek out a solution for relief, but Hoover used the trip to enrich himself, much as he did during WWI. One may also be certain Hoover vacuumed Europe for any incriminating evidence of his involvement with the Nazis and efforts to prolong WWI.
"Within a few months, this group found a political platform in the voice of a young State Department official, George Kennan."
"Clay was the only four-star general never to have conducted a combat command. While Clay served in Europe during the war, he was a rear echelon general in charge of supply.
"Both Clay and Murphy were largely responsible for convincing Truman that a punitive peace was unwise, and they immediately set about sabotaging the denazification program. Once the Kennan Doctrine emerged in 1946, Clay and Murphy both embraced it. Early in 1946, Gen. Clay banned dismantling German industrial plants for reparations. Both Clay and Murphy had a great influence in escalating the emerging Cold War. In 1948, Clay issued a warning to Washington that “war may come with dramatic suddenness.” His frantic message came from an exaggerated threat assessment from Gehlen, claiming the Soviets were mobilizing large numbers of troops in Eastern Europe. Gehlen was a former Nazi officer in charge of intelligence on the Eastern Front, recruited by OSS-CIA.
"Hermann Abs’ rehabilitation by Gen. Clay could be considered as the most damning sabotage of the denazification program. While Abs was never associated with the concentration camps or the horrors of the Holocaust, he was the one in the Nazi empire who made it all possible. Abs was the Nazi banker. Without the financial magic of Abs, the Nazis would have faced a financial crisis that would have brought down the Third Reich. Clay complained that he was never able to appoint Abs finance minister of the new German government, due to American public opinion, but he was able to appoint him to head the Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC). RFC was somewhat outside the realm of the government, but was the sole instrument for distributing funds for Germany from the Marshall Plan. Abs later returned to the post of Chairman of Deutsche Bank which he had held during the war, and was a key figure in the reconstruction of the German economy."
"One of these reports that was influential in shaping policy was A Report on Germany, by Lewis Brown, chair of Johns-Manville Corp. The report was extremely popular, making it onto the bestseller list, and is still quoted today. Brown wrote it in 1947 after touring Germany. The experts he consulted read like a guest list for the Council on Foreign Relations: ATT’s Frederick Devereux; John Foster Dulles; Herbert Hoover; Sears Roebuck President A.S. Barrowsthen, serving as U.S. Comptroller in Germany; a host of British and Swiss banking authorities; and 25 German industrialists. Brown’s lists of experts omitted labor leaders, small businessmen, leaders of the resistance movement, and heads of denazification and decartelization.
"In his report, Brown attacked the French and USSR punishment of Nazis as brutal and indiscriminate. He claimed the denazification program was depriving Germany of the leaders it needed to rehabilitate and rebuild. Typical delegates included the chairmen of the National Association of Manufacturers and of National City Bank, the head of the International Chamber of Commerce, and executives of Chase Bank. The one common denominator among the delegates was that all had extensive dealings with Nazi Germany, including General Electric."
"After the war, Clay accepted a trustee position with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which was connected to those who invested in Nazi Germany. The appointment immediately raises the question of a payoff for help in hiding American investments in Nazi Germany. The question, like many others raised in this chapter, cannot be answered without further documentation that may be sealed in government or corporate vaults.
"While Gen. Clay’s record on denazification is dismal at best, it was exemplary in comparison with Gen. Draper’s. Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of Navy Forrestal engineered Draper’s appointment. Forrestal, a former president of Dillon and Read, was one of the individuals Roosevelt had under surveillance. Draper was selected to head the economic division and the anticartel section. Clay often was opposed to Draper’s views and actions."
"Draper was a former investment banker with Dillon and Read, which had a long history of doing business with Germany and the Nazis. While at Dillon and Read, Draper was appointed director, vice president and assistant treasurer of the German Credit and Investment Corp. (GCI). GCI served as a short-term banker for Thyssen and the German Steel Trust. Draper did not intend to ever implement Roosevelt’s directive calling for dismantling German cartels and industry. In one case, Draper ordered a halt to the dismantling of an IG Farben poison gas plant.
"However, in Draper’s section there were three dedicated officials who worked diligently to take apart the Nazi cartels. Two of them, Russell Nixon and Bernard Bernstein, resigned by December 1945 in protest Draper’s failure to carry out decartelization measures. Bernstein, who worked in the banking section, reported to Gen. Clay in September 1945 that his team had removed 9,500 employees who were proven Nazis from the banking system. However, Bernstein demanded stricter measures, including removal of U.S. officials who refused to carry out the denazification program. Bernstein claimed that too many Nazis remained in control of the banks. Clay refused to take tougher measures, and Bernstein resigned once it was clear nothing was going to be done.
"James Martin chose to remain and fight for decartelization. Martin’s position was undoubtedly weakened by the resignations of Nixon and Bernstein. Martin failed to take into account the strength of opposition from his own side. British and American bankers and industrialists openly worked with their Nazi partners until war broke out. Most of this continued clandestinely after the war. Investment by American corporations in Germany was staggering. In 1939, American corporations held controlling interests in German corporations worth at least $400 million.
"Until mid-1946, Martin could have defeated Draper if two conditions had been satisfied. First, Martin needed information about German corporations in order to organize a breakup. Second, Americans had to control the Ruhr district in which the large steel and coal trusts were located. The Ruhr was under British control."
"Conditions in Germany after the failure of the 4Ds program was summed up by Strang and Steele, two British political officers who toured Germany. They reported the Nazis remained a privileged class. The failure to remove Nazi supervisors and shopkeepers left them in control of the daily lives of the German population. The anti-Nazis did not have the strength to challenge the former order. The foremost anti-Nazis had been executed by the Nazis, or perished in the concentration camps.
"The views of Strang and Steele let the British lose interest in denazification further. Only American criticism prevented them from completely leaving the program.
"In 1952, McCloy returned to the United States and became a consultant for the Ford Foundation, which had close ties to the CIA and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1953, he became chairman of Chase National Bank, which soon merged into Chase Manhattan Bank. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he served on the Warren Commission, and was involved in many dealings between the U.S. and other governments, private industry and banks."
"The America First Committee was not founded to help the Nazis, but under Gen. Wood’s direction, the group soon let pro-Nazis join, including Dudley’s Silver Shirts and Klan members, and it became the mouthpiece of their propaganda. Even Laura Ingalls, the Nazi agent, was a member. Ralph Townsend, who held a leadership role in San Francisco, also was a paid agent of the Japanese government. Garland Alderman was in a leadership role in Michigan, and was a member of the Nazi-inspired National Workers League. He was later indicted on sedition charges. Dellmore Lessard was the Oregon chairman of the America First Committee, but was forced to resign after it was disclosed he had accepted funds from the Nazi-controlled Kyffhaeuserbund. The America First Committee was successful in bringing many of the pro-fascist groups under one umbrella group.
"America First grew quickly, reaching a membership of around 800,000, thanks in part to wealthy founders and slick promotion. It benefited from the publicity operations of Quaker Oats, Sears and Hormel. Thanks to the ties with Hormel, the large advertising firm of Batton, Barton, Durstine and Osborn also contributed to the group’s promotion."
"Such background on the America First Committee makes it difficult to defend as a patriotic organization. However, in a venom-laced diatribe in response to former mayor of New York Ed Koch, perennial presidential candidate Pat Buchanan did just that. Buchanan himself has other embarrassing ties to fascism. In his response, Buchanan named four people who signed a recruiting poster for the America First Committee at Yale Law School: Bob Stuart, Eugene Loche, Potter Stewart and Gerald Ford. He also listed three other members: Sen. Peter Dominick, Sargent Shriver and Kingman Brewster.
"Brewster later became president of Yale, a university that has employed former Nazi war criminals. At Yale, Brewster appointed Tracy Barnes as a special assistant for community relations. Barnes, an OSS operations officer during the war, resigned from a high-level CIA position to accept the offer. At the CIA, Barnes organized the overthrow of the Arbenz government of Guatemala and selected E. Howard Hunt as his political officer for the team.
"William Regnery also was one of the founders of the American Security Council; his son, Henry, later replaced him. ... Interestingly enough, the first two titles published by Regnery were critical of the Nuremberg Trials. The third was another pro-Nazi book attacking the Allied air campaign. In 1954, Regnery published two books for the John Birch Society. He also was the publisher of William F. Buckley Jr.’s God and Man at Yale. According to Howard Hunt, the CIA subsidized Regnery Publishing because of its pro-Nazi stance."
"In the 1990s, the Regnery publishing house released many venomous smears attacking President Clinton."
"Hitler’s dream of uniting all German-Americans under the fascist American Bund was a resounding failure because most chose to remain loyal to their adopted country. Hitler’s grandiose plan of creating widespread racial strife met with only limited success. The Detroit, Michigan and Beaumont, Texas race riots were both inflamed by the Nazi-affiliated Klan and other fascist groups. Hitler must have been overjoyed to see Republicans conduct vicious anti-Jewish campaigns in several states."
................................................................................................
"One of the greatest deterrents to exposing further connections is that so much evidence is classified as secret in government vaults. The efforts of Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman to have all documents from that era open to public scrutiny should be applauded.
"After passage of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, three million pages of previously classified documents have been released. Those released in April 2001 included documents on Emil Augsburg, a member of the Wannsee Institute, the Nazi think tank that plotted the massacre of Jews. Augsburg became part of the Gehlen network of ex-Nazis employed by the CIA after the war, when he should have been tried as a war criminal. With each release of additional files, a clearer picture will emerge of the relationship between the CIA and the Nazis, of how vast the fascist network was, and how justice was subverted.
"What these documents may reveal is best summed up by the Nazi War Criminals Interagency Working Group, a site maintained by the U.S. government:
""Clearly the information contained in these still classified files will prove to be embarrassing to our government. In the name of containing Soviet aggression, many hard-core, high-ranking Nazis were welcomed into the camp of the Western Allies. Men like *General Adolf Heusinger,* who served as Deputy Chief of Operations and Planning for the entire German armed forces. A man so close to Hitler that he was literally standing next to him on July 20, 1944 when the room they were in blew up in what ultimately proved to be a failed assassination attempt. Nevertheless, Heusinger was welcomed by the Western Allies after the surrender and rose to new heights in the postwar period when, on April 1, 1961, his appointment as Chairman of the Permanent Military Committee of “NATO” with an office in the Pentagon was announced by none other than President John F. Kennedy.""
"One of the greatest deterrents to exposing further connections is that so much evidence is classified as secret in government vaults. The efforts of Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman to have all documents from that era open to public scrutiny should be applauded.
"After passage of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, three million pages of previously classified documents have been released. Those released in April 2001 included documents on Emil Augsburg, a member of the Wannsee Institute, the Nazi think tank that plotted the massacre of Jews. Augsburg became part of the Gehlen network of ex-Nazis employed by the CIA after the war, when he should have been tried as a war criminal. With each release of additional files, a clearer picture will emerge of the relationship between the CIA and the Nazis, of how vast the fascist network was, and how justice was subverted.
"What these documents may reveal is best summed up by the Nazi War Criminals Interagency Working Group, a site maintained by the U.S. government:
""Clearly the information contained in these still classified files will prove to be embarrassing to our government. In the name of containing Soviet aggression, many hard-core, high-ranking Nazis were welcomed into the camp of the Western Allies. Men like *General Adolf Heusinger,* who served as Deputy Chief of Operations and Planning for the entire German armed forces. A man so close to Hitler that he was literally standing next to him on July 20, 1944 when the room they were in blew up in what ultimately proved to be a failed assassination attempt. Nevertheless, Heusinger was welcomed by the Western Allies after the surrender and rose to new heights in the postwar period when, on April 1, 1961, his appointment as Chairman of the Permanent Military Committee of “NATO” with an office in the Pentagon was announced by none other than President John F. Kennedy.""
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
"Frank Rowlett of the Signal Intelligence Service broke the Japanese code Purple on Sept. 20, 1940."
"A more serious leak arose in the State Department. According to the Magic distribution scheme, only Secretary of State Cordell Hull was to receive the intercepts. However, Hull gave copies to six of his top aides, one of whom shared the decrypts with four more members in the Far Eastern Division. Joseph Dugan, who was in charge of the mimeograph room, was a strict isolationist opposed to FDR. Dugan discussed and even showed the decoded messages to a friend of his inside the State Department. However, Dugan’s friend was in the pay of Hans Thomsen, the German chargé d’affaires in Washington who conspired to fix the election in 1940. Thomsen reported to Berlin that the Americans had broken the Japanese code.
"Remarkably, on May 6, Magic code breakers decrypted a message from the Japanese ambassador Baron Hiroshi Oshima in Berlin, relaying Thomsen’s report of the broken code to Tokyo. Even more remarkable, after a nonchalant investigation, the Japanese determined their code to be unbreakable and continued to use it. By November, Roosevelt had tired of the psychotic manner in which he received the Magic decrypts. He demanded to see the full text of the messages and ordered that only naval couriers deliver them."
"Breaking the Magic and Ultra codes led directly to one of the most controversial questions of WWII: Was Roosevelt forewarned of the attack on Pearl Harbor? The controversy has raged for more than 60 years. The first to level such a charge was the Chicago Tribune. This was the same anti-Roosevelt paper that published the secret Rainbow 5 war plans. The same paper was charged with treason in revealing the location and names of the ships involved in the battle at Midway. This paper also scuttled the plans for making the OSS a permanent agency at the end of the war. The best evidence so far suggests there was no such warning. Right up to the hour Pearl Harbor was bombed, the White House and the military planners expected the attack elsewhere in the Pacific, such as the Philippines.
"Writers after the war concocted a similar story on the other side of the Atlantic. According to British writers, the Allies were willing to go to extremes to protect the secrets of Magic and Ultra. British critics claimed Churchill had foreknowledge of the attack on Coventry. According to the overactive imagination of these writers, Churchill was willing to allow the city to be destroyed rather than tip off the Germans that their code had been broken. Ultra did yield that the Japanese planned a massive attack, but the intercept was not translated until three days later; and even then, the location was not mentioned. The final message of the Japanese also failed to name the location of the attack.
"While there is more than enough blame to go around, Gen. Shorts and Adm. Kimmel must share most of it. It was their command and they failed to take proper actions following the war-warning message in late November. Such a message should have alerted both officers of the need to take full defensive measures, like manning antiaircraft guns, having scout planes in the air at all times, and rotating and separating the fleet. Washington shares some of the blame in failing to follow up to ensure that the commanders had taken suitable actions. Much of the blame can be placed on the insane rivalry between the Army and Navy in the way they handled Magic. Dec. 6 was an Army day to decode the messages, and the Navy wasted time by sending the intercept to the Army. Since the Army decoders had already left for the weekend, further delay occurred when the intercept was returned to the Navy for decoding.
"Finally, much of the blame was simply old-fashioned American arrogance. No one from the President on down believed Japan could attack American soil. No one believed that torpedo bombs could be used at Pearl Harbor. Naval experts simply dismissed the idea because they believed the harbor was too shallow. Before the bombing, the Navy never used any torpedo nets inside Pearl Harbor. Yet, of all the bombs dropped there, the torpedoes probably were responsible for more damage than the conventional bombs."
"Frank Rowlett of the Signal Intelligence Service broke the Japanese code Purple on Sept. 20, 1940."
"A more serious leak arose in the State Department. According to the Magic distribution scheme, only Secretary of State Cordell Hull was to receive the intercepts. However, Hull gave copies to six of his top aides, one of whom shared the decrypts with four more members in the Far Eastern Division. Joseph Dugan, who was in charge of the mimeograph room, was a strict isolationist opposed to FDR. Dugan discussed and even showed the decoded messages to a friend of his inside the State Department. However, Dugan’s friend was in the pay of Hans Thomsen, the German chargé d’affaires in Washington who conspired to fix the election in 1940. Thomsen reported to Berlin that the Americans had broken the Japanese code.
"Remarkably, on May 6, Magic code breakers decrypted a message from the Japanese ambassador Baron Hiroshi Oshima in Berlin, relaying Thomsen’s report of the broken code to Tokyo. Even more remarkable, after a nonchalant investigation, the Japanese determined their code to be unbreakable and continued to use it. By November, Roosevelt had tired of the psychotic manner in which he received the Magic decrypts. He demanded to see the full text of the messages and ordered that only naval couriers deliver them."
................................................................................................
"Breaking the Magic and Ultra codes led directly to one of the most controversial questions of WWII: Was Roosevelt forewarned of the attack on Pearl Harbor? The controversy has raged for more than 60 years. The first to level such a charge was the Chicago Tribune. This was the same anti-Roosevelt paper that published the secret Rainbow 5 war plans. The same paper was charged with treason in revealing the location and names of the ships involved in the battle at Midway. This paper also scuttled the plans for making the OSS a permanent agency at the end of the war. The best evidence so far suggests there was no such warning. Right up to the hour Pearl Harbor was bombed, the White House and the military planners expected the attack elsewhere in the Pacific, such as the Philippines.
"Writers after the war concocted a similar story on the other side of the Atlantic. According to British writers, the Allies were willing to go to extremes to protect the secrets of Magic and Ultra. British critics claimed Churchill had foreknowledge of the attack on Coventry. According to the overactive imagination of these writers, Churchill was willing to allow the city to be destroyed rather than tip off the Germans that their code had been broken. Ultra did yield that the Japanese planned a massive attack, but the intercept was not translated until three days later; and even then, the location was not mentioned. The final message of the Japanese also failed to name the location of the attack.
"While there is more than enough blame to go around, Gen. Shorts and Adm. Kimmel must share most of it. It was their command and they failed to take proper actions following the war-warning message in late November. Such a message should have alerted both officers of the need to take full defensive measures, like manning antiaircraft guns, having scout planes in the air at all times, and rotating and separating the fleet. Washington shares some of the blame in failing to follow up to ensure that the commanders had taken suitable actions. Much of the blame can be placed on the insane rivalry between the Army and Navy in the way they handled Magic. Dec. 6 was an Army day to decode the messages, and the Navy wasted time by sending the intercept to the Army. Since the Army decoders had already left for the weekend, further delay occurred when the intercept was returned to the Navy for decoding.
"Finally, much of the blame was simply old-fashioned American arrogance. No one from the President on down believed Japan could attack American soil. No one believed that torpedo bombs could be used at Pearl Harbor. Naval experts simply dismissed the idea because they believed the harbor was too shallow. Before the bombing, the Navy never used any torpedo nets inside Pearl Harbor. Yet, of all the bombs dropped there, the torpedoes probably were responsible for more damage than the conventional bombs."
................................................................................................
"On Dec. 23, just six miles offshore, a Japanese submarine sank an oil tanker leaving the port of San Luis, California. The Philippines had fallen and the Japanese were now in firm control of the South Pacific. More Japanese submarines were sighted, particularly off the Oregon coast. On Feb. 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced a mile offshore and shelled the Richfield Oil Co. The next night, the skies of Los Angeles resembled a Fourth of July celebration lit by search-lights, tracer bullets and antiaircraft fire. An uncontrolled fear gripped the city with people thinking it was under attack. But there was no attack."
"The political pressures on Roosevelt were immense, and the roots lie deep in American racism. Prejudice against the Japanese was seen in a 1924 report prepared by the Labor Department during the Coolidge administration. Because the Oriental Exclusion Act was pending in Congress, the report was suppressed. Tennessee Democratic Sen. Thomas Stewart, the prosecutor in the Scopes trial, released the report, which was a study conducted on the strike against the sugar planters in Hawaii. The report noted the Japanese in Hawaii were settling near strategic military areas and otherwise imperiling national defense. Sens. Stewart Maybank of South Carolina and Rufus Holman of Oregon said the report should have been publicized at that time and the nation put on guard about the compromised defenses of Hawaii.
"Anti-Asian legislation goes back further to 1882, when President Chester Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese immigration for 10 years. In 1892, Congress extended the law for another decade and, in 1902, made the ban permanent. In 1907, the Unites States struck a deal with Japan to limit immigration and prevent Japanese immigrants from ever gaining citizenship. Without citizenship, the immigrants could not legally own land. The WWII internees were despoiled of their property.
"While ultimately the burden for issuing the executive order rests squarely on Roosevelt’s shoulders, it was rooted in America’s sordid racist past. While the internment of the Japanese is shameful and indefensible, they might have suffered attacks from the civilian coast defense groups, who tended to be overzealous patriots dispatching vigilante justice. Prejudices against Asians were well engrained on the West Coast, and civilian coast watchers could assume a Japanese fisherman to be a spy and shoot him on the spot. Any disruptions such as a power outage would have been blamed on the local Japanese, resulting in vigilante attacks."
"On Dec. 23, just six miles offshore, a Japanese submarine sank an oil tanker leaving the port of San Luis, California. The Philippines had fallen and the Japanese were now in firm control of the South Pacific. More Japanese submarines were sighted, particularly off the Oregon coast. On Feb. 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced a mile offshore and shelled the Richfield Oil Co. The next night, the skies of Los Angeles resembled a Fourth of July celebration lit by search-lights, tracer bullets and antiaircraft fire. An uncontrolled fear gripped the city with people thinking it was under attack. But there was no attack."
................................................................................................
"The political pressures on Roosevelt were immense, and the roots lie deep in American racism. Prejudice against the Japanese was seen in a 1924 report prepared by the Labor Department during the Coolidge administration. Because the Oriental Exclusion Act was pending in Congress, the report was suppressed. Tennessee Democratic Sen. Thomas Stewart, the prosecutor in the Scopes trial, released the report, which was a study conducted on the strike against the sugar planters in Hawaii. The report noted the Japanese in Hawaii were settling near strategic military areas and otherwise imperiling national defense. Sens. Stewart Maybank of South Carolina and Rufus Holman of Oregon said the report should have been publicized at that time and the nation put on guard about the compromised defenses of Hawaii.
"Anti-Asian legislation goes back further to 1882, when President Chester Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese immigration for 10 years. In 1892, Congress extended the law for another decade and, in 1902, made the ban permanent. In 1907, the Unites States struck a deal with Japan to limit immigration and prevent Japanese immigrants from ever gaining citizenship. Without citizenship, the immigrants could not legally own land. The WWII internees were despoiled of their property.
"While ultimately the burden for issuing the executive order rests squarely on Roosevelt’s shoulders, it was rooted in America’s sordid racist past. While the internment of the Japanese is shameful and indefensible, they might have suffered attacks from the civilian coast defense groups, who tended to be overzealous patriots dispatching vigilante justice. Prejudices against Asians were well engrained on the West Coast, and civilian coast watchers could assume a Japanese fisherman to be a spy and shoot him on the spot. Any disruptions such as a power outage would have been blamed on the local Japanese, resulting in vigilante attacks."
................................................................................................
"The U.S. government was ill-prepared to deal with fascism and the threat it posed. Congress made a feeble attempt by setting up a committee to look into American fascism. Rep. Martin Dies quickly seized the committee and converted it to a Red-baiting squad. Any efforts at examining fascism were quickly sabotaged.
"The only other government agency with a role in domestic investigations was the FBI, led by the patron saint of the right wing, J. Edgar Hoover. While Hoover’s racist and anti-Jewish views are known, much mystery still surrounds his role in fascism during the war years."
"Until the 1940 election, Hoover spent more time spying on British agents and communists than on Nazi operatives. As early as 1939, Roosevelt allowed British agents to wiretap Americans believed to be aiding the Nazi cause. Master spy Sir William Stephenson, better known as Intrepid, headed the British operation. By the time the United States entered the war, Stephenson had uncovered a web of Nazi-American financial ties.
"The wiretaps were illegal, of course, and evidence gathered from them was not admissible in court, but they provided the British with the means to stop the flow of American support to Hitler. Usually, this meant intercepting shipments of war materials to Germany. However, there also is evidence that Intrepid also murdered some fascist agents in the United States. British agents may have poisoned William Rhodes Davis, the Texas oilman and Nazi supporter.
"Roosevelt planned to leak the information gathered by the British operation to the media after the war to create a public uproar about treason, and then launch a full investigation without harming the war effort. As part of this secret scheme between Roosevelt and British intelligence, he deliberately placed suspected individuals in positions in which they could easily be monitored. It was no accident that after his appointment to the OSS, Allen Dulles’ office in New York was one floor below the British wiretapping office.
:Dulles’ appointment was a deliberate setup. It placed him in a position in which he would be tempted the most to continue aiding the Nazis. After the war, Roosevelt meant to use this information to help prosecute Dulles, but two unforeseen events scuttled his plan. First, someone tipped Dulles off. The leak is commonly attributed to Vice President Henry Wallace, and it was the motivation for dumping him from the ticket in 1944. Second, the death of Roosevelt killed the plan, because FDR never told Truman about it.
"Dulles was not Roosevelt’s only target; the many other wealthy Wall Street investors included Joseph Kennedy. Before his death, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg confirmed that Roosevelt set up Dulles."
"During the war, Goldberg served in the labor division of the OSS. His knowledge of the set-up suggests that the OSS, or at least one of its branches, was likely involved with Roosevelt’s secret plan of placing people suspected of aiding the Nazi cause under surveillance. OSS involvement would have been illegal since its charter banned spying in the United States. The evidence would have been inadmissible in court, but was in keeping with Roosevelt’s plan to leak the information to the press. The OSS involvement suggests the plan was far-reaching and that many more Nazi sympathizers were being watched.
"While Roosevelt’s relationship with J. Edgar Hoover was reportedly harmonious, the operation was kept secret from and the FBI, a hint that he did not trust Hoover fully, and may have even suspected his loyalties.
"In addition to the British import-export office, 30 Rockefeller Plaza housed the offices of Western Continents Corp., founded on Aug. 14, 1941 as a “research and analyzation work and export and import” business by George Muhle. A Dun and Bradstreet report carried a brief outline of Muhle’s life. It also listed Council of Foreign Relations member William Diebold Jr., as treasurer.
"What the Dun and Bradstreet report failed to note was that George Muhle’s real name was George Muhle Mertens. The outline of the Dun and Bradstreet report omitted a significant part of Mertens’ life in the otherwise correct summary. From 1926 to 1927, Mertens had been the head of Germany’s Bureau of Investigations for Anti-Democratic Activities. The bureau was a government intelligence organization formed to counter leftist and rightist organizations in Germany. Goering dismissed Mertens from all his posts in the Nazi government and charged him with high treason.
"For a while in 1936, Mertens worked for the Commerz Bank in Berlin. The counselor of the American Embassy in Berlin, Prentiss Gilbert, aided Mertens’ entry into the United States. Gilbert had joined the Schering Corp., believing the Nazis had sold it to legitimate owners, only to find that it was merely a front for continued Nazi activity.
"Mertens contacted the Roosevelt administration through Adolf Berle, who passed him along to Francis McNamara of the Alien Property Division of the Department of Justice. McNamara, feeling legally bound, finally put Mertens in contact with Donovan and William Stephenson. It was Stephenson’s Intrepid organization that put up the front money to form Western Continents.
"In 1942, control of Western Continents passed from Stephenson to Donovan. By that time, Mertens had mapped out the Nazi commercial structure in the United States and its relationship with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Mertens also exposed Nazi front companies in South America and how they interacted with their North American counterparts. He presented a detailed exposure of the SD and the personal financial arrangements of the fascist French prime minister Pierre Laval and his associates, including the Bank of Worms. The information gained from Mertens proved that the Intrepid operation was not only successful, but also far reaching, including the top levels of foreign governments friendly with the Nazis.
"The scheme with the British was only one of many of Roosevelt’s intelligence channels. He often asked his friends to take on special missions for him, many of which ended in failure, such as Vincent Astor’s voyage in the South Pacific. Another recruit into FDR’s private spy network was John Carter, a writer for the fledging Time magazine.
"Joseph Kennedy, like Dulles, was placed in a position where he could be watched carefully. Roosevelt had sent the Irishman to England as an ambassador. Churchill’s son Randolph confirmed that Kennedy was under electronic surveillance. It revealed that a lowly code clerk named Tyler Kent had passed secret documents to one Anna Wolkoff. She passed the information on to the Italian foreign minister, who forwarded it to the Nazi foreign office. After an argument during a weekend meeting at Hyde Park, Roosevelt abruptly terminated Kennedy’s ambassadorship. Britain tried Kent, an American citizen, in secret proceedings in the Old Bailey on Oct. 23, 1940. The court sentenced him to seven years."
"The U.S. government was ill-prepared to deal with fascism and the threat it posed. Congress made a feeble attempt by setting up a committee to look into American fascism. Rep. Martin Dies quickly seized the committee and converted it to a Red-baiting squad. Any efforts at examining fascism were quickly sabotaged.
"The only other government agency with a role in domestic investigations was the FBI, led by the patron saint of the right wing, J. Edgar Hoover. While Hoover’s racist and anti-Jewish views are known, much mystery still surrounds his role in fascism during the war years."
"Until the 1940 election, Hoover spent more time spying on British agents and communists than on Nazi operatives. As early as 1939, Roosevelt allowed British agents to wiretap Americans believed to be aiding the Nazi cause. Master spy Sir William Stephenson, better known as Intrepid, headed the British operation. By the time the United States entered the war, Stephenson had uncovered a web of Nazi-American financial ties.
"The wiretaps were illegal, of course, and evidence gathered from them was not admissible in court, but they provided the British with the means to stop the flow of American support to Hitler. Usually, this meant intercepting shipments of war materials to Germany. However, there also is evidence that Intrepid also murdered some fascist agents in the United States. British agents may have poisoned William Rhodes Davis, the Texas oilman and Nazi supporter.
"Roosevelt planned to leak the information gathered by the British operation to the media after the war to create a public uproar about treason, and then launch a full investigation without harming the war effort. As part of this secret scheme between Roosevelt and British intelligence, he deliberately placed suspected individuals in positions in which they could easily be monitored. It was no accident that after his appointment to the OSS, Allen Dulles’ office in New York was one floor below the British wiretapping office.
:Dulles’ appointment was a deliberate setup. It placed him in a position in which he would be tempted the most to continue aiding the Nazis. After the war, Roosevelt meant to use this information to help prosecute Dulles, but two unforeseen events scuttled his plan. First, someone tipped Dulles off. The leak is commonly attributed to Vice President Henry Wallace, and it was the motivation for dumping him from the ticket in 1944. Second, the death of Roosevelt killed the plan, because FDR never told Truman about it.
"Dulles was not Roosevelt’s only target; the many other wealthy Wall Street investors included Joseph Kennedy. Before his death, former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg confirmed that Roosevelt set up Dulles."
................................................................................................
"During the war, Goldberg served in the labor division of the OSS. His knowledge of the set-up suggests that the OSS, or at least one of its branches, was likely involved with Roosevelt’s secret plan of placing people suspected of aiding the Nazi cause under surveillance. OSS involvement would have been illegal since its charter banned spying in the United States. The evidence would have been inadmissible in court, but was in keeping with Roosevelt’s plan to leak the information to the press. The OSS involvement suggests the plan was far-reaching and that many more Nazi sympathizers were being watched.
"While Roosevelt’s relationship with J. Edgar Hoover was reportedly harmonious, the operation was kept secret from and the FBI, a hint that he did not trust Hoover fully, and may have even suspected his loyalties.
"In addition to the British import-export office, 30 Rockefeller Plaza housed the offices of Western Continents Corp., founded on Aug. 14, 1941 as a “research and analyzation work and export and import” business by George Muhle. A Dun and Bradstreet report carried a brief outline of Muhle’s life. It also listed Council of Foreign Relations member William Diebold Jr., as treasurer.
"What the Dun and Bradstreet report failed to note was that George Muhle’s real name was George Muhle Mertens. The outline of the Dun and Bradstreet report omitted a significant part of Mertens’ life in the otherwise correct summary. From 1926 to 1927, Mertens had been the head of Germany’s Bureau of Investigations for Anti-Democratic Activities. The bureau was a government intelligence organization formed to counter leftist and rightist organizations in Germany. Goering dismissed Mertens from all his posts in the Nazi government and charged him with high treason.
"For a while in 1936, Mertens worked for the Commerz Bank in Berlin. The counselor of the American Embassy in Berlin, Prentiss Gilbert, aided Mertens’ entry into the United States. Gilbert had joined the Schering Corp., believing the Nazis had sold it to legitimate owners, only to find that it was merely a front for continued Nazi activity.
"Mertens contacted the Roosevelt administration through Adolf Berle, who passed him along to Francis McNamara of the Alien Property Division of the Department of Justice. McNamara, feeling legally bound, finally put Mertens in contact with Donovan and William Stephenson. It was Stephenson’s Intrepid organization that put up the front money to form Western Continents.
"In 1942, control of Western Continents passed from Stephenson to Donovan. By that time, Mertens had mapped out the Nazi commercial structure in the United States and its relationship with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Mertens also exposed Nazi front companies in South America and how they interacted with their North American counterparts. He presented a detailed exposure of the SD and the personal financial arrangements of the fascist French prime minister Pierre Laval and his associates, including the Bank of Worms. The information gained from Mertens proved that the Intrepid operation was not only successful, but also far reaching, including the top levels of foreign governments friendly with the Nazis.
"The scheme with the British was only one of many of Roosevelt’s intelligence channels. He often asked his friends to take on special missions for him, many of which ended in failure, such as Vincent Astor’s voyage in the South Pacific. Another recruit into FDR’s private spy network was John Carter, a writer for the fledging Time magazine.
"Joseph Kennedy, like Dulles, was placed in a position where he could be watched carefully. Roosevelt had sent the Irishman to England as an ambassador. Churchill’s son Randolph confirmed that Kennedy was under electronic surveillance. It revealed that a lowly code clerk named Tyler Kent had passed secret documents to one Anna Wolkoff. She passed the information on to the Italian foreign minister, who forwarded it to the Nazi foreign office. After an argument during a weekend meeting at Hyde Park, Roosevelt abruptly terminated Kennedy’s ambassadorship. Britain tried Kent, an American citizen, in secret proceedings in the Old Bailey on Oct. 23, 1940. The court sentenced him to seven years."
................................................................................................
"Hoover’s spying on the British was a fence-sitting maneuver on his part, due to his great ambitions. It was a position that left him largely neutral, or leaning to the Nazis. Loftus claims the fascist forces in the Republican Party offered Hoover an appointment as Attorney General, a position he coveted, if Roosevelt lost the 1940 election.
"With Roosevelt’s reelection, Hoover had to hurry to mend fences with the White House by offering files on Nazi sympathizers. However, Hoover had spent so much time spying on the British and chasing suspected communists that he had no central index of suspected pro-Nazis. Hoover then went begging to the Anti-Defamation League for its records. The British, of course, had better files, but refused to share them with Hoover and the FBI, fearing the right-wing faction in the bureau would leak word of the wiretap operation. Hence, it is clear that MI6, the top intelligence service of the world at the time, believed the FBI was infested with Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.
"Many believe Hoover’s opposition and refusal to cooperate with the OSS was due to of his ambitious aims for the FBI. In reality, it was Hoover’s thin skin and his tendency to hold grudges. His opposition to the OSS goes back to the 1920s, when Coolidge appointed William Donovan as an Assistant Attorney General. During his tenure in the Department of Justice, Donovan became aware of Hoover’s wiretapping of politicians’ telephones for his private files, for blackmail purposes. Attorney General Stone nearly fired Hoover over the incident, and Hoover never forgot who embarrassed him.
"Even more damaging was Hoover’s sabotage and obstruction of the fledging intelligence network before and during the war, which was corroborated by Dusko Popov, a British master spy who had earned the confidence of the Nazis as a double agent. In 1941, the Germans sent him to the United States to reorganize and run their spy network. For a double agent, it was the chance of a lifetime to deceive the Nazis on a grand scale. However, Hoover disapproved of Popov’s playboy lifestyle, and refused to help preserve his cover.
"Popov brought with him important intelligence from Germany that included the Japanese interest in the defenses and fortifications of Pearl Harbor. This information was received just four months before the attack. Hoover was neither equipped to understand the value of the information nor could he find a publicity use for it. He quickly buried the report without sending it to the War Department or the White House.
"Included in Popov’s documents was information about the German microdot, or encryption via microphotography, which Hoover did find useful. In April 1946, he published an article in the Reader’s Digest claiming credit for capturing the secret of the microdot from an enemy spy. This was a lie; a British agent gave it to him. But even more damning, the article contained a diagram exposing Popov’s source, a Brazilian diplomat. In 1946, South America was the destination of many of the Nazi war criminals. In his effort to seek the spotlight, Hoover exposed a useful source who could have provided information on war criminals in South America. Reader’s Digest has always held an extreme right-wing bias, so much so that George Seldes in Facts and Fascism devoted an entire chapter to it. Seldes charged that Dewitt Wallace, the owner of the Reader’s Digest, told his staff that he did not want Hitler defeated. Edited by a pro-Hitlerite from the Hearst papers, Reader’s Digest consistently published anti-union and fascist propaganda."
"Another individual aiding the fascists was H. Ralph Burton, Chief Counsel to the House’s Military Affairs Committee. Burton was a racist and an anti-Semite with a long history of associations with fascists. At one point, he was the lawyer for William Ludecke, who bragged he was Hitler’s No. 2 Nazi in the United States. Burton also was a special counsel to the DAR during their flagrant Red-baiting days, and a close associate of Walter Steele, editor of the fascist National Republic.
"In the mid-1930s, Burton was general counsel for Father Coughlin’s National Union of Social Justice in Maryland. Burton’s son, Robert, also had close associations with fascists. His son was a frequent guest at the Japanese Embassy and was often observed in the company of other Nazis under surveillance. In 1939, Burton was an investigator for the WPA subcommittee, and was determined to show Jews controlled and ran the WPA for the benefit of fellow Jews."
"While Burton served in the Military Affairs Committee, he continued to make himself a thorn in the side of Army officials. He would scan lists of draft deferments, skipping over ethnic surnames looking for Jewish ones. Burton would then call the local draft board demanding they be drafted.
"Burton’s most damaging role was in wrecking the Army’s Orientation Course after the issue of Program 64. The Orientation Course was set up to teach recruits what they were fighting for and to offset the fascist propaganda circulating at the time. At first, the Orientation Course was general in nature, but as more and more recruits demanded more definitive information, it became specialized. Program 64 contained the following definition of fascism:
""If we don’t understand fascism and recognize it when we see it, it might crop up again - under another label - and cause another war.
""Fascism is a way to run a country - it’s the way Italy was run, and the way Germany and Japan are run. Fascism is the precise opposite of democracy. The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people.
""Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why? The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desires for: 1. Conducting business; 2. Living with their fellow men; 3 having the final say in matters concerning others as well as themselves.
""The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence - democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he’s told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law. They make their own rules and change them when they choose. If you don’t like it, it’s T.S.
""They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of blood and race, by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promises of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and realistic to be pitiless and violent."
"It is hard to imagine that such a statement caused an outburst of protest on Capitol Hill, yet it touched a nerve. Several representatives made indignant speeches on the floor of the House. Clare Hoffman of Michigan and John Rankin of Mississippi were outraged over Program 64, as were other pro-fascist members. Their indignation soon led to the discontinuance of the top-rated Orientation Courses. The pro-fascists in Congress did not want the GIs to know what they were supposedly fighting against."
"The pro-fascist bloc in Congress soon replaced the Orientation Course with an anti-communism program."
"Father Coughlin was not even indicted. However, it was on the eve of the war with Germany that Wheeler overtly revealed himself as a traitor and a fascist. On Dec. 4, 1941, the pro-fascist Chicago Tribune and its sister publication, the Washington Times Herald, printed the plans for the top secret Rainbow 5 Plan.
"Rainbow 5 was the battle plan developed by the military in case war broke out. Publishing the plan or leaking information about it would be the equivalent of publishing or leaking the battle order of the Pentagon during the Cold War - unquestionably, an act of treason. In Hitler’s speech declaring war against the United States on Dec. 11, 1941, he cited the final straw: “With no attempt at an official denial there has now been revealed in America, President Roosevelt’s plan by which, at the latest in 1943, Germany and Italy are to be attacked in Europe by military means.”
"The government failed to charge anyone with treason or sedition: neither the Chicago Tribune, nor Wheeler nor the Army officer who delivered the papers to him, despite an FBI investigation. Fewer than a dozen copies of the top secret contingency plan existed.
"The author of the report on Rainbow 5 was Col. Albert Wedemeyer, who had been educated at the German War College. While in Berlin, he rented an apartment with a member of the Nazi Party. Wedemeyer became a close friend to Gen. Ludwig Beck, Chief of the German General Staff. He was friendly with Lindbergh and acted as his interpreter when the aviator toured Germany. He also was close to Gen. Robert Woods, president of America First. Wedemeyer attended several America First meetings.
"Hoover strongly believed that Wedemeyer leaked the plans to Wheeler. Of special note, Reagan resurrected Wedemeyer’s career as a special military adviser in the 1980s, yet another of the many seemingly innocent connections between Reagan and the Nazis.
"One clue appears in the book A Man Called Intrepid, where Sir William implies that he was authorized to leak the Rainbow 5 Plans. As already mentioned, FDR allowed the British to keep watch on certain individuals known to be friendly with the Nazis, particularly those associated with Wall Street. Two that Roosevelt appointed so they could be monitored were Allen Dulles and Nelson Rockefeller. FDR’s plan was to charge them with treason and sedition following the war. Wheeler may very well have been another of those being watched. Wheeler was connected to the Rockefellers through Anaconda, which delivered substandard copper wire to our Allies and our own military.
"By leaking the files to the Chicago Tribune, Wheeler ensured that they would be published. The Tribune was openly pro-fascist before the attack on Pearl Harbor and rabidly opposed to Roosevelt. It later faced charges of treason for publishing the names of the ships involved in the battle of Midway."
"Hoover’s spying on the British was a fence-sitting maneuver on his part, due to his great ambitions. It was a position that left him largely neutral, or leaning to the Nazis. Loftus claims the fascist forces in the Republican Party offered Hoover an appointment as Attorney General, a position he coveted, if Roosevelt lost the 1940 election.
"With Roosevelt’s reelection, Hoover had to hurry to mend fences with the White House by offering files on Nazi sympathizers. However, Hoover had spent so much time spying on the British and chasing suspected communists that he had no central index of suspected pro-Nazis. Hoover then went begging to the Anti-Defamation League for its records. The British, of course, had better files, but refused to share them with Hoover and the FBI, fearing the right-wing faction in the bureau would leak word of the wiretap operation. Hence, it is clear that MI6, the top intelligence service of the world at the time, believed the FBI was infested with Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.
"Many believe Hoover’s opposition and refusal to cooperate with the OSS was due to of his ambitious aims for the FBI. In reality, it was Hoover’s thin skin and his tendency to hold grudges. His opposition to the OSS goes back to the 1920s, when Coolidge appointed William Donovan as an Assistant Attorney General. During his tenure in the Department of Justice, Donovan became aware of Hoover’s wiretapping of politicians’ telephones for his private files, for blackmail purposes. Attorney General Stone nearly fired Hoover over the incident, and Hoover never forgot who embarrassed him.
"Even more damaging was Hoover’s sabotage and obstruction of the fledging intelligence network before and during the war, which was corroborated by Dusko Popov, a British master spy who had earned the confidence of the Nazis as a double agent. In 1941, the Germans sent him to the United States to reorganize and run their spy network. For a double agent, it was the chance of a lifetime to deceive the Nazis on a grand scale. However, Hoover disapproved of Popov’s playboy lifestyle, and refused to help preserve his cover.
"Popov brought with him important intelligence from Germany that included the Japanese interest in the defenses and fortifications of Pearl Harbor. This information was received just four months before the attack. Hoover was neither equipped to understand the value of the information nor could he find a publicity use for it. He quickly buried the report without sending it to the War Department or the White House.
"Included in Popov’s documents was information about the German microdot, or encryption via microphotography, which Hoover did find useful. In April 1946, he published an article in the Reader’s Digest claiming credit for capturing the secret of the microdot from an enemy spy. This was a lie; a British agent gave it to him. But even more damning, the article contained a diagram exposing Popov’s source, a Brazilian diplomat. In 1946, South America was the destination of many of the Nazi war criminals. In his effort to seek the spotlight, Hoover exposed a useful source who could have provided information on war criminals in South America. Reader’s Digest has always held an extreme right-wing bias, so much so that George Seldes in Facts and Fascism devoted an entire chapter to it. Seldes charged that Dewitt Wallace, the owner of the Reader’s Digest, told his staff that he did not want Hitler defeated. Edited by a pro-Hitlerite from the Hearst papers, Reader’s Digest consistently published anti-union and fascist propaganda."
................................................................................................
"Another individual aiding the fascists was H. Ralph Burton, Chief Counsel to the House’s Military Affairs Committee. Burton was a racist and an anti-Semite with a long history of associations with fascists. At one point, he was the lawyer for William Ludecke, who bragged he was Hitler’s No. 2 Nazi in the United States. Burton also was a special counsel to the DAR during their flagrant Red-baiting days, and a close associate of Walter Steele, editor of the fascist National Republic.
"In the mid-1930s, Burton was general counsel for Father Coughlin’s National Union of Social Justice in Maryland. Burton’s son, Robert, also had close associations with fascists. His son was a frequent guest at the Japanese Embassy and was often observed in the company of other Nazis under surveillance. In 1939, Burton was an investigator for the WPA subcommittee, and was determined to show Jews controlled and ran the WPA for the benefit of fellow Jews."
"While Burton served in the Military Affairs Committee, he continued to make himself a thorn in the side of Army officials. He would scan lists of draft deferments, skipping over ethnic surnames looking for Jewish ones. Burton would then call the local draft board demanding they be drafted.
"Burton’s most damaging role was in wrecking the Army’s Orientation Course after the issue of Program 64. The Orientation Course was set up to teach recruits what they were fighting for and to offset the fascist propaganda circulating at the time. At first, the Orientation Course was general in nature, but as more and more recruits demanded more definitive information, it became specialized. Program 64 contained the following definition of fascism:
""If we don’t understand fascism and recognize it when we see it, it might crop up again - under another label - and cause another war.
""Fascism is a way to run a country - it’s the way Italy was run, and the way Germany and Japan are run. Fascism is the precise opposite of democracy. The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people.
""Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why? The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desires for: 1. Conducting business; 2. Living with their fellow men; 3 having the final say in matters concerning others as well as themselves.
""The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence - democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he’s told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law. They make their own rules and change them when they choose. If you don’t like it, it’s T.S.
""They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of blood and race, by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promises of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and realistic to be pitiless and violent."
"It is hard to imagine that such a statement caused an outburst of protest on Capitol Hill, yet it touched a nerve. Several representatives made indignant speeches on the floor of the House. Clare Hoffman of Michigan and John Rankin of Mississippi were outraged over Program 64, as were other pro-fascist members. Their indignation soon led to the discontinuance of the top-rated Orientation Courses. The pro-fascists in Congress did not want the GIs to know what they were supposedly fighting against."
"The pro-fascist bloc in Congress soon replaced the Orientation Course with an anti-communism program."
................................................................................................
"Father Coughlin was not even indicted. However, it was on the eve of the war with Germany that Wheeler overtly revealed himself as a traitor and a fascist. On Dec. 4, 1941, the pro-fascist Chicago Tribune and its sister publication, the Washington Times Herald, printed the plans for the top secret Rainbow 5 Plan.
"Rainbow 5 was the battle plan developed by the military in case war broke out. Publishing the plan or leaking information about it would be the equivalent of publishing or leaking the battle order of the Pentagon during the Cold War - unquestionably, an act of treason. In Hitler’s speech declaring war against the United States on Dec. 11, 1941, he cited the final straw: “With no attempt at an official denial there has now been revealed in America, President Roosevelt’s plan by which, at the latest in 1943, Germany and Italy are to be attacked in Europe by military means.”
"The government failed to charge anyone with treason or sedition: neither the Chicago Tribune, nor Wheeler nor the Army officer who delivered the papers to him, despite an FBI investigation. Fewer than a dozen copies of the top secret contingency plan existed.
"The author of the report on Rainbow 5 was Col. Albert Wedemeyer, who had been educated at the German War College. While in Berlin, he rented an apartment with a member of the Nazi Party. Wedemeyer became a close friend to Gen. Ludwig Beck, Chief of the German General Staff. He was friendly with Lindbergh and acted as his interpreter when the aviator toured Germany. He also was close to Gen. Robert Woods, president of America First. Wedemeyer attended several America First meetings.
"Hoover strongly believed that Wedemeyer leaked the plans to Wheeler. Of special note, Reagan resurrected Wedemeyer’s career as a special military adviser in the 1980s, yet another of the many seemingly innocent connections between Reagan and the Nazis.
"One clue appears in the book A Man Called Intrepid, where Sir William implies that he was authorized to leak the Rainbow 5 Plans. As already mentioned, FDR allowed the British to keep watch on certain individuals known to be friendly with the Nazis, particularly those associated with Wall Street. Two that Roosevelt appointed so they could be monitored were Allen Dulles and Nelson Rockefeller. FDR’s plan was to charge them with treason and sedition following the war. Wheeler may very well have been another of those being watched. Wheeler was connected to the Rockefellers through Anaconda, which delivered substandard copper wire to our Allies and our own military.
"By leaking the files to the Chicago Tribune, Wheeler ensured that they would be published. The Tribune was openly pro-fascist before the attack on Pearl Harbor and rabidly opposed to Roosevelt. It later faced charges of treason for publishing the names of the ships involved in the battle of Midway."
................................................................................................
"Wedemeyer’s career deserves scrutiny. He was part of a military circle that was anti-Jewish. A few years after the war, Wedemeyer wrote in a letter to his close friend, retired Col. Truman Smith, that Zionists, the British and communists made America’s entry into the war certain. Later, Wedemeyer stated that “most of the people associated with communism in the early days were Jews.”
"He further claimed that Roosevelt’s Jewish advisers did everything possible to spread venom and hatred against the Nazis. He stated that during his attendance at the German War College in 1936, his eyes were opened to the number of Jews in the American government by reading the Die Frankfurter Zietung and Die Berliner. The Nazis controlled both papers.
"In 1937, Wedemeyer linked the shortage of food in Germany to the Jewish question. Using the embassy’s attaché stationery, Wedemeyer wrote to friends dismissing the food shortage as caused by poor weather and crop failures. He claimed that Jews in other countries had bought up the enormous quantities of foodstuffs and intentionally diverted the shipments from Germany.
"As late as 1958, Wedemeyer was still voicing pro-Nazi opinions. He ignored the Nazis’ racial ideology, describing Lebensraum as merely a national movement to win living space. Wedemeyer used the same historical analogies as the Nazi propagandists, comparing the German invasions and expansions eastward with the American expansion westward.
"The two people with the greatest influence on Wedemeyer’s career were Truman Smith and Wedemeyer’s father-in-law, Deputy Chief of Staff Stanley Embrick. Embrick was the most outspoken isolationist general in 1939. Many of the officers in Wedemeyer’s circle harbored pro-fascist leanings and an extreme hatred of Jews. Such views had been ingrained into the officers since the 1920s and would affect how the war was conducted, as well as the postwar period."
"Wedemeyer’s career deserves scrutiny. He was part of a military circle that was anti-Jewish. A few years after the war, Wedemeyer wrote in a letter to his close friend, retired Col. Truman Smith, that Zionists, the British and communists made America’s entry into the war certain. Later, Wedemeyer stated that “most of the people associated with communism in the early days were Jews.”
"He further claimed that Roosevelt’s Jewish advisers did everything possible to spread venom and hatred against the Nazis. He stated that during his attendance at the German War College in 1936, his eyes were opened to the number of Jews in the American government by reading the Die Frankfurter Zietung and Die Berliner. The Nazis controlled both papers.
"In 1937, Wedemeyer linked the shortage of food in Germany to the Jewish question. Using the embassy’s attaché stationery, Wedemeyer wrote to friends dismissing the food shortage as caused by poor weather and crop failures. He claimed that Jews in other countries had bought up the enormous quantities of foodstuffs and intentionally diverted the shipments from Germany.
"As late as 1958, Wedemeyer was still voicing pro-Nazi opinions. He ignored the Nazis’ racial ideology, describing Lebensraum as merely a national movement to win living space. Wedemeyer used the same historical analogies as the Nazi propagandists, comparing the German invasions and expansions eastward with the American expansion westward.
"The two people with the greatest influence on Wedemeyer’s career were Truman Smith and Wedemeyer’s father-in-law, Deputy Chief of Staff Stanley Embrick. Embrick was the most outspoken isolationist general in 1939. Many of the officers in Wedemeyer’s circle harbored pro-fascist leanings and an extreme hatred of Jews. Such views had been ingrained into the officers since the 1920s and would affect how the war was conducted, as well as the postwar period."
................................................................................................
"Between 1940 and 1945, there was a dramatic evolution in the tactics employed by the native fascists in America. Corporate America opposed Lend-Lease and the entry of the United States into the European war, and rejected several contracts to supply Britain with war munitions. One example: Ford Motor Company’s rejection of a contract to build Rolls Royce engines for the RAF. Other corporations hid behind the terms of the cartel agreements with IG Farben and other German corporations, as with du Pont supplying the British with inferior cartridges lacking tetrazine. Most damaging aspect was the sit-down strike of 1940 ."
"From May to October 1940, corporate America engaged in a sit-down strike. Led by the aviation industry, defense contracts were left unsigned until the corporations received special tax privileges. Unlike labor strikes, the sit-down strikes of corporate America had the support of the news media, the War and Navy Departments, and the new Defense Commission. The media labeled any strikes by labor as treason. No labor strikes were launched against any aviation corporation, yet hardly any planes were produced."
................................................................................................
"The major newspaper chains and media outlets were openly pro-fascist. The Hearst papers published the most notorious Nazi propaganda unedited. The Chamber of Commerce, the American Legion and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) quickly adopted the false goddess of free enterprise, especially NAM with its mouthpiece Fulton Lewis broadcasting over the airwaves. Lewis was one of Hoover’s media allies who often received leaked information from the FBI. This became a standard form of attack by Hoover and the FBI against a group or an individual. Lacking information to convict, Hoover would seek to destroy his targets by leaking rumors to his press allies. Nixon and Joe McCarthy later adopted the tactic."
"Between 1940 and 1945, there was a dramatic evolution in the tactics employed by the native fascists in America. Corporate America opposed Lend-Lease and the entry of the United States into the European war, and rejected several contracts to supply Britain with war munitions. One example: Ford Motor Company’s rejection of a contract to build Rolls Royce engines for the RAF. Other corporations hid behind the terms of the cartel agreements with IG Farben and other German corporations, as with du Pont supplying the British with inferior cartridges lacking tetrazine. Most damaging aspect was the sit-down strike of 1940 ."
"From May to October 1940, corporate America engaged in a sit-down strike. Led by the aviation industry, defense contracts were left unsigned until the corporations received special tax privileges. Unlike labor strikes, the sit-down strikes of corporate America had the support of the news media, the War and Navy Departments, and the new Defense Commission. The media labeled any strikes by labor as treason. No labor strikes were launched against any aviation corporation, yet hardly any planes were produced."
................................................................................................
"The major newspaper chains and media outlets were openly pro-fascist. The Hearst papers published the most notorious Nazi propaganda unedited. The Chamber of Commerce, the American Legion and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) quickly adopted the false goddess of free enterprise, especially NAM with its mouthpiece Fulton Lewis broadcasting over the airwaves. Lewis was one of Hoover’s media allies who often received leaked information from the FBI. This became a standard form of attack by Hoover and the FBI against a group or an individual. Lacking information to convict, Hoover would seek to destroy his targets by leaking rumors to his press allies. Nixon and Joe McCarthy later adopted the tactic."
................................................................................................
"In the Senate report produced by Sen. Black, Special Committee to Investigate Lobbying Activities, letters from members of the Sentinels stated: “the old line Americans of $1,200 a year want a Hitler,” “the New Deal is communist” and “the Jewish threat is a real one.”"
"Freeing Wall Street from all controls and driving women out of industry after the war figured prominently in the NAM platform."
"According to Seldes, the 13 most powerful families in the United States and members of NAM are: Ford, du Pont, Rockefeller, Mellon, McCormick, Hartford, Harkness, Duke, Pew, Pitcairn, Clark, Reynolds and Kress. Of these, five were involved in the plot of against Roosevelt: du Pont, Mellon, Pew, Pitcairn and Clark. With the possible exception of three, all of these families had close connections with fascism and arming Hitler."
"By most measures, du Pont’s campaign for free enterprise was an overall success. Even more remarkable is the relatively short time in which it was accomplished. The press suppressed all efforts to oppose this fascist campaign, including Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 11, 1944, in which he proposed an economic bill of rights:
""The right of a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation.
"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.
"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.
"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
"The right of every family to a decent home.
"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.
"The right to a good education.""
"In the Senate report produced by Sen. Black, Special Committee to Investigate Lobbying Activities, letters from members of the Sentinels stated: “the old line Americans of $1,200 a year want a Hitler,” “the New Deal is communist” and “the Jewish threat is a real one.”"
"Freeing Wall Street from all controls and driving women out of industry after the war figured prominently in the NAM platform."
"According to Seldes, the 13 most powerful families in the United States and members of NAM are: Ford, du Pont, Rockefeller, Mellon, McCormick, Hartford, Harkness, Duke, Pew, Pitcairn, Clark, Reynolds and Kress. Of these, five were involved in the plot of against Roosevelt: du Pont, Mellon, Pew, Pitcairn and Clark. With the possible exception of three, all of these families had close connections with fascism and arming Hitler."
................................................................................................
"By most measures, du Pont’s campaign for free enterprise was an overall success. Even more remarkable is the relatively short time in which it was accomplished. The press suppressed all efforts to oppose this fascist campaign, including Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 11, 1944, in which he proposed an economic bill of rights:
""The right of a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation.
"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.
"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.
"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
"The right of every family to a decent home.
"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.
"The right to a good education.""
................................................................................................
"The Taft-Hartley Act emerged out of the fray, over President Truman’s veto. Republican Fred Hartley from New Jersey proposed the bill in the House. Hartley had been more than friendly with the Hitler regime and Japan, if not an outright fascist right up to the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor."
"Hoover was estranged from Dies after the congressman leveled charges that the FBI bungled the mass arrest of Spanish Civil War veterans that resulted in dismissed indictments. The arrest of these veterans who volunteered to fight fascism while the Right Wing was still apologetic to Hitler’s cause stands as one of the great injustices of the 20th century. Their arrests were based solely on their political views, since most members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were either socialists or communists. Their only crimes were their political views. Veterans of the Brigade suffered throughout their lives at the hands of Hoover and the FBI. As late as the 1990s, the FBI was still keeping them under surveillance."
"The Taft-Hartley Act emerged out of the fray, over President Truman’s veto. Republican Fred Hartley from New Jersey proposed the bill in the House. Hartley had been more than friendly with the Hitler regime and Japan, if not an outright fascist right up to the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor."
................................................................................................
"Hoover was estranged from Dies after the congressman leveled charges that the FBI bungled the mass arrest of Spanish Civil War veterans that resulted in dismissed indictments. The arrest of these veterans who volunteered to fight fascism while the Right Wing was still apologetic to Hitler’s cause stands as one of the great injustices of the 20th century. Their arrests were based solely on their political views, since most members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were either socialists or communists. Their only crimes were their political views. Veterans of the Brigade suffered throughout their lives at the hands of Hoover and the FBI. As late as the 1990s, the FBI was still keeping them under surveillance."
................................................................................................
"Just as after WWI, labor unions were among the first groups charged with communist infiltration. One of Dies’ first and primary targets was the longshoremen’s leader Harry Bridges. He was finally deported in 1945 after 10 years of harassment by the Dies Committee and the FBI. Dies extended his attack on Bridges to a sweeping attack against Labor Secretary Frances Perkins."
Here Wikipedia differs, saying he was "prosecuted during 1930s, '40s '50s,with goal of deportation. This was never achieved."
"One target was Eleanor Roosevelt. The FBI covertly leaked derogatory information about her to right-wing publicists."
"Just as after WWI, labor unions were among the first groups charged with communist infiltration. One of Dies’ first and primary targets was the longshoremen’s leader Harry Bridges. He was finally deported in 1945 after 10 years of harassment by the Dies Committee and the FBI. Dies extended his attack on Bridges to a sweeping attack against Labor Secretary Frances Perkins."
Here Wikipedia differs, saying he was "prosecuted during 1930s, '40s '50s,with goal of deportation. This was never achieved."
................................................................................................
"One target was Eleanor Roosevelt. The FBI covertly leaked derogatory information about her to right-wing publicists."
................................................................................................
"Other targets of Dies were California Democratic nominee for governor Culbert Olson, and Sen. Sheridan Downey."
"Downey’s Republican opponent in the election was a millionaire landowner and member of the Associated Farmers, which worked to ban John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath from California public libraries. Knowles went on to found the Western Research Foundation, a blacklist operation that figured prominently in the 1970s and 1980s.
"A final example will prove just how psychopathic Dies was, as well as the extent of his Red hysteria. The case centered on J.B. Mathews’ charges of communist influence in the consumer movement. Mathews and Fred Schlink were consumer advocates until Schlink’s employees unionized and formed a rival Consumer Union. Mathews timed his release to coincide with a 1939 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decision to cite Hearst’s Good Housekeeping for fraudulent advertising. At least one manufacturer claimed the seal could be obtained simply by placing ads in the magazine. Other manufacturers claimed Good Housekeeping would withdraw its seal if the manufacturer discontinued their ads. The FTC decided to act after complaints from retailers and manufacturers. Hearst launched a massive anti-communist advertising blitz, and Dies threatened to open an investigation into the consumer groups. Since these housewives and other manufacturers were threatening corporate America, they were branded as communist and discredited. It simply never occurred to Dies that housewives could have legitimate complaints about a product. They had to be godless Reds and their movement silenced."
"Although the du Ponts’ fascist campaign for free enterprise was an overall success in wrestling control of Congress from the liberals in the 1942 election, the new year brought a change in the fortunes of war. The Russian ally trapped Hitler’s troops at Stalingrad. Montgomery’s troops defeated Rommel at El Alamein. In the South Pacific, the U.S. Navy defeated the Japanese fleet at Midway and in the Coral Sea. The Axis was clearly defeated; it was only a matter of time before they would be forced to surrender.
"With the imminent defeat of Nazi Germany pending in 1943, corporate America had to cover its tracks. The same corporations that were guilty of delaying war production in the sit-down strike and sponsoring pro-fascist groups at home also were guilty of knowingly trading with the Nazis during the war. A massive change in tactics was required to protect them from sedition or treason charges after war’s end."
" ... First, it marked the beginning of targeting those in the government who fully opposed fascism. ..."
"Second, it marked a distinct change in an openly aggressive, antagonistic attitude toward our Russian ally by the Right Wing in America. From 1941 to 1945, J. Edgar Hoover crisscrossed the country delivering speeches on the evils of communism. Each speech was more inflammatory and the threat more urgent than the one before. The House’s Un-American Activities Committee stepped up its attacks on communists, leading to the McCarthy Era. Finally, many Nazis recruited by the CIA intensified the fear.
"Finally, the change in tactics signaled a frantic effort for a negotiated peace. While there had been previous efforts for a negotiated peace, most notably by Texas oilman William Rhodes Davis in 1940, the new attempts clearly marked the beginning of the cover-up of corporate America’s treasonous behavior. Allen Dulles and Prince Hohenlohe began the most significant peace plan during this time. In 1943, Dulles began meeting with Prince Hohenlohe, a Nazi. Dulles falsely claimed to speak for Roosevelt and agreed with Hohenlohe that postwar Germany should be the leader of industrial production in Europe to preserve a bulwark against Russia. Dulles was lying because Roosevelt was leaning toward the Morgenthau Plan calling for complete dismantling of German industry."
"Other targets of Dies were California Democratic nominee for governor Culbert Olson, and Sen. Sheridan Downey."
"Downey’s Republican opponent in the election was a millionaire landowner and member of the Associated Farmers, which worked to ban John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath from California public libraries. Knowles went on to found the Western Research Foundation, a blacklist operation that figured prominently in the 1970s and 1980s.
"A final example will prove just how psychopathic Dies was, as well as the extent of his Red hysteria. The case centered on J.B. Mathews’ charges of communist influence in the consumer movement. Mathews and Fred Schlink were consumer advocates until Schlink’s employees unionized and formed a rival Consumer Union. Mathews timed his release to coincide with a 1939 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decision to cite Hearst’s Good Housekeeping for fraudulent advertising. At least one manufacturer claimed the seal could be obtained simply by placing ads in the magazine. Other manufacturers claimed Good Housekeeping would withdraw its seal if the manufacturer discontinued their ads. The FTC decided to act after complaints from retailers and manufacturers. Hearst launched a massive anti-communist advertising blitz, and Dies threatened to open an investigation into the consumer groups. Since these housewives and other manufacturers were threatening corporate America, they were branded as communist and discredited. It simply never occurred to Dies that housewives could have legitimate complaints about a product. They had to be godless Reds and their movement silenced."
................................................................................................
"Although the du Ponts’ fascist campaign for free enterprise was an overall success in wrestling control of Congress from the liberals in the 1942 election, the new year brought a change in the fortunes of war. The Russian ally trapped Hitler’s troops at Stalingrad. Montgomery’s troops defeated Rommel at El Alamein. In the South Pacific, the U.S. Navy defeated the Japanese fleet at Midway and in the Coral Sea. The Axis was clearly defeated; it was only a matter of time before they would be forced to surrender.
"With the imminent defeat of Nazi Germany pending in 1943, corporate America had to cover its tracks. The same corporations that were guilty of delaying war production in the sit-down strike and sponsoring pro-fascist groups at home also were guilty of knowingly trading with the Nazis during the war. A massive change in tactics was required to protect them from sedition or treason charges after war’s end."
" ... First, it marked the beginning of targeting those in the government who fully opposed fascism. ..."
"Second, it marked a distinct change in an openly aggressive, antagonistic attitude toward our Russian ally by the Right Wing in America. From 1941 to 1945, J. Edgar Hoover crisscrossed the country delivering speeches on the evils of communism. Each speech was more inflammatory and the threat more urgent than the one before. The House’s Un-American Activities Committee stepped up its attacks on communists, leading to the McCarthy Era. Finally, many Nazis recruited by the CIA intensified the fear.
"Finally, the change in tactics signaled a frantic effort for a negotiated peace. While there had been previous efforts for a negotiated peace, most notably by Texas oilman William Rhodes Davis in 1940, the new attempts clearly marked the beginning of the cover-up of corporate America’s treasonous behavior. Allen Dulles and Prince Hohenlohe began the most significant peace plan during this time. In 1943, Dulles began meeting with Prince Hohenlohe, a Nazi. Dulles falsely claimed to speak for Roosevelt and agreed with Hohenlohe that postwar Germany should be the leader of industrial production in Europe to preserve a bulwark against Russia. Dulles was lying because Roosevelt was leaning toward the Morgenthau Plan calling for complete dismantling of German industry."
................................................................................................
"Dulles agreed with the prince that it would be unbearable for any European to think that Jews might return to positions of power. Dulles also said that Americans were only continuing the war to get rid of the Jews and that there were people in America who were intent on sending the Jews to Africa.
"During his talks with Hohenlohe, Dulles gave away the entire battle plan for Europe. He told the Nazi prince that the Allies would not land in Spain, but instead, after conquering Tunisia, would advance toward Ploesti to cut off the German oil supply. This information was extremely useful to the Nazis. Besides freeing any troops needed to guard the Spanish frontier, it meant the Nazis’ supply of tungsten from the Iberian Peninsula was safe. Dulles told Hohenlohe the Allies would invade Sicily to cut Rommel off.
"In other meetings, Dulles spoke of Papal action in negotiations. The Vatican played a significant role in the surrender of Wolff and in helping Nazi war criminals escape from Europe - and justice. In rebuilding Germany, Dulles spoke of preferring Bavaria and described a speech by Goebbels as a work of genius.
"Noting that he was speaking for himself and other right-wing groups in America, Dulles disparaged Churchill and the British in their talks with the Russians over the Balkans. Finally, he requested that the American Embassy in Madrid aid Hohenlohe at any time."
"Another Dulles accomplice was Gerhardt Westrick, who had been a high-level German spy in Washington during WWI. He was a partner in the law firm of Westrick & Albert, which handled the German end of the lucrative reparations loan business with Sullivan & Cromwell. Westrick secured the assets of many American corporations throughout the war. His partner Heinrich Albert was head of the Ford operation in Germany. Albert received orders directly from Edsel Ford in Dearborn, Mich., to build trucks for the German army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Also included in the list of Dulles collaborators was the American Minister Plenipotentiary in Berne, Leland Harrison, who approved shipments of enemy oil through Switzerland, as well as American oil to fuel the German army."
"The talks between Allen Dulles and the Nazi prince as the Third Reich collapsed were remarkably similar to the earlier peace plan by Davis in 1940. The major difference was that Himmler instead of Goering was to replace Hitler. In both cases, the Nazis remained in power and received U.S. aid to preserve a bulwark against Russia. It is not clear whether Dulles ever presented his peace plan to the White House. However, any such plans received a cold shoulder from the White House, because Roosevelt insisted on removing the Nazis from any position of power in Germany."
"Wealthy anti-communist George Earle in Spain advanced a similar plan during the summer. After the Morde plan collapsed, Baron Kurt von Lersner proposed a new plan to Earle. Von Lersner claimed it was approved by a group of German officers, including the officer in charge of Hitler’s cavalry division in East Prussia who would kidnap Hitler and make a peace proposal with only a single condition - the Soviet Union be precluded from invading Germany. Roosevelt again turned down the proposal.
"In 1943, New York attorney Abram Stevens Hewitt advanced another peace plan. Like Morde and Earle, Hewitt falsely claimed to be a Roosevelt representative. The plan was once again similar to those advanced by Dulles and Morde. Early in 1944, Gabrielle Chanel, the perfume magnate, proposed yet another peace plan. Chanel tried to use her friend Lombardi’s connections with the British royal family to advance it.
"These secret and unauthorized negotiations reveal the extent that Dulles and others would go to sabotage the war effort. One item was common to all of these negotiations: The Nazis remained in power in Germany. By 1943, the Allies had clearly defeated Nazi Germany on the battlefield. The battles for Stalingrad and El Alamein were the turning points. Yet there was no talk of free elections in Germany. All plans centered on a more palatable replacement for Hitler, and a government friendly to corporate American collaborators.
"Even more odious, these talks mark the beginning of the Cold War. Not only did these peace plans leave the Nazis in power, but they called for a rearming of Germany as a bulwark against Russia. Corporate America and the rich industrialists had to be protected at all costs against their enemies, real and imagined. The war had been profitable for them and a new war against the Soviets would be too. The benefits and profits of fair trade with Russia would be small in comparison. Corporate America was willing to risk another major war that neither the American nor the Russian people wanted, even if it meant pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust to inflate the bottom line."
"Dulles agreed with the prince that it would be unbearable for any European to think that Jews might return to positions of power. Dulles also said that Americans were only continuing the war to get rid of the Jews and that there were people in America who were intent on sending the Jews to Africa.
"During his talks with Hohenlohe, Dulles gave away the entire battle plan for Europe. He told the Nazi prince that the Allies would not land in Spain, but instead, after conquering Tunisia, would advance toward Ploesti to cut off the German oil supply. This information was extremely useful to the Nazis. Besides freeing any troops needed to guard the Spanish frontier, it meant the Nazis’ supply of tungsten from the Iberian Peninsula was safe. Dulles told Hohenlohe the Allies would invade Sicily to cut Rommel off.
"In other meetings, Dulles spoke of Papal action in negotiations. The Vatican played a significant role in the surrender of Wolff and in helping Nazi war criminals escape from Europe - and justice. In rebuilding Germany, Dulles spoke of preferring Bavaria and described a speech by Goebbels as a work of genius.
"Noting that he was speaking for himself and other right-wing groups in America, Dulles disparaged Churchill and the British in their talks with the Russians over the Balkans. Finally, he requested that the American Embassy in Madrid aid Hohenlohe at any time."
"Another Dulles accomplice was Gerhardt Westrick, who had been a high-level German spy in Washington during WWI. He was a partner in the law firm of Westrick & Albert, which handled the German end of the lucrative reparations loan business with Sullivan & Cromwell. Westrick secured the assets of many American corporations throughout the war. His partner Heinrich Albert was head of the Ford operation in Germany. Albert received orders directly from Edsel Ford in Dearborn, Mich., to build trucks for the German army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Also included in the list of Dulles collaborators was the American Minister Plenipotentiary in Berne, Leland Harrison, who approved shipments of enemy oil through Switzerland, as well as American oil to fuel the German army."
................................................................................................
"The talks between Allen Dulles and the Nazi prince as the Third Reich collapsed were remarkably similar to the earlier peace plan by Davis in 1940. The major difference was that Himmler instead of Goering was to replace Hitler. In both cases, the Nazis remained in power and received U.S. aid to preserve a bulwark against Russia. It is not clear whether Dulles ever presented his peace plan to the White House. However, any such plans received a cold shoulder from the White House, because Roosevelt insisted on removing the Nazis from any position of power in Germany."
"Wealthy anti-communist George Earle in Spain advanced a similar plan during the summer. After the Morde plan collapsed, Baron Kurt von Lersner proposed a new plan to Earle. Von Lersner claimed it was approved by a group of German officers, including the officer in charge of Hitler’s cavalry division in East Prussia who would kidnap Hitler and make a peace proposal with only a single condition - the Soviet Union be precluded from invading Germany. Roosevelt again turned down the proposal.
"In 1943, New York attorney Abram Stevens Hewitt advanced another peace plan. Like Morde and Earle, Hewitt falsely claimed to be a Roosevelt representative. The plan was once again similar to those advanced by Dulles and Morde. Early in 1944, Gabrielle Chanel, the perfume magnate, proposed yet another peace plan. Chanel tried to use her friend Lombardi’s connections with the British royal family to advance it.
"These secret and unauthorized negotiations reveal the extent that Dulles and others would go to sabotage the war effort. One item was common to all of these negotiations: The Nazis remained in power in Germany. By 1943, the Allies had clearly defeated Nazi Germany on the battlefield. The battles for Stalingrad and El Alamein were the turning points. Yet there was no talk of free elections in Germany. All plans centered on a more palatable replacement for Hitler, and a government friendly to corporate American collaborators.
"Even more odious, these talks mark the beginning of the Cold War. Not only did these peace plans leave the Nazis in power, but they called for a rearming of Germany as a bulwark against Russia. Corporate America and the rich industrialists had to be protected at all costs against their enemies, real and imagined. The war had been profitable for them and a new war against the Soviets would be too. The benefits and profits of fair trade with Russia would be small in comparison. Corporate America was willing to risk another major war that neither the American nor the Russian people wanted, even if it meant pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust to inflate the bottom line."
................................................................................................
"By 1944, those supporting the fascist line of corporate rule clearly gained the upper hand. In January 1944, Charles Wilson proposed the wedding of the military to corporate America. Wilson suggested that every large corporation appoint a liaison with the armed forces with a commission of colonel or above in the reserve. The liaison would coordinate industrial production to meet the military’s need."
"Wilson’s proposal reduced the role of Congress to merely providing funds. Under such a system, no congressional investigations were possible. It removed the checks and balances provided in the constitution. Fraud would become widespread under such a system because there would be no congressional investigations into $800 toilet seats or other dubious items.
"Wilson’s words embraced the very heart of fascism and the power that ruled Germany the military-industrial Nazi alliance. In essence, Wilson’s proposal was identical to Germany’s Economic High Command that allowed the Nazis to wage total war.
"Wilson’s proposal formed the basis of what so alarmed Eisenhower a decade later, the military-industrial complex. It became the nerve center from which the Cold War was waged. Congress would be removed from the approval of new weapons systems, and investigating misappropriation of funds and profit mongering."
"During the Allis-Chalmers strike, Charles Wilson spoke of only two problems - unions and communism. The media focused on these two issues into the next decade. Union members, government employees and teachers were forced to sign loyalty oaths. Russia was a new menace. There were no reports in the media of Ford building trucks for the Nazis, or of any other American corporation aiding Germany."
"The use of slave labor by Ford and General Motors, and the seizure of Jewish accounts by the Paris branch of Chase Bank are typical of the crimes corporate America committed during the war. To understand fully how such crimes against humanity have gone unpunished for half a century, one needs to follow the money trail, beginning with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). A look at international financial intrigue paints a vivid picture of the dangers of the World Trade Organization and how it currently imperils freedom globally."
"By 1944, those supporting the fascist line of corporate rule clearly gained the upper hand. In January 1944, Charles Wilson proposed the wedding of the military to corporate America. Wilson suggested that every large corporation appoint a liaison with the armed forces with a commission of colonel or above in the reserve. The liaison would coordinate industrial production to meet the military’s need."
"Wilson’s proposal reduced the role of Congress to merely providing funds. Under such a system, no congressional investigations were possible. It removed the checks and balances provided in the constitution. Fraud would become widespread under such a system because there would be no congressional investigations into $800 toilet seats or other dubious items.
"Wilson’s words embraced the very heart of fascism and the power that ruled Germany the military-industrial Nazi alliance. In essence, Wilson’s proposal was identical to Germany’s Economic High Command that allowed the Nazis to wage total war.
"Wilson’s proposal formed the basis of what so alarmed Eisenhower a decade later, the military-industrial complex. It became the nerve center from which the Cold War was waged. Congress would be removed from the approval of new weapons systems, and investigating misappropriation of funds and profit mongering."
................................................................................................
"During the Allis-Chalmers strike, Charles Wilson spoke of only two problems - unions and communism. The media focused on these two issues into the next decade. Union members, government employees and teachers were forced to sign loyalty oaths. Russia was a new menace. There were no reports in the media of Ford building trucks for the Nazis, or of any other American corporation aiding Germany."
"The use of slave labor by Ford and General Motors, and the seizure of Jewish accounts by the Paris branch of Chase Bank are typical of the crimes corporate America committed during the war. To understand fully how such crimes against humanity have gone unpunished for half a century, one needs to follow the money trail, beginning with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). A look at international financial intrigue paints a vivid picture of the dangers of the World Trade Organization and how it currently imperils freedom globally."
................................................................................................
"The world’s central banks, including the Federal Reserve, created BIS in 1930. BIS was inspired by Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, who later became the Nazi Minister of Economics and president of the Reichsbank. Schacht was raised in Brooklyn and had powerful Wall Street connections."
" ... However, after more than 50 years, the world has yet to catch on. Currently the world’s financial knights are reengineering BIS in the form of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), GATS and other free trade agreements. In effect, all of these so-called free trade agreements would override the Bill of Rights and hold a country responsible for any losses a corporation incurred from any legal action caused by the country or its citizens. Further, these trade agreements prevent a country from withdrawing by assessing penalties for lost income for up to 20 years after withdrawal."
"By the outbreak of war, BIS was under Hitler’s control. BIS directors included Thomas McKittrick, an associate of the Morgans; Hermann Schmitz, head of IG Farben; Kurt von Schroeder, head of the J.H. Stein Bank of Cologne and leading financier of the Gestapo; Walter Funk, president of the Reichsbank; and Emil Puhl, vice president of the Reichsbank. In May 1946 at the Nuremberg Trials, Walter Funk testified that shortly before Pearl Harbor, Chase Bank offered Puhl a major post in New York."
"The first BIS president was Gates McGarrah, formerly of Chase National Bank. During the first two years Hitler was in power, McGarrah was instrumental in financing the Nazis through BIS. In 1940, McKittrick met at the Reichsbank with Kurt von Schroeder and the Gestapo to discuss how to continue doing business if war broke out. On Feb. 5, 1942, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Reichsbank and the German and Italian governments approved orders that allowed McKittrick to remain in charge of BIS. One of the documents of authorization simply stated, “McKittrick’s opinions are safely known by us.” In response, McKittrick gratefully arranged a loan of several million Swiss francs to the Nazi puppet governments of Poland and Hungary."
"On Sept. 7, 1942, McKittrick issued the first annual report after Pearl Harbor by reading it to an empty room. He could thereby report to Washington that no Nazi directors were present. The report itself was sheer Nazi propaganda, assuming an immediate peace in favor of Germany with a sizable distribution of American gold to stabilize the German mark. In the spring of 1943, McKittrick traveled to Berlin in violation of U.S. law, after meeting with Leon Fraser of the First National Bank of New York and the heads of the Federal Reserve. His mission was to provide Emil Puhl with secret intelligence on financial problems and high-level attitudes in the United States.
"On March 26, 1943, liberal California Congressman Jerry Voorhis entered a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for an investigation of BIS. Congress failed to consider the matter. Voorhis was a liberal Californian representative, a supporter of the New Deal and a relentless opponent of fascism. In 1945, Voorhis attacked the policy of placing former officers of American companies tied to IG Farben in the Office of Military Government (OMG), which was tasked with destroying IG Farben. One such person assigned to OMG was Col. Frederick Pope. Before the war, Pope had been a director or top official of more than one of IG Farben’s American affiliates.
"Obviously, if Congress investigated either BIS or IG Farben, the risk was that many American corporations that continued trading with the Nazis would be exposed. Those Nazi sympathizers had but one choice: Voorhis had to be eliminated. The cabal of Nazi supporters selected Richard Nixon to run against Voorhis in the 1946 election.
"At that time, Nixon was an unknown outside California and only a bit player in the state, yet he Nixon received financial support from the Wall Street firm Sullivan & Cromwell. With a big campaign wad, Nixon easily defeated Voorhis by branding him a communist. Nixon later offered the following “Of course I knew Jerry Voorhis wasn’t a communist, but I had to win. That’s the thing you don’t understand. The important thing is to win.”"
"Two of the largest U.S. banks had extensive dealings with Nazi Germany, the Rockefeller-owned Chase Bank and the Morgan-controlled National City Bank of New York. Both banks handled accounts for many of the American corporations that traded with Nazi Germany during the war, such as Standard Oil, Sterling Products, General Aniline & Film, and ITT.
"In charge of European affairs for Chase was Joseph Larkin, a member of the Knights of Malta and a fascist sympathizer. (An abnormal number of Nazis and their supporters were members of the Knights of Malta.) Like McKittrick, Larkin had a long history of aiding the Nazis. Perhaps the first time was in 1936, when he refused a $4 million account for the Loyalists of Spain. When a similar account was opened in the Paris branch, he had the deposit withdrawn. Larkin gladly accepted accounts by Franco and the Reichsbank.
"With the approach of war, the ties between the Rockefellers and the Nazi government solidified. In 1936, the Schroeder Bank of New York entered a partnership with the Rockefellers forming the Schroeder, Rockefeller and Company Investment Bank. Time magazine described the partnership as the economic booster of the Rome-Berlin Axis. Both Allen and John Foster Dulles were lawyers for the firm. Allen Dulles also was on the board of the Schroeder Bank. Six months after the start of the war in Europe, Larkin secured $25 million for the Nazi government. Accompanying the money was a detailed account of the assets and backgrounds of 10,000 Nazi sympathizers in the United States. In essence, the Nazi government was offering the sympathizers a chance to buy marks with dollars at a discounted rate through Chase Bank. This scheme was only open to those willing to return to Germany; a rush on the German mark resulted."
"The world’s central banks, including the Federal Reserve, created BIS in 1930. BIS was inspired by Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, who later became the Nazi Minister of Economics and president of the Reichsbank. Schacht was raised in Brooklyn and had powerful Wall Street connections."
" ... However, after more than 50 years, the world has yet to catch on. Currently the world’s financial knights are reengineering BIS in the form of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), GATS and other free trade agreements. In effect, all of these so-called free trade agreements would override the Bill of Rights and hold a country responsible for any losses a corporation incurred from any legal action caused by the country or its citizens. Further, these trade agreements prevent a country from withdrawing by assessing penalties for lost income for up to 20 years after withdrawal."
"By the outbreak of war, BIS was under Hitler’s control. BIS directors included Thomas McKittrick, an associate of the Morgans; Hermann Schmitz, head of IG Farben; Kurt von Schroeder, head of the J.H. Stein Bank of Cologne and leading financier of the Gestapo; Walter Funk, president of the Reichsbank; and Emil Puhl, vice president of the Reichsbank. In May 1946 at the Nuremberg Trials, Walter Funk testified that shortly before Pearl Harbor, Chase Bank offered Puhl a major post in New York."
"The first BIS president was Gates McGarrah, formerly of Chase National Bank. During the first two years Hitler was in power, McGarrah was instrumental in financing the Nazis through BIS. In 1940, McKittrick met at the Reichsbank with Kurt von Schroeder and the Gestapo to discuss how to continue doing business if war broke out. On Feb. 5, 1942, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Reichsbank and the German and Italian governments approved orders that allowed McKittrick to remain in charge of BIS. One of the documents of authorization simply stated, “McKittrick’s opinions are safely known by us.” In response, McKittrick gratefully arranged a loan of several million Swiss francs to the Nazi puppet governments of Poland and Hungary."
................................................................................................
"On Sept. 7, 1942, McKittrick issued the first annual report after Pearl Harbor by reading it to an empty room. He could thereby report to Washington that no Nazi directors were present. The report itself was sheer Nazi propaganda, assuming an immediate peace in favor of Germany with a sizable distribution of American gold to stabilize the German mark. In the spring of 1943, McKittrick traveled to Berlin in violation of U.S. law, after meeting with Leon Fraser of the First National Bank of New York and the heads of the Federal Reserve. His mission was to provide Emil Puhl with secret intelligence on financial problems and high-level attitudes in the United States.
"On March 26, 1943, liberal California Congressman Jerry Voorhis entered a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for an investigation of BIS. Congress failed to consider the matter. Voorhis was a liberal Californian representative, a supporter of the New Deal and a relentless opponent of fascism. In 1945, Voorhis attacked the policy of placing former officers of American companies tied to IG Farben in the Office of Military Government (OMG), which was tasked with destroying IG Farben. One such person assigned to OMG was Col. Frederick Pope. Before the war, Pope had been a director or top official of more than one of IG Farben’s American affiliates.
"Obviously, if Congress investigated either BIS or IG Farben, the risk was that many American corporations that continued trading with the Nazis would be exposed. Those Nazi sympathizers had but one choice: Voorhis had to be eliminated. The cabal of Nazi supporters selected Richard Nixon to run against Voorhis in the 1946 election.
"At that time, Nixon was an unknown outside California and only a bit player in the state, yet he Nixon received financial support from the Wall Street firm Sullivan & Cromwell. With a big campaign wad, Nixon easily defeated Voorhis by branding him a communist. Nixon later offered the following “Of course I knew Jerry Voorhis wasn’t a communist, but I had to win. That’s the thing you don’t understand. The important thing is to win.”"
"Two of the largest U.S. banks had extensive dealings with Nazi Germany, the Rockefeller-owned Chase Bank and the Morgan-controlled National City Bank of New York. Both banks handled accounts for many of the American corporations that traded with Nazi Germany during the war, such as Standard Oil, Sterling Products, General Aniline & Film, and ITT.
"In charge of European affairs for Chase was Joseph Larkin, a member of the Knights of Malta and a fascist sympathizer. (An abnormal number of Nazis and their supporters were members of the Knights of Malta.) Like McKittrick, Larkin had a long history of aiding the Nazis. Perhaps the first time was in 1936, when he refused a $4 million account for the Loyalists of Spain. When a similar account was opened in the Paris branch, he had the deposit withdrawn. Larkin gladly accepted accounts by Franco and the Reichsbank.
"With the approach of war, the ties between the Rockefellers and the Nazi government solidified. In 1936, the Schroeder Bank of New York entered a partnership with the Rockefellers forming the Schroeder, Rockefeller and Company Investment Bank. Time magazine described the partnership as the economic booster of the Rome-Berlin Axis. Both Allen and John Foster Dulles were lawyers for the firm. Allen Dulles also was on the board of the Schroeder Bank. Six months after the start of the war in Europe, Larkin secured $25 million for the Nazi government. Accompanying the money was a detailed account of the assets and backgrounds of 10,000 Nazi sympathizers in the United States. In essence, the Nazi government was offering the sympathizers a chance to buy marks with dollars at a discounted rate through Chase Bank. This scheme was only open to those willing to return to Germany; a rush on the German mark resulted."
................................................................................................
"Chase’s support of the Nazis was in outright defiance of the U.S. government and treason to the fullest extent. In May 1940, after Roosevelt froze all financial transfers to Europe, New York diamond merchant Leonard Smit began smuggling industrial-grade diamonds to Nazi Germany through Panama. A few days later, at Smit’s request, Chase unblocked his account and allowed the funds to flow to Panama, then on to Nazi Germany.
"In another instance, on June 17, 1940, as France was collapsing, the head of the Treasury Department, Henry Morgenthau, issued an order with FDR’s approval to block French accounts in the U.S. to prevent the Nazis from looting them. Within hours, Chase officials unblocked the accounts and the funds went to Nazi Germany via South America.
"On June 23, 1941, the FBI reported to Morgenthau that its monitoring of funds through Chase banks showed several payments from the Nazis to American oil companies, especially Standard Oil. The pro-Nazi publications from The German-American Commerce Association disclosed connections between Chase Bank, Emil Puhl and the Reichsbank through 1940, and the Reichsbank had accounts at both Chase and National City banks.
"Larkin made great efforts to ensure the Paris branch stayed open even after Pearl Harbor. Throughout the war, Larkin allowed known Nazi collaborator Carlos Niedermann to manage the Paris branch. By May 1942, Harry Dexter White uncovered evidence that Niedermann was enforcing Nazi restrictions on the withdrawal of Jewish funds."
"White, architect of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was arguably one of the government’s most important postwar economists. However, due to his liberal economic policies, as well as his relentless pursuit of the financial dealings of large corporations with the Nazis, he had to be removed. By 1948, the pro-fascists in the United States unjustly branded White as an agent of the Soviet Union. One of his chief accusers was Whittaker Chambers, who may have been a Nazi agent. Even with the recently released Venona tapes, no conclusive evidence exists that White was a Soviet agent, as claimed in several books. White died of a heart attack - three days after testifying before the HUAC committee."
"Chase’s support of the Nazis was in outright defiance of the U.S. government and treason to the fullest extent. In May 1940, after Roosevelt froze all financial transfers to Europe, New York diamond merchant Leonard Smit began smuggling industrial-grade diamonds to Nazi Germany through Panama. A few days later, at Smit’s request, Chase unblocked his account and allowed the funds to flow to Panama, then on to Nazi Germany.
"In another instance, on June 17, 1940, as France was collapsing, the head of the Treasury Department, Henry Morgenthau, issued an order with FDR’s approval to block French accounts in the U.S. to prevent the Nazis from looting them. Within hours, Chase officials unblocked the accounts and the funds went to Nazi Germany via South America.
"On June 23, 1941, the FBI reported to Morgenthau that its monitoring of funds through Chase banks showed several payments from the Nazis to American oil companies, especially Standard Oil. The pro-Nazi publications from The German-American Commerce Association disclosed connections between Chase Bank, Emil Puhl and the Reichsbank through 1940, and the Reichsbank had accounts at both Chase and National City banks.
"Larkin made great efforts to ensure the Paris branch stayed open even after Pearl Harbor. Throughout the war, Larkin allowed known Nazi collaborator Carlos Niedermann to manage the Paris branch. By May 1942, Harry Dexter White uncovered evidence that Niedermann was enforcing Nazi restrictions on the withdrawal of Jewish funds."
................................................................................................
"White, architect of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was arguably one of the government’s most important postwar economists. However, due to his liberal economic policies, as well as his relentless pursuit of the financial dealings of large corporations with the Nazis, he had to be removed. By 1948, the pro-fascists in the United States unjustly branded White as an agent of the Soviet Union. One of his chief accusers was Whittaker Chambers, who may have been a Nazi agent. Even with the recently released Venona tapes, no conclusive evidence exists that White was a Soviet agent, as claimed in several books. White died of a heart attack - three days after testifying before the HUAC committee."
................................................................................................
"Additional evidence shows that Larkin was directing the actions of the Paris branch at least six months after Pearl Harbor. In fact, the Paris branch blocked American accounts while keeping Nazi accounts active. A Treasury report dated Dec. 20, 1944 revealed that Niedermann was a Nazi collaborator with Larkin’s knowledge. The report further revealed that Larkin was aware of the Nazis’ plan to use these accounts after the war as an instrument of German policy in the United States.
"With Larkin’s full knowledge, the Paris branch of Chase handled the account of Otto Abetz, the Nazi ambassador to Paris. Abetz’s account was used to funnel vast amounts of money into several French companies that were collaborating with the Nazis. The money occasionally was used to support the torture of French victims. The New York office maintained constant communications with the Paris branch."
"William La Varne, a dedicated employee of the Department of Commerce, uncovered the details of Standard Oil’s dealings with LATI, the Nazi airline. Not subject to boarding searches by the British blockade, LATI ferried spies into the Americas, and transported large quantities of propaganda and drugs into Latin America, all addressed to Sterling Products. Only Standard Oil could make these flights possible, because the trip from Europe to South America required refueling or high-octane fuel that it controlled. To supply LATI, Farish changed the registration of many of his ships from German to Panamanian. James Forrestal, Undersecretary of the Navy and Vice President of General Aniline & Film (another company with extensive dealing with the Nazis) quickly granted immunity.
"On March 31, 1941, Sumner Welles, a State Department employee, presented a detailed report of refueling stations for Nazi vessels in South and Central America. Chief among the suppliers was Standard Oil of New Jersey and California. On May 5, 1941, the U.S. Legation in Managua, Nicaragua, reported Standard Oil subsidiaries were distributing Nazi propaganda. Further investigations by John Muccio of the U.S. Consulate revealed that Standard Oil distributed Nazi propaganda around the world. Such were the dealings of Standard Oil when Nelson Rockefeller was at his post of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, an intelligence agency with the mission to stop Nazi influence in South America."
"Additional evidence shows that Larkin was directing the actions of the Paris branch at least six months after Pearl Harbor. In fact, the Paris branch blocked American accounts while keeping Nazi accounts active. A Treasury report dated Dec. 20, 1944 revealed that Niedermann was a Nazi collaborator with Larkin’s knowledge. The report further revealed that Larkin was aware of the Nazis’ plan to use these accounts after the war as an instrument of German policy in the United States.
"With Larkin’s full knowledge, the Paris branch of Chase handled the account of Otto Abetz, the Nazi ambassador to Paris. Abetz’s account was used to funnel vast amounts of money into several French companies that were collaborating with the Nazis. The money occasionally was used to support the torture of French victims. The New York office maintained constant communications with the Paris branch."
................................................................................................
"William La Varne, a dedicated employee of the Department of Commerce, uncovered the details of Standard Oil’s dealings with LATI, the Nazi airline. Not subject to boarding searches by the British blockade, LATI ferried spies into the Americas, and transported large quantities of propaganda and drugs into Latin America, all addressed to Sterling Products. Only Standard Oil could make these flights possible, because the trip from Europe to South America required refueling or high-octane fuel that it controlled. To supply LATI, Farish changed the registration of many of his ships from German to Panamanian. James Forrestal, Undersecretary of the Navy and Vice President of General Aniline & Film (another company with extensive dealing with the Nazis) quickly granted immunity.
"On March 31, 1941, Sumner Welles, a State Department employee, presented a detailed report of refueling stations for Nazi vessels in South and Central America. Chief among the suppliers was Standard Oil of New Jersey and California. On May 5, 1941, the U.S. Legation in Managua, Nicaragua, reported Standard Oil subsidiaries were distributing Nazi propaganda. Further investigations by John Muccio of the U.S. Consulate revealed that Standard Oil distributed Nazi propaganda around the world. Such were the dealings of Standard Oil when Nelson Rockefeller was at his post of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, an intelligence agency with the mission to stop Nazi influence in South America."
................................................................................................
"By 1944, America was seriously short of oil. The upcoming D-Day invasion required an even greater amount and a stable supply. Lack of oil would cancel the planned invasion or imperil the troops ashore. At that time, it cost 10 cents a barrel to bring the oil up; another 15 cents in royalties to the Sheikh of Bahrain or 20 cents for drilling in Arabia; another 21 cents in royalties to Ibn Saud. However, before the invasion, W.S.S. Rodgers of Texas Co., and Henry Collier of Standard Oil of California told Ickles the price for the government would be $1.05 a barrel, almost double the current price. The offer was take it or leave it, and Ickles was forced to accept. The threat of an interruption in supply if the U.S. government intervened was explicit. Even more grievous was that Rodgers and Collier paid no income tax on their ill-gotten profits because they registered their company in the Bahamas. Their profit of $120 million was made on a $1 million investment."
" ... However, perhaps the most grievous act of ITT during the war was in providing the Nazis with sophisticated communications equipment that allowed them to break the U.S. diplomatic code.
"In 1945, a special Senate committee on international communications was set up with Burton Wheeler as chairman. In the Appendix to the report, an extensive dossier revealed the co-ownership of RCA and ITT with Germany and Japan. No one noted the significance of the report. As always, the big boys supporting Nazis were immune from prosecution. In fact, shortly after the war, Behn received millions in payment for his war-damaged plants in Nazi Germany, the very same plants that made artillery shells that rained down on the GIs at Normandy and throughout the war."
" ... In 1929, Hermann Schmitz, joint chairman of IG Farben, with Max Ilgner, Walter Teagle, Edsel Ford and Charles Mitchell of National City Bank, set up the American Farben organization. In 1931, Herbert Hoover hosted Schmitz in the White House, sharing his view that Russia must be crushed. Hoover had lost his extensive oil holdings in the Russian revolution. Schmitz was able to sell $13 million of debentures through National City Bank in one morning, a considerable feat in the middle of the Depression."
"By 1944, America was seriously short of oil. The upcoming D-Day invasion required an even greater amount and a stable supply. Lack of oil would cancel the planned invasion or imperil the troops ashore. At that time, it cost 10 cents a barrel to bring the oil up; another 15 cents in royalties to the Sheikh of Bahrain or 20 cents for drilling in Arabia; another 21 cents in royalties to Ibn Saud. However, before the invasion, W.S.S. Rodgers of Texas Co., and Henry Collier of Standard Oil of California told Ickles the price for the government would be $1.05 a barrel, almost double the current price. The offer was take it or leave it, and Ickles was forced to accept. The threat of an interruption in supply if the U.S. government intervened was explicit. Even more grievous was that Rodgers and Collier paid no income tax on their ill-gotten profits because they registered their company in the Bahamas. Their profit of $120 million was made on a $1 million investment."
................................................................................................
" ... However, perhaps the most grievous act of ITT during the war was in providing the Nazis with sophisticated communications equipment that allowed them to break the U.S. diplomatic code.
"In 1945, a special Senate committee on international communications was set up with Burton Wheeler as chairman. In the Appendix to the report, an extensive dossier revealed the co-ownership of RCA and ITT with Germany and Japan. No one noted the significance of the report. As always, the big boys supporting Nazis were immune from prosecution. In fact, shortly after the war, Behn received millions in payment for his war-damaged plants in Nazi Germany, the very same plants that made artillery shells that rained down on the GIs at Normandy and throughout the war."
" ... In 1929, Hermann Schmitz, joint chairman of IG Farben, with Max Ilgner, Walter Teagle, Edsel Ford and Charles Mitchell of National City Bank, set up the American Farben organization. In 1931, Herbert Hoover hosted Schmitz in the White House, sharing his view that Russia must be crushed. Hoover had lost his extensive oil holdings in the Russian revolution. Schmitz was able to sell $13 million of debentures through National City Bank in one morning, a considerable feat in the middle of the Depression."
................................................................................................
"In 1932, Schmitz joined forces with Kurt von Schroeder, a fanatical Nazi and director of BIS and the private bank J.H. Stein. Schroeder was an SS man linked closely with Winthrop Aldrich of Chase Bank, Walter Teagle of Standard Oil, and Behn of ITT. He set up the meeting between Hitler and von Papen that led to Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, and was instrumental in setting up the Circle of Friends of the Economy, a fund for the Gestapo under Himmler’s control. Representatives of ITT and Standard Oil also joined the Circle.
"American IG, the American arm of IG Farben, owned General Aniline & Film (or GAF), and Ozalid, a blueprint firm. GAF supplied the Army and Navy with khaki and blue dye, respectively. This gave Schmitz’s sales agents the perfect cover for spying on U.S. military bases. Also connected through General Aniline was Agfa Ansco, a huge film corporation that provided the Army and Navy with private training films and photographs of secret installations. Every blueprint from Ozalid was sent to Berlin.
"In 1939, with war raging in Europe, all references to IG Farben were dropped and the company transformed into IG Chemie, a Swiss corporation controlled by Schmitz’s brother-in-law with the aid of the National City Bank of New York and Chase Bank. The board of the new corporation still included William Weiss of Sterling Products, Edsel Ford and, in the place of Teagle, James Forrestal, soon to become Navy undersecretary. Another board member was former Attorney General Homer Cummings, a leading defense lawyer for the newly transformed corporation. Cummings supplied Thomsen, the Nazi government’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, with Roosevelt’s plans for Germany. Thomsen passed on this information in a Top Secret telegram to Germany. Eventually, General Aniline was placed under the directorship of Leo Crowley, a friend of big business and big money."
"Norman Littell, an antitrust lawyer in the Attorney General’s office, hounded Sterling Products relentlessly. It galled him that Sterling withheld the Bayer patent for atabrine, a quinine substitute, resulting in thousands of GIs dying needlessly from malaria. Quinine became especially scarce after the Japanese seizure of the Dutch East Indies. Atabrine was freely available to those on the list of Proclaimed Customers in South America, but Crowley refused to release it for use by American soldiers.
"Like many strident anti-Nazis, Littell’s enemies eventually forced FDR to dismiss him. However, just before Roosevelt’s death, he asked to meet with Littell in the Oval Office. FDR told Littell that he would like to see Attorney General Biddle impeached for treason, but in his present weakened physical condition, the task would be too difficult. In 1945, Littell found support in Congress for an investigation of Sterling Drug. Al Smith of Wisconsin and Jerry Voorhis of California entered Littell’s charges into the Congressional Record and demanded a full-scale investigation. The investigation never took place. Within a few days of the resolution, Biddle quietly resigned and ironically took the post of prosecutor at Nuremberg. Littell faced the same fate as many other anti-Nazis in the Roosevelt administration who were forced to resign, their careers ending in shipwreck due to pressure from unseen forces.
"The purge of stringent antifascists from government continued into the 1950s, climaxing with the trial of Alger Hiss. Meanwhile most of the pro-Nazis successfully managed to rehabilitate themselves, thanks to the same unseen forces more powerful than the president. Many pro-Nazi bankers received choice promotions, and pro-Nazi Congressmen remained in office for years after the war. Pro-Nazi publisher Dewitt Wallace was rewarded with an overnight stay in the Lincoln Bedroom for his pro-Nixon slant in Reader’s Digest and his large campaign donations. Wallace personally gave Nixon more than $100,000, and contributed even more to the Nixon campaign by smuggling money through the Bahamas."
"In 1932, Schmitz joined forces with Kurt von Schroeder, a fanatical Nazi and director of BIS and the private bank J.H. Stein. Schroeder was an SS man linked closely with Winthrop Aldrich of Chase Bank, Walter Teagle of Standard Oil, and Behn of ITT. He set up the meeting between Hitler and von Papen that led to Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, and was instrumental in setting up the Circle of Friends of the Economy, a fund for the Gestapo under Himmler’s control. Representatives of ITT and Standard Oil also joined the Circle.
"American IG, the American arm of IG Farben, owned General Aniline & Film (or GAF), and Ozalid, a blueprint firm. GAF supplied the Army and Navy with khaki and blue dye, respectively. This gave Schmitz’s sales agents the perfect cover for spying on U.S. military bases. Also connected through General Aniline was Agfa Ansco, a huge film corporation that provided the Army and Navy with private training films and photographs of secret installations. Every blueprint from Ozalid was sent to Berlin.
"In 1939, with war raging in Europe, all references to IG Farben were dropped and the company transformed into IG Chemie, a Swiss corporation controlled by Schmitz’s brother-in-law with the aid of the National City Bank of New York and Chase Bank. The board of the new corporation still included William Weiss of Sterling Products, Edsel Ford and, in the place of Teagle, James Forrestal, soon to become Navy undersecretary. Another board member was former Attorney General Homer Cummings, a leading defense lawyer for the newly transformed corporation. Cummings supplied Thomsen, the Nazi government’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, with Roosevelt’s plans for Germany. Thomsen passed on this information in a Top Secret telegram to Germany. Eventually, General Aniline was placed under the directorship of Leo Crowley, a friend of big business and big money."
................................................................................................
"Norman Littell, an antitrust lawyer in the Attorney General’s office, hounded Sterling Products relentlessly. It galled him that Sterling withheld the Bayer patent for atabrine, a quinine substitute, resulting in thousands of GIs dying needlessly from malaria. Quinine became especially scarce after the Japanese seizure of the Dutch East Indies. Atabrine was freely available to those on the list of Proclaimed Customers in South America, but Crowley refused to release it for use by American soldiers.
"Like many strident anti-Nazis, Littell’s enemies eventually forced FDR to dismiss him. However, just before Roosevelt’s death, he asked to meet with Littell in the Oval Office. FDR told Littell that he would like to see Attorney General Biddle impeached for treason, but in his present weakened physical condition, the task would be too difficult. In 1945, Littell found support in Congress for an investigation of Sterling Drug. Al Smith of Wisconsin and Jerry Voorhis of California entered Littell’s charges into the Congressional Record and demanded a full-scale investigation. The investigation never took place. Within a few days of the resolution, Biddle quietly resigned and ironically took the post of prosecutor at Nuremberg. Littell faced the same fate as many other anti-Nazis in the Roosevelt administration who were forced to resign, their careers ending in shipwreck due to pressure from unseen forces.
"The purge of stringent antifascists from government continued into the 1950s, climaxing with the trial of Alger Hiss. Meanwhile most of the pro-Nazis successfully managed to rehabilitate themselves, thanks to the same unseen forces more powerful than the president. Many pro-Nazi bankers received choice promotions, and pro-Nazi Congressmen remained in office for years after the war. Pro-Nazi publisher Dewitt Wallace was rewarded with an overnight stay in the Lincoln Bedroom for his pro-Nixon slant in Reader’s Digest and his large campaign donations. Wallace personally gave Nixon more than $100,000, and contributed even more to the Nixon campaign by smuggling money through the Bahamas."
................................................................................................
"Racism increased again in the 1980s after the rise of fundamentalism in the 1970s. An example was the ban on interracial dating at Bob Jones University, an issue that arose in the 2000 primary election. The right wing engaged in frantic efforts to do away with Affirmative Action and to pass hate crime legislation. ... "
"Some fundamentalists have carried out a 20-year campaign of terror against abortion clinics in a low-intensity urban warfare, bombing clinics and murdering staff members. If this campaign were compressed into one night, it would be no different from the Kristallnacht terrorization of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, and voters would demand justice. The use of low-intensity tactics over years has lulled Americans into a false sense of security in the face of the inherent danger posed by these groups.
"This acceptance of violence against abortion clinics was readily obvious after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. In the aftermath, letters containing anthrax spores were delivered to several media sources and liberal members of Congress. However, abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood centers received a deluge of such threatening letters. Although none proved to contain anthrax spores, the FBI showed little interest in searching for the perpetrators. In fact, abortion centers have been receiving such threats through the mail for several years with no response from the FBI.
"By contrast, one action by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) will unleash volumes of ink in the press. The media even express outrage over peaceful protests by environmentalists. They are guilty of throwing flames at leftists while overlooking more appalling actions by rightists. Yet Oklahoma City stands as a testament that the real threat is from the right."
"Religion in this country has always been a big business in itself. The extent of the wealth of churches or religion has been a tidy little secret of which few people are aware. Churches are the largest landowners after the government in this country. The extent of their wealth is mind-boggling. In 1928, the contributions to just 25 denominations exceeded $400 million. Besides this income, churches drew an added $132 million from permanent funds and legacies. The table below reveals a portion of that wealth and the power that goes with it.
Denomination ::==:: Valuation in 1926
"Baptist ::==:: $469,835,000.00
"Congregational ::==:: $165,212,000.00
"Methodist ::==:: $645,736,000.00
"Episcopal ::==:: $314,596000.000
"A quick look at the table puts the total value of those denominations at roughly $2 billion. To put the figures in perspective, the 1926 federal budget was only $2.9 billion."
"Racism increased again in the 1980s after the rise of fundamentalism in the 1970s. An example was the ban on interracial dating at Bob Jones University, an issue that arose in the 2000 primary election. The right wing engaged in frantic efforts to do away with Affirmative Action and to pass hate crime legislation. ... "
"Some fundamentalists have carried out a 20-year campaign of terror against abortion clinics in a low-intensity urban warfare, bombing clinics and murdering staff members. If this campaign were compressed into one night, it would be no different from the Kristallnacht terrorization of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, and voters would demand justice. The use of low-intensity tactics over years has lulled Americans into a false sense of security in the face of the inherent danger posed by these groups.
"This acceptance of violence against abortion clinics was readily obvious after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. In the aftermath, letters containing anthrax spores were delivered to several media sources and liberal members of Congress. However, abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood centers received a deluge of such threatening letters. Although none proved to contain anthrax spores, the FBI showed little interest in searching for the perpetrators. In fact, abortion centers have been receiving such threats through the mail for several years with no response from the FBI.
"By contrast, one action by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) will unleash volumes of ink in the press. The media even express outrage over peaceful protests by environmentalists. They are guilty of throwing flames at leftists while overlooking more appalling actions by rightists. Yet Oklahoma City stands as a testament that the real threat is from the right."
................................................................................................
"Religion in this country has always been a big business in itself. The extent of the wealth of churches or religion has been a tidy little secret of which few people are aware. Churches are the largest landowners after the government in this country. The extent of their wealth is mind-boggling. In 1928, the contributions to just 25 denominations exceeded $400 million. Besides this income, churches drew an added $132 million from permanent funds and legacies. The table below reveals a portion of that wealth and the power that goes with it.
Denomination ::==:: Valuation in 1926
"Baptist ::==:: $469,835,000.00
"Congregational ::==:: $165,212,000.00
"Methodist ::==:: $645,736,000.00
"Episcopal ::==:: $314,596000.000
"A quick look at the table puts the total value of those denominations at roughly $2 billion. To put the figures in perspective, the 1926 federal budget was only $2.9 billion."
................................................................................................
"In 1942, the darkest hour of the war, native fascists unleashed a full-scale assault on the homeland. The Du Ponts, one of the country’s 13 controlling families and notorious Nazi sympathizers, dressed fascism up with a smiley face and labeled it with the electioneering jingle of free enterprise. By 1943, the fortunes of war had shifted; the defeat of Nazi Germany was only a matter of time. Facing exposure with Germany’s defeat, corporate America and the native fascists once again switched tactics. A blizzard of peace proposals was put forth. Common to all was that the Nazis would be left in power and only Hitler would be removed. At the same time, native fascists began a campaign to purge those who firmly opposed fascism.
"By 1944, the same papers that were pro-fascist before Pearl Harbor unleashed a media blitz for an early or easy peace with Germany. The papers were full of articles and editorials proposing peace terms which would leave the Nazis in control. To distract from their past support for the Nazis, native fascists increased attacks on communism. Many of those dedicated to the war against fascism were labeled communist and removed from their positions. By the end of the war, anti-communist sentiment reached feverish proportions. A good example was the defeat of Jerry Voorhis by Richard Nixon.
"However, Roosevelt remained adamant. There would be no easy peace with the Nazis. The only acceptable peace was unconditional surrender. Likewise, FDR was firm in his pledge to bring all who supported the Nazi cause to justice. In this regard, Roosevelt allowed British Intelligence to secretly spy on Americans. The British could use the information to stop shipments of war materiel and money flowing to the Nazis.
"In the operation headed by master British spy INTREPID, Sir William Stephenson soon quickly uncovered damning evidence of American fascists aiding the Nazi cause. British infiltrators learned that America First had received direct funding from Ulrich von Gienanth of the German Embassy and Gunther Hansen-Sturm. The latter had paid Rep. Hamilton Fish a check, of which Stephenson had managed to get a copy. At an America First rally, Stephenson arranged for a group of antifascist infiltrators to give Fish a card with the words “Der Fuehrer thanks you for your loyalty” as cameras captured the moment.
"British agents soon had a wealth of information on those supplying the Nazis. Besides unearthing the many tentacles of IG Farben, British agents had information implicating Chase Bank and National Bank of New York in dealing and trading with the Nazis. Stephenson had information that Kurt Heinrich Rieth was staying in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel to negotiate the sale of Standard Oil’s Hungarian subsidy to the Nazis. Rieth’s father was Standard Oil’s representative in Antwerp. Stephenson leaked the information to the press, and soon Rieth was deported for falsifying his vista."
"In 1941, Stephenson expanded his special operations section, with particular emphasis on South America. They soon uncovered a plot to establish a fascist regime in Uruguay led by Arnulf Fuhrmann. In May 1941, a similar plot in Bolivia was uncovered. Both were foiled."
"Thousands of war criminals and pro-fascists were allowed to immigrate to the United States despite Truman’s ban. The CIA’s reliance on Nazi war criminals, and the native fascist’s hatred of communism and anything liberal, propelled the world toward the brink of nuclear holocaust. For the fascist leaders of corporate America, the resulting Cold War served to cover their past dealings with the Nazis. For the Nazi collaborators, it was much more than just a chance to save their miserable hides. If they could induce a war between the two superpowers, the U.S. and USSR, the Nazis would then have a chance to reestablish a state in Germany."
"In 1942, the darkest hour of the war, native fascists unleashed a full-scale assault on the homeland. The Du Ponts, one of the country’s 13 controlling families and notorious Nazi sympathizers, dressed fascism up with a smiley face and labeled it with the electioneering jingle of free enterprise. By 1943, the fortunes of war had shifted; the defeat of Nazi Germany was only a matter of time. Facing exposure with Germany’s defeat, corporate America and the native fascists once again switched tactics. A blizzard of peace proposals was put forth. Common to all was that the Nazis would be left in power and only Hitler would be removed. At the same time, native fascists began a campaign to purge those who firmly opposed fascism.
"By 1944, the same papers that were pro-fascist before Pearl Harbor unleashed a media blitz for an early or easy peace with Germany. The papers were full of articles and editorials proposing peace terms which would leave the Nazis in control. To distract from their past support for the Nazis, native fascists increased attacks on communism. Many of those dedicated to the war against fascism were labeled communist and removed from their positions. By the end of the war, anti-communist sentiment reached feverish proportions. A good example was the defeat of Jerry Voorhis by Richard Nixon.
"However, Roosevelt remained adamant. There would be no easy peace with the Nazis. The only acceptable peace was unconditional surrender. Likewise, FDR was firm in his pledge to bring all who supported the Nazi cause to justice. In this regard, Roosevelt allowed British Intelligence to secretly spy on Americans. The British could use the information to stop shipments of war materiel and money flowing to the Nazis.
"In the operation headed by master British spy INTREPID, Sir William Stephenson soon quickly uncovered damning evidence of American fascists aiding the Nazi cause. British infiltrators learned that America First had received direct funding from Ulrich von Gienanth of the German Embassy and Gunther Hansen-Sturm. The latter had paid Rep. Hamilton Fish a check, of which Stephenson had managed to get a copy. At an America First rally, Stephenson arranged for a group of antifascist infiltrators to give Fish a card with the words “Der Fuehrer thanks you for your loyalty” as cameras captured the moment.
"British agents soon had a wealth of information on those supplying the Nazis. Besides unearthing the many tentacles of IG Farben, British agents had information implicating Chase Bank and National Bank of New York in dealing and trading with the Nazis. Stephenson had information that Kurt Heinrich Rieth was staying in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel to negotiate the sale of Standard Oil’s Hungarian subsidy to the Nazis. Rieth’s father was Standard Oil’s representative in Antwerp. Stephenson leaked the information to the press, and soon Rieth was deported for falsifying his vista."
"In 1941, Stephenson expanded his special operations section, with particular emphasis on South America. They soon uncovered a plot to establish a fascist regime in Uruguay led by Arnulf Fuhrmann. In May 1941, a similar plot in Bolivia was uncovered. Both were foiled."
................................................................................................
"Thousands of war criminals and pro-fascists were allowed to immigrate to the United States despite Truman’s ban. The CIA’s reliance on Nazi war criminals, and the native fascist’s hatred of communism and anything liberal, propelled the world toward the brink of nuclear holocaust. For the fascist leaders of corporate America, the resulting Cold War served to cover their past dealings with the Nazis. For the Nazi collaborators, it was much more than just a chance to save their miserable hides. If they could induce a war between the two superpowers, the U.S. and USSR, the Nazis would then have a chance to reestablish a state in Germany."
................................................................................................
"Dawn on Oct. 21, 1944 was cool and crisp as the last traces of summer gave way to autumn. The forests around Aachen, Germany were a profusion of autumn colors. At noon, Col. Gerhard Wilck surrendered what remained of the town to the American First Army. It was the first major German city captured. Of its 160,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 remained. The rest were either dead or forced by the Nazis to evacuate.
"The American forces hoped to use Aachen as a model for the 4Ds program - demilitarization, denazification, decartelization and democratization.
"On Nov. 10, Stars and Stripes reflected the upbeat outlook of U.S. forces in an editorial:
""The Americans have come to Germany not to pat child slayers on the head or to feed SS scoundrels with Spam. The Americans have come to this land of gangsters in order to bring villains to justice.
""It is not only American divisions that have entered Germany. Justice has entered Germany and not a single German will venture to cry welcome. For justice carries a sword.""
"There was no shortage of personnel, but there was a failure to assign them to the 4Ds program. The military government had been briefed to appoint a mayor and then leave everything to the Germans. The U.S. officers relied on technical competency, respectability and the ability to speak English in choosing their appointments. They also brought their own class prejudices, which included not choosing socialists, communists, union leaders or men not well-dressed. It never occurred to the occupation forces that the Nazis sent their opponents to the concentration camps, leaving them homeless and dressed in rags. Relying on the bishop was a mistake repeated across Germany, because many Catholic bishops and priests had supported the Nazis. Respect for the clergy and the overall conservative values and political views the American soldiers brought with them contributed to the failure of the 4Ds program.
"These reasons are overshadowed by a much more sinister fact that even affected the conduct of the war. Many of the wealthy and powerful in America aided Hitler and produced arms for him even after Germany declared war on the U.S. These wealthy Americans had to be protected, and they had friends in high places of power to aid them and sabotage the 4Ds programs. Since every war crime trial risked the exposure of American industrialists as Nazi collaborators, they had the war crime trials cut short. Just as they had delayed war production on the home front, they used delay and neglect to hide their Nazi dealings, and sabotaged efforts to mete out justice. Many prominent Americans - including the Dulles brothers, Prescott Bush, Averell Harriman, Henry Ford, and the Rockefellers - deserved to be tried for treason and hanged at Nuremberg.
"Furthermore, the Nazis had their own plan for a comeback that depended on their friends in the United States and other countries, including coordinated efforts in the U.S. and Germany to cancel the Nuremberg trials. One of the ringleaders in the U.S. was Joe McCarthy, who received funding from a known Nazi supporter. Many seemingly innocent events such as press leaks and opposition politics from 1944 to the 1960s may be manifestations of Nazi intrigue. A careful reexamination of the way war crimes and German denazification were handled begins to expose the Nazi comeback plan and their allies."
................................................................................................
"Dawn on Oct. 21, 1944 was cool and crisp as the last traces of summer gave way to autumn. The forests around Aachen, Germany were a profusion of autumn colors. At noon, Col. Gerhard Wilck surrendered what remained of the town to the American First Army. It was the first major German city captured. Of its 160,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 remained. The rest were either dead or forced by the Nazis to evacuate.
"The American forces hoped to use Aachen as a model for the 4Ds program - demilitarization, denazification, decartelization and democratization.
"On Nov. 10, Stars and Stripes reflected the upbeat outlook of U.S. forces in an editorial:
""The Americans have come to Germany not to pat child slayers on the head or to feed SS scoundrels with Spam. The Americans have come to this land of gangsters in order to bring villains to justice.
""It is not only American divisions that have entered Germany. Justice has entered Germany and not a single German will venture to cry welcome. For justice carries a sword.""
"There was no shortage of personnel, but there was a failure to assign them to the 4Ds program. The military government had been briefed to appoint a mayor and then leave everything to the Germans. The U.S. officers relied on technical competency, respectability and the ability to speak English in choosing their appointments. They also brought their own class prejudices, which included not choosing socialists, communists, union leaders or men not well-dressed. It never occurred to the occupation forces that the Nazis sent their opponents to the concentration camps, leaving them homeless and dressed in rags. Relying on the bishop was a mistake repeated across Germany, because many Catholic bishops and priests had supported the Nazis. Respect for the clergy and the overall conservative values and political views the American soldiers brought with them contributed to the failure of the 4Ds program.
"These reasons are overshadowed by a much more sinister fact that even affected the conduct of the war. Many of the wealthy and powerful in America aided Hitler and produced arms for him even after Germany declared war on the U.S. These wealthy Americans had to be protected, and they had friends in high places of power to aid them and sabotage the 4Ds programs. Since every war crime trial risked the exposure of American industrialists as Nazi collaborators, they had the war crime trials cut short. Just as they had delayed war production on the home front, they used delay and neglect to hide their Nazi dealings, and sabotaged efforts to mete out justice. Many prominent Americans - including the Dulles brothers, Prescott Bush, Averell Harriman, Henry Ford, and the Rockefellers - deserved to be tried for treason and hanged at Nuremberg.
"Furthermore, the Nazis had their own plan for a comeback that depended on their friends in the United States and other countries, including coordinated efforts in the U.S. and Germany to cancel the Nuremberg trials. One of the ringleaders in the U.S. was Joe McCarthy, who received funding from a known Nazi supporter. Many seemingly innocent events such as press leaks and opposition politics from 1944 to the 1960s may be manifestations of Nazi intrigue. A careful reexamination of the way war crimes and German denazification were handled begins to expose the Nazi comeback plan and their allies."
................................................................................................
"Because all TICOM documents were classified, it is unknown if the Nazi code breakers received asylum in England or the United States, or if any war criminals received new identities. However, Erich Huettenhain, a Nazi code expert, was brought to the United States.
"As a result, the United States was able to read the messages of the Soviet police, military, KGB and diplomats. The U.S. knew without a doubt the condition of the Soviet Union until 1948, when the Russians discovered their code was compromised. Thus General’s Clay’s warning of an attack that could occur at anytime should have been viewed with suspicion. His letter was directly based on reports from General Gehlen, a former Nazi general. Gehlen was following the Nazi comeback plan of provoking a crisis between the U. S. and Russia."
"The tragic mistakes at Aachen and Dora were repeated across Germany as the Allied armies advanced. Accepted history pretends the criminals faced justice at Nuremberg. Yes, a few high officials did face trial there and were hung. However, far too many criminals escaped justice, many with the help of the Vatican and US forces."
" ... Robert Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for air during WWII, was a lifetime advocate of bombing civilian centers. This is the way the U.S. fought the war in Vietnam and the wars in Iraq. In the end the victor determines what a war crime is, humanity and morality are forced to stand aside. In a single act the Allies unleashed a wave of total destruction on Dresden. As planned, the massive bombing set off a firestorm which wiped wiped out the entire city. Estimates of civilian deaths in Dresden are generally accepted at roughly 70,000, but some estimates range as high as 500,000. Dresden had no military value, there were no military or arms producer in Dresden. It was a civilian center crowded with refugees from the advancing Red Army. The only possible target was the rail switching center, which could have easily been disabled with a few bombs."
"By 1945, the war had reduced most of Europe to rubble. This wholesale destruction came not at the hands of the Nazis, but the Allied air command. The Nazi war machine was destroyed on the battlefield, but at what cost? In Germany, the Allies estimated the bombing campaign destroyed as much as 80 percent of all housing units.
"The effect of the air campaign on industrial centers and munitions makers was different. The Nazi war machine was producing more planes, tanks, trucks and other war material at the end of the war than in 1941. The Army estimated overall production of munitions at the end of the war to be roughly 80 percent of capacity. Militarily, the Allied bombing campaign had been a failure."
"Because all TICOM documents were classified, it is unknown if the Nazi code breakers received asylum in England or the United States, or if any war criminals received new identities. However, Erich Huettenhain, a Nazi code expert, was brought to the United States.
"As a result, the United States was able to read the messages of the Soviet police, military, KGB and diplomats. The U.S. knew without a doubt the condition of the Soviet Union until 1948, when the Russians discovered their code was compromised. Thus General’s Clay’s warning of an attack that could occur at anytime should have been viewed with suspicion. His letter was directly based on reports from General Gehlen, a former Nazi general. Gehlen was following the Nazi comeback plan of provoking a crisis between the U. S. and Russia."
"The tragic mistakes at Aachen and Dora were repeated across Germany as the Allied armies advanced. Accepted history pretends the criminals faced justice at Nuremberg. Yes, a few high officials did face trial there and were hung. However, far too many criminals escaped justice, many with the help of the Vatican and US forces."
................................................................................................
" ... Robert Lovett, Assistant Secretary of War for air during WWII, was a lifetime advocate of bombing civilian centers. This is the way the U.S. fought the war in Vietnam and the wars in Iraq. In the end the victor determines what a war crime is, humanity and morality are forced to stand aside. In a single act the Allies unleashed a wave of total destruction on Dresden. As planned, the massive bombing set off a firestorm which wiped wiped out the entire city. Estimates of civilian deaths in Dresden are generally accepted at roughly 70,000, but some estimates range as high as 500,000. Dresden had no military value, there were no military or arms producer in Dresden. It was a civilian center crowded with refugees from the advancing Red Army. The only possible target was the rail switching center, which could have easily been disabled with a few bombs."
"By 1945, the war had reduced most of Europe to rubble. This wholesale destruction came not at the hands of the Nazis, but the Allied air command. The Nazi war machine was destroyed on the battlefield, but at what cost? In Germany, the Allies estimated the bombing campaign destroyed as much as 80 percent of all housing units.
"The effect of the air campaign on industrial centers and munitions makers was different. The Nazi war machine was producing more planes, tanks, trucks and other war material at the end of the war than in 1941. The Army estimated overall production of munitions at the end of the war to be roughly 80 percent of capacity. Militarily, the Allied bombing campaign had been a failure."
................................................................................................
"Throughout Europe, and in Germany in particular, the scene was much the same. Large industrial plants stood unscathed amid a field of rubble, especially those plants with connections to American firms, like Ford and IG Farben. In fact, the bombing campaign left the IG Farben building in Berlin untouched, and the Allies used it as a command center. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the city, which lay in ruins. This requires a brief look at how the Allies chose bombing targets.
"During WWII, there were no laser-guided bombs that could be dropped through exhaust vents. Precision bombing was still in its infancy. Indeed, the RAF abandoned any attempt at precision bombing and switched to nighttime bombing because of heavy losses suffered in the day. Weather also presented a problem.
"The definition of precision bombing used by the U.S. air force during WWII shows how crude it was. The United States adopted a standard of 70 percent of the bombs falling within a thousand-foot circle as “precision bombing.” The United States was only able to achieve even this crude standard during a single week throughout the war. Often the weather or the need to fly in formation prevented the bombs from some aircraft ever reaching the intended target. WWII target bombing and the way it was implemented in massive bombing raids is more akin to what is termed saturation or carpet-bombing today.
"The U.S. Air Force was not established as a separate branch of the U.S. military command until after the war. The term “air force” is used here to describe American airpower under the Army’s command. At the cabinet level, the air force was under the control of Secretary of War Stimson. This Skull and Bones member supported an “easy peace” with Germany at the end of the war. Roosevelt allowed Stimson to choose his own staff. He chose John McCloy to act as Assistant Secretary in charge of intelligence, civilian affairs and as general troubleshooter. Stimson placed Bonesman Robert Lovett as Assistant Secretary of War for the air. Both McCloy and Lovett had Wall Street backgrounds. McCloy was a former Wall Street lawyer; Lovett was a partner and close friend of Prescott Bush at Brown Brothers and Harriman. It was Prescott who selected Lovett for membership in the Skull and Bones Club. Lovett was a fervent supporter of terror bombing of population centers all his life, including during the Vietnam War. McCloy had an essential role in selecting targets for nondestruction, which meant other targets were selected."
"Another individual involved in the air force command and target selection was Trubee Davison, who also had close contacts on Wall Street. Davison had been the Assistant Secretary of War for air between the wars. However, Davison’s first association with the air force was during his years at Yale during WWI. Trubee formed the special Yale Unit of the Naval Reserve Flying Corps, which was closely associated with Skull and Bones. The Yale Unit was often snidely referred to as the millionaire squadron. While training in Florida, the pilots were often taken to their planes in wheelchairs pushed by black porters. Two other members of the Yale unit were Robert Lovett and Artemus Gates. Since the United States was not yet at war, the unit served under British command. Robert Lovett headed the Yale unit. Trubee’s father, Henry Davison, a senior partner at J.P. Morgan and Co., lavishly financed the unit, which distinguished itself during WWI.
"During WWII, Trubee served directly under Lovett. From June to December 1941, Trubee was deputy chief of staff in the air force combat command with the rank of colonel. From then until his discharge in 1946, Trubee was assistant chief of staff at A-1. He was discharged as a brigadier general.
"Thus the Yale Unit effectively ran the air war during WWII. Robert Lovett was Assistant Secretary of War for air. Directly under him was Trubee Davison. Artemus Gates, another member of the Yale group, served as Assistant Secretary of Navy for air.
"A more interesting factor of this league is their close family ties to Wall Street and the rich elite. Robert Lovett married Adele Quarterly Brown. Miss Brown was the daughter of James Brown, a partner of Brown Brothers and Harriman, and grandson of the founder. Artemus Gates married Trubee’s sister.
"Trubee’s father was a partner with the Morgans. However, this is only a beginning of the Davison family’s connections. Trubee’s wife was Dorothy Peabody, the sister of Malcolm Endicott Peabody, a former Governor of Massachusetts and the grandchild of Marianne Cabot Lee. The Davison family is related to the Rockefellers as in John Davison Rockefeller.
"Trubee Davison had one other connection: Benjamin Strong may have been Trubee’s brother-in-law. The author has found two conflicting reports. In one instance, there was a reported marriage of Henry Davison’s daughter to Strong. The other report does not emphatically suggest a marriage, but does note that after Strong’s first wife died, the Davison family raised the children. Nevertheless, there was a strong bond between Henry Davison and Benjamin Strong. It was Davison who made him a secretary of Banker’s Trust and brought him in as J.P. Morgan’s personal auditor. However, Strong was better known as the first director of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
"James Stillman Rockefeller served with the Airborne Command and Airborne Center as assistant chief of staff. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the General Staff Corps when discharged in 1945.
"These connections extend through time. A good example of this is Prescott Bush’s connection with this circle of elites. It was Prescott Bush who stole the skull of Geronimo as a member of the Skull and Bones Club. In 1986, the Apaches conducted negotiations with George H. W. Bush about its return. Representing Bush was Endicott Peabody Davison, Trubee’s son.
"At the top were several people with detailed knowledge of American investments in Germany. In fact, Lovett was in charge of the entire air campaign, and McCloy was deeply involved in removing targets from the selection list. Both individuals were well aware of American investments in Nazi Germany, and may have had family members with such investments. Under their direct command was another layer of individuals with family ties to the Wall Street firms that invested heavily in Nazi Germany."
"Throughout Europe, and in Germany in particular, the scene was much the same. Large industrial plants stood unscathed amid a field of rubble, especially those plants with connections to American firms, like Ford and IG Farben. In fact, the bombing campaign left the IG Farben building in Berlin untouched, and the Allies used it as a command center. It stood in stark contrast to the rest of the city, which lay in ruins. This requires a brief look at how the Allies chose bombing targets.
"During WWII, there were no laser-guided bombs that could be dropped through exhaust vents. Precision bombing was still in its infancy. Indeed, the RAF abandoned any attempt at precision bombing and switched to nighttime bombing because of heavy losses suffered in the day. Weather also presented a problem.
"The definition of precision bombing used by the U.S. air force during WWII shows how crude it was. The United States adopted a standard of 70 percent of the bombs falling within a thousand-foot circle as “precision bombing.” The United States was only able to achieve even this crude standard during a single week throughout the war. Often the weather or the need to fly in formation prevented the bombs from some aircraft ever reaching the intended target. WWII target bombing and the way it was implemented in massive bombing raids is more akin to what is termed saturation or carpet-bombing today.
"The U.S. Air Force was not established as a separate branch of the U.S. military command until after the war. The term “air force” is used here to describe American airpower under the Army’s command. At the cabinet level, the air force was under the control of Secretary of War Stimson. This Skull and Bones member supported an “easy peace” with Germany at the end of the war. Roosevelt allowed Stimson to choose his own staff. He chose John McCloy to act as Assistant Secretary in charge of intelligence, civilian affairs and as general troubleshooter. Stimson placed Bonesman Robert Lovett as Assistant Secretary of War for the air. Both McCloy and Lovett had Wall Street backgrounds. McCloy was a former Wall Street lawyer; Lovett was a partner and close friend of Prescott Bush at Brown Brothers and Harriman. It was Prescott who selected Lovett for membership in the Skull and Bones Club. Lovett was a fervent supporter of terror bombing of population centers all his life, including during the Vietnam War. McCloy had an essential role in selecting targets for nondestruction, which meant other targets were selected."
................................................................................................
"Another individual involved in the air force command and target selection was Trubee Davison, who also had close contacts on Wall Street. Davison had been the Assistant Secretary of War for air between the wars. However, Davison’s first association with the air force was during his years at Yale during WWI. Trubee formed the special Yale Unit of the Naval Reserve Flying Corps, which was closely associated with Skull and Bones. The Yale Unit was often snidely referred to as the millionaire squadron. While training in Florida, the pilots were often taken to their planes in wheelchairs pushed by black porters. Two other members of the Yale unit were Robert Lovett and Artemus Gates. Since the United States was not yet at war, the unit served under British command. Robert Lovett headed the Yale unit. Trubee’s father, Henry Davison, a senior partner at J.P. Morgan and Co., lavishly financed the unit, which distinguished itself during WWI.
"During WWII, Trubee served directly under Lovett. From June to December 1941, Trubee was deputy chief of staff in the air force combat command with the rank of colonel. From then until his discharge in 1946, Trubee was assistant chief of staff at A-1. He was discharged as a brigadier general.
"Thus the Yale Unit effectively ran the air war during WWII. Robert Lovett was Assistant Secretary of War for air. Directly under him was Trubee Davison. Artemus Gates, another member of the Yale group, served as Assistant Secretary of Navy for air.
"A more interesting factor of this league is their close family ties to Wall Street and the rich elite. Robert Lovett married Adele Quarterly Brown. Miss Brown was the daughter of James Brown, a partner of Brown Brothers and Harriman, and grandson of the founder. Artemus Gates married Trubee’s sister.
"Trubee’s father was a partner with the Morgans. However, this is only a beginning of the Davison family’s connections. Trubee’s wife was Dorothy Peabody, the sister of Malcolm Endicott Peabody, a former Governor of Massachusetts and the grandchild of Marianne Cabot Lee. The Davison family is related to the Rockefellers as in John Davison Rockefeller.
"Trubee Davison had one other connection: Benjamin Strong may have been Trubee’s brother-in-law. The author has found two conflicting reports. In one instance, there was a reported marriage of Henry Davison’s daughter to Strong. The other report does not emphatically suggest a marriage, but does note that after Strong’s first wife died, the Davison family raised the children. Nevertheless, there was a strong bond between Henry Davison and Benjamin Strong. It was Davison who made him a secretary of Banker’s Trust and brought him in as J.P. Morgan’s personal auditor. However, Strong was better known as the first director of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
"James Stillman Rockefeller served with the Airborne Command and Airborne Center as assistant chief of staff. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the General Staff Corps when discharged in 1945.
"These connections extend through time. A good example of this is Prescott Bush’s connection with this circle of elites. It was Prescott Bush who stole the skull of Geronimo as a member of the Skull and Bones Club. In 1986, the Apaches conducted negotiations with George H. W. Bush about its return. Representing Bush was Endicott Peabody Davison, Trubee’s son.
"At the top were several people with detailed knowledge of American investments in Germany. In fact, Lovett was in charge of the entire air campaign, and McCloy was deeply involved in removing targets from the selection list. Both individuals were well aware of American investments in Nazi Germany, and may have had family members with such investments. Under their direct command was another layer of individuals with family ties to the Wall Street firms that invested heavily in Nazi Germany."
................................................................................................
"Unfortunately, we must conclude that the 4Ds program of denazification, decartelization, demilitarization and democratization was sabotaged from the beginning. This sabotage reached epidemic proportions after the Morgenthau plan was made public, following the Quebec meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. Morgenthau was one of the few in the Roosevelt administration who pushed for a “hard peace” following the war. After the Quebec meeting, Morgenthau was counted as the most hated man in America, largely due to the propaganda of pro-Nazi leaders of American industry. Key to sabotaging the 4Ds program was the marginalization and finally the removal of Morgenthau.
"Following the success of the Normandy invasion, Morgenthau had lunch with Gen. Eisenhower in Portsmouth. Morgenthau and his aides, Dexter White and Fred Smith, were eager to sound out Eisenhower’s opinions on postwar Germany. Eisenhower said: “I’m not interested in the German economy and personally would not like to bolster it, if that will make it easier for the Germans.” As far as he was concerned, “the German General Staff should be utterly eliminated and the Nazi ringleaders given the death penalty.” Ike felt that by supporting Hitler, the Germans had been accomplices to everything done in their name, and must not be allowed to escape a sense of guilt of complicity in the tragedy that engulfed the world.
"Eisenhower realized that Morgenthau became his severest critic after he arranged a pragmatic deal with Vichy Admiral Darlan. Nevertheless, Eisenhower was truthful in expressing his views on Germany. In letters to his wife, he often wrote of how he hated Germans. As the war progressed, Ike’s view of the Germans hardened, especially after the first concentration camp was liberated.
"Eisenhower also expressed his opinions on the Soviets to Morgenthau. He felt that a policy of a hard peace would motivate the Soviets to redouble their efforts to help win the European war. He staunchly felt the Russians deserved the right to capture Berlin after suffering horrendous losses. Moreover, Eisenhower was optimistic about postwar relationships with the Soviet Union. He expressed to Morgenthau that Russia had problems of its own that would keep it busy long after they were dead.
"On Jan. 5, 1944, with the Battle of the Bulge raging, Roosevelt’s policy of unconditional surrender came under brutal assault from Sen. Burton Wheeler, the pro-Nazi demagogue, who insisted that most Americans were unwilling to sanction a peace of vengeance against Germany. Nor would they accept America acting as Europe’s policeman, he said. The British embassy in Washington took note, asserting Wheeler’s assault made him anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic."
................................................................................................
"Efforts to mask Nazi assets and business arrangements began in 1943 with the realization that Germany had lost the war and it was only a matter of time before the Nazis surrendered. For the Nazis, this meant they had to transfer their stolen loot out of Germany. For American corporations, the problem was more complex. While their plants were located in Germany, they had to hide behind a thin façade of subterfuge, claiming the Nazis had seized control of their plants. They had to remove dedicated New Dealers who vigorously opposed the Nazis and replace them with dollar-a-year men and Wall Street cronies who would overlook their Nazi dealings.
"By 1945, many of the New Dealers had been replaced. John McCloy and Robert Lovett had deputized numerous Wall Street financial specialists to prowl through the debris of Europe. J. Henry Schroeder Bank’s vice president, Lada Mocarski, was transferred from his adviser post in the War Department to Bern, in time to take over the U.S. Consulate. Allen Dulles also was director of the Schroeder Bank.
"John McCloy was a former Wall Street lawyer. Perhaps his most famous case was the Black Tom explosion, a lawsuit against Germany for sabotaging a munitions factory in New Jersey in 1916. After winning the case, he served as adviser to every president from Roosevelt to Reagan. After the war, McCloy was president of the World Bank and chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Ford Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was one of the original supporters of one world government ruled by corporations.
"Robert Lovett was a Brown Brothers and Harriman employee, a close friend of Prescott Bush, and a Skull and Bonesman. He would later be the prime architect of the CIA."
................................................................................................
"In the summer of 1945, U.S. Treasury officials uncovered evidence that Gero von Gaevernitz, a close associate of Allen Dulles, was exploiting his quasi-official position with the U.S. Legation in Bern to complete some questionable deals with E.V.D. Wright.
"Gaevernitz’s sister married banker Hugo Stinnes, a vigorous Hitler supporter. During the 1920s, Gaevernitz traveled back and forth between the Ruhr and Wall Street arranging deals. As late as 1941, he listed himself as an agent for Schildge Rumohr Inc., a New York dummy corporation better known as Transmares. Dulles expedited the financing for Transmares through J. Henry Schroeder Bank. The Department of Justice identified Transmares as a front for circumventing the British blockade. Gaevernitz pocketed a 30,000-franc payoff for inducing North German Lloyd to allow the cross-registration of a vessel from a Finnish to Swiss flag. He laundered the money through E.V.D. Wright in Portugal and continued to oversee Stinnes holdings in Germany and Switzerland.
"The obvious connections between top officials in postwar Germany and their past dealings with Nazis did not pass entirely unnoticed. As previously noted, both Treasury Secretary Morgenthau and the Kilgore Committee were alarmed, as were others in Europe. In the airgram A-1052 sent on Sept. 15, 1945 from Switzerland by Leland Harrison to the Secretary of State, the London Embassy and Robert Murphy noted the connection with the Stinnes bank:
""In view of the recent reports of the arrest of Hugo Stinnes Jr. in Germany, The Department may wish to consider, with other interested agencies, the advisability of having former Stinnes associates employed by the American government agencies to advise military as to German nationals helpful in building a democratic Germany."
"The airgram blindsided Dulles. In a long rambling defense of Gaevernitz, he claimed such connections were necessary to gain information. However, Dulles did not mention the connection between Gaevernitz and Transmares.
"While Dulles faced serious allegations of treason immediately after the war, he had help from the highest levels of the military occupation government. William Draper, who headed the Economic Division, was emphatically against decartelization. Draper, James Forrestal and Paul Nitze had risen to the senior management level at Dillon and Read before the war."
"Efforts to mask Nazi assets and business arrangements began in 1943 with the realization that Germany had lost the war and it was only a matter of time before the Nazis surrendered. For the Nazis, this meant they had to transfer their stolen loot out of Germany. For American corporations, the problem was more complex. While their plants were located in Germany, they had to hide behind a thin façade of subterfuge, claiming the Nazis had seized control of their plants. They had to remove dedicated New Dealers who vigorously opposed the Nazis and replace them with dollar-a-year men and Wall Street cronies who would overlook their Nazi dealings.
"By 1945, many of the New Dealers had been replaced. John McCloy and Robert Lovett had deputized numerous Wall Street financial specialists to prowl through the debris of Europe. J. Henry Schroeder Bank’s vice president, Lada Mocarski, was transferred from his adviser post in the War Department to Bern, in time to take over the U.S. Consulate. Allen Dulles also was director of the Schroeder Bank.
"John McCloy was a former Wall Street lawyer. Perhaps his most famous case was the Black Tom explosion, a lawsuit against Germany for sabotaging a munitions factory in New Jersey in 1916. After winning the case, he served as adviser to every president from Roosevelt to Reagan. After the war, McCloy was president of the World Bank and chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Ford Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was one of the original supporters of one world government ruled by corporations.
"Robert Lovett was a Brown Brothers and Harriman employee, a close friend of Prescott Bush, and a Skull and Bonesman. He would later be the prime architect of the CIA."
................................................................................................
"In the summer of 1945, U.S. Treasury officials uncovered evidence that Gero von Gaevernitz, a close associate of Allen Dulles, was exploiting his quasi-official position with the U.S. Legation in Bern to complete some questionable deals with E.V.D. Wright.
"Gaevernitz’s sister married banker Hugo Stinnes, a vigorous Hitler supporter. During the 1920s, Gaevernitz traveled back and forth between the Ruhr and Wall Street arranging deals. As late as 1941, he listed himself as an agent for Schildge Rumohr Inc., a New York dummy corporation better known as Transmares. Dulles expedited the financing for Transmares through J. Henry Schroeder Bank. The Department of Justice identified Transmares as a front for circumventing the British blockade. Gaevernitz pocketed a 30,000-franc payoff for inducing North German Lloyd to allow the cross-registration of a vessel from a Finnish to Swiss flag. He laundered the money through E.V.D. Wright in Portugal and continued to oversee Stinnes holdings in Germany and Switzerland.
"The obvious connections between top officials in postwar Germany and their past dealings with Nazis did not pass entirely unnoticed. As previously noted, both Treasury Secretary Morgenthau and the Kilgore Committee were alarmed, as were others in Europe. In the airgram A-1052 sent on Sept. 15, 1945 from Switzerland by Leland Harrison to the Secretary of State, the London Embassy and Robert Murphy noted the connection with the Stinnes bank:
""In view of the recent reports of the arrest of Hugo Stinnes Jr. in Germany, The Department may wish to consider, with other interested agencies, the advisability of having former Stinnes associates employed by the American government agencies to advise military as to German nationals helpful in building a democratic Germany."
"The airgram blindsided Dulles. In a long rambling defense of Gaevernitz, he claimed such connections were necessary to gain information. However, Dulles did not mention the connection between Gaevernitz and Transmares.
"While Dulles faced serious allegations of treason immediately after the war, he had help from the highest levels of the military occupation government. William Draper, who headed the Economic Division, was emphatically against decartelization. Draper, James Forrestal and Paul Nitze had risen to the senior management level at Dillon and Read before the war."
................................................................................................
"As early as 1942, there were clear signals of corporate America’s connivance to continue doing business with the German cartels as if the war had never taken place. In a speech on June 3, 1942 before the Illinois Bar Association, Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold warned:
""The secret influence of the international cartel is going to be thrown in favor of peace without victory when the first opportunity arises - just as it was thrown in that direction at Munich.
""The small group of American businessmen who are parties to these international rings are not unpatriotic, but they still think of war as a temporary recess from business as usual with a strong Germany. They expect to begin the game all over again after the war.
""It is significant that all these cartel leaders still talk and think as if the war would end in a stalemate, and that therefore, they must be in a position to continue their arrangements with a strong Germany after the war. This is not shown by their speeches, but by actual documents and memoranda of business policy which we find in their files.""
" ... As of June 1942, corporate America had not given up hope of negotiating a peace with the Nazis. Arnold effectively predicted the outbreak of the Cold War. Perhaps the only error Arnold made in his speech was to say that these treasonous corporate leaders were “not unpatriotic.”"
................................................................................................
"From the start, the debate between Washington and London on what comprised a war crime was haunted by the failure of the Leipzig trials following WWI.
"In 1940, the exiled government of Poland first raised the question of punishing war criminals in WWII, but the British Foreign Office opposed the initiative. The issue of war crimes then remained stalled until after the German invasion of Russia, characterized by a horrendous increase in Nazi brutality. Existing international law was inadequate to address the crimes committed. An agreement was needed between the three big powers to adjust the international law to address the horrors of the war.
"Periodically, the British issued statements to fortify the morale of the people trapped in occupied countries. On Oct. 21, 1940, Churchill stated that all crimes of Hitler would be on him and on all who belonged to his system. In May 1941, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden spoke of a reckoning that would be wide and fierce. On June 12, 1941, following the Nazi invasion of Russia, Churchill stated: “These quislings, like Nazi leaders, if not disposed of by their fellow countrymen - which would save trouble - will be delivered by us on the morrow of victory to the justice of Allied tribunals.”
:Germany’s invasion of Russia marked a turning point in the relations between Poland and Britain. Britain, seeking allies against Germany, was now intent on improving relations with the Soviet Union. The exiled Polish government wanted to preserve its 1939 borders, while Moscow was insistent on keeping the Polish territory ceded to Russia following the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement. Therefore, Polish wishes rested on the greater goals of British geopolitics.
"By the autumn of 1941, the Foreign Office had to contend with growing unrest in both the Cabinet and Parliament in response to reports of German atrocities. In September 1941, Hugh Dalton, Labor MP and minister of Economic Warfare, called Eden’s attention to the German practice of executing hostages whenever partisan forces attacked. Dalton proposed telling the people of Europe to keep a list of names of all those involved in executing hostages, including the commanding officer. After liberation, those on the lists would be hunted down and summarily executed. The Foreign Office remained cold to Dalton’s proposal and warned against a repetition of the “Hang the Kaiser” campaign after WWI.
"Recognizing the growing concern over Nazi atrocities, Eden asked the War Cabinet on Oct. 1, 1941 to approve a statement similar to the Ango-Franco-Polish declaration of April 1940. The draft declaration was a vague statement unacceptable to the War Cabinet. The Foreign Office quickly revised the declaration as follows:
""We therefore publicly declare that brutalities which are being committed in occupied countries are contrary to the dictates of humanity; are a reversion to barbarism; and will meet with sure retribution. To this end, we are united in our resolve to win freedom of the oppressed peoples and to execute justice. The methods of oppression and terror used by Hitler are such that many people, including Germans and Italians, are ignorant of the full facts. When these things are known, world opinion will not allow the criminals to escape just punishment for their crimes. The facts are being put on record so that in due time the world may pronounce its judgment. With victory will come retribution."
"Leaders in Parliament called for a stronger declaration. The Foreign Office did not deliver the declaration to the United States and Soviet Union until Oct. 21, which signaled the low priority it gave the war crimes issue. Four days later, in an unexpected move, Roosevelt issued a statement condemning the execution of 50 hostages in Nantes in reprisal for the shooting of the military commander of the region. Roosevelt’s statement compelled the Foreign Office to make several quick decisions. Churchill responded immediately to Roosevelt’s statement, concluding: “Retribution for these crimes must henceforth take its place among the major purposes of the war.”
"Also plaguing the establishment of a unified war crimes declaration was the tendency of both London and Washington to dismiss the Soviet reports as exaggerations, or worse, as imaginary. Yet some of the most brutal war crimes, such as the Babi Yar massacre, were occurring on the Eastern Front."
................................................................................................
"After Churchill’s remarks on Oct. 25, various Allies weighed in. The Australians thought the statement to be couched in inappropriate language and should be simplified, dropping all remarks about retributions. Governments-in-exile disagreed. The Greeks accepted the British statement in principle but insisted on adding Bulgaria’s name to the war crimes declaration. The Yugoslav government wanted to include all forms of atrocities, including dive bombing, burning of villages and others. It also wanted to indict Nazi quisling governments, including the so-called Independent Croatia.
"However, the War Cabinet approved the Foreign Office stance, and the statements by Roosevelt and Churchill made a joint resolution by the Allies unnecessary. Frank Roberts, the first Acting Secretary in the Central Department of the Foreign Office, argued for keeping Britain from signing a joint declaration, so as not to be committed to whatever determination the Allies might reach at the war’s end. Many in the Foreign Office wanted to go further and free Britain of any commitment to making a list of war criminals or engaging in any preparation of any registry of atrocities.
"Britain ultimately chose not to associate itself with the proposed declaration. Further complicating matters was a dispute among the Allies about including the Soviet Union as a signer of the declaration. The Poles, Czechs and Yugoslavs sided with England in favor, but most other governments were against. The United States, not yet at war, declined to attend any joint signing of the declaration."
Extremely interesting:-
"The meeting of the Allies took place on Jan. 13, 1942. Representatives from nine nations took part: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia and the French National Committee. Also present, as observers, were the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, China, the Dominions and India. Eden addressed the group with caution, concluding that the governments of occupied territories should take the initiative in declaring the principles by which they will be guided once liberated."
Fùnny, did they not realise that India, the Dominions, and even U.S. for that matter, were then occupied territories? Which, except for India, still are? Or do they equate the natives to zero, which is what nazis did without subterfuge of giving them other, false names?
"After Churchill’s remarks on Oct. 25, various Allies weighed in. The Australians thought the statement to be couched in inappropriate language and should be simplified, dropping all remarks about retributions. Governments-in-exile disagreed. The Greeks accepted the British statement in principle but insisted on adding Bulgaria’s name to the war crimes declaration. The Yugoslav government wanted to include all forms of atrocities, including dive bombing, burning of villages and others. It also wanted to indict Nazi quisling governments, including the so-called Independent Croatia.
"However, the War Cabinet approved the Foreign Office stance, and the statements by Roosevelt and Churchill made a joint resolution by the Allies unnecessary. Frank Roberts, the first Acting Secretary in the Central Department of the Foreign Office, argued for keeping Britain from signing a joint declaration, so as not to be committed to whatever determination the Allies might reach at the war’s end. Many in the Foreign Office wanted to go further and free Britain of any commitment to making a list of war criminals or engaging in any preparation of any registry of atrocities.
"Britain ultimately chose not to associate itself with the proposed declaration. Further complicating matters was a dispute among the Allies about including the Soviet Union as a signer of the declaration. The Poles, Czechs and Yugoslavs sided with England in favor, but most other governments were against. The United States, not yet at war, declined to attend any joint signing of the declaration."
................................................................................................
Extremely interesting:-
"The meeting of the Allies took place on Jan. 13, 1942. Representatives from nine nations took part: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia and the French National Committee. Also present, as observers, were the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, China, the Dominions and India. Eden addressed the group with caution, concluding that the governments of occupied territories should take the initiative in declaring the principles by which they will be guided once liberated."
Fùnny, did they not realise that India, the Dominions, and even U.S. for that matter, were then occupied territories? Which, except for India, still are? Or do they equate the natives to zero, which is what nazis did without subterfuge of giving them other, false names?
................................................................................................
"While the atrocities increased in Poland, the Polish government-in-exile began demanding more than just declarations. It asked the British to conduct bombing raids in central and western Germany in retaliation for 100 hostages executed by the Nazis in Warsaw. The Foreign Office refused the request. Another Polish demand called for executing five Germans after the war for each Pole, Yugoslav or Czech killed. They further demanded a special air force unit be created for the daily bombing of a German town that had no military value, in reprisal for Nazi atrocities committed in Poland.
"The Poles were not the only occupied nation that demanded stronger measures from Britain. After the Nazis ravaged Lidice, the Czechs demanded that RAF raze a German village. The Foreign Office turned this demand down, too. In response to British inaction, the Czechs announced that they unilaterally would judge and punish those responsible. The Czech list included Hitler and members of his government, all representatives of Germany stationed in Czechoslovakia and their subordinates, as well as any German or Czech who aided them, even indirectly.
"Objecting that it was not consulted in advance, the Foreign Office condemned the Czech action as inexcusable. Britain’s rejection of the demands of the Poles and Czechs was not totally without reason. So far, Britain had fared badly in the war and there was a legitimate concern about German reprisals against captured British POWs. British mistrust of claims coming from Eastern Europe contributed to the rejections. Retaliation against civilians was ethically unsound, to be sure - but no more than the indiscriminate carpet bombing already indulged in by the US and UK. In short, the meeting accomplished little, except to make a show of concern about war crimes."
"Two of the biggest stumbling blocks between Britain and the Soviets were the case of Rudolf Hess and the inclusion of the Dominions. The Soviets wanted immediate trials, including that of Hess; the British wanted to wait until after the war before beginning any trials. The British also wanted to include the Dominions, such as New Zealand and South Africa, on the commission. The Soviets opposed including the Dominions unless each of the Soviet states received equal status. This also was a bedrock issue for the Soviets in forming the present United Nations. By demanding the Dominions each have a separate vote, British influence was multiplied several fold; denying the Soviet demand for a vote for each of its states weakened its overall influence."
Notice Brits demanding a place for "dominions", translated "lands stolen completely from natives, citizens mostly European migrants, with negligible, ignored, dominated and pushed into corners natives"; but India, the Jewel In The Crown, indeed the land where jewels, food and most of Brit wealth was sourced from, by looting India, wasn't to have a place; and yet the whole reason for the rivalry, animosity and suspicion from U.K. towards USSR was lest India be free and Russia, close neighbour, be able to influence India.
How overt the racism!
"While the atrocities increased in Poland, the Polish government-in-exile began demanding more than just declarations. It asked the British to conduct bombing raids in central and western Germany in retaliation for 100 hostages executed by the Nazis in Warsaw. The Foreign Office refused the request. Another Polish demand called for executing five Germans after the war for each Pole, Yugoslav or Czech killed. They further demanded a special air force unit be created for the daily bombing of a German town that had no military value, in reprisal for Nazi atrocities committed in Poland.
"The Poles were not the only occupied nation that demanded stronger measures from Britain. After the Nazis ravaged Lidice, the Czechs demanded that RAF raze a German village. The Foreign Office turned this demand down, too. In response to British inaction, the Czechs announced that they unilaterally would judge and punish those responsible. The Czech list included Hitler and members of his government, all representatives of Germany stationed in Czechoslovakia and their subordinates, as well as any German or Czech who aided them, even indirectly.
"Objecting that it was not consulted in advance, the Foreign Office condemned the Czech action as inexcusable. Britain’s rejection of the demands of the Poles and Czechs was not totally without reason. So far, Britain had fared badly in the war and there was a legitimate concern about German reprisals against captured British POWs. British mistrust of claims coming from Eastern Europe contributed to the rejections. Retaliation against civilians was ethically unsound, to be sure - but no more than the indiscriminate carpet bombing already indulged in by the US and UK. In short, the meeting accomplished little, except to make a show of concern about war crimes."
................................................................................................
"Two of the biggest stumbling blocks between Britain and the Soviets were the case of Rudolf Hess and the inclusion of the Dominions. The Soviets wanted immediate trials, including that of Hess; the British wanted to wait until after the war before beginning any trials. The British also wanted to include the Dominions, such as New Zealand and South Africa, on the commission. The Soviets opposed including the Dominions unless each of the Soviet states received equal status. This also was a bedrock issue for the Soviets in forming the present United Nations. By demanding the Dominions each have a separate vote, British influence was multiplied several fold; denying the Soviet demand for a vote for each of its states weakened its overall influence."
Notice Brits demanding a place for "dominions", translated "lands stolen completely from natives, citizens mostly European migrants, with negligible, ignored, dominated and pushed into corners natives"; but India, the Jewel In The Crown, indeed the land where jewels, food and most of Brit wealth was sourced from, by looting India, wasn't to have a place; and yet the whole reason for the rivalry, animosity and suspicion from U.K. towards USSR was lest India be free and Russia, close neighbour, be able to influence India.
How overt the racism!
................................................................................................
"On Oct. 20, 1943, representatives from 17 nations met in London to inaugurate the UNWCC. The Soviets were absent. The Dutch representative disagreed with the British view, which limited the commission to investigating and recording evidence of war crimes. The Dutch proposed the commission be actively involved in preparing the trials. The Chinese representative raised another troublesome point for the British. They wanted to include all war crimes dating back to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The British feared granting this request would open the door for the Czechs to demand investigations back to the Munich agreement, in which the British role was less than exemplary. Beyond a vote to set up the commission and the headquarters’ location, nothing substantial was accomplished."
Indeed, British government could be indicted and convicted for stealing harvest from India and being so callous about resulting death of millions in India as to disallow aid ships of grain sent by FDR to proceed further after they arrived at Australia. Churchill was explicit in stating that India starving to death was not worthy of a thought.
"On Nov. 1, the Big Three signed the Moscow Declaration on prosecuting war criminals. The document ended with the following words:
""Let those who have hitherto not imbrued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done. The above declaration is without prejudice to the case of major criminals, whose offences have no particular geographical localization and who will be punished by the joint decision of the Governments of the Allies.""
Again, extremely interesting - when they signed it, was humanity considered limited to totally European ancestry?
"This was the only substantial agreement among the Allies about punishment of war criminals. Although its principles served as a guide for the Allies, it did nothing to bridge the differences to bring the Soviets into UNWCC. The Soviets and British remained at odds over including the Dominions vs. the various Soviet Republics. There were other obstacles to Soviet participation, especially the failure of the Allies to open a second front in 1942.
"In mid-July 1943, the Soviet Union put 11 of its citizens on trial for high treason for aiding the German forces around the town of Krasnodar and for their role in helping annihilate 7,000 people. Eight Soviets were sentenced to hang; the remaining defendants were deported or sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Moscow obviously wished to prove its commitment to punishing war criminals and to a joint policy. The Soviets held many German POWs, including many believed to be guilty of war crimes.
"Several weeks after the hangings, Soviet scholar Professor A. Farrin published an English version of War and the Working Class. This publication hinted at being the official viewpoint of the Soviet Union. The article divided war criminals into four classes. The first class included Hitler and his cabinet ministers. The second class included party leaders and the German Army Command. Financial and industrial leaders made up the third class. The fourth group was defined as those who benefited from the Nazi plundering, such as by receiving stolen goods or exploiting slave labor."
Hmmmmmmmm?!!!! That last does fit Brits.
"On Oct. 20, 1943, representatives from 17 nations met in London to inaugurate the UNWCC. The Soviets were absent. The Dutch representative disagreed with the British view, which limited the commission to investigating and recording evidence of war crimes. The Dutch proposed the commission be actively involved in preparing the trials. The Chinese representative raised another troublesome point for the British. They wanted to include all war crimes dating back to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The British feared granting this request would open the door for the Czechs to demand investigations back to the Munich agreement, in which the British role was less than exemplary. Beyond a vote to set up the commission and the headquarters’ location, nothing substantial was accomplished."
Indeed, British government could be indicted and convicted for stealing harvest from India and being so callous about resulting death of millions in India as to disallow aid ships of grain sent by FDR to proceed further after they arrived at Australia. Churchill was explicit in stating that India starving to death was not worthy of a thought.
................................................................................................
"On Nov. 1, the Big Three signed the Moscow Declaration on prosecuting war criminals. The document ended with the following words:
""Let those who have hitherto not imbrued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done. The above declaration is without prejudice to the case of major criminals, whose offences have no particular geographical localization and who will be punished by the joint decision of the Governments of the Allies.""
Again, extremely interesting - when they signed it, was humanity considered limited to totally European ancestry?
"This was the only substantial agreement among the Allies about punishment of war criminals. Although its principles served as a guide for the Allies, it did nothing to bridge the differences to bring the Soviets into UNWCC. The Soviets and British remained at odds over including the Dominions vs. the various Soviet Republics. There were other obstacles to Soviet participation, especially the failure of the Allies to open a second front in 1942.
"In mid-July 1943, the Soviet Union put 11 of its citizens on trial for high treason for aiding the German forces around the town of Krasnodar and for their role in helping annihilate 7,000 people. Eight Soviets were sentenced to hang; the remaining defendants were deported or sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Moscow obviously wished to prove its commitment to punishing war criminals and to a joint policy. The Soviets held many German POWs, including many believed to be guilty of war crimes.
"Several weeks after the hangings, Soviet scholar Professor A. Farrin published an English version of War and the Working Class. This publication hinted at being the official viewpoint of the Soviet Union. The article divided war criminals into four classes. The first class included Hitler and his cabinet ministers. The second class included party leaders and the German Army Command. Financial and industrial leaders made up the third class. The fourth group was defined as those who benefited from the Nazi plundering, such as by receiving stolen goods or exploiting slave labor."
Hmmmmmmmm?!!!! That last does fit Brits.
................................................................................................
"At Teheran, Stalin tried to translate Farrin’s principles into numbers. Only two weeks after the Teheran conference, the Soviets put on trial three Germans and a Russian collaborator in Kharkov. The Soviets accused the defendants of using gas vans, in which the exhaust was pumped into the compartment holding prisoners, shooting POWs and executing thousands of Soviet citizens. Once again, the trial also brought charges against the heads of the Nazi government. On Dec. 19, Russia hanged the four defendants. American reporters who followed the trial were convinced of the guilt of the defendants and of the genuineness of the charges. They also thought the Soviets had been punctilious in following legal proprieties.
"The Kharkov trial opened an old wound between the Soviets and London. The Soviets had always been in favor of immediate trials. Britain and the U.S. wanted to wait until the end of the war to hold trials, supposedly due to fears such trials could provoke retaliations by the Nazis against British and American POWs.
"Within days of the Kharkov trial, the Nazis took the cue and sought to drive a wedge between the Big Three by threatening to put POWs on trial for serious breaches of international law. In January 1944, information reached Washington of protests by high military officers in Germany against any trials of American or British POWs in reprisal for the Russian trials. At the end of March, Germany published a statement that the preparations for trials of POWs for war crimes were well advanced. Britain and the United States asked the Soviets to stop holding any more trials until after the war’s end. Russia complied.
"Just before the Teheran Conference, Churchill proposed a radical plan of summary executions of high-ranking Nazis accused of war crimes that were not limited to a particular geographic location. Churchill’s plan allowed the nearest officer of major general rank to convene a court of inquiry, not for deciding guilt, but solely to prove identity. Once identified, the officer would order his execution within six hours. Churchill approved a shortlist of war criminals who would be subject to his proposal. The Foreign Office opposed his plan, as did the Soviets.
"The Roosevelt administration was divided on the terms for postwar Germany and war crimes. Morgenthau urged a hard peace and broad war crime investigations. Secretary of War Stimson led a faction sympathetic to Germany. The military had prepared the booklet, Handbook of Military Government, which reflected the views of the top military officials favoring an immediate restoration of Germany. Many of the military officers thought the U.S. was fighting the wrong enemy, and should be at war with the Soviets."
"On Sept. 5 Morgenthau presented Roosevelt with a comprehensive memorandum, Program to Prevent Germany from Starting a World War III. Known as the Morgenthau Plan, it called for complete dismantling of Germany’s industrial base and severe punishment for war crimes. Since the State Department already had documents pointing out the Nazis’ plans to go underground and start a new war, Roosevelt had reasons to reject an easy peace with Germany.
"Stimson vigorously opposed the Morgenthau Plan, and was soon joined by George Marshall and Gen. Myron Cramer. When Roosevelt left for the Quebec conference, he took no senior aides, and his administration had no set policy on the course of action for postwar Germany. In Quebec, it soon became obvious to Roosevelt that Churchill’s main focus was on postwar aid to Britain. Consequently, Roosevelt placed a call to his Treasury Secretary and Morgenthau rushed to the conference. It ended with agreement on the Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany.
"Before the end of September, the press leaked the contents of the Morgenthau Plan, which came under heavy fire. With only six weeks to the election, Dewey saw his chances for victory over Roosevelt improved. Dewey charged that with such a heavy-handed plan, Roosevelt was prolonging the war and America was paying for it in blood.
"Roosevelt suspected people in the State Department of the leaks to the press. The timing of the leak suggests political motivation. However, Nazi documents captured after the war indicate that such leaks may have been an integral part of Germany’s planning. A March 15, 1944 directive issued by the Chief of Intelligence Division of the German High Command, Adm. Canaris, casts a suspicious eye toward Nazi intrigue:
""There is great fear in the USA of Bolshevism. The opposition against Roosevelt’s alliance with Stalin grows constantly. Our chances for success are good if we succeed to stir up influential circles against Roosevelt’s policy. This can be done through clever pieces of information, or by references to unsuspicious neutral ecclesiastical contact men.
""We have at our command in the United States efficient contacts, which have been carefully kept up even during the war. The campaign of hatred stirred up by Roosevelt and the Jews against everything German has temporarily silenced the pro-German bloc in the USA. However, there is every hope that this situation will be completely changed within a few months. If the Republicans succeed in defeating Roosevelt in the coming election, it will greatly influence American conduct of the war towards us.
""The KO-leaders abroad and their staffs have innumerable opportunities of constantly referring to Roosevelt’s hate policy. They must use in this campaign all the existing contacts and they should try to open new channels. We must point to the danger Germany may be forced to cooperate with Russia. The greatest caution has to be observed in all talks and negotiations by those who, as “anti-Nazis” maintain contact with the enemy. When fulfilling missions, they have to comply strictly with instructions."
"In the light of this quotation, any of the leaks and reports in the press in the later stages of the war could be Nazi intrigue or propaganda. Such leaks were an integral part of the Nazis’ plan. As already seen, the Nazis had willing accomplices in Congress, the military, press and industry. Noteworthy is the observation that if the Republican Party won the election, it would alter the American conduct of the war.
"In the 1940 election, Herbert Hoover collaborated with top Nazis in Berlin to try to unseat FDR. Did the Republicans again collaborate with the Nazis in 1944 and offer them an easy peace for their support in the 1944 elections? The question for now must remain unanswered. In a vault, probably marked top secret, is a document that can answer the question. However, there is no question that around 1944, the media in the United States started to print many editorials and articles supporting an easy peace with Germany. Many of those, no doubt, were the result of the Nazi directive above. Thus the heated debate for an easy peace with Germany and the deliberate sabotaging of the 4Ds program must be viewed as part of the Nazi intrigue, which directly implies that those Americans involved were traitors to their country."
"At Teheran, Stalin tried to translate Farrin’s principles into numbers. Only two weeks after the Teheran conference, the Soviets put on trial three Germans and a Russian collaborator in Kharkov. The Soviets accused the defendants of using gas vans, in which the exhaust was pumped into the compartment holding prisoners, shooting POWs and executing thousands of Soviet citizens. Once again, the trial also brought charges against the heads of the Nazi government. On Dec. 19, Russia hanged the four defendants. American reporters who followed the trial were convinced of the guilt of the defendants and of the genuineness of the charges. They also thought the Soviets had been punctilious in following legal proprieties.
"The Kharkov trial opened an old wound between the Soviets and London. The Soviets had always been in favor of immediate trials. Britain and the U.S. wanted to wait until the end of the war to hold trials, supposedly due to fears such trials could provoke retaliations by the Nazis against British and American POWs.
"Within days of the Kharkov trial, the Nazis took the cue and sought to drive a wedge between the Big Three by threatening to put POWs on trial for serious breaches of international law. In January 1944, information reached Washington of protests by high military officers in Germany against any trials of American or British POWs in reprisal for the Russian trials. At the end of March, Germany published a statement that the preparations for trials of POWs for war crimes were well advanced. Britain and the United States asked the Soviets to stop holding any more trials until after the war’s end. Russia complied.
"Just before the Teheran Conference, Churchill proposed a radical plan of summary executions of high-ranking Nazis accused of war crimes that were not limited to a particular geographic location. Churchill’s plan allowed the nearest officer of major general rank to convene a court of inquiry, not for deciding guilt, but solely to prove identity. Once identified, the officer would order his execution within six hours. Churchill approved a shortlist of war criminals who would be subject to his proposal. The Foreign Office opposed his plan, as did the Soviets.
"The Roosevelt administration was divided on the terms for postwar Germany and war crimes. Morgenthau urged a hard peace and broad war crime investigations. Secretary of War Stimson led a faction sympathetic to Germany. The military had prepared the booklet, Handbook of Military Government, which reflected the views of the top military officials favoring an immediate restoration of Germany. Many of the military officers thought the U.S. was fighting the wrong enemy, and should be at war with the Soviets."
................................................................................................
"On Sept. 5 Morgenthau presented Roosevelt with a comprehensive memorandum, Program to Prevent Germany from Starting a World War III. Known as the Morgenthau Plan, it called for complete dismantling of Germany’s industrial base and severe punishment for war crimes. Since the State Department already had documents pointing out the Nazis’ plans to go underground and start a new war, Roosevelt had reasons to reject an easy peace with Germany.
"Stimson vigorously opposed the Morgenthau Plan, and was soon joined by George Marshall and Gen. Myron Cramer. When Roosevelt left for the Quebec conference, he took no senior aides, and his administration had no set policy on the course of action for postwar Germany. In Quebec, it soon became obvious to Roosevelt that Churchill’s main focus was on postwar aid to Britain. Consequently, Roosevelt placed a call to his Treasury Secretary and Morgenthau rushed to the conference. It ended with agreement on the Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany.
"Before the end of September, the press leaked the contents of the Morgenthau Plan, which came under heavy fire. With only six weeks to the election, Dewey saw his chances for victory over Roosevelt improved. Dewey charged that with such a heavy-handed plan, Roosevelt was prolonging the war and America was paying for it in blood.
"Roosevelt suspected people in the State Department of the leaks to the press. The timing of the leak suggests political motivation. However, Nazi documents captured after the war indicate that such leaks may have been an integral part of Germany’s planning. A March 15, 1944 directive issued by the Chief of Intelligence Division of the German High Command, Adm. Canaris, casts a suspicious eye toward Nazi intrigue:
""There is great fear in the USA of Bolshevism. The opposition against Roosevelt’s alliance with Stalin grows constantly. Our chances for success are good if we succeed to stir up influential circles against Roosevelt’s policy. This can be done through clever pieces of information, or by references to unsuspicious neutral ecclesiastical contact men.
""We have at our command in the United States efficient contacts, which have been carefully kept up even during the war. The campaign of hatred stirred up by Roosevelt and the Jews against everything German has temporarily silenced the pro-German bloc in the USA. However, there is every hope that this situation will be completely changed within a few months. If the Republicans succeed in defeating Roosevelt in the coming election, it will greatly influence American conduct of the war towards us.
""The KO-leaders abroad and their staffs have innumerable opportunities of constantly referring to Roosevelt’s hate policy. They must use in this campaign all the existing contacts and they should try to open new channels. We must point to the danger Germany may be forced to cooperate with Russia. The greatest caution has to be observed in all talks and negotiations by those who, as “anti-Nazis” maintain contact with the enemy. When fulfilling missions, they have to comply strictly with instructions."
"In the light of this quotation, any of the leaks and reports in the press in the later stages of the war could be Nazi intrigue or propaganda. Such leaks were an integral part of the Nazis’ plan. As already seen, the Nazis had willing accomplices in Congress, the military, press and industry. Noteworthy is the observation that if the Republican Party won the election, it would alter the American conduct of the war.
"In the 1940 election, Herbert Hoover collaborated with top Nazis in Berlin to try to unseat FDR. Did the Republicans again collaborate with the Nazis in 1944 and offer them an easy peace for their support in the 1944 elections? The question for now must remain unanswered. In a vault, probably marked top secret, is a document that can answer the question. However, there is no question that around 1944, the media in the United States started to print many editorials and articles supporting an easy peace with Germany. Many of those, no doubt, were the result of the Nazi directive above. Thus the heated debate for an easy peace with Germany and the deliberate sabotaging of the 4Ds program must be viewed as part of the Nazi intrigue, which directly implies that those Americans involved were traitors to their country."
................................................................................................
"In mid-December 1943, Czechoslovakia proposed that UNWCC was fully competent to handle all aspects of the war crimes tribunal. Further, the Czechs believed the tribunal should not be limited to mere examination of dossiers and compilation of a list of war criminals. The resolution succeeded."
"In November 1944, the Czech government decided to list Hitler as a war criminal. The British representative opposed the listing until the German constitution could be examined. In December 1944, the commission presented a list of 712 names of German and Italian war criminals, including the names of top Nazis such as Hitler, Himmler and 17 generals. In all, 49 top Nazis were named.
"Perhaps the Jewish issue was the most contentious one to come before UNWCC. In August 1942, the Foreign Office and State Department received a report from Dr. Gerhart Riegera, a representative of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. According to Riegera, plans were under consideration in Berlin to have all Jews in Europe deported and concentrated in the East, where with one blow they would be exterminated. Both the Foreign Office and the State Department disbelieved the report and failed to pass it on. Reports of further atrocities against the Jews continued to pile up. The British Foreign Office believed the massacres of the Jews were not war crimes. The British sought to limit war crimes to those committed against the citizens of Allied nations, and then only after the date of the Polish invasion.
"Almost immediately after beginning work in UNWCC, Pell raised the question of crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against citizens of the Reich. His assistant from the State Department, Laurence Preuss, opposed the proposal. Trying to undermine him, Preuss reported Pell’s actions in an unofficial and confidential letter to the State Department. In fact, it was Pell’s actions that served as a catalyst for the commission to include this issue. Preuss also told the Foreign Office that Pell was making dangerous mistakes. In deference to the British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department, the commission never included crimes against citizens of Germany before 1939. The issue led shortly to Pell’s removal.
"Another problem that plagued the commission was the type of court that would prosecute war criminals. Pell told the State Department that unanimous agreement had been reached on the treatment of war crimes conducted in a single country. In crimes involving more than one country, Pell proposed that international authority should handle such cases. Pell also urged FDR to set up some machinery of justice that could act firmly and quickly.
"Pell’s proposal and initiative irritated Hull, who believed the commission should restrict itself to collecting evidence. Roosevelt preferred a military court and conveyed that opinion to Pell. In February 1944, a subcommittee chaired by Pell began examining the question of an international court. On Sept. 22, Pell’s sub-committee formally issued the final draft on the Convention for Establishment of a United Nations Joint Court. The full UNWCC approved the draft on Sept. 26, 1944."
"On June 14, 1945, the British issued a royal warrant setting the stage for arrests of war criminals by British forces. This warrant was limited to crimes occurring after September 1939. It also excluded crimes against the Jews."
"In mid-December 1943, Czechoslovakia proposed that UNWCC was fully competent to handle all aspects of the war crimes tribunal. Further, the Czechs believed the tribunal should not be limited to mere examination of dossiers and compilation of a list of war criminals. The resolution succeeded."
"In November 1944, the Czech government decided to list Hitler as a war criminal. The British representative opposed the listing until the German constitution could be examined. In December 1944, the commission presented a list of 712 names of German and Italian war criminals, including the names of top Nazis such as Hitler, Himmler and 17 generals. In all, 49 top Nazis were named.
"Perhaps the Jewish issue was the most contentious one to come before UNWCC. In August 1942, the Foreign Office and State Department received a report from Dr. Gerhart Riegera, a representative of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva. According to Riegera, plans were under consideration in Berlin to have all Jews in Europe deported and concentrated in the East, where with one blow they would be exterminated. Both the Foreign Office and the State Department disbelieved the report and failed to pass it on. Reports of further atrocities against the Jews continued to pile up. The British Foreign Office believed the massacres of the Jews were not war crimes. The British sought to limit war crimes to those committed against the citizens of Allied nations, and then only after the date of the Polish invasion.
"Almost immediately after beginning work in UNWCC, Pell raised the question of crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against citizens of the Reich. His assistant from the State Department, Laurence Preuss, opposed the proposal. Trying to undermine him, Preuss reported Pell’s actions in an unofficial and confidential letter to the State Department. In fact, it was Pell’s actions that served as a catalyst for the commission to include this issue. Preuss also told the Foreign Office that Pell was making dangerous mistakes. In deference to the British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department, the commission never included crimes against citizens of Germany before 1939. The issue led shortly to Pell’s removal.
"Another problem that plagued the commission was the type of court that would prosecute war criminals. Pell told the State Department that unanimous agreement had been reached on the treatment of war crimes conducted in a single country. In crimes involving more than one country, Pell proposed that international authority should handle such cases. Pell also urged FDR to set up some machinery of justice that could act firmly and quickly.
"Pell’s proposal and initiative irritated Hull, who believed the commission should restrict itself to collecting evidence. Roosevelt preferred a military court and conveyed that opinion to Pell. In February 1944, a subcommittee chaired by Pell began examining the question of an international court. On Sept. 22, Pell’s sub-committee formally issued the final draft on the Convention for Establishment of a United Nations Joint Court. The full UNWCC approved the draft on Sept. 26, 1944."
................................................................................................
"On June 14, 1945, the British issued a royal warrant setting the stage for arrests of war criminals by British forces. This warrant was limited to crimes occurring after September 1939. It also excluded crimes against the Jews."
................................................................................................
"Academia and corporations provided most of the OSS recruits, while America’s wealthiest families had their fair share as well. Andrew Mellon’s son Paul served as administrative officer of the Special Operations Branch in London. William Mellon, son of the president of Gulf Oil, served in the SI Branch in Madrid - again the connection of oil and Spain. Another OSS agent from the Mellon family was David Bruce, whose wife Alisa was the sister of Paul Mellon and a cousin of the wife of Allan Scaife, who also served in the OSS.
"Morgan’s two sons were both OSS officers stationed in London. The du Pont family also had two members serving. Alfred was one of the top OSS officials in Washington at the French desk. The Rockefeller family had members serving not in the OSS, but in military intelligence. Nelson Rockefeller was in charge of intelligence for South America. The plutocratic recruits got administrative and policy jobs; Junius Morgan was OSS Treasurer. Thus some of the families most responsible for trading with the Nazis held supervisory roles in the OSS that allowed them to quash any investigation before it started."
"Donovan’s warriors often experienced needless delays. The State Department objected to issuing OSS officers’ passports. Ruth Shipley ran the State Department’s passport division and insisted on clearly identifying officers as OSS. The British Psychological Assessment Board rejected a high proportion of OSS officers assigned to write anti-Nazi propaganda. Many of those rejected were well-known screenwriters and New York advertising men. The sole reason for their rejection was that they were Jews.
"While Donovan allowed his agents free reign to conduct their operations, the results often ended in embarrassing moments for the OSS. In one case, OSS officers in Portugal broke into the Japanese embassy and stole a copy of the enemy’s codebook, unaware that a naval intelligence team had already broken the code. The Japanese quickly changed their code after discovering the book was missing, leaving Washington and the Joint Chiefs without a source of information for several months until the new code was broken. In another high-level flap, OSS officers armed Tito’s guerrillas, without first getting permission from the British Theater commander. They also sent communist agents into Spain without first notifying the American embassy in Madrid. The agents were left with no contact and had to fare for themselves.
"After the U.S. Army established a beachhead at Salerno, south of Naples, a group of OSS officers hatched a wild plot. Headed by a young Republican, John Shaheen, they planned to reach the Italian Naval Command and convince the admirals to surrender their fleet to the Allies. Shaheen did not realize the main body of the Italian fleet had already set sail for Malta to surrender to the British. Shaheen later became president of several international oil companies and is a large donor to the Republican Party. He was embroiled in the October Surprise conspiracy in which the Reagan-Bush team conspired with Iran to hold the American captives until after the election. Shaheen also was involved in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. He served with Bill Casey in the OSS and they remained close associates throughout their lives. Like many other ex-OSS agents, it is probable that Shaheen never left the fold and remained an agent throughout his lifetime.
"In other cases, the embarrassment was more humorous, as in the case of an elderly former executive of General Electric briefing an OSS agent on his mission. The former executive, now a colonel in the OSS, mistakenly pronounced the name of the drop zone and spent 10 minutes searching the map for the location before an aide pointed out that it was several hundred miles north. In another case, the OSS parachuted a team into Brittany, a supposed safe zone. The zone turned out to be in the center of the German Second Parachute Division, and the OSS team spent a few frantic days dodging the Germans.
"Often the OSS engaged in ridiculous operations. They sent a Hungarian astrologer to the U.S. to shake American public confidence in Hitler’s invincibility. After reading the Fuehrer’s stars, the astrologer predicted immediate doom for Hitler. The forecast was carried from coast to coast in the media."
Funny, the authors forgetting about the prediction coming true and far sooner so than expected then!
"Another OSS plan stands out above all others as ridiculous. A London-based OSS group decided Nazi Germany would implode if only its leader could be demoralized. After conducting a long psychological profile of Hitler, the group decided he could be unhinged by exposure to vast quantities of pornography. The OSS group then assembled the finest collection of pornography. The material was to be dropped by plane around the Fuehrer-bunker. Hitler was to step outside and pick one up and immediately be thrown into a state of madness. But the air force liaison stormed out of the first meeting with the OSS, cursing and swearing he would not risk a single life for such an insane plan."
"Academia and corporations provided most of the OSS recruits, while America’s wealthiest families had their fair share as well. Andrew Mellon’s son Paul served as administrative officer of the Special Operations Branch in London. William Mellon, son of the president of Gulf Oil, served in the SI Branch in Madrid - again the connection of oil and Spain. Another OSS agent from the Mellon family was David Bruce, whose wife Alisa was the sister of Paul Mellon and a cousin of the wife of Allan Scaife, who also served in the OSS.
"Morgan’s two sons were both OSS officers stationed in London. The du Pont family also had two members serving. Alfred was one of the top OSS officials in Washington at the French desk. The Rockefeller family had members serving not in the OSS, but in military intelligence. Nelson Rockefeller was in charge of intelligence for South America. The plutocratic recruits got administrative and policy jobs; Junius Morgan was OSS Treasurer. Thus some of the families most responsible for trading with the Nazis held supervisory roles in the OSS that allowed them to quash any investigation before it started."
"Donovan’s warriors often experienced needless delays. The State Department objected to issuing OSS officers’ passports. Ruth Shipley ran the State Department’s passport division and insisted on clearly identifying officers as OSS. The British Psychological Assessment Board rejected a high proportion of OSS officers assigned to write anti-Nazi propaganda. Many of those rejected were well-known screenwriters and New York advertising men. The sole reason for their rejection was that they were Jews.
"While Donovan allowed his agents free reign to conduct their operations, the results often ended in embarrassing moments for the OSS. In one case, OSS officers in Portugal broke into the Japanese embassy and stole a copy of the enemy’s codebook, unaware that a naval intelligence team had already broken the code. The Japanese quickly changed their code after discovering the book was missing, leaving Washington and the Joint Chiefs without a source of information for several months until the new code was broken. In another high-level flap, OSS officers armed Tito’s guerrillas, without first getting permission from the British Theater commander. They also sent communist agents into Spain without first notifying the American embassy in Madrid. The agents were left with no contact and had to fare for themselves.
"After the U.S. Army established a beachhead at Salerno, south of Naples, a group of OSS officers hatched a wild plot. Headed by a young Republican, John Shaheen, they planned to reach the Italian Naval Command and convince the admirals to surrender their fleet to the Allies. Shaheen did not realize the main body of the Italian fleet had already set sail for Malta to surrender to the British. Shaheen later became president of several international oil companies and is a large donor to the Republican Party. He was embroiled in the October Surprise conspiracy in which the Reagan-Bush team conspired with Iran to hold the American captives until after the election. Shaheen also was involved in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. He served with Bill Casey in the OSS and they remained close associates throughout their lives. Like many other ex-OSS agents, it is probable that Shaheen never left the fold and remained an agent throughout his lifetime.
"In other cases, the embarrassment was more humorous, as in the case of an elderly former executive of General Electric briefing an OSS agent on his mission. The former executive, now a colonel in the OSS, mistakenly pronounced the name of the drop zone and spent 10 minutes searching the map for the location before an aide pointed out that it was several hundred miles north. In another case, the OSS parachuted a team into Brittany, a supposed safe zone. The zone turned out to be in the center of the German Second Parachute Division, and the OSS team spent a few frantic days dodging the Germans.
"Often the OSS engaged in ridiculous operations. They sent a Hungarian astrologer to the U.S. to shake American public confidence in Hitler’s invincibility. After reading the Fuehrer’s stars, the astrologer predicted immediate doom for Hitler. The forecast was carried from coast to coast in the media."
Funny, the authors forgetting about the prediction coming true and far sooner so than expected then!
................................................................................................
"Another OSS plan stands out above all others as ridiculous. A London-based OSS group decided Nazi Germany would implode if only its leader could be demoralized. After conducting a long psychological profile of Hitler, the group decided he could be unhinged by exposure to vast quantities of pornography. The OSS group then assembled the finest collection of pornography. The material was to be dropped by plane around the Fuehrer-bunker. Hitler was to step outside and pick one up and immediately be thrown into a state of madness. But the air force liaison stormed out of the first meeting with the OSS, cursing and swearing he would not risk a single life for such an insane plan."
................................................................................................
"One of the first hints of sabotage of justice for the Nazis and their supporters came shortly after the North Africa invasion. Charles Bedeaux was a Frenchman who became a naturalized American citizen. Known as the Speed King and hostile to unions, he amassed a small fortune in America by devising an anti-union efficiency system. He returned to France before the war and cultivated close relationships between many leading Nazis. After France fell, Bedeaux became the Vichy representative of several French industrialists in their dealings with the Nazis.
"As part of his collaboration with the Nazis, Bedeaux traveled to North Africa with a plan to lay a pipeline across the Sahara from West Africa to bring cheap vegetable oil from Dakar to Hitler’s Europe. Unfortunately for the enterprising Bedeaux, he became trapped in North Africa following the Allied landings in Algiers. As an American citizen, he could have been arrested for treason, but Allied headquarters took no action against the Nazi collaborator. OSS officer Edmond Taylor finally had the French arrest Bedeaux. Even after his arrest, the American authorities refused to charge him with treason.
"OSS agent Arthur Roseborough, a former Sullivan & Cromwell attorney working with the Gaullists, prepared a case against Bedeaux. Allied headquarters refused to act on it. The OSS then took the case to Washington. Bedeaux was finally indicted for treason, but not before an odd attempt by the FBI to destroy the evidence. He was taken into custody and put aboard a plane to the United States. In Miami, Bedeaux supposedly committed suicide by taking poison. Many OSS agents in North Africa suspected that a group of influential Americans did not want Bedeaux to stand trial. How he was able to get poison after being held prisoner for months, first by the French, then by the Americans, remains a mystery."
"In late 1942, Washington received an improbable offer from the Vatican. A high Papal Secretariat offered to provide firsthand information on strategic bombing targets in Japan. The roundabout transfer of documents took only days and became known as the Vessel Project, headed in Rome by Cardinal Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI."
"However, the Office of Naval Intelligence preempted OSS responsibilities for Italian espionage. The Navy reached a mysterious deal with the American Mafia. In return for releasing Lucky Luciano on parole, the Mafia agreed to use its criminal syndicate in Sicily to aid the Allies. Assistant New York District Attorney Murray Gurfein arranged the deal. Gurfein would later become an OSS colonel in Europe. Maj. George White, director of counterespionage training and a veteran official of the federal Narcotics Bureau, insisted on keeping Brennan partially informed of developments.
"Despite much interest in the Vessel Project, the source was never checked thoroughly and proved later to be false, causing much OSS embarrassment."
"One of the first hints of sabotage of justice for the Nazis and their supporters came shortly after the North Africa invasion. Charles Bedeaux was a Frenchman who became a naturalized American citizen. Known as the Speed King and hostile to unions, he amassed a small fortune in America by devising an anti-union efficiency system. He returned to France before the war and cultivated close relationships between many leading Nazis. After France fell, Bedeaux became the Vichy representative of several French industrialists in their dealings with the Nazis.
"As part of his collaboration with the Nazis, Bedeaux traveled to North Africa with a plan to lay a pipeline across the Sahara from West Africa to bring cheap vegetable oil from Dakar to Hitler’s Europe. Unfortunately for the enterprising Bedeaux, he became trapped in North Africa following the Allied landings in Algiers. As an American citizen, he could have been arrested for treason, but Allied headquarters took no action against the Nazi collaborator. OSS officer Edmond Taylor finally had the French arrest Bedeaux. Even after his arrest, the American authorities refused to charge him with treason.
"OSS agent Arthur Roseborough, a former Sullivan & Cromwell attorney working with the Gaullists, prepared a case against Bedeaux. Allied headquarters refused to act on it. The OSS then took the case to Washington. Bedeaux was finally indicted for treason, but not before an odd attempt by the FBI to destroy the evidence. He was taken into custody and put aboard a plane to the United States. In Miami, Bedeaux supposedly committed suicide by taking poison. Many OSS agents in North Africa suspected that a group of influential Americans did not want Bedeaux to stand trial. How he was able to get poison after being held prisoner for months, first by the French, then by the Americans, remains a mystery."
................................................................................................
"In late 1942, Washington received an improbable offer from the Vatican. A high Papal Secretariat offered to provide firsthand information on strategic bombing targets in Japan. The roundabout transfer of documents took only days and became known as the Vessel Project, headed in Rome by Cardinal Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI."
"However, the Office of Naval Intelligence preempted OSS responsibilities for Italian espionage. The Navy reached a mysterious deal with the American Mafia. In return for releasing Lucky Luciano on parole, the Mafia agreed to use its criminal syndicate in Sicily to aid the Allies. Assistant New York District Attorney Murray Gurfein arranged the deal. Gurfein would later become an OSS colonel in Europe. Maj. George White, director of counterespionage training and a veteran official of the federal Narcotics Bureau, insisted on keeping Brennan partially informed of developments.
"Despite much interest in the Vessel Project, the source was never checked thoroughly and proved later to be false, causing much OSS embarrassment."
................................................................................................
"On March 13, 1945, the House Military Affairs Committee announced it was examining the loyalty of 14 soldiers labeled as communists. Among them was Lt. Irving Goff, who had left-wing sympathies and was ordered to make contact with the communist cells after the fall of Naples in late 1943. The Goff mission was to set up contacts with the communist cells in northern Italy and to establish OSS safe houses. By all standards, Goff’s mission was an outstanding success. But some concerns arose in 1945 in military circles that Goff’s agents were using the clandestine network to pass communist propaganda, although no evidence surfaced. Charges and countercharges flew back and forth between the military and OSS. In the end, Donovan was forced to have Goff and his men sent back to the United States in June, although no evidence ever existed that they allowed communist propaganda to flow on the network they had set up.
"Of all the behind-the-lines missions in northern Italy, the communist cells were the most active and fierce. It was a communist cell that captured Mussolini. Networks in northern Italy aligned under other political lines were less effective and often inactive. The communist cells’ participation was crucial for the success of the final offensive launched in northern Italy on April 1, 1945. This offensive first involved a massive bombardment followed by an assault by the Fifth Army. A massive uprising by partisan forces was crucial to the success of this plan.
"Goff’s group first contacted and armed many of those forces. Allied forces trained more than 180,000 partisans to attack the rear of the German forces once the offensive started. Its success allowed Allied forces to drive into Austria ahead of Soviet forces.
"The communist witch hunt in Congress risked the success of the invasion, the lives of thousands and a prolonged war in northern Italy. Donovan did the honorable thing in the Goff affair by standing by his men and ensuring they received the medals they deserved."
"In France, Gen. de Gaulle’s Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action (BCRA) accused the OSS of scheming to weaken and divide the underground forces, all for the benefit of Gen. Henri Giraud, a rival Free French leader. BCRA traced the plot to Switzerland and Allen Dulles. Early in 1943, Dulles contacted Guillain de Benouville, a conservative Catholic once active in right-wing circles. De Benouville declared himself a Gaullist; BCRA remained suspicious due to his previous membership in a Giraud organization. While there were factions in both the United States and England that preferred Giraud, de Gaulle had already emerged as the leader of the French underground.
"Before launching Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, agents had to be placed inside France. As of May 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt were committed to the 1944 invasion plan. However, one thorn remained in the side of the OSS; the British MI6 intelligence unit regarded the OSS as an upstart junior partner. It was not until May 29, 1943, at the urging of David Bruce and SI chief William Maddox, that MI6 granted OSS an equal partnership.
"In October 1944, Allied forces overtook the Jedburgh and SUSSEX groups implanted in France by the OSS and MI6. With forces stalled at the Siegfried line, Allied headquarters was demanding intelligence reports from inside Germany. Unfortunately, the OSS had only four men inside Germany during the Battle of the Bulge. OSS then had to rely on the work of Arthur Goldberg and his labor branch. As an emergency measure, OSS gave William Casey, a former Wall Street attorney, overall control of all German projects. By the spring of 1945, OSS managed to place 150 men inside Germany at such rail centers as Leipzig.
"While Dulles’ primary mission in Berne was German espionage, he worked closely with forces in Italy. The Allied army would have been devoid of any German intelligence had it not been for the SI branch in Italy run by Alfred Ulmer, a former Florida newspaper correspondent and advertising executive. In Italy, Ulmer set up a special section to handle German and Austrian intelligence.
"Dulles traveled to Washington in October 1944 for a top-level conference. There, he met an attractive Swiss-born OSS analyst, Emmy Rado, the wife of a Hungarian psychiatrist. Dulles was somewhat of a lady’s man who had several affairs throughout his career, and was attracted to her. Rado proposed using Catholic and Protestant churches as a base for German political reconstruction. She thought the OSS could work effectively through the World Council of Churches to aid anti-Nazi clergy. Dulles thought the idea had merit and invited Rado to join him in Berne. Reliance on the German clergy shortly proved to be disastrous, as well as a major embarrassment. In postwar Germany, the clergy proved to be mostly pro-Nazi. Pastors who opposed Hitler and the Nazis had been sent to the concentration camps.
"On Dulles’ return to Berne, OSS disbanded Goldberg’s labor unit and reassigned personnel to the SI branch. Dulles’ staff was replaced during his trip to Washington. Russell D’Oench, scion of the Grace Shipping Line, was now posted in Zurich. William Mellon was transferred from Madrid to Geneva. Russian émigré Valerian Lada-Mocarski now served as liaison officer to the Italian resistance and on the board of directors of the Nazi-affiliated Schroeder Bank with Allen Dulles."
"On March 13, 1945, the House Military Affairs Committee announced it was examining the loyalty of 14 soldiers labeled as communists. Among them was Lt. Irving Goff, who had left-wing sympathies and was ordered to make contact with the communist cells after the fall of Naples in late 1943. The Goff mission was to set up contacts with the communist cells in northern Italy and to establish OSS safe houses. By all standards, Goff’s mission was an outstanding success. But some concerns arose in 1945 in military circles that Goff’s agents were using the clandestine network to pass communist propaganda, although no evidence surfaced. Charges and countercharges flew back and forth between the military and OSS. In the end, Donovan was forced to have Goff and his men sent back to the United States in June, although no evidence ever existed that they allowed communist propaganda to flow on the network they had set up.
"Of all the behind-the-lines missions in northern Italy, the communist cells were the most active and fierce. It was a communist cell that captured Mussolini. Networks in northern Italy aligned under other political lines were less effective and often inactive. The communist cells’ participation was crucial for the success of the final offensive launched in northern Italy on April 1, 1945. This offensive first involved a massive bombardment followed by an assault by the Fifth Army. A massive uprising by partisan forces was crucial to the success of this plan.
"Goff’s group first contacted and armed many of those forces. Allied forces trained more than 180,000 partisans to attack the rear of the German forces once the offensive started. Its success allowed Allied forces to drive into Austria ahead of Soviet forces.
"The communist witch hunt in Congress risked the success of the invasion, the lives of thousands and a prolonged war in northern Italy. Donovan did the honorable thing in the Goff affair by standing by his men and ensuring they received the medals they deserved."
................................................................................................
"In France, Gen. de Gaulle’s Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action (BCRA) accused the OSS of scheming to weaken and divide the underground forces, all for the benefit of Gen. Henri Giraud, a rival Free French leader. BCRA traced the plot to Switzerland and Allen Dulles. Early in 1943, Dulles contacted Guillain de Benouville, a conservative Catholic once active in right-wing circles. De Benouville declared himself a Gaullist; BCRA remained suspicious due to his previous membership in a Giraud organization. While there were factions in both the United States and England that preferred Giraud, de Gaulle had already emerged as the leader of the French underground.
"Before launching Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, agents had to be placed inside France. As of May 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt were committed to the 1944 invasion plan. However, one thorn remained in the side of the OSS; the British MI6 intelligence unit regarded the OSS as an upstart junior partner. It was not until May 29, 1943, at the urging of David Bruce and SI chief William Maddox, that MI6 granted OSS an equal partnership.
"In October 1944, Allied forces overtook the Jedburgh and SUSSEX groups implanted in France by the OSS and MI6. With forces stalled at the Siegfried line, Allied headquarters was demanding intelligence reports from inside Germany. Unfortunately, the OSS had only four men inside Germany during the Battle of the Bulge. OSS then had to rely on the work of Arthur Goldberg and his labor branch. As an emergency measure, OSS gave William Casey, a former Wall Street attorney, overall control of all German projects. By the spring of 1945, OSS managed to place 150 men inside Germany at such rail centers as Leipzig.
"While Dulles’ primary mission in Berne was German espionage, he worked closely with forces in Italy. The Allied army would have been devoid of any German intelligence had it not been for the SI branch in Italy run by Alfred Ulmer, a former Florida newspaper correspondent and advertising executive. In Italy, Ulmer set up a special section to handle German and Austrian intelligence.
"Dulles traveled to Washington in October 1944 for a top-level conference. There, he met an attractive Swiss-born OSS analyst, Emmy Rado, the wife of a Hungarian psychiatrist. Dulles was somewhat of a lady’s man who had several affairs throughout his career, and was attracted to her. Rado proposed using Catholic and Protestant churches as a base for German political reconstruction. She thought the OSS could work effectively through the World Council of Churches to aid anti-Nazi clergy. Dulles thought the idea had merit and invited Rado to join him in Berne. Reliance on the German clergy shortly proved to be disastrous, as well as a major embarrassment. In postwar Germany, the clergy proved to be mostly pro-Nazi. Pastors who opposed Hitler and the Nazis had been sent to the concentration camps.
"On Dulles’ return to Berne, OSS disbanded Goldberg’s labor unit and reassigned personnel to the SI branch. Dulles’ staff was replaced during his trip to Washington. Russell D’Oench, scion of the Grace Shipping Line, was now posted in Zurich. William Mellon was transferred from Madrid to Geneva. Russian émigré Valerian Lada-Mocarski now served as liaison officer to the Italian resistance and on the board of directors of the Nazi-affiliated Schroeder Bank with Allen Dulles."
................................................................................................
"Some of the remaining personnel lacked integrity. In the fall of 1945, Army investigators exposed an incredible black market in Berlin. The investigation rivaled the M&M Enterprises of Catch-22 fame. Everything could be found for a price: oil, fine porcelain, cigarettes, etc. This black market, run by an OSS major and captain, involved none of the operational officers, only top-level OSS administrative personnel.
"In postwar Germany, OSS was burdened with the denazification program. Military government authorities wanted a list of Nazi officials to arrest or bar from office, and names of respectable Germans to employ in administrative positions during the occupation.
"Heading the Counterintelligence Branch tasked with interrogating Gestapo and Abwehr officers was Andrew Berding, who later served as Assistant Secretary of State under Eisenhower. Berding was stationed in London through most of the war. More recently, his name surfaced in an article in the June 27, 2000 edition of the Guardian, “Britain could have saved Italian Jews,” written by Julian Borer. The Guardian article relates that MI6 had detailed knowledge of the Holocaust because it was decoding German radio messages throughout the war. In particular, the Guardian looks at the case of 8,000 Jews deported from Rome to the gas chambers. On Oct. 6, MI6 intercepted a message from German headquarters in Italy to Berlin: “Orders have been received from Berlin by Obersturm-bannfuhrer Kappler to seize and to take to northern Italy the 8,000 Jews living in Rome. They are to be liquidated.”
"According to the article, MI6 had intercepted a German message about the deportation. Whitehall and Washington should have received it by Oct. 11. The roundup occurred on Oct. 16. The information would have to pass through Andrew Berding before reaching Washington. It is unknown when the message reached Washington or who received it. There was enough time during which the Allies could have warned the Jews in Rome of the Nazis plan. However, there were factions in both Whitehall and Washington that ignored many of the atrocities of the Holocaust, labeling them as exaggerated.
"Eli Rosenbaum, Director of the U.S. Justice Department Office of Special Investigations, said that several Nazi officers, including Karl Wolff, could have been prosecuted on the strength of the intercepts alone. Dulles was instrumental in Wolff’s surrender of German forces in Italy and in protecting him from prosecution as a war criminal."
"Summarizing the problems facing the denazification program, OSS officer Sterling Hayden remarked that as Allied forces advanced across Germany,
""there came squirming into the light millions of anti-Nazis. It was tough, they said, waving handkerchiefs and wringing their hands with joy, to have lived under Hitler. But, only the night before they had heated water that would quickly yield this democratic douche. The real anti-Nazis were dead or in exile, or in Besden, Auschwitz, Buchenwald. Names we thought at the time that would teach us a lesson we’d never forget.""
"Some of the remaining personnel lacked integrity. In the fall of 1945, Army investigators exposed an incredible black market in Berlin. The investigation rivaled the M&M Enterprises of Catch-22 fame. Everything could be found for a price: oil, fine porcelain, cigarettes, etc. This black market, run by an OSS major and captain, involved none of the operational officers, only top-level OSS administrative personnel.
"In postwar Germany, OSS was burdened with the denazification program. Military government authorities wanted a list of Nazi officials to arrest or bar from office, and names of respectable Germans to employ in administrative positions during the occupation.
"Heading the Counterintelligence Branch tasked with interrogating Gestapo and Abwehr officers was Andrew Berding, who later served as Assistant Secretary of State under Eisenhower. Berding was stationed in London through most of the war. More recently, his name surfaced in an article in the June 27, 2000 edition of the Guardian, “Britain could have saved Italian Jews,” written by Julian Borer. The Guardian article relates that MI6 had detailed knowledge of the Holocaust because it was decoding German radio messages throughout the war. In particular, the Guardian looks at the case of 8,000 Jews deported from Rome to the gas chambers. On Oct. 6, MI6 intercepted a message from German headquarters in Italy to Berlin: “Orders have been received from Berlin by Obersturm-bannfuhrer Kappler to seize and to take to northern Italy the 8,000 Jews living in Rome. They are to be liquidated.”
"According to the article, MI6 had intercepted a German message about the deportation. Whitehall and Washington should have received it by Oct. 11. The roundup occurred on Oct. 16. The information would have to pass through Andrew Berding before reaching Washington. It is unknown when the message reached Washington or who received it. There was enough time during which the Allies could have warned the Jews in Rome of the Nazis plan. However, there were factions in both Whitehall and Washington that ignored many of the atrocities of the Holocaust, labeling them as exaggerated.
"Eli Rosenbaum, Director of the U.S. Justice Department Office of Special Investigations, said that several Nazi officers, including Karl Wolff, could have been prosecuted on the strength of the intercepts alone. Dulles was instrumental in Wolff’s surrender of German forces in Italy and in protecting him from prosecution as a war criminal."
................................................................................................
"Summarizing the problems facing the denazification program, OSS officer Sterling Hayden remarked that as Allied forces advanced across Germany,
""there came squirming into the light millions of anti-Nazis. It was tough, they said, waving handkerchiefs and wringing their hands with joy, to have lived under Hitler. But, only the night before they had heated water that would quickly yield this democratic douche. The real anti-Nazis were dead or in exile, or in Besden, Auschwitz, Buchenwald. Names we thought at the time that would teach us a lesson we’d never forget.""
................................................................................................
" ... Dulles had only one criterion for promotion: extreme anti-communist views, which included former Nazis.
"On June 6, Rado drove Wilhelm Hoegner, Dulles’ handpicked anti-communist choice to head Bavaria, from Switzerland to Germany. With the support of Dulles, the military government soon installed Hoegner as Bavaria’s minister-president. Hoegner soon proved to be an embarrassment to American officials."
"In August 1944, Donovan began planning an operation that evolved into “Casey Jones” and the associated “Ground Hog” operations. One of the biggest problems Allied forces faced was the lack of good maps. The Casey Jones and Ground Hog projects were joint ventures with the British. The ambitious operations proposed to photomap about 2 million square miles of Eastern Europe, including Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and all of Russian-occupied Germany.
"Sixteen squadrons of American and British heavy bombers were modified for the photomapping operation. The project did not get under way until the spring of 1945. While the American planes carried markings, there is evidence that many British planes did not.
"Russia noticed the purpose of Casey Jones, presumably from their spies in British and American intelligence. The Russians were very sensitive about violations of their airspace. On April 2, 1945, Gen. Nathan Twining, commander general of the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force, reported six engagements with Russians who allegedly attacked the modified bombers. In one encounter, the Soviets shot down a Mustang; the pilot was believed to be safe. On the same day, the Soviets grounded all Allied aircraft in Russia and refused to let any enter or land within its borders. It lifted the ban only to allow a single DC3 flight to shuttle diplomats and freight between the USAAF base in Poltava and the Ukraine and Teheran.
"In all, Casey Jones succeeded in photographing all 2 million square miles of Europe and North Africa west of the line 20 degrees East, approximately the longitude of Warsaw or Budapest. Considering the size and scope of the mission, there could be little doubt the Russians knew what was afloat. The State Department also asked the Soviets for permission on three occasions to photomap Berlin, Vienna and Prague. The operation certainly increased the tensions between the East and West in the waning days of the war."
" ... Dulles had only one criterion for promotion: extreme anti-communist views, which included former Nazis.
"On June 6, Rado drove Wilhelm Hoegner, Dulles’ handpicked anti-communist choice to head Bavaria, from Switzerland to Germany. With the support of Dulles, the military government soon installed Hoegner as Bavaria’s minister-president. Hoegner soon proved to be an embarrassment to American officials."
................................................................................................
"In August 1944, Donovan began planning an operation that evolved into “Casey Jones” and the associated “Ground Hog” operations. One of the biggest problems Allied forces faced was the lack of good maps. The Casey Jones and Ground Hog projects were joint ventures with the British. The ambitious operations proposed to photomap about 2 million square miles of Eastern Europe, including Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and all of Russian-occupied Germany.
"Sixteen squadrons of American and British heavy bombers were modified for the photomapping operation. The project did not get under way until the spring of 1945. While the American planes carried markings, there is evidence that many British planes did not.
"Russia noticed the purpose of Casey Jones, presumably from their spies in British and American intelligence. The Russians were very sensitive about violations of their airspace. On April 2, 1945, Gen. Nathan Twining, commander general of the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force, reported six engagements with Russians who allegedly attacked the modified bombers. In one encounter, the Soviets shot down a Mustang; the pilot was believed to be safe. On the same day, the Soviets grounded all Allied aircraft in Russia and refused to let any enter or land within its borders. It lifted the ban only to allow a single DC3 flight to shuttle diplomats and freight between the USAAF base in Poltava and the Ukraine and Teheran.
"In all, Casey Jones succeeded in photographing all 2 million square miles of Europe and North Africa west of the line 20 degrees East, approximately the longitude of Warsaw or Budapest. Considering the size and scope of the mission, there could be little doubt the Russians knew what was afloat. The State Department also asked the Soviets for permission on three occasions to photomap Berlin, Vienna and Prague. The operation certainly increased the tensions between the East and West in the waning days of the war."
................................................................................................
"Near the end of the war, when negotiations were taking place in San Francisco to establish the United Nations, Donovan ordered his agents to infiltrate the talks. This was technically against the OSS charter banning operations inside the United States.
"Those recruited for this job relied mainly on hosting parties after hours, judging from the liquor bills submitted by the agents. Edward Buxton, a long-time associate of Donovan’s and the OSS, headed the operation. On April 26, 1945 Buxton wrote to Donovan of a frank discussion between Shepherd, Stalin and Molotov about Yugoslavia. A short passage from that letter follows:
""Shepherd related to me that he told them frankly that he is having difficulties in Yugoslavia where the prevailing sentiment is that all the brains are in Moscow and all the power in the Red Army, that furthermore there is a tendency to rely on Soviets only, disregarding completely America and Great Britain.
""Molotov told Shepherd that the approach is wrong and that although Russia will try to help as much as she can after the war is over, she, Russia herself will have to seek assistance from the United States to rebuild the devastated cities and ruined economy, that they themselves will seek loans up to 10 billion to assist in her postwar rehabilitation.
""Stalin told Shepherd explicitly not to try to imitate Soviet Russia. Yugoslavia is a small country in comparison to Russia and not to carry on experimentation by establishing a Soviet regime, that they will have to get along with Western democracies and to arrange a democratic regime where the representatives are not appointed but elected … ."
"Two bits of substantial intelligence lie buried in the passage. First and most significant was Russia’s devastated condition. This admission should have been key to postwar relations between the United States and the USSR. It should have alerted the United States that Gen. Clay’s war warning message two years later was a folly. Unfortunately, the message of Russian weakness fell on deaf ears, and was lost in the propaganda barrage from right-wing voices. The fascist right had gained power and was aching for a new war, and Clay’s message was taken as a serious threat.
"This was not the only clue to the weakness of the Soviet Union. Eisenhower remarked that a war in Europe was highly unlikely because the Russians were too busy pulling up the track from the railroads to send back to the homeland. Without railroads, Russia lacked any means to move massive amounts of equipment and troops forward. Moreover, the United States had captured the latest Russian coding equipment and was reading all messages.
"The second piece of information relates to the complexity of postwar politics in the Balkans. Yugoslavia did go communist under Tito, but always remained alienated and independent of Russia. The CIA may not have recognized the significance of the power Tito held until after his death, when the country was torn into various warring factions that still present a threat to peace in the region."
"Although the purge of leftists from the OSS hindered the investigations and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, the OSS was disbanded largely because of the number of leftists it employed. In 1944, Donovan submitted a memo to FDR outlining a permanent American intelligence agency. The top secret memo was leaked to a Washington reporter with the Chicago Times, which printed a series of articles by Walter Trohan criticizing the creation of a permanent intelligence agency. Trohan presented the draft proposal verbatim, even though the document was classified as top secret. However, Trohan was close to J. Edgar Hoover, who had provided him with Donovan’s memo. No charges or investigation followed; some fascists were too big to be prosecuted.
"Once again, the Chicago Times published top secret documents, an act of subversion. A congressional uproar followed, led by the same pro-fascist faction that sought to keep America out of the war. Roosevelt tabled the matter, only to revive it in April 1945; a week later, he died."
"Near the end of the war, when negotiations were taking place in San Francisco to establish the United Nations, Donovan ordered his agents to infiltrate the talks. This was technically against the OSS charter banning operations inside the United States.
"Those recruited for this job relied mainly on hosting parties after hours, judging from the liquor bills submitted by the agents. Edward Buxton, a long-time associate of Donovan’s and the OSS, headed the operation. On April 26, 1945 Buxton wrote to Donovan of a frank discussion between Shepherd, Stalin and Molotov about Yugoslavia. A short passage from that letter follows:
""Shepherd related to me that he told them frankly that he is having difficulties in Yugoslavia where the prevailing sentiment is that all the brains are in Moscow and all the power in the Red Army, that furthermore there is a tendency to rely on Soviets only, disregarding completely America and Great Britain.
""Molotov told Shepherd that the approach is wrong and that although Russia will try to help as much as she can after the war is over, she, Russia herself will have to seek assistance from the United States to rebuild the devastated cities and ruined economy, that they themselves will seek loans up to 10 billion to assist in her postwar rehabilitation.
""Stalin told Shepherd explicitly not to try to imitate Soviet Russia. Yugoslavia is a small country in comparison to Russia and not to carry on experimentation by establishing a Soviet regime, that they will have to get along with Western democracies and to arrange a democratic regime where the representatives are not appointed but elected … ."
"Two bits of substantial intelligence lie buried in the passage. First and most significant was Russia’s devastated condition. This admission should have been key to postwar relations between the United States and the USSR. It should have alerted the United States that Gen. Clay’s war warning message two years later was a folly. Unfortunately, the message of Russian weakness fell on deaf ears, and was lost in the propaganda barrage from right-wing voices. The fascist right had gained power and was aching for a new war, and Clay’s message was taken as a serious threat.
"This was not the only clue to the weakness of the Soviet Union. Eisenhower remarked that a war in Europe was highly unlikely because the Russians were too busy pulling up the track from the railroads to send back to the homeland. Without railroads, Russia lacked any means to move massive amounts of equipment and troops forward. Moreover, the United States had captured the latest Russian coding equipment and was reading all messages.
"The second piece of information relates to the complexity of postwar politics in the Balkans. Yugoslavia did go communist under Tito, but always remained alienated and independent of Russia. The CIA may not have recognized the significance of the power Tito held until after his death, when the country was torn into various warring factions that still present a threat to peace in the region."
................................................................................................
"Although the purge of leftists from the OSS hindered the investigations and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, the OSS was disbanded largely because of the number of leftists it employed. In 1944, Donovan submitted a memo to FDR outlining a permanent American intelligence agency. The top secret memo was leaked to a Washington reporter with the Chicago Times, which printed a series of articles by Walter Trohan criticizing the creation of a permanent intelligence agency. Trohan presented the draft proposal verbatim, even though the document was classified as top secret. However, Trohan was close to J. Edgar Hoover, who had provided him with Donovan’s memo. No charges or investigation followed; some fascists were too big to be prosecuted.
"Once again, the Chicago Times published top secret documents, an act of subversion. A congressional uproar followed, led by the same pro-fascist faction that sought to keep America out of the war. Roosevelt tabled the matter, only to revive it in April 1945; a week later, he died."
................................................................................................
"No other agency had so much ridicule, embarrassment and criticism heaped on it during the war than OSS. The fate of OSS was as predetermined as if it had been created under a dark star. The embarrassing incidents, the criticism and congressional investigations served as fuel for its final death. At the center of this controversy was Bill Donovan, an intensely loyal and honest man.
"Facing increasing wrath from the Republican Party and an uphill election for the Democrats in 1946, Truman had little use for an agency derisively referred to as the Republican Club throughout the war. Donovan was a Republican, but he had angered conservatives and Republicans by hiring liberals, socialists and even some communists. From the day Roosevelt appointed Donovan to head OSS, he had but one job: to destroy the Axis war machine, and he hired anyone who could help him do that.
"Donovan did the honorable thing and stood by his men, even in the face of a congressional investigation labeling some of his agents as communist in the Goff affair. Lesser men would have stood idly by. There lies the root cause for the short-lived fate of the OSS. Donovan came with too much political baggage. As the Assistant Attorney General in the 1920s, he almost cost J. Edgar Hoover his job. However, Hoover was not Donovan’s only heavyweight enemy. During the same period, Donovan approved a case to go to trial that charged Sen. Burton Wheeler with using influence to get oil and gas leases for a friend and client. The court acquitted Wheeler of the charges, and when he returned to Washington he never stopped attacking Donovan.
"FDR believed Hoover had treated Donovan badly in passing him by for a cabinet position, which was one reason he selected Donovan to head the OSS. Hoover only offered Donovan the position of Governor-General of the Philippines, which was considered a stepping-stone to greater political heights. It was the same one Taft used on his way to the White House. Donovan refused the position. A myriad of reasons have been given for Hoover passing Donovan over for a cabinet position, but most likely it was due to Donovan’s firsthand knowledge of the Belgium Relief Fund. This fund was merely a front to supply Germany with food and prolong World War I. Donovan had been one of the investigators the United States sent to Belgium to investigate the fund.
"Donovan’s lack of administrative experience (he was a poor administrator who preferred being in the field) and his opposition to prohibition were advanced as reasons for being passed over. However, Donovan’s record on upholding prohibition was well known from his days as city prosecutor in Buffalo. There, he raided an elite club where he was a member. City elders were less than pleased, but to Donovan, if an Irish railroad worker could be arrested for prohibition, so could the community leaders. The law was the law and to hell with the commotion; it applied equally to the rich, and Donovan was not afraid to apply it.
"Hoover also wanted to isolate Donovan outside the United States in case any of Hoover’s past dealings with the Belgium Relief Fund or stock swindles surfaced. Donovan would have been relentless in investigating his boss if he was appointed Attorney General.
"By 1928, Donovan also incurred the wrath of William Howard Taft. The former President and then Chief Justice wrote a letter to his son that found its way to Hoover, claiming that Donovan would be an unsuitable candidate for Attorney General. Besides these heavyweight enemies, Donovan also faced opposition from the State Department and military intelligence units that viewed the OSS as infringing on their territory. Facing plentiful political foes, Truman disbanded the OSS."
................................................................................................
"The final blow to Donovan’s ambitions to head a peacetime intelligence service came from the pen of Drew Pearson, the well-known columnist. Attorney General Francis Biddle was engaging in a dangerous game of passing secret documents to Pearson to discredit both Donovan and OSS."
"The telegram sent to Donovan on April 30, 1945 over the ultrasecure Telekrypton circuit was almost the exact text of a secret signal he received. Donovan once again assigned Doering to investigate the leak. All evidence pointed to Biddle, but no charges were ever filed. Note how soon after Roosevelt’s death that Biddle passed this information to Pearson.
"On Sept. 20, 1945, President Truman issued an executive order disbanding the OSS, and it was dispersed among other agencies. The Secret Intelligence and Special Operations branches were transferred to the War Department and placed under the command of former OSS Gen. John Magruder. This was nothing more than a caretaker body to dismember the unit. Magruder protested the wholesale dismemberment and resigned in February."
Was this the General Magruder who was mentioned in JFK, by X? In which case, he was working for U.S. at least until November 1963, if that detail in JFK is accurate - but then there has been no finger pointing, much less debunking, of any details of JFK, or - for that matter - of How They Murdered Princess Diana, except, making it seem ridiculous to question the official version however riddled with gaps quite unbridgeable, by simply inventing the phrase "conspiracy theory". It's somewhat akin to how one is supposed to publicly profess belief in Santa while just a tad less publicly one has to be deprecative about it!
................................................................................................
"By mid-1946, Donovan’s OSS was completely dismantled and the U.S. was without an intelligence service. At first, it was suggested that private enterprise could provide the government with intelligence. A former OSS deputy director proposed to IBM’s Tom Watson that he form a private intelligence service. The two men raised the initial venture capital in vain because President Truman and Congress created the CIA in 1947.
"In the short span of a year, the government dissolved OSS only to recreate it under a new name. This was not a case of a vacillating government. If President Truman had not signed the executive order dissolving OSS, Congress simply would have canceled any funding for it. Disbanding OSS had an express purpose. OSS leftists served as sacrificial lambs to atone du Pont’s new feckless goddess on the altar of free enterprise. Those who served their country gallantly during war and were dedicated to stomping out the last vestige of fascism now became victims to the fascists in the United States. American industrialists who willingly supported Hitler during the war had to be protected."
"The top leadership of the CIA had no qualms about working with Nazi war criminals. Angleton, Dulles and Wisner all worked with and helped Nazis escape from Europe. Many immigrated to the United States after having their records sanitized by Dulles and others in the intelligence community.
"The CIA instead of the FBI now had exclusive responsibility for intelligence in South America. Given Hoover’s propensity to protect and expand his domain, the FBI remained cool if not frigid in its dealings with the new agency. In some South American embassies, FBI agents destroyed their records rather than giving them to the CIA."
"Once again after a war, America embarked on a Red scare. The resulting Cold War was a smoke screen to cover up the crimes of fascists in the United States. No American corporation faced charges of trading with the Nazis. Not a single corporation was charged with treason. Dulles was adamant on the point. He had used his post in Switzerland to protect his own dealings with the Nazis and those of his clients. He was now in a position to further protect those American corporations that willingly supported and traded with the Nazis during the war."
"The final blow to Donovan’s ambitions to head a peacetime intelligence service came from the pen of Drew Pearson, the well-known columnist. Attorney General Francis Biddle was engaging in a dangerous game of passing secret documents to Pearson to discredit both Donovan and OSS."
"The telegram sent to Donovan on April 30, 1945 over the ultrasecure Telekrypton circuit was almost the exact text of a secret signal he received. Donovan once again assigned Doering to investigate the leak. All evidence pointed to Biddle, but no charges were ever filed. Note how soon after Roosevelt’s death that Biddle passed this information to Pearson.
"On Sept. 20, 1945, President Truman issued an executive order disbanding the OSS, and it was dispersed among other agencies. The Secret Intelligence and Special Operations branches were transferred to the War Department and placed under the command of former OSS Gen. John Magruder. This was nothing more than a caretaker body to dismember the unit. Magruder protested the wholesale dismemberment and resigned in February."
Was this the General Magruder who was mentioned in JFK, by X? In which case, he was working for U.S. at least until November 1963, if that detail in JFK is accurate - but then there has been no finger pointing, much less debunking, of any details of JFK, or - for that matter - of How They Murdered Princess Diana, except, making it seem ridiculous to question the official version however riddled with gaps quite unbridgeable, by simply inventing the phrase "conspiracy theory". It's somewhat akin to how one is supposed to publicly profess belief in Santa while just a tad less publicly one has to be deprecative about it!
................................................................................................
"By mid-1946, Donovan’s OSS was completely dismantled and the U.S. was without an intelligence service. At first, it was suggested that private enterprise could provide the government with intelligence. A former OSS deputy director proposed to IBM’s Tom Watson that he form a private intelligence service. The two men raised the initial venture capital in vain because President Truman and Congress created the CIA in 1947.
"In the short span of a year, the government dissolved OSS only to recreate it under a new name. This was not a case of a vacillating government. If President Truman had not signed the executive order dissolving OSS, Congress simply would have canceled any funding for it. Disbanding OSS had an express purpose. OSS leftists served as sacrificial lambs to atone du Pont’s new feckless goddess on the altar of free enterprise. Those who served their country gallantly during war and were dedicated to stomping out the last vestige of fascism now became victims to the fascists in the United States. American industrialists who willingly supported Hitler during the war had to be protected."
"The top leadership of the CIA had no qualms about working with Nazi war criminals. Angleton, Dulles and Wisner all worked with and helped Nazis escape from Europe. Many immigrated to the United States after having their records sanitized by Dulles and others in the intelligence community.
"The CIA instead of the FBI now had exclusive responsibility for intelligence in South America. Given Hoover’s propensity to protect and expand his domain, the FBI remained cool if not frigid in its dealings with the new agency. In some South American embassies, FBI agents destroyed their records rather than giving them to the CIA."
"Once again after a war, America embarked on a Red scare. The resulting Cold War was a smoke screen to cover up the crimes of fascists in the United States. No American corporation faced charges of trading with the Nazis. Not a single corporation was charged with treason. Dulles was adamant on the point. He had used his post in Switzerland to protect his own dealings with the Nazis and those of his clients. He was now in a position to further protect those American corporations that willingly supported and traded with the Nazis during the war."
................................................................................................
"With Roosevelt’s death, his pledge to bring all war criminals to justice evaporated in less than a year. The first sabotage effort came almost immediately. On April 25, 1945, Drew Pearson reported in his column that an inside group of military planners had dropped Roosevelt’s plan for postwar Germany in favor of a soft peace. This small circle of military planners included representatives of big business who had served in the military planning groups during the war.
"This group adopted former President Herbert Hoover’s plan for a “cooling-off period” and a soft peace. The Hoover administration was instrumental in helping IG Farben reestablish its cartels after WWI.
"On May 16, 1945, Stimson warned President Truman of the likely pestilence and famine in central Europe, which would lead to a communist uprising. Stimson hoped Truman would appoint Herbert Hoover to review the relief situation and demand revitalization of the German economy and industrial base. In his diary, Stimson deprecated FDR and Morgenthau, referring to Hoover as a master of the subject, and FDR and his administration as amateurs.
"Stimson’s diary reveals deep opposition to Roosevelt and a hard peace for Germany. Stimson was an integral part of the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to eliminate the Nazi menace, but his diary reveals that he bitterly opposed FDR’s plan for postwar peace. Truman did appoint Hoover to tour Europe to seek out a solution for relief, but Hoover used the trip to enrich himself, much as he did during WWI. One may also be certain Hoover vacuumed Europe for any incriminating evidence of his involvement with the Nazis and efforts to prolong WWI.
"Within a few months, this group found a political platform in the voice of a young State Department official, George Kennan."
................................................................................................
"With the top echelon in the State Department and the Pentagon now in the hands of pro-Germany adherents, the United States was poised to rush headlong into the Cold War. Our former ally against the Nazis was now our enemy. Denazification of Germany was dead; there would be no more trials of Nazi war criminals, no investigations of corporate America and its support of the Nazi regime. The native Nazis in America had won; their crimes were swept under the rug.
"Kennan was a Germanophile who studied at Heidelberg and the Hochschule fuer Politik in Berlin. He was taught and believed in the teachings of the Hochschule that Germany was a bulwark against the East. Kennan did postgraduate work in four German universities: University of Heidelberg, University of Berlin, Oriental Seminary and the Hochschule fuer Politik. All of these institutions were well known for their extreme pan-German views.
"Kennan was interned with other diplomats in the Grand Hotel in Bad Nauheim, Germany, when the United States entered the war. During this time, he gave lectures expounding on the thesis that Germany’s defeat would end the 2,000-year history of European civilization. What kind of U.S. diplomat would deplore the defeat of the Nazis in 1942 after the ruthless attack on Pearl Harbor? While in Berlin, Kennan had to be aware of the genocide in Poland, yet he deplored the defeat of the regime that was giving new meaning to barbaric behavior. The German newsweekly, Der Spiegel, confirmed that Kennan lectured his fellow inmates at the Grand Hotel about the undesirability of the defeat of the Nazis in 1952.
"Many officials inside the State Department and high-ranking military officials shared with Kennan the geopolitical theories of Gen. Karl Haushofer. That led to Kennan becoming the leading Cold War theorist. Unfortunately, his premise was a house of cards built on lies and deceit. By 1945, the State Department had ample evidence of extensive plans by the German High Command for a continuation of political warfare against the Allies after a military defeat. It also had files on how German authorities laid the groundwork for continuing Nazi activities in foreign countries, on preserving the German cartels, and on continuing Nazi scientific research in foreign countries."
"The intent of the Nazis can best be summarized by an excerpt from a 1944 French weekly, Combat, written by Gen. von Stuepnagel, analyzing the causes for German military setbacks in WWII:
""In the next war, which should take place within 25 years, the same mistake must not be made. The principal adversary will be the United States, and the entire effort must be concentrated against this country from the beginning... Our defeat in the present war need not be considered except as an incident in the triumphal march of Germany towards the conquest of the world, and from now on we must give a defeated Germany the spirit of a future conqueror. What does a temporary defeat matter if, through the destruction of people and material wealth in enemy countries, we are able to secure a margin of economic and demographic superiority even greater than before 1939? If we can succeed in doing this, this war will have been useful, since it will enable us, within the next 25 years, to wage another war under better conditions... Our enemies will grow weary before we do. We shall have to organize a campaign of pity designed to induce them to send us needed supplies at the earliest possible moment. Above all we must hold on to the assets we have deposited in neutral countries. The present war will thus have been victorious, in spite of our temporary military defeat, because it will have been a march forward towards our supremacy. We have not to fear conditions of peace analogous to those we have imposed, because our adversaries will always be divided and disunited.""
This "campaign of pity" was carried out extensively post WWI, with an attached hate campaign against French about reparations. It was a false propaganda to make everyone infer that French vengeful demands were not just wrong morally but caused deaths of German babies by starvation. Fact is Germany not only spent on this propaganda but also hid arms and ammunition in monasteries, which were made available to nazis in their street wars. The false propaganda has continued.
"There is no more dramatic evidence of the State Department’s plan of a German bulwark against the Soviets and the resulting Marshall Plan, which basically followed the Nazis’ plan for a comeback. It’s not that Marshall or any particular individual were Nazis. However, the State Department had reams of captured German documents and was well aware of the postwar plans of the Nazi leadership to continue the war economically and psychologically, and yet, the State Department embarked on a course that could not have pleased the Nazi leadership more. The Nazi psychological warfare campaign was extraordinarily successful in playing the Americans for fools.
"While the State Department was correct in opposing the Soviet Union or any other totalitarian form of government, pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust was foolhardy. Moreover, as we learned later in the 1960s and 1970s, détente and trade were more effective weapons against the Soviets. By continuing a path of belligerence rather than peaceful coexistence, the United States forced the Soviets and their eastern European satellites to arm. The Marshall Plan propelled the world toward the nuclear brink.
"Evidence the Nazis were trying to split the Allies was plentiful. Captured Nazi documents reveal the German High Command channeled proof of their secret negotiations with the Americans to Stalin through agents who were in contact with von Papen. This was the source of serious strife between FDR and Stalin in the closing months of the war. The Big Three, the U.S., U.S.S.R and U.K., had agreed to hold no secret talks separately with the Nazis. Yet, Allen Dulles was holding talks with Gen. Wolff and other Nazi officials. All reports suggest the talks held by Dulles were unauthorized. While FDR had not approved the talks and was not aware of them, the Nazis told Stalin about them. At one point before this incident, the Nazis boldly proposed that the West join them in a war against communism. The Americans who engaged in these secret talks wittingly or unwittingly played their part in the Nazi ruse. They included Allen Dulles."
Upton Sinclair mentions the lack of trust by Stalin, but not the reason; was it ignorance about Allen Dulles, or much more than that?
"Besides the reams of documents the State Department had acquired, the press reported further proof that the Nazis were building an underground network. On Dec. 13, 1944, the Associated Press reported that Himmler had started such plans. The article further claimed that many party members established double identities, and the aim of their propaganda was to drive a wedge between the Allies. Evidence of the Nazi underground network and escape routes emerged as early as 1943 and was extensive by late 1944."
"With the top echelon in the State Department and the Pentagon now in the hands of pro-Germany adherents, the United States was poised to rush headlong into the Cold War. Our former ally against the Nazis was now our enemy. Denazification of Germany was dead; there would be no more trials of Nazi war criminals, no investigations of corporate America and its support of the Nazi regime. The native Nazis in America had won; their crimes were swept under the rug.
"Kennan was a Germanophile who studied at Heidelberg and the Hochschule fuer Politik in Berlin. He was taught and believed in the teachings of the Hochschule that Germany was a bulwark against the East. Kennan did postgraduate work in four German universities: University of Heidelberg, University of Berlin, Oriental Seminary and the Hochschule fuer Politik. All of these institutions were well known for their extreme pan-German views.
"Kennan was interned with other diplomats in the Grand Hotel in Bad Nauheim, Germany, when the United States entered the war. During this time, he gave lectures expounding on the thesis that Germany’s defeat would end the 2,000-year history of European civilization. What kind of U.S. diplomat would deplore the defeat of the Nazis in 1942 after the ruthless attack on Pearl Harbor? While in Berlin, Kennan had to be aware of the genocide in Poland, yet he deplored the defeat of the regime that was giving new meaning to barbaric behavior. The German newsweekly, Der Spiegel, confirmed that Kennan lectured his fellow inmates at the Grand Hotel about the undesirability of the defeat of the Nazis in 1952.
"Many officials inside the State Department and high-ranking military officials shared with Kennan the geopolitical theories of Gen. Karl Haushofer. That led to Kennan becoming the leading Cold War theorist. Unfortunately, his premise was a house of cards built on lies and deceit. By 1945, the State Department had ample evidence of extensive plans by the German High Command for a continuation of political warfare against the Allies after a military defeat. It also had files on how German authorities laid the groundwork for continuing Nazi activities in foreign countries, on preserving the German cartels, and on continuing Nazi scientific research in foreign countries."
................................................................................................
"The intent of the Nazis can best be summarized by an excerpt from a 1944 French weekly, Combat, written by Gen. von Stuepnagel, analyzing the causes for German military setbacks in WWII:
""In the next war, which should take place within 25 years, the same mistake must not be made. The principal adversary will be the United States, and the entire effort must be concentrated against this country from the beginning... Our defeat in the present war need not be considered except as an incident in the triumphal march of Germany towards the conquest of the world, and from now on we must give a defeated Germany the spirit of a future conqueror. What does a temporary defeat matter if, through the destruction of people and material wealth in enemy countries, we are able to secure a margin of economic and demographic superiority even greater than before 1939? If we can succeed in doing this, this war will have been useful, since it will enable us, within the next 25 years, to wage another war under better conditions... Our enemies will grow weary before we do. We shall have to organize a campaign of pity designed to induce them to send us needed supplies at the earliest possible moment. Above all we must hold on to the assets we have deposited in neutral countries. The present war will thus have been victorious, in spite of our temporary military defeat, because it will have been a march forward towards our supremacy. We have not to fear conditions of peace analogous to those we have imposed, because our adversaries will always be divided and disunited.""
This "campaign of pity" was carried out extensively post WWI, with an attached hate campaign against French about reparations. It was a false propaganda to make everyone infer that French vengeful demands were not just wrong morally but caused deaths of German babies by starvation. Fact is Germany not only spent on this propaganda but also hid arms and ammunition in monasteries, which were made available to nazis in their street wars. The false propaganda has continued.
"There is no more dramatic evidence of the State Department’s plan of a German bulwark against the Soviets and the resulting Marshall Plan, which basically followed the Nazis’ plan for a comeback. It’s not that Marshall or any particular individual were Nazis. However, the State Department had reams of captured German documents and was well aware of the postwar plans of the Nazi leadership to continue the war economically and psychologically, and yet, the State Department embarked on a course that could not have pleased the Nazi leadership more. The Nazi psychological warfare campaign was extraordinarily successful in playing the Americans for fools.
"While the State Department was correct in opposing the Soviet Union or any other totalitarian form of government, pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust was foolhardy. Moreover, as we learned later in the 1960s and 1970s, détente and trade were more effective weapons against the Soviets. By continuing a path of belligerence rather than peaceful coexistence, the United States forced the Soviets and their eastern European satellites to arm. The Marshall Plan propelled the world toward the nuclear brink.
"Evidence the Nazis were trying to split the Allies was plentiful. Captured Nazi documents reveal the German High Command channeled proof of their secret negotiations with the Americans to Stalin through agents who were in contact with von Papen. This was the source of serious strife between FDR and Stalin in the closing months of the war. The Big Three, the U.S., U.S.S.R and U.K., had agreed to hold no secret talks separately with the Nazis. Yet, Allen Dulles was holding talks with Gen. Wolff and other Nazi officials. All reports suggest the talks held by Dulles were unauthorized. While FDR had not approved the talks and was not aware of them, the Nazis told Stalin about them. At one point before this incident, the Nazis boldly proposed that the West join them in a war against communism. The Americans who engaged in these secret talks wittingly or unwittingly played their part in the Nazi ruse. They included Allen Dulles."
Upton Sinclair mentions the lack of trust by Stalin, but not the reason; was it ignorance about Allen Dulles, or much more than that?
"Besides the reams of documents the State Department had acquired, the press reported further proof that the Nazis were building an underground network. On Dec. 13, 1944, the Associated Press reported that Himmler had started such plans. The article further claimed that many party members established double identities, and the aim of their propaganda was to drive a wedge between the Allies. Evidence of the Nazi underground network and escape routes emerged as early as 1943 and was extensive by late 1944."
................................................................................................
"The Nazis made good use of their occupation of France by sending carloads of files and secret formulas over the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. Burnet Hershey, the foreign correspondent of the Hearst press, first reported on the German escape route through Spain on Jan. 25, 1943:
""Every talk I had with the Germans in Lisbon made that fact clear. They may be defeated on the battlefield, as they were in 1918, but they expect to win again at the peace table as in 1919. Of course, they will sacrifice Hitler as they sacrificed the Kaiser; but the old gang - the generals, big industrialists, phony professors of mis-education about German race superiority - will try to go underground again to lay the eggs for another war of German conquest."
"On Jan. 17, 1944, Harold Denny of the Times confirmed the early report in the following dispatch from Madrid:
""Heavy new increments of German agents have been pouring into Spain in recent days in an obvious effort by Germany to save what she can of a situation that has gone badly against her.
"A thousand Gestapo agents and other German representatives have appeared in Madrid alone in the past fortnight. Significant additions to the German population have been noted in other parts of Spain.
"They are not easy to deal with, for Germany has extensive commercial interests in Spain and many of these agents are here in the plausible guise of executives, technicians and lesser employees of these interests as well as cogs in Germany’s vast diplomatic, consular and propaganda machinery."
"On April 13, 1944, the New York Herald Tribune carried a report from the British Intelligence Service and the American Alien Property Custodian about huge sums placed by high Nazi officials and industrialists in neutral and American banks. On July 19, 1944, the Office of War Information reported that Swiss officials were alarmed about recent transfers by Germans to Swiss and Portuguese banks. The money would be used to finance the resurrection of the Third Reich. On Oct. 19, 1944, Newsweek reported that according to diplomatic sources from Buenos Aires, German technicians and military experts were believed to be reaching Argentina incognito. On Jan. 15, 1945, according to Newsweek,
""Many of the men Himmler sent to Spain and Argentina to carry out Nazi plans for postwar survival, carried passports under false names and later were reported dead in Germany. All have had training in Nazi political methods and experience abroad in commercial and other posts."
"In fact, the names of many of those executed as plotters in the failed attempt on Hitler’s life were later used as false identities for escaping Nazis. A Reuters News Wire on Sept. 14, 2000 confirmed the previous quoted documents about the Nazis planning a comeback. The new document on looted money and property was released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the World Jewish Congress. The document confirms a meeting at the Maison Rouge (Red House) in Strasbourg on Aug. 10, 1944. During the meeting, an SS general and a representative of the German armaments ministry told companies such as Krupp and Roehling that they must be prepared to finance the Nazi Party after the war when it went underground. Scheid, an SS general and director of Hermsdorff & Schonburg Co., presided over the meeting. Seven German companies, including Krupp, Roehling, Messerschmidt and Volkswagenwerk, and officials of the ministries of armaments and the navy attended the meeting.
"German industry was told to make contacts and alliances with foreign firms, and lay the groundwork for borrowing large sums in foreign countries. The SS general cited Krupp’s sharing of patents with U.S. companies as an example of how to employ firms outside Germany for the benefit of the Nazis. The Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force sent the three-page document to the U.S. Secretary of State in November 1944.
"It is clear the State Department had a good idea of the Nazis’ intent. Even the press was full of articles reporting on Nazi escape plans. The papers that aligned themselves as pro-fascist before the war began a propaganda blitz for an easy peace with Germany. They claimed that Roosevelt’s call for an unconditional surrender delayed the end of the war; it became a campaign issue in 1944. Despite this barrage of propaganda that the Nazis may have provoked, there were thousands of articles and editorials against any appeasement of Germany and the Nazis. At the peak of this sympathy campaign for an easy peace, Maj. George Fielding Eliot wrote in the Herald Tribune on June 27, 1945:
""Why shouldn’t the German standard of living be lower than that of Germany’s neighbors? Since when has it been considered an obligation of civilized society to see to it that a criminal, in the custody of the law, must enjoy every privilege, every luxury and every article of Lucullan diet which may be available to the law-abiding members of the community?"
"When Roosevelt’s Occupational Directive 1067 was published, it had the full support of the American people. The military command kept this directive secret for months because it ran counter to its program. The essential objectives of the Allies were stated as follows in Directive 1067:
""The principal allied objective is to prevent Germany from ever again becoming a threat to the peace of the world. Essential steps in the accomplishment of this objective are elimination of Nazism and militarism in all their forms, the immediate apprehension of war criminals for punishment, the industrial disarmament and demilitarization of Germany, with continuing control over Germany’s capacity to make war and preparation for eventual reconstruction of German political life on a democratic basis."
"During the war, the Allies solemnly agreed to remove all traces of militarism and Nazism to ensure Germany would never again wage war on the world. At Potsdam, the Allies agreed to abolish all veterans’ organizations and other military clubs. The failure to continue the 4Ds program and to follow the Potsdam agreement led to additional problems for the occupying forces. The ink was barely dry on the Potsdam agreement before SS and Wehrmacht officers began setting up a close-knit society under their American captors’ eyes in the prison camps. The Bruderschaft (Brotherhood) organization flourished behind the prison gates and was soon planning a Nazi comeback.
"During the first two years, the Bruderschaft operated in secret. The inner circle was made up of top SS officers and important officers from the General Staff. Among the leaders: Lt. Gen. Hut von Manteuffel, former commander of the Panzer Gross Deutschland Division; Alfred Franke-Grieksch, a high-ranking SS officer; and Gottried Griessmayer, former head of Hitler Youth. The organization was well financed, reaching across Germany and extending into Italy, Spain and Argentina."
"The Nazis made good use of their occupation of France by sending carloads of files and secret formulas over the Pyrenees to neutral Spain. Burnet Hershey, the foreign correspondent of the Hearst press, first reported on the German escape route through Spain on Jan. 25, 1943:
""Every talk I had with the Germans in Lisbon made that fact clear. They may be defeated on the battlefield, as they were in 1918, but they expect to win again at the peace table as in 1919. Of course, they will sacrifice Hitler as they sacrificed the Kaiser; but the old gang - the generals, big industrialists, phony professors of mis-education about German race superiority - will try to go underground again to lay the eggs for another war of German conquest."
"On Jan. 17, 1944, Harold Denny of the Times confirmed the early report in the following dispatch from Madrid:
""Heavy new increments of German agents have been pouring into Spain in recent days in an obvious effort by Germany to save what she can of a situation that has gone badly against her.
"A thousand Gestapo agents and other German representatives have appeared in Madrid alone in the past fortnight. Significant additions to the German population have been noted in other parts of Spain.
"They are not easy to deal with, for Germany has extensive commercial interests in Spain and many of these agents are here in the plausible guise of executives, technicians and lesser employees of these interests as well as cogs in Germany’s vast diplomatic, consular and propaganda machinery."
"On April 13, 1944, the New York Herald Tribune carried a report from the British Intelligence Service and the American Alien Property Custodian about huge sums placed by high Nazi officials and industrialists in neutral and American banks. On July 19, 1944, the Office of War Information reported that Swiss officials were alarmed about recent transfers by Germans to Swiss and Portuguese banks. The money would be used to finance the resurrection of the Third Reich. On Oct. 19, 1944, Newsweek reported that according to diplomatic sources from Buenos Aires, German technicians and military experts were believed to be reaching Argentina incognito. On Jan. 15, 1945, according to Newsweek,
""Many of the men Himmler sent to Spain and Argentina to carry out Nazi plans for postwar survival, carried passports under false names and later were reported dead in Germany. All have had training in Nazi political methods and experience abroad in commercial and other posts."
"In fact, the names of many of those executed as plotters in the failed attempt on Hitler’s life were later used as false identities for escaping Nazis. A Reuters News Wire on Sept. 14, 2000 confirmed the previous quoted documents about the Nazis planning a comeback. The new document on looted money and property was released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the World Jewish Congress. The document confirms a meeting at the Maison Rouge (Red House) in Strasbourg on Aug. 10, 1944. During the meeting, an SS general and a representative of the German armaments ministry told companies such as Krupp and Roehling that they must be prepared to finance the Nazi Party after the war when it went underground. Scheid, an SS general and director of Hermsdorff & Schonburg Co., presided over the meeting. Seven German companies, including Krupp, Roehling, Messerschmidt and Volkswagenwerk, and officials of the ministries of armaments and the navy attended the meeting.
"German industry was told to make contacts and alliances with foreign firms, and lay the groundwork for borrowing large sums in foreign countries. The SS general cited Krupp’s sharing of patents with U.S. companies as an example of how to employ firms outside Germany for the benefit of the Nazis. The Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force sent the three-page document to the U.S. Secretary of State in November 1944.
"It is clear the State Department had a good idea of the Nazis’ intent. Even the press was full of articles reporting on Nazi escape plans. The papers that aligned themselves as pro-fascist before the war began a propaganda blitz for an easy peace with Germany. They claimed that Roosevelt’s call for an unconditional surrender delayed the end of the war; it became a campaign issue in 1944. Despite this barrage of propaganda that the Nazis may have provoked, there were thousands of articles and editorials against any appeasement of Germany and the Nazis. At the peak of this sympathy campaign for an easy peace, Maj. George Fielding Eliot wrote in the Herald Tribune on June 27, 1945:
""Why shouldn’t the German standard of living be lower than that of Germany’s neighbors? Since when has it been considered an obligation of civilized society to see to it that a criminal, in the custody of the law, must enjoy every privilege, every luxury and every article of Lucullan diet which may be available to the law-abiding members of the community?"
................................................................................................
""The principal allied objective is to prevent Germany from ever again becoming a threat to the peace of the world. Essential steps in the accomplishment of this objective are elimination of Nazism and militarism in all their forms, the immediate apprehension of war criminals for punishment, the industrial disarmament and demilitarization of Germany, with continuing control over Germany’s capacity to make war and preparation for eventual reconstruction of German political life on a democratic basis."
"During the war, the Allies solemnly agreed to remove all traces of militarism and Nazism to ensure Germany would never again wage war on the world. At Potsdam, the Allies agreed to abolish all veterans’ organizations and other military clubs. The failure to continue the 4Ds program and to follow the Potsdam agreement led to additional problems for the occupying forces. The ink was barely dry on the Potsdam agreement before SS and Wehrmacht officers began setting up a close-knit society under their American captors’ eyes in the prison camps. The Bruderschaft (Brotherhood) organization flourished behind the prison gates and was soon planning a Nazi comeback.
"During the first two years, the Bruderschaft operated in secret. The inner circle was made up of top SS officers and important officers from the General Staff. Among the leaders: Lt. Gen. Hut von Manteuffel, former commander of the Panzer Gross Deutschland Division; Alfred Franke-Grieksch, a high-ranking SS officer; and Gottried Griessmayer, former head of Hitler Youth. The organization was well financed, reaching across Germany and extending into Italy, Spain and Argentina."
................................................................................................
"The question of German remilitarization first arose when Chancellor Adenauer suggested a united Europe defended by an integrated European Army. In 1948, Adenauer presented a request to U.S. authorities in secret to rearm 25 divisions. On July 30, 1948, U.S. News and World Report exposed the request in an article.
"The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 brought a complete change. Provisions banning military groups were no longer enforced. The Control Council allowed West Germany to set up its own General Staff, camouflaged under the name “Blank Office.” Supported by Bonn and the United States, a network of ex-Nazi officers was created to reactivate Germany’s military. The man behind the plan for remilitarization was Werner Naumann. With his old party connection from the Propaganda Ministry, the SS, the Wehrmacht and the Bruderschaft, Naumann emerged in a position of power. The devoted Nazi was the directing spirit behind almost every Nazi organization and publication in 1950-51.
"One of the outgrowths of this rush to rearm Germany was the Bund Deutscher Jugend (Association of German Youth). Membership in the group rose to 22,000. However, behind it was a sinister secret division of trained saboteurs and assassination squads labeled the Technical Emergency Service. Several thousand Wehrmacht and SS officers staffed this guerrilla army. U.S. agencies, the Bonn government and a few German businesses trained and equipped it.
"This Nazi group would have remained lost in history among the hundreds of others in postwar Germany if it had not been for President of the State of Hesse, August Zinn. In 1952, Zinn publicly charged that the group had drawn up a blacklist of prominent politicians to assassinate in an emergency. To the dismay of the U.S. High Commissioner, evidence surfaced revealing a large-scale political assassination plot hatched in the style of the Freikorps. The Oct. 10, 1952 edition of the New York Times carried the story. Similar plots and illegal activities were found behind other Nazi groups, such as the Freikorps Deutschland, Bewegung Reich and scores of smaller ones."
"In 1948, Clay commuted the life sentence of Ilse Koch to three years. Koch, the sadistic wife of a concentration camp commandant, known by inmates as the Witch of Buchenwald, had lampshades made from the skin of inmates with distinctive tattoos. Forensics proved the various items came from human skin. However, in 1976 in a videotaped interview prepared for the George C. Marshall Research Foundation in Virginia, Gen. Clay made the following comments:
""We tried Ilse Koch. ... She was sentenced to life imprisonment, and I commuted it to three years. And our press really didn’t like that. She had been destroyed by the fact that an enterprising reporter who first went into her house had given her the beautiful name, the “Bitch of Buchenwald,” and he had found some white lampshades in there which he wrote up as being made out of human flesh.
"Well, it turned out actually that it was goat flesh. But at the trial it was still human flesh. It was almost impossible for her to have gotten a fair trial."
"Ilse Koch and her lawyers never challenged the fact that the lampshades and other items were made from human skin. Such irresponsible comments as the general’s contributed to Holocaust denials. Further, the Koch case shows that while the general started circumventing Roosevelt’s directive by chipping away at the economic provisions, he soon intensified his sympathies to pardoning Nazi war criminals. While Gen. Clay publicly stated that Koch could not get a fair trial in an American military court, a civilian German court later sentenced her to life in prison. In 1967, the Witch of Buchenwald died in prison; the official cause of death was suicide."
"The question of German remilitarization first arose when Chancellor Adenauer suggested a united Europe defended by an integrated European Army. In 1948, Adenauer presented a request to U.S. authorities in secret to rearm 25 divisions. On July 30, 1948, U.S. News and World Report exposed the request in an article.
"The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 brought a complete change. Provisions banning military groups were no longer enforced. The Control Council allowed West Germany to set up its own General Staff, camouflaged under the name “Blank Office.” Supported by Bonn and the United States, a network of ex-Nazi officers was created to reactivate Germany’s military. The man behind the plan for remilitarization was Werner Naumann. With his old party connection from the Propaganda Ministry, the SS, the Wehrmacht and the Bruderschaft, Naumann emerged in a position of power. The devoted Nazi was the directing spirit behind almost every Nazi organization and publication in 1950-51.
"One of the outgrowths of this rush to rearm Germany was the Bund Deutscher Jugend (Association of German Youth). Membership in the group rose to 22,000. However, behind it was a sinister secret division of trained saboteurs and assassination squads labeled the Technical Emergency Service. Several thousand Wehrmacht and SS officers staffed this guerrilla army. U.S. agencies, the Bonn government and a few German businesses trained and equipped it.
"This Nazi group would have remained lost in history among the hundreds of others in postwar Germany if it had not been for President of the State of Hesse, August Zinn. In 1952, Zinn publicly charged that the group had drawn up a blacklist of prominent politicians to assassinate in an emergency. To the dismay of the U.S. High Commissioner, evidence surfaced revealing a large-scale political assassination plot hatched in the style of the Freikorps. The Oct. 10, 1952 edition of the New York Times carried the story. Similar plots and illegal activities were found behind other Nazi groups, such as the Freikorps Deutschland, Bewegung Reich and scores of smaller ones."
................................................................................................
"In 1948, Clay commuted the life sentence of Ilse Koch to three years. Koch, the sadistic wife of a concentration camp commandant, known by inmates as the Witch of Buchenwald, had lampshades made from the skin of inmates with distinctive tattoos. Forensics proved the various items came from human skin. However, in 1976 in a videotaped interview prepared for the George C. Marshall Research Foundation in Virginia, Gen. Clay made the following comments:
""We tried Ilse Koch. ... She was sentenced to life imprisonment, and I commuted it to three years. And our press really didn’t like that. She had been destroyed by the fact that an enterprising reporter who first went into her house had given her the beautiful name, the “Bitch of Buchenwald,” and he had found some white lampshades in there which he wrote up as being made out of human flesh.
"Well, it turned out actually that it was goat flesh. But at the trial it was still human flesh. It was almost impossible for her to have gotten a fair trial."
"Ilse Koch and her lawyers never challenged the fact that the lampshades and other items were made from human skin. Such irresponsible comments as the general’s contributed to Holocaust denials. Further, the Koch case shows that while the general started circumventing Roosevelt’s directive by chipping away at the economic provisions, he soon intensified his sympathies to pardoning Nazi war criminals. While Gen. Clay publicly stated that Koch could not get a fair trial in an American military court, a civilian German court later sentenced her to life in prison. In 1967, the Witch of Buchenwald died in prison; the official cause of death was suicide."
................................................................................................
" ...Eisenhower was reportedly disturbed to see his orders countermanded and expressed concern at seeing Nazis set free. ..."
"Secretary of Army Kenneth Royall opposed the denazification and decartelization plans. Royall was open in his support for rebuilding a strong Germany and was a vigorous opponent of the 4Ds program. In secret testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in April 1948, he told members of Congress that he wanted to end the war crimes trials much earlier. He claimed his major obstacle was Gen. Clay. Royall was the official responsible for halting all executions of war criminals after a false story of prisoner torture emerged in the Malmedy Massacre trial. Royall also opposed integrating the military after the war."
"The stacking of the Control Council with Wall Street and corporate executives deeply disturbed Treasury Secretary Morgenthau. Many of the firms were guilty of willingly trading with the Nazis during the war and supported pro-fascist groups at home. General Motors’ Opel division was one of the largest tank manufacturers for Hitler. Dillon and Read was one of the Wall Street firms that helped finance and build the Third Reich."
"While there were members like Morgenthau in the Truman administration who carried on the fight for justice, the Nazis had powerful friends in the halls of Congress to protect them. One was John Rankin. Excerpts from his speech to the House of Representatives on Nov. 27, 1947 follow:
"What is taking place at Nuremberg, Germany, is a disgrace to the United States. Every other country has now washed its hands and withdrawn from this Saturalia of persecution. But a racial minority, two and half years after the war closed are in Nuremberg not only hanging German soldiers but trying German businessmen in the name of the United States."
" ...Eisenhower was reportedly disturbed to see his orders countermanded and expressed concern at seeing Nazis set free. ..."
"Secretary of Army Kenneth Royall opposed the denazification and decartelization plans. Royall was open in his support for rebuilding a strong Germany and was a vigorous opponent of the 4Ds program. In secret testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in April 1948, he told members of Congress that he wanted to end the war crimes trials much earlier. He claimed his major obstacle was Gen. Clay. Royall was the official responsible for halting all executions of war criminals after a false story of prisoner torture emerged in the Malmedy Massacre trial. Royall also opposed integrating the military after the war."
"The stacking of the Control Council with Wall Street and corporate executives deeply disturbed Treasury Secretary Morgenthau. Many of the firms were guilty of willingly trading with the Nazis during the war and supported pro-fascist groups at home. General Motors’ Opel division was one of the largest tank manufacturers for Hitler. Dillon and Read was one of the Wall Street firms that helped finance and build the Third Reich."
................................................................................................
"While there were members like Morgenthau in the Truman administration who carried on the fight for justice, the Nazis had powerful friends in the halls of Congress to protect them. One was John Rankin. Excerpts from his speech to the House of Representatives on Nov. 27, 1947 follow:
"What is taking place at Nuremberg, Germany, is a disgrace to the United States. Every other country has now washed its hands and withdrawn from this Saturalia of persecution. But a racial minority, two and half years after the war closed are in Nuremberg not only hanging German soldiers but trying German businessmen in the name of the United States."
................................................................................................
"Clay was the only four-star general never to have conducted a combat command. While Clay served in Europe during the war, he was a rear echelon general in charge of supply.
"Both Clay and Murphy were largely responsible for convincing Truman that a punitive peace was unwise, and they immediately set about sabotaging the denazification program. Once the Kennan Doctrine emerged in 1946, Clay and Murphy both embraced it. Early in 1946, Gen. Clay banned dismantling German industrial plants for reparations. Both Clay and Murphy had a great influence in escalating the emerging Cold War. In 1948, Clay issued a warning to Washington that “war may come with dramatic suddenness.” His frantic message came from an exaggerated threat assessment from Gehlen, claiming the Soviets were mobilizing large numbers of troops in Eastern Europe. Gehlen was a former Nazi officer in charge of intelligence on the Eastern Front, recruited by OSS-CIA.
"Hermann Abs’ rehabilitation by Gen. Clay could be considered as the most damning sabotage of the denazification program. While Abs was never associated with the concentration camps or the horrors of the Holocaust, he was the one in the Nazi empire who made it all possible. Abs was the Nazi banker. Without the financial magic of Abs, the Nazis would have faced a financial crisis that would have brought down the Third Reich. Clay complained that he was never able to appoint Abs finance minister of the new German government, due to American public opinion, but he was able to appoint him to head the Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC). RFC was somewhat outside the realm of the government, but was the sole instrument for distributing funds for Germany from the Marshall Plan. Abs later returned to the post of Chairman of Deutsche Bank which he had held during the war, and was a key figure in the reconstruction of the German economy."
................................................................................................
"On July 30, 1947, Gen. Clay announced that extraditions from the American zone would end after Nov. 1. Three weeks earlier, the general ordered JAG to end all war crimes trials by the end of the year. At that time, there remained at least 700 murders of American airmen still uninvestigated. The reason later given for closing war crime trials was that by mid-1947, the American war crimes program was discredited, a victim of a vicious political campaign. During the Battle of the Bulge, a German offensive unit was ordered to take no prisoners, and massacred 88 of the 120 American soldiers captured near the Belgian town of Malmedy. Both the Chicago Tribune and Sen. Joseph McCarthy engaged in the campaign to discredit the Malmedy massacre trial.
"First to benefit from Clay’s decision to end extradition were seven Wehrmacht and SS generals. Almost no German generals faced trial by the United States or Britain. That does not include field marshals, such as Goering. This group of German officers was wanted for destroying Warsaw in 1944 and for the murder of thousands of Poles during the German retreat. Poland requested their extradition at the beginning of 1946. Unlike in other eastern European countries, the trials in Poland had been as fair as any in the West. Western Allies extradited 1,172 men and women to Poland to stand trial. Forty-two returned after acquittal. One of the generals named in the extradition request was Gen. Heinz Reinefarth, the Butcher of Warsaw.
"It is revealing to look at why some Nazi criminals were never charged with crimes, but were promoted instead to new positions of power. A typical example is the case of Theodor Ganzenmuller, who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. As Staatssekretar in the Ministry of Transportation during the war, Ganzenmuller organized the train services for Auschwitz, Treblinka and other concentration camps. Himmler personally telephoned Ganzenmuller to work out problems in transporting the Jews.
"Seeking someone to rebuild the railways in the American zone, the U.S. Transport Division shamefully proposed Ganzenmuller. Seven of the other members proposed also were in the automatic arrest category. The U.S. Transport Division withdrew Ganzenmuller’s name only after the State Department wrote an urgent letter. Dorpmuller, Hitler’s Minister of Transport, was appointed. Such appointments of high, former Nazis to positions of power in the postwar occupation government and the later German government were rampant. More than half of those nominated by the American Legal Division were former Nazis in the automatic arrest category."
................................................................................................
"Col. Clio Straight was selected to head the prosecution of war criminals. Straight was a lawyer from Waterloo, Iowa, with no experience in criminal cases. He had been drafted and remained in charge even after career JAG officers were dispatched to Germany. Col. Claude Mickelwaite ordered Straight to wind up the trials that he presumed would last through 1948. Straight’s office was handicapped by a constant demobilization effort that had reduced his staff by 50 percent. Further, Straight complained that his staff was untrained and not qualified. The constant moving of headquarters interrupted the group’s work repeatedly. According to Straight, Mickelwaite saw no glory in continuing the trials, and because of their unpopularity with top Army brass, refused to ask for more personnel.
"Mickelwaite faced only one obstacle in his rush to close down the trials: Damon Gunn. Gunn submitted a report to Washington on June 24, 1946 complaining that there were more than 15,000 war crimes suspects at Dachau alone, but only 63 trials had taken place involving roughly 500 of the detainees. In his report, Gunn recommended an extra 1,500 trials involving a minimum of 3,000 defendants. Gunn’s recommendation was dead the day it arrived in Germany. On Mickelwaite’s suggestion, Clay turned down the request.
"As late as 1982, Straight commented on the release of prisoners from Dachau: “I was ambivalent whether we should carry on or quit. We had established the principle and to carry on and try thousands would have been expensive. So when I got the orders, I saw the production line going. No special efforts were made. There was no method, no discussion about handing cases or bodies over to the Germans. We just plain turned them loose.”
"Justice, it seems, died with Roosevelt. Nuremberg settled the principle of bringing war criminals to justice. However, once the Allies established that principle, they spent little effort in seeking justice for thousands of victims. American occupation forces simply turned the war criminals loose. Of course, with every new trial and every new defendant, the risk of uncovering corporate America’s treason increased.
"The lack of prosecution turned the American zone into a sanctuary for war criminals. Three examples will suffice. On March 23, 1948, Lt. Gen. Dratvin, Deputy Commander of the Soviet military mission, requested in writing from Maj. Gen. G.P. Hays, Clay’s deputy, the extradition of 17 Russian collaborators. The Soviets charged the collaborators with shooting partisans and burning families alive in their homes. Dratvin supplied the American zone addresses of each collaborator. Hays rejected the request.
"On March 31, 1948, the U.S. Legal Division approved the extradition of four German officers to Yugoslavia for a series of murders, but the Director of Intelligence canceled it on political grounds. Finally, on June 15, Army headquarters received a letter from a Lett refugee naming five former SS and SD officers living in a displaced persons camp. The reply:
""With the exception of atrocities committed in concentration camps which were located in the U.S. area of control or overrun by U.S. troops, the war crimes activities of headquarters do not entail prosecutions of criminals who committed offences against the civilian population of other countries... We thank you for bringing the matter to the attention of this headquarters."
"In short, no one gave a damn. Of course, Clay did not act in a vacuum in sabotaging the denazification program. The Nazis counted on support from their agents and friends, the corporations that did business with the Nazis before and during the war, and a faction in the State Department that wanted to use Germany as a bulwark against the Soviets.
"This group had the means to effectively lobby and control the focus of the media. One tactic was sponsoring junkets for business leaders and politicians to Europe to study German recovery. American multinationals financed most of these trips. Draper paid close attention to these visitors and provided them with privileged information. Reports from the visits mentioned the proven impossibility of decartelization and the need to reverse the Morgenthau Plan before it was even implemented."
"On July 30, 1947, Gen. Clay announced that extraditions from the American zone would end after Nov. 1. Three weeks earlier, the general ordered JAG to end all war crimes trials by the end of the year. At that time, there remained at least 700 murders of American airmen still uninvestigated. The reason later given for closing war crime trials was that by mid-1947, the American war crimes program was discredited, a victim of a vicious political campaign. During the Battle of the Bulge, a German offensive unit was ordered to take no prisoners, and massacred 88 of the 120 American soldiers captured near the Belgian town of Malmedy. Both the Chicago Tribune and Sen. Joseph McCarthy engaged in the campaign to discredit the Malmedy massacre trial.
"First to benefit from Clay’s decision to end extradition were seven Wehrmacht and SS generals. Almost no German generals faced trial by the United States or Britain. That does not include field marshals, such as Goering. This group of German officers was wanted for destroying Warsaw in 1944 and for the murder of thousands of Poles during the German retreat. Poland requested their extradition at the beginning of 1946. Unlike in other eastern European countries, the trials in Poland had been as fair as any in the West. Western Allies extradited 1,172 men and women to Poland to stand trial. Forty-two returned after acquittal. One of the generals named in the extradition request was Gen. Heinz Reinefarth, the Butcher of Warsaw.
"It is revealing to look at why some Nazi criminals were never charged with crimes, but were promoted instead to new positions of power. A typical example is the case of Theodor Ganzenmuller, who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. As Staatssekretar in the Ministry of Transportation during the war, Ganzenmuller organized the train services for Auschwitz, Treblinka and other concentration camps. Himmler personally telephoned Ganzenmuller to work out problems in transporting the Jews.
"Seeking someone to rebuild the railways in the American zone, the U.S. Transport Division shamefully proposed Ganzenmuller. Seven of the other members proposed also were in the automatic arrest category. The U.S. Transport Division withdrew Ganzenmuller’s name only after the State Department wrote an urgent letter. Dorpmuller, Hitler’s Minister of Transport, was appointed. Such appointments of high, former Nazis to positions of power in the postwar occupation government and the later German government were rampant. More than half of those nominated by the American Legal Division were former Nazis in the automatic arrest category."
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"Col. Clio Straight was selected to head the prosecution of war criminals. Straight was a lawyer from Waterloo, Iowa, with no experience in criminal cases. He had been drafted and remained in charge even after career JAG officers were dispatched to Germany. Col. Claude Mickelwaite ordered Straight to wind up the trials that he presumed would last through 1948. Straight’s office was handicapped by a constant demobilization effort that had reduced his staff by 50 percent. Further, Straight complained that his staff was untrained and not qualified. The constant moving of headquarters interrupted the group’s work repeatedly. According to Straight, Mickelwaite saw no glory in continuing the trials, and because of their unpopularity with top Army brass, refused to ask for more personnel.
"Mickelwaite faced only one obstacle in his rush to close down the trials: Damon Gunn. Gunn submitted a report to Washington on June 24, 1946 complaining that there were more than 15,000 war crimes suspects at Dachau alone, but only 63 trials had taken place involving roughly 500 of the detainees. In his report, Gunn recommended an extra 1,500 trials involving a minimum of 3,000 defendants. Gunn’s recommendation was dead the day it arrived in Germany. On Mickelwaite’s suggestion, Clay turned down the request.
"As late as 1982, Straight commented on the release of prisoners from Dachau: “I was ambivalent whether we should carry on or quit. We had established the principle and to carry on and try thousands would have been expensive. So when I got the orders, I saw the production line going. No special efforts were made. There was no method, no discussion about handing cases or bodies over to the Germans. We just plain turned them loose.”
"Justice, it seems, died with Roosevelt. Nuremberg settled the principle of bringing war criminals to justice. However, once the Allies established that principle, they spent little effort in seeking justice for thousands of victims. American occupation forces simply turned the war criminals loose. Of course, with every new trial and every new defendant, the risk of uncovering corporate America’s treason increased.
"The lack of prosecution turned the American zone into a sanctuary for war criminals. Three examples will suffice. On March 23, 1948, Lt. Gen. Dratvin, Deputy Commander of the Soviet military mission, requested in writing from Maj. Gen. G.P. Hays, Clay’s deputy, the extradition of 17 Russian collaborators. The Soviets charged the collaborators with shooting partisans and burning families alive in their homes. Dratvin supplied the American zone addresses of each collaborator. Hays rejected the request.
"On March 31, 1948, the U.S. Legal Division approved the extradition of four German officers to Yugoslavia for a series of murders, but the Director of Intelligence canceled it on political grounds. Finally, on June 15, Army headquarters received a letter from a Lett refugee naming five former SS and SD officers living in a displaced persons camp. The reply:
""With the exception of atrocities committed in concentration camps which were located in the U.S. area of control or overrun by U.S. troops, the war crimes activities of headquarters do not entail prosecutions of criminals who committed offences against the civilian population of other countries... We thank you for bringing the matter to the attention of this headquarters."
"In short, no one gave a damn. Of course, Clay did not act in a vacuum in sabotaging the denazification program. The Nazis counted on support from their agents and friends, the corporations that did business with the Nazis before and during the war, and a faction in the State Department that wanted to use Germany as a bulwark against the Soviets.
"This group had the means to effectively lobby and control the focus of the media. One tactic was sponsoring junkets for business leaders and politicians to Europe to study German recovery. American multinationals financed most of these trips. Draper paid close attention to these visitors and provided them with privileged information. Reports from the visits mentioned the proven impossibility of decartelization and the need to reverse the Morgenthau Plan before it was even implemented."
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"One of these reports that was influential in shaping policy was A Report on Germany, by Lewis Brown, chair of Johns-Manville Corp. The report was extremely popular, making it onto the bestseller list, and is still quoted today. Brown wrote it in 1947 after touring Germany. The experts he consulted read like a guest list for the Council on Foreign Relations: ATT’s Frederick Devereux; John Foster Dulles; Herbert Hoover; Sears Roebuck President A.S. Barrowsthen, serving as U.S. Comptroller in Germany; a host of British and Swiss banking authorities; and 25 German industrialists. Brown’s lists of experts omitted labor leaders, small businessmen, leaders of the resistance movement, and heads of denazification and decartelization.
"In his report, Brown attacked the French and USSR punishment of Nazis as brutal and indiscriminate. He claimed the denazification program was depriving Germany of the leaders it needed to rehabilitate and rebuild. Typical delegates included the chairmen of the National Association of Manufacturers and of National City Bank, the head of the International Chamber of Commerce, and executives of Chase Bank. The one common denominator among the delegates was that all had extensive dealings with Nazi Germany, including General Electric."
................................................................................................
"After the war, Clay accepted a trustee position with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which was connected to those who invested in Nazi Germany. The appointment immediately raises the question of a payoff for help in hiding American investments in Nazi Germany. The question, like many others raised in this chapter, cannot be answered without further documentation that may be sealed in government or corporate vaults.
"While Gen. Clay’s record on denazification is dismal at best, it was exemplary in comparison with Gen. Draper’s. Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of Navy Forrestal engineered Draper’s appointment. Forrestal, a former president of Dillon and Read, was one of the individuals Roosevelt had under surveillance. Draper was selected to head the economic division and the anticartel section. Clay often was opposed to Draper’s views and actions."
"Draper was a former investment banker with Dillon and Read, which had a long history of doing business with Germany and the Nazis. While at Dillon and Read, Draper was appointed director, vice president and assistant treasurer of the German Credit and Investment Corp. (GCI). GCI served as a short-term banker for Thyssen and the German Steel Trust. Draper did not intend to ever implement Roosevelt’s directive calling for dismantling German cartels and industry. In one case, Draper ordered a halt to the dismantling of an IG Farben poison gas plant.
"However, in Draper’s section there were three dedicated officials who worked diligently to take apart the Nazi cartels. Two of them, Russell Nixon and Bernard Bernstein, resigned by December 1945 in protest Draper’s failure to carry out decartelization measures. Bernstein, who worked in the banking section, reported to Gen. Clay in September 1945 that his team had removed 9,500 employees who were proven Nazis from the banking system. However, Bernstein demanded stricter measures, including removal of U.S. officials who refused to carry out the denazification program. Bernstein claimed that too many Nazis remained in control of the banks. Clay refused to take tougher measures, and Bernstein resigned once it was clear nothing was going to be done.
"James Martin chose to remain and fight for decartelization. Martin’s position was undoubtedly weakened by the resignations of Nixon and Bernstein. Martin failed to take into account the strength of opposition from his own side. British and American bankers and industrialists openly worked with their Nazi partners until war broke out. Most of this continued clandestinely after the war. Investment by American corporations in Germany was staggering. In 1939, American corporations held controlling interests in German corporations worth at least $400 million.
"Until mid-1946, Martin could have defeated Draper if two conditions had been satisfied. First, Martin needed information about German corporations in order to organize a breakup. Second, Americans had to control the Ruhr district in which the large steel and coal trusts were located. The Ruhr was under British control."
................................................................................................
"Draper’s British counterpart was Sir Percy Mills, who arrived in Germany with no formal directive to remove Nazi businessmen. Mills was unrepentant about appointing former Nazis to control industries. He selected industrialists he had last met in 1939, who should have been under arrest, according to SHAEF.
"A typical Mills appointment was Wilhelm Zangen, a Nazi Party member since 1927. Zangen employed slave labor at Mannesmann. Another appointee, Ernst Ponsgen, was selected to direct the steel industry. In 1941, Hitler awarded him with the Eagle Shield, the Nazis’ highest economic award, for his “extraordinary services in arming Germany.”
"An estimated 100 industrialists and six major banks had controlled two-thirds of the German economy. This concentrated power made it easy for the Nazis to mobilize for war."
"Martin and Nixon arrived in Frankfurt at the end of April 1945. They discovered that while IG Farben’s headquarters had escaped bombing, the records stored there were being dumped out of windows and burned in the courtyard. SHAEF decided to use the building as headquarters and ordered it cleared of refuse. To dismantle IG, documentary evidence was needed; those records were vital. The surviving records took two years to assemble.
"The tribunal of judges on the IG Farben case in which 23 directors faced charges included Curtis Shake, Supreme Court Justice of Indiana; James Morris, Supreme Court Justice of North Dakota; and Paul Hebert, Law School Dean at Louisiana State University. From the beginning, the investigations into IG centered on two directors, Hermann Schmitz and von Schnitzler. Nixon located von Schnitzler and he eventually faced trial after making several confessions and conflicting statements. Judge Curtis Shake ruled to ignore those statements in von Schnitzler’s trial, claiming the accused was trying to help the Allies by telling them what he thought they wanted to hear.
"The decision outraged the prosecutor. The court acquitted all 23 accused of waging an aggressive war and 10 of all charges; the rest were found guilty of lesser charges. Only four were found guilty of employing slave labor. Judge Hebert wrote a dissenting opinion."
"In June 1956, Draper returned to Germany from Washington with a new economic team. All were harsh critics of the punitive policies. Draper’s Economic Division had not broken apart a single cartel. Among them was Lawrence Wilkinson, the new head of the industry branch. Wilkinson was sharply critical of decartelization, claiming it would hinder German economic recovery. He claimed that like denazification, it achieved nothing and only built resentment. Wilkinson aligned himself with Britain’s Percy Mills. According to Martin, Wilkinson and Draper conspired with Mills to raise certain issues in the Four-Power discussions, which would give Draper a suitable pretext for seeking Washington’s agreement to change American policy.
:In September 1946, Gen. Clay reprimanded Draper for telling visitors that denazification and decartelization were responsible for Germany’s dire economic conditions. Clay’s reprimand had no effect. On Nov. 13, Sir Cecil Weir cabled the American embassy in Washington that Draper assured him that it was just a matter of time before American policy fell into line with British policy. Weir soon replaced Mills. A month later, Willard Thorp, an Assistant Secretary of State, informed the British that the State Department was doing its best to keep the wild men in check. In addition, in November, the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress, tilting American policy in favor of big business and cartels. The Four-Powers law against cartels approved in January 1947 fit the lax British policy toward cartels.
"Martin held off resigning until May 1947. Draper appointed Philip Hawkins, his son-in-law and a relative of the du Ponts, as Martin’s successor. On his return to Washington, Martin continued to fight for decartelization. He and some of the remaining members of the decartelization branch testified before the Fergusson Committee. Arrayed against him were those who produced largely false statistics to prove German industry was unused and any further breakups would force the American taxpayer to subsidize Germany. However, Fergusson’s report ignored the easy choice and blamed Hawkins and Wilkinson for deliberately sabotaging the decartelization policy. The report recommended their firing.
"In retaliation, Wilkinson fired Martin and one other member of the remaining decartelization team who testified against him, Alexander Sacks, who stated: “They have done whatever they could by innuendo and misstatement, to discredit a program, which they did not understand or like.” Wilkinson also dismissed 120 of the section’s staff, leaving only 25 in Germany. Draper, promoted to Assistant Secretary of War, continued to dismantle the antitrust campaign against the Japanese multinational corporations."
"Draper’s British counterpart was Sir Percy Mills, who arrived in Germany with no formal directive to remove Nazi businessmen. Mills was unrepentant about appointing former Nazis to control industries. He selected industrialists he had last met in 1939, who should have been under arrest, according to SHAEF.
"A typical Mills appointment was Wilhelm Zangen, a Nazi Party member since 1927. Zangen employed slave labor at Mannesmann. Another appointee, Ernst Ponsgen, was selected to direct the steel industry. In 1941, Hitler awarded him with the Eagle Shield, the Nazis’ highest economic award, for his “extraordinary services in arming Germany.”
"An estimated 100 industrialists and six major banks had controlled two-thirds of the German economy. This concentrated power made it easy for the Nazis to mobilize for war."
"Martin and Nixon arrived in Frankfurt at the end of April 1945. They discovered that while IG Farben’s headquarters had escaped bombing, the records stored there were being dumped out of windows and burned in the courtyard. SHAEF decided to use the building as headquarters and ordered it cleared of refuse. To dismantle IG, documentary evidence was needed; those records were vital. The surviving records took two years to assemble.
"The tribunal of judges on the IG Farben case in which 23 directors faced charges included Curtis Shake, Supreme Court Justice of Indiana; James Morris, Supreme Court Justice of North Dakota; and Paul Hebert, Law School Dean at Louisiana State University. From the beginning, the investigations into IG centered on two directors, Hermann Schmitz and von Schnitzler. Nixon located von Schnitzler and he eventually faced trial after making several confessions and conflicting statements. Judge Curtis Shake ruled to ignore those statements in von Schnitzler’s trial, claiming the accused was trying to help the Allies by telling them what he thought they wanted to hear.
"The decision outraged the prosecutor. The court acquitted all 23 accused of waging an aggressive war and 10 of all charges; the rest were found guilty of lesser charges. Only four were found guilty of employing slave labor. Judge Hebert wrote a dissenting opinion."
................................................................................................
"In June 1956, Draper returned to Germany from Washington with a new economic team. All were harsh critics of the punitive policies. Draper’s Economic Division had not broken apart a single cartel. Among them was Lawrence Wilkinson, the new head of the industry branch. Wilkinson was sharply critical of decartelization, claiming it would hinder German economic recovery. He claimed that like denazification, it achieved nothing and only built resentment. Wilkinson aligned himself with Britain’s Percy Mills. According to Martin, Wilkinson and Draper conspired with Mills to raise certain issues in the Four-Power discussions, which would give Draper a suitable pretext for seeking Washington’s agreement to change American policy.
:In September 1946, Gen. Clay reprimanded Draper for telling visitors that denazification and decartelization were responsible for Germany’s dire economic conditions. Clay’s reprimand had no effect. On Nov. 13, Sir Cecil Weir cabled the American embassy in Washington that Draper assured him that it was just a matter of time before American policy fell into line with British policy. Weir soon replaced Mills. A month later, Willard Thorp, an Assistant Secretary of State, informed the British that the State Department was doing its best to keep the wild men in check. In addition, in November, the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress, tilting American policy in favor of big business and cartels. The Four-Powers law against cartels approved in January 1947 fit the lax British policy toward cartels.
"Martin held off resigning until May 1947. Draper appointed Philip Hawkins, his son-in-law and a relative of the du Ponts, as Martin’s successor. On his return to Washington, Martin continued to fight for decartelization. He and some of the remaining members of the decartelization branch testified before the Fergusson Committee. Arrayed against him were those who produced largely false statistics to prove German industry was unused and any further breakups would force the American taxpayer to subsidize Germany. However, Fergusson’s report ignored the easy choice and blamed Hawkins and Wilkinson for deliberately sabotaging the decartelization policy. The report recommended their firing.
"In retaliation, Wilkinson fired Martin and one other member of the remaining decartelization team who testified against him, Alexander Sacks, who stated: “They have done whatever they could by innuendo and misstatement, to discredit a program, which they did not understand or like.” Wilkinson also dismissed 120 of the section’s staff, leaving only 25 in Germany. Draper, promoted to Assistant Secretary of War, continued to dismantle the antitrust campaign against the Japanese multinational corporations."
................................................................................................
"While employed at Dillon and Read, Draper was in charge of the Thyssen account. He worked closely with the man in charge of this account at Brown Brothers and Harriman, Prescott Bush. (Gen. William Draper is not to be confused with Wickliffe Draper, founder of the Pioneer Fund, although they were related.) In 1932, William Draper financed the International Eugenics Congress. Doubts remain if Draper used his own money or funds from Thyssen or other corporate accounts. He helped select Ernst Ruaudin as chief of the world eugenics movement, who used his office to promote what he called Adolf Hitler’s holy, national and international racial hygienic mission.
"Prescott Bush shared Draper’s view on eugenics. In fact, late in Prescott’s first run for office in 1950, he was exposed as an activist in the old fascist eugenics movement, and Prescott lost his first bid for office as a result.
"In 1958, Eisenhower appointed Draper as head of a committee to study the proper course for U.S. military aid to other countries. A year later, Draper changed the focus of the committee and recommended the U.S. government react to the threat of population explosion by planning to depopulate poorer countries. The growth of the world’s nonwhite population, he proposed, should be regarded as dangerous to the national security of the United States. Eisenhower rejected the recommendation.
"In the 1960s, Draper founded the Population Crisis Committee and the Draper Fund, and joined with the Rockefeller and du Pont families to promote eugenics as population control. The Rockefeller family has been associated with eugenics since the turn of the century. In 1950-51, John Foster Dulles, chairperson of the Rockefeller Foundation, led John D. Rockefeller III on a series of world tours, focusing on the need to stop the expansion of the nonwhite populations. In November 1952, Dulles and Rockefeller set up the Population Council, with tens of millions of dollars from the Rockefeller family."
"Gen. Draper served as George H. W. Bush’s population expert. While serving in Congress, Bush chaired the Republican Task Force on Earth Resources and Population. He invited Professors William Shockley and Arthur Jensen to explain how allegedly runaway birthrates for African-Americans were down-breeding the American population. On Aug. 5, 1969, Bush summed up the testimony his black-inferiority advocates had given gave the task force. As a candidate for Congress in 1964, Bush campaigned against the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
"Bush was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1972, where his friends urged the U.S. Agency for International Development to make an official contract with the old Sterilization League of America. The league, which had changed its name twice, was now called the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception. The U.S. government began paying the old fascist group to sterilize nonwhites in foreign countries.
"In Bush’s 1988 campaign for president, Gen. Draper’s son, William Draper III, served as co-chairman for finance. The younger Draper also was involved in United Nations depopulation efforts. Bush’s Treasury Secretary was Nicholas Brady, Frederic Brandi’s partner from 1954 until he replaced him in 1971. Brandi was the German who was Draper’s co-director for Nazi investments and his personal contact with the Nazi German Steel Trust."
"While employed at Dillon and Read, Draper was in charge of the Thyssen account. He worked closely with the man in charge of this account at Brown Brothers and Harriman, Prescott Bush. (Gen. William Draper is not to be confused with Wickliffe Draper, founder of the Pioneer Fund, although they were related.) In 1932, William Draper financed the International Eugenics Congress. Doubts remain if Draper used his own money or funds from Thyssen or other corporate accounts. He helped select Ernst Ruaudin as chief of the world eugenics movement, who used his office to promote what he called Adolf Hitler’s holy, national and international racial hygienic mission.
"Prescott Bush shared Draper’s view on eugenics. In fact, late in Prescott’s first run for office in 1950, he was exposed as an activist in the old fascist eugenics movement, and Prescott lost his first bid for office as a result.
"In 1958, Eisenhower appointed Draper as head of a committee to study the proper course for U.S. military aid to other countries. A year later, Draper changed the focus of the committee and recommended the U.S. government react to the threat of population explosion by planning to depopulate poorer countries. The growth of the world’s nonwhite population, he proposed, should be regarded as dangerous to the national security of the United States. Eisenhower rejected the recommendation.
"In the 1960s, Draper founded the Population Crisis Committee and the Draper Fund, and joined with the Rockefeller and du Pont families to promote eugenics as population control. The Rockefeller family has been associated with eugenics since the turn of the century. In 1950-51, John Foster Dulles, chairperson of the Rockefeller Foundation, led John D. Rockefeller III on a series of world tours, focusing on the need to stop the expansion of the nonwhite populations. In November 1952, Dulles and Rockefeller set up the Population Council, with tens of millions of dollars from the Rockefeller family."
................................................................................................
"Gen. Draper served as George H. W. Bush’s population expert. While serving in Congress, Bush chaired the Republican Task Force on Earth Resources and Population. He invited Professors William Shockley and Arthur Jensen to explain how allegedly runaway birthrates for African-Americans were down-breeding the American population. On Aug. 5, 1969, Bush summed up the testimony his black-inferiority advocates had given gave the task force. As a candidate for Congress in 1964, Bush campaigned against the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
"Bush was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1972, where his friends urged the U.S. Agency for International Development to make an official contract with the old Sterilization League of America. The league, which had changed its name twice, was now called the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception. The U.S. government began paying the old fascist group to sterilize nonwhites in foreign countries.
"In Bush’s 1988 campaign for president, Gen. Draper’s son, William Draper III, served as co-chairman for finance. The younger Draper also was involved in United Nations depopulation efforts. Bush’s Treasury Secretary was Nicholas Brady, Frederic Brandi’s partner from 1954 until he replaced him in 1971. Brandi was the German who was Draper’s co-director for Nazi investments and his personal contact with the Nazi German Steel Trust."
................................................................................................
"In 1949, John McCloy was appointed High Commissioner of Germany. In the 1920s, McCloy was a senior partner at Milbank and Tweed, whose most important client was Rockefeller’s Chase National Bank. McCloy was not the first choice for high commissioner; it was Lewis Douglas, head of the Finance Division of the Control Council, but Douglas agreed to step aside in favor of McCloy. It appears nothing was left to chance in postwar Germany; governing was a family affair. The three most powerful men in postwar Germany: High Commissioner McCloy; Douglas, Head of the Finance Division of the Control Council; and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer were all brothers-in-law; each had married one of the daughters of the wealthy Fredrick Zinsser, a partner of JP Morgan. The Morgan empire controlled the fate of Germany.
"What little justice was achieved under the Control Council and Gen. Clay was rapidly undone."
"McCloy was appointed by Henry Stimson, whom Roosevelt selected to head the War Department in 1940 in an attempt to make the war effort a bipartisan effort, and to blunt criticism of the coming war by the Republicans. One of Stimson’s first acts on taking over the War Department was to appoint McCloy as Special Consultant to the War Department on German sabotage. Before 1940 ended, McCloy was appointed Assistant Secretary. As Secretary of State under Hoover, Stimson surely was aware of the cartels of IG Farben and how the Hoover administration aided their formation. McCloy spent most of the 1930s in Paris working on a sabotage case stemming from WWI. In 1936, he shared a box with Hitler at the Olympics.
"In one of his first acts as Assistant Secretary of War, McCloy helped plan the internment of Japanese Americans. Once the war began, McCloy followed the American troops across North Africa. Such travel by an assistant cabinet secretary was highly unusual. However, McCloy’s actions partly revealed his motivation. While in North Africa, McCloy helped forge an alliance with the Vichy France and Adm. Darlan.
"McCloy continued to follow the advancing Allied troops across Europe and into Germany. In the closing days of the war in Europe, McCloy made one of his most noted decisions. After 16 planes bombed Rothenburg on March 31, McCloy ordered a halt to any further bombing of the city. McCloy said he wanted to preserve the medieval walled city. He also ordered Maj. Gen. Jacob L. Devers not to use artillery in taking Rothenburg. The city would have to be liberated by infantry alone, regardless of the cost in lives of GIs.
"However, there are a few facts that McCloy and others have conveniently left out. For instance, just two days before the bombing, a German general with his division of troops left battered Nuremburg for Rothenburg. With the Nazi forces already stationed there, the general gave the order to defend the city to the last man. Also located in Rothenburg was Fa Mansfeld AG, a munitions maker that employed slave labor from Buchenwald.
"By late 1943, the slaughter of Jews reached a feverish pace. The Allies were then in a position to bomb the concentration camps to stop the slaughter. John McCloy was almost solely responsible for blocking the bombing of the death camps. Allied planes were already bombing the industrial plants associated with Auschwitz. However, in written memos, McCloy advanced a banker’s argument that the cost would be prohibitive. Such missions would risk men and planes with little damage to the Nazi war effort. McCloy even banned bombing the rail lines leading to the death camps.
"In the late spring of 1944, Morgenthau was pressing the War Refuge Board to find an unused army base or some other haven to serve as a temporary home for a small group of mostly Jewish refugees from Italy. The question was put to McCloy, who responded gruffly that it was not the Army’s business to take care of refugees. Outraged at McCloy’s response, Morgenthau presented it at a cabinet meeting with Roosevelt. Roosevelt stated that under no circumstances should those people be turned away. Stimson dictated a memo after the cabinet meeting that someone had accused McCloy of being an oppressor of Jews. McCloy confronted Morgenthau on the charge. Morgenthau did not confess the remark directly, but happily exploited McCloy’s discomfort. McCloy soon responded to Morgenthau that Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y., could accept 1,800 refugees.
"The average American at that time would probably have granted the Jews sanctuary in the United States if they had known the truth, but evidence of the Holocaust was kept from the average citizen, and even from Roosevelt. The State Department often waited for months before forwarding to Roosevelt memos with evidence of the slaughter. By the time FDR received them, it was too late to act on the intelligence. The prominent newspapers either did not print a single line about the Holocaust or, at best, relegated a few lines to the back pages. In 1943, an eyewitness described Auschwitz to Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who was Jewish, but he refused to believe the report.
"Western politicians were well aware of the massacre taking placing on the European continent. As early as 1941, military attachés were filing weekly body counts. The British were equally aware and firmly opposed to aiding the Jews. Britain’s Foreign Office had a greater fear of the Nazis allowing the Jews to emigrate to the West. Undoubtedly, those fears could not be separated from British-ruled Palestine. Both Britain and the United States also were well aware of the views in the Arab world toward Jews, and the inseparable nature of a Jewish homeland and Mideast oil."
"On March 23, 1943, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple went before the House of Lords to plead for help for the Jews. In response, the British government proposed a conference with the United States on the refugee question. The British Foreign Office organized the Bermuda conference in such a way that no results were produced. The State Department refused to allow any Jewish organization to attend. Jewish leaders then sent a list of proposals. Adolf Berle, Assistant Secretary of State, proposed setting up a temporary safe haven for up to 100,000 Jews in eastern Libya. The President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees also sent a list of proposals, including using British Honduras as a sanctuary. The conference closed with no decisions reached.
"Roosevelt desperately wanted to help the Jews, but was misled by his own intelligence advisers, opposed by the British and Soviets, and blackmailed by the Dulles brothers. Roosevelt was a man under secret siege, trying to avoid a rift among the Allies - a rift the Nazis would gladly exploit.
"As early as 1939, the same shadow government of bigots in corporate America and their cronies in Congress led to the defeat of the Wagner-Rogers bill. Sen. Robert Wagner, a Democrat from New York, sponsored the bill. Wagner also introduced the Social Security legislation. On the House side, Edith Rogers, a Massachusetts Republican, sponsored a bill to allow 20,000 Jewish children to emigrate to the United States. In Congress, the bill was amended to require reduction of other Jewish immigration by the same amount. Out of frustration, both sponsors dropped support for the bill.
"Similarly, President Truman met the same shadow government in the postwar years that blocked any attempt to allow Jewish refugees to emigrate to the United States and nearly blocked the United Nations creation of Israel. Leading the charge to block postwar Jewish emigration was none other than John McCloy.
"While still in Europe as Assistant Secretary of War, McCloy helped block the executions of several Nazi war criminals. On Nov. 8, 1945, he delivered a speech before the Academy of Political Science in New York. McCloy blasted the “infamous” JCS 1067 directive and the Morgenthau Plan to prevent the decartelization of IG Farben, and decartelization in general. He belittled the operating capacity of Germany’s industrial plant, although Allied bombing destroyed at most 20 percent of German industry.
"Instead Congress was bombarded with a lobbying effort to go easy on Germany, and the agents of the Nazis proceeded according to the plan. Too many members of Congress were sympathetic to the Nazis. Without exception, they were all either conservative Dixiecrats or Republicans. Nebraska Sen. Kenneth Wherry, Mississippi Democrat James Eastland and Indiana Republican Homer Capehart were just some of many who stood up and denounced the decartelization of Germany. Capehart was perhaps one of the more vicious. In his speech before the Senate, he blamed Morganthau - not the Nazis - for the mass starvation of the German people. He claimed the technique of hate had earned both Morgenthau and Bernard Bernstein the title of America’s Himmler.
"While Gen. Clay reduced the sentences of many of the war criminals, it was the High Commissioner of Germany, John McCloy, who threw open the doors of Landsberg prison. He blocked some executions of war criminals even before arriving in Germany."
"In 1949, John McCloy was appointed High Commissioner of Germany. In the 1920s, McCloy was a senior partner at Milbank and Tweed, whose most important client was Rockefeller’s Chase National Bank. McCloy was not the first choice for high commissioner; it was Lewis Douglas, head of the Finance Division of the Control Council, but Douglas agreed to step aside in favor of McCloy. It appears nothing was left to chance in postwar Germany; governing was a family affair. The three most powerful men in postwar Germany: High Commissioner McCloy; Douglas, Head of the Finance Division of the Control Council; and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer were all brothers-in-law; each had married one of the daughters of the wealthy Fredrick Zinsser, a partner of JP Morgan. The Morgan empire controlled the fate of Germany.
"What little justice was achieved under the Control Council and Gen. Clay was rapidly undone."
"McCloy was appointed by Henry Stimson, whom Roosevelt selected to head the War Department in 1940 in an attempt to make the war effort a bipartisan effort, and to blunt criticism of the coming war by the Republicans. One of Stimson’s first acts on taking over the War Department was to appoint McCloy as Special Consultant to the War Department on German sabotage. Before 1940 ended, McCloy was appointed Assistant Secretary. As Secretary of State under Hoover, Stimson surely was aware of the cartels of IG Farben and how the Hoover administration aided their formation. McCloy spent most of the 1930s in Paris working on a sabotage case stemming from WWI. In 1936, he shared a box with Hitler at the Olympics.
"In one of his first acts as Assistant Secretary of War, McCloy helped plan the internment of Japanese Americans. Once the war began, McCloy followed the American troops across North Africa. Such travel by an assistant cabinet secretary was highly unusual. However, McCloy’s actions partly revealed his motivation. While in North Africa, McCloy helped forge an alliance with the Vichy France and Adm. Darlan.
"McCloy continued to follow the advancing Allied troops across Europe and into Germany. In the closing days of the war in Europe, McCloy made one of his most noted decisions. After 16 planes bombed Rothenburg on March 31, McCloy ordered a halt to any further bombing of the city. McCloy said he wanted to preserve the medieval walled city. He also ordered Maj. Gen. Jacob L. Devers not to use artillery in taking Rothenburg. The city would have to be liberated by infantry alone, regardless of the cost in lives of GIs.
"However, there are a few facts that McCloy and others have conveniently left out. For instance, just two days before the bombing, a German general with his division of troops left battered Nuremburg for Rothenburg. With the Nazi forces already stationed there, the general gave the order to defend the city to the last man. Also located in Rothenburg was Fa Mansfeld AG, a munitions maker that employed slave labor from Buchenwald.
"By late 1943, the slaughter of Jews reached a feverish pace. The Allies were then in a position to bomb the concentration camps to stop the slaughter. John McCloy was almost solely responsible for blocking the bombing of the death camps. Allied planes were already bombing the industrial plants associated with Auschwitz. However, in written memos, McCloy advanced a banker’s argument that the cost would be prohibitive. Such missions would risk men and planes with little damage to the Nazi war effort. McCloy even banned bombing the rail lines leading to the death camps.
"In the late spring of 1944, Morgenthau was pressing the War Refuge Board to find an unused army base or some other haven to serve as a temporary home for a small group of mostly Jewish refugees from Italy. The question was put to McCloy, who responded gruffly that it was not the Army’s business to take care of refugees. Outraged at McCloy’s response, Morgenthau presented it at a cabinet meeting with Roosevelt. Roosevelt stated that under no circumstances should those people be turned away. Stimson dictated a memo after the cabinet meeting that someone had accused McCloy of being an oppressor of Jews. McCloy confronted Morgenthau on the charge. Morgenthau did not confess the remark directly, but happily exploited McCloy’s discomfort. McCloy soon responded to Morgenthau that Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y., could accept 1,800 refugees.
"The average American at that time would probably have granted the Jews sanctuary in the United States if they had known the truth, but evidence of the Holocaust was kept from the average citizen, and even from Roosevelt. The State Department often waited for months before forwarding to Roosevelt memos with evidence of the slaughter. By the time FDR received them, it was too late to act on the intelligence. The prominent newspapers either did not print a single line about the Holocaust or, at best, relegated a few lines to the back pages. In 1943, an eyewitness described Auschwitz to Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, who was Jewish, but he refused to believe the report.
"Western politicians were well aware of the massacre taking placing on the European continent. As early as 1941, military attachés were filing weekly body counts. The British were equally aware and firmly opposed to aiding the Jews. Britain’s Foreign Office had a greater fear of the Nazis allowing the Jews to emigrate to the West. Undoubtedly, those fears could not be separated from British-ruled Palestine. Both Britain and the United States also were well aware of the views in the Arab world toward Jews, and the inseparable nature of a Jewish homeland and Mideast oil."
................................................................................................
"On March 23, 1943, Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple went before the House of Lords to plead for help for the Jews. In response, the British government proposed a conference with the United States on the refugee question. The British Foreign Office organized the Bermuda conference in such a way that no results were produced. The State Department refused to allow any Jewish organization to attend. Jewish leaders then sent a list of proposals. Adolf Berle, Assistant Secretary of State, proposed setting up a temporary safe haven for up to 100,000 Jews in eastern Libya. The President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees also sent a list of proposals, including using British Honduras as a sanctuary. The conference closed with no decisions reached.
"Roosevelt desperately wanted to help the Jews, but was misled by his own intelligence advisers, opposed by the British and Soviets, and blackmailed by the Dulles brothers. Roosevelt was a man under secret siege, trying to avoid a rift among the Allies - a rift the Nazis would gladly exploit.
"As early as 1939, the same shadow government of bigots in corporate America and their cronies in Congress led to the defeat of the Wagner-Rogers bill. Sen. Robert Wagner, a Democrat from New York, sponsored the bill. Wagner also introduced the Social Security legislation. On the House side, Edith Rogers, a Massachusetts Republican, sponsored a bill to allow 20,000 Jewish children to emigrate to the United States. In Congress, the bill was amended to require reduction of other Jewish immigration by the same amount. Out of frustration, both sponsors dropped support for the bill.
"Similarly, President Truman met the same shadow government in the postwar years that blocked any attempt to allow Jewish refugees to emigrate to the United States and nearly blocked the United Nations creation of Israel. Leading the charge to block postwar Jewish emigration was none other than John McCloy.
"While still in Europe as Assistant Secretary of War, McCloy helped block the executions of several Nazi war criminals. On Nov. 8, 1945, he delivered a speech before the Academy of Political Science in New York. McCloy blasted the “infamous” JCS 1067 directive and the Morgenthau Plan to prevent the decartelization of IG Farben, and decartelization in general. He belittled the operating capacity of Germany’s industrial plant, although Allied bombing destroyed at most 20 percent of German industry.
"Instead Congress was bombarded with a lobbying effort to go easy on Germany, and the agents of the Nazis proceeded according to the plan. Too many members of Congress were sympathetic to the Nazis. Without exception, they were all either conservative Dixiecrats or Republicans. Nebraska Sen. Kenneth Wherry, Mississippi Democrat James Eastland and Indiana Republican Homer Capehart were just some of many who stood up and denounced the decartelization of Germany. Capehart was perhaps one of the more vicious. In his speech before the Senate, he blamed Morganthau - not the Nazis - for the mass starvation of the German people. He claimed the technique of hate had earned both Morgenthau and Bernard Bernstein the title of America’s Himmler.
"While Gen. Clay reduced the sentences of many of the war criminals, it was the High Commissioner of Germany, John McCloy, who threw open the doors of Landsberg prison. He blocked some executions of war criminals even before arriving in Germany."
................................................................................................
"Both Clay and McCloy acted with their respective advisory committees. Advising Clay was the Simpson Commission: Judge Edward Leroy van Roden of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Justice Gordon Simpson of the Texas Supreme Court. The committee was appointed after Lt. Col. Willis N. Everett Jr., defense counsel for the 74 defendants charged in the Malmedy massacre, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming they had not received a fair trial. The Supreme Court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction, but Everett’s petition forced Secretary of War Royall to appoint the commission. The only evidence the Simpson Commission relied on came from the defendants and German clergy who wer Nazi collaborators working to free all war criminals.
"Evidence the Simpson Commission gathered regarding torture of prisoners was implausible at best. More often than not, it did not bear up to examination. In one case, the witness said he saw guards torturing another prisoner. However, the window to the torture chamber was not visible from where the prisoner said he was."
"The Peck Commission reported it had examined the judgments on all the prisoners, and interviewed them and their lawyers. While that sounded reasonable enough to the inexperienced, it was not.
"Even in a clemency hearing in front of a governor, the views of the district attorney and trial judge are presented. Yet, not a single prosecutor or judge from the tribunals was consulted. Nor had the Peck Commission opened a single page of the transcripts and documentary evidence. In fact, the crates of transcripts and evidence available to the commission were never opened. The only materials from the trials that were reviewed were the verdicts, which spanned 3,000 pages. Reviewing all the material from the trials was an impossible task in the time McCloy allotted the Peck Commission. Transcripts, excluding briefs and documents, spanned some 330,000 pages. At the rate of 1,200 words a minute, a speed-reader would need 17 months to get through the Nuremberg transcripts.
"In reality, the Peck Commission served as nothing more than a politically motivated blue-ribbon panel. McCloy used the commission’s recommendations as an excuse to justify freeing war criminals.
"Both the Simpson and Peck commissions were politically motivated. The Nazis were counting on their agents and sympathizers in other countries, including the United States, to do their bidding after the war. The conservative faction of Congress did not disappoint them. By the end of the 1940s, conservative Republicans succeeded in perpetrating the myth that the Nuremberg war criminals were victims of Roosevelt. By the end of the decade, many people came to accept that myth. This conservative faction was roused to action by the Malmedy Trial and the false charges made by Nazis in Germany of torture and brutality. Included in this faction were John Rankin; Harold Knutsen, the pro-fascist Minnesota congressmen; Francis Case, Republican representative from South Dakota; and John Taber, Republican representative from New York."
"Both Clay and McCloy acted with their respective advisory committees. Advising Clay was the Simpson Commission: Judge Edward Leroy van Roden of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Justice Gordon Simpson of the Texas Supreme Court. The committee was appointed after Lt. Col. Willis N. Everett Jr., defense counsel for the 74 defendants charged in the Malmedy massacre, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming they had not received a fair trial. The Supreme Court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction, but Everett’s petition forced Secretary of War Royall to appoint the commission. The only evidence the Simpson Commission relied on came from the defendants and German clergy who wer Nazi collaborators working to free all war criminals.
"Evidence the Simpson Commission gathered regarding torture of prisoners was implausible at best. More often than not, it did not bear up to examination. In one case, the witness said he saw guards torturing another prisoner. However, the window to the torture chamber was not visible from where the prisoner said he was."
................................................................................................
"The Peck Commission reported it had examined the judgments on all the prisoners, and interviewed them and their lawyers. While that sounded reasonable enough to the inexperienced, it was not.
"Even in a clemency hearing in front of a governor, the views of the district attorney and trial judge are presented. Yet, not a single prosecutor or judge from the tribunals was consulted. Nor had the Peck Commission opened a single page of the transcripts and documentary evidence. In fact, the crates of transcripts and evidence available to the commission were never opened. The only materials from the trials that were reviewed were the verdicts, which spanned 3,000 pages. Reviewing all the material from the trials was an impossible task in the time McCloy allotted the Peck Commission. Transcripts, excluding briefs and documents, spanned some 330,000 pages. At the rate of 1,200 words a minute, a speed-reader would need 17 months to get through the Nuremberg transcripts.
"In reality, the Peck Commission served as nothing more than a politically motivated blue-ribbon panel. McCloy used the commission’s recommendations as an excuse to justify freeing war criminals.
"Both the Simpson and Peck commissions were politically motivated. The Nazis were counting on their agents and sympathizers in other countries, including the United States, to do their bidding after the war. The conservative faction of Congress did not disappoint them. By the end of the 1940s, conservative Republicans succeeded in perpetrating the myth that the Nuremberg war criminals were victims of Roosevelt. By the end of the decade, many people came to accept that myth. This conservative faction was roused to action by the Malmedy Trial and the false charges made by Nazis in Germany of torture and brutality. Included in this faction were John Rankin; Harold Knutsen, the pro-fascist Minnesota congressmen; Francis Case, Republican representative from South Dakota; and John Taber, Republican representative from New York."
................................................................................................
"On Dec. 18, 1950, Langer blasted the Nuremberg Trials in the Senate:
""These war-trials were decided on in Moscow and they are carried on under Moscow principles. These trials were essentially the same as the mass trials held in the 1930s by Stalin when Vyshinsky used treason trials to liquidate his internal enemies. At Nuremberg the Communist used war crimes trials to liquidate their external enemies. It is the Communist avowed purpose to destroy the Western World which is based on property rights."
"Lumping Nuremberg together with property rights was a new tack. Whether Langer was sympathetic to the Nazi movement or just a useful stooge, his actions were in line with the Nazi strategy to promote strife between the United States and the USSR."
"After the war, one of the most influential Nazi agitators in the United States was Walter Becher, an anti-communist “refugee leader” from the Hitler regime. Becher joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and became an editor of Die Zeit, a Nazi propaganda sheet. During the war, Becher worked for Goebbels’ propaganda ministry as a war correspondent.
"Becher founded a pro-Nazi newspaper in Germany and sought out influence in Washington. Two of his early contacts in the Senate were McCarthy and William Jenner. Other early supporters were Francis Walter, B. Carroll Reece, Albert Bosch and Walter Judd.
"His scheme was simple; as a staunch leader in the anti-communist movement in Germany, he could gain the support of leading politicians in the United States, and his prestige and stature would grow enormously at home. Among those who sent letters of support to Becher were William Langer, Prescott Bush, Strom Thurmond, Thomas Dodd, Robert Byrd, Stuart Symington, Herbert Hoover and retired U.S. Generals del Valle, Willoughby and Wedemeyer. All three generals were involved with many hard-right groups, including the lunatic fringe."
"On Dec. 18, 1950, Langer blasted the Nuremberg Trials in the Senate:
""These war-trials were decided on in Moscow and they are carried on under Moscow principles. These trials were essentially the same as the mass trials held in the 1930s by Stalin when Vyshinsky used treason trials to liquidate his internal enemies. At Nuremberg the Communist used war crimes trials to liquidate their external enemies. It is the Communist avowed purpose to destroy the Western World which is based on property rights."
"Lumping Nuremberg together with property rights was a new tack. Whether Langer was sympathetic to the Nazi movement or just a useful stooge, his actions were in line with the Nazi strategy to promote strife between the United States and the USSR."
................................................................................................
"After the war, one of the most influential Nazi agitators in the United States was Walter Becher, an anti-communist “refugee leader” from the Hitler regime. Becher joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and became an editor of Die Zeit, a Nazi propaganda sheet. During the war, Becher worked for Goebbels’ propaganda ministry as a war correspondent.
"Becher founded a pro-Nazi newspaper in Germany and sought out influence in Washington. Two of his early contacts in the Senate were McCarthy and William Jenner. Other early supporters were Francis Walter, B. Carroll Reece, Albert Bosch and Walter Judd.
"His scheme was simple; as a staunch leader in the anti-communist movement in Germany, he could gain the support of leading politicians in the United States, and his prestige and stature would grow enormously at home. Among those who sent letters of support to Becher were William Langer, Prescott Bush, Strom Thurmond, Thomas Dodd, Robert Byrd, Stuart Symington, Herbert Hoover and retired U.S. Generals del Valle, Willoughby and Wedemeyer. All three generals were involved with many hard-right groups, including the lunatic fringe."
................................................................................................
"First, the release of the war criminals was politically motivated by those previously sympathetic to the Nazis. Second, and more importantly, it confirms the Nazi plan to carry on the war after the hostilities ended on the battlefield. Captured documents revealed the Nazis were planning to use their sympathizers after the war to protect them and to reestablish fascism.
"Finally, it proves the Cold War was largely due to Nazi intrigue. Similarly, it confirms the Nazi plans in the captured documents were well thought out, using communism as a ploy to ease peace terms and other burdens on Germany. That same faction of conservatives was the most vocal of the Nazi sympathizers and Cold War Warriors in Congress. Intertwining of the Cold War with Nazi intrigue extended well into the 1960s.
"Originally, there were two trials planned for Nuremberg, both of equal importance and stature at that time. The first trial was of top Nazi officials; second was of the industrialists. The industrialists’ trial at Nuremberg was canceled and held in the American zone. By the end of the first trial, chief American Prosecutor Robert Jackson succumbed to the American disease of an irrational fear of communism and spoke out against a second trial ... "
"Jackson’s words were the final nail in the coffin of Roosevelt’s pledge to bring the Nazis and those who aided them to justice. American corporations could now breathe easily. There would be no extended trial of Nazi industrialists to expose them.
"Sen. Langer’s committee forced Gen. Clay to stop the execution of all death sentences. While conservatives in the United States succeeded in swaying American opinion to view war criminals as victims of Roosevelt, it was clear by 1950 that West Germans also rejected the validity of the trials. Leading the cause of war criminals in Germany were the German Catholic and Protestant churches. Bishop Fargo Muench went so far as to call for a general amnesty. Langer compared the Nuremberg Trials to the purges by Stalin."
"McCloy was hardly in a position to grant a general amnesty after President Truman spoke in January 1951. The State Department’s legal adviser, John Raymond, drafted a memo on war crimes for Truman that was a wholesale reaffirmation of the original Nuremberg and Dachau trials, and an unequivocal argument against amnesty.
"The release of Krupp proved to be the most controversial. Once again, background events are important in understanding the event. The United States was already embroiled in the Korean War. A new war scare was spreading like wildfire across the American homeland. Fears of a Soviet invasion of Europe were pervasive. A debate about the vulnerability of Europe opened in Congress. Sen. Taft charged that President Truman already usurped his authority by defending Korea and had no right to increase American troop strength in Europe. Former President Herbert Hoover argued it would be pointless to try to defend Europe. News from Korea was dismal. UN forces were taking a terrible beating at the hands of the Red Chinese. MacArthur asked whether Washington considered the possibility of being driven out of Korea. The day McCloy signed the release of the industrialists, Frankfurt radio was reporting the plight of a United States-French combat regiment trapped 12 miles behind enemy lines north of Yoju.
"In the trial of Krupp, the prosecution decided to try Alfried and not his father, Gustav. The prosecution judged Gustav too sick to endure the rigors of a trial. After his conviction, Alfried retained the services of an American attorney, Earl Carroll. Carroll’s job was to free Krupp and get his property restored. Rumors reported Carroll was to get 5 percent of everything he could recover, roughly $25 million. Some disputed that his fee was that high, but it was very handsome, so much so that once Krupp was freed, Carroll reportedly retired.
"Carroll’s argument for Krupp’s release was based on three false assumptions. First he argued that Alfried held a junior position at the Krupp firm. Second, that under American law, assets could only be forfeited if they had been acquired illegally, which was not the case with Krupp’s prewar assets. Finally, Carroll argued that Krupp was a victim of discrimination because he was the only war criminal whose assets were confiscated.
"The answering brief responded to all three claims. The first claim was proven false by a 1943 interfirm circular declaring Alfried directed the entire enterprise. The second pointed out that the Nuremberg Trials acted under the law of the Four-Power coalition and not American law. The four-power agreement specified the forfeiture of assets. Finally, Krupp was not the only industrialist whose assets were confiscated. The brief noted that IG Farben was a corporation and not solely owned like the Krupp firm, and forfeiture would penalize the stockholders for the crimes of the management.
"Nevertheless, by freeing Krupp and returning his seized assets, McCloy justified his position by first claiming that Alfried was a playboy with no real authority in the firm. Second, McCloy portrayed Alfried’s Nazi connections as indiscriminate youthful distractions. However, the record is clear that Alfried was more than a youthful playboy who hung around with a bad crowd.
"Krupp was the largest employer of slave labor in Nazi Germany. By 1941, Germany faced a severe labor shortage, compounded by Hitler’s dictate against employing women. Both Britain and the United States filled many jobs in their defense factories with women. American housewives turned out in droves to work in West Coast aircraft plants in response to the famed Rosie the Riveter posters. More than 3 million American women, many in their teens, worked in war-related jobs. In England, more than 2 million women worked in munitions factories. However, in Germany, fewer than 200,000 women were employed, mainly as cooks and maids. It was not until July 1944 that Hitler reversed his ban on employing women. By then, it was too late and Allied bombing disrupted the registration.
"After Albert Speer turned over his labor responsibilities to Fritz Sauckel, manhunts became coordinated and routine in the occupied territories. The Nazis rounded up men and women and transported them back to the fatherland as slave laborers. Krupp was one of the most persistent customers of the new labor czar. At Nuremberg, Brig. Gen. Walter Schieber conceded that Krupp negotiated directly with the SS for concentration camp inmates.
"Krupp’s attorneys argued Alfried had no role in enslaving foreign civilians. While in theory the roundups were official acts of the Nazi government, once concluded, industrialists were invited to take their share. Some refused, but there is no record of Krupp turning down the offer. Alfried’s files were full of incriminating evidence. In the third year of the war, his files revealed the slave labor was reaching Essen two months, sometimes three months, after requisitioned. Krupp sent three executives to lodge formal protests about the dealy with the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo and the SS. Alfried appointed Heinrich Lehmann as his liaison with the German Labor Front, and as director of labor procurement and recruiting. With cooperating authorities, Lehmann drafted entire factories in France. In Holland, Lehmann drafted 30,000 ironworkers and shipwrights, many of whom were sent to Germany in chains when they showed reluctance.
"Often, Alfried would complain about the quality of workers he received. In a file note from 1942 he said:
""I am under the impression that the better Russian workers are at this time being chosen for works in central and eastern Germany. We really get the rejects only. Just now 600 Russians consisting of 450 women and 150 juveniles arrived."
"Any complaint from Krupp drew instant attention in Berlin. On July 8, a frantic subordinate sent a report to Speer denying that Krupp was getting low-grade slaves.
""The requirements of the firm Fried Krupp A.G. for replacement for German workers drafted into the armed forces have been met currently and in time. The complaints of the Krupp firm about allegedly insufficient labor allocations are unfounded. I have once again asked Sauckel to send Krupp 3,000 to 4,000 more workers in entire convoys from the Russian civilian workers presently arriving in Service Command VI."
"The quotes above show that Krupp was somewhat of an antagonist, demanding more and better slaves, once again destroying the myth the Nazi Party was all-powerful. It was not the party that held the power; it was the moneyed industrialists behind the party who were all-powerful."
"First, the release of the war criminals was politically motivated by those previously sympathetic to the Nazis. Second, and more importantly, it confirms the Nazi plan to carry on the war after the hostilities ended on the battlefield. Captured documents revealed the Nazis were planning to use their sympathizers after the war to protect them and to reestablish fascism.
"Finally, it proves the Cold War was largely due to Nazi intrigue. Similarly, it confirms the Nazi plans in the captured documents were well thought out, using communism as a ploy to ease peace terms and other burdens on Germany. That same faction of conservatives was the most vocal of the Nazi sympathizers and Cold War Warriors in Congress. Intertwining of the Cold War with Nazi intrigue extended well into the 1960s.
"Originally, there were two trials planned for Nuremberg, both of equal importance and stature at that time. The first trial was of top Nazi officials; second was of the industrialists. The industrialists’ trial at Nuremberg was canceled and held in the American zone. By the end of the first trial, chief American Prosecutor Robert Jackson succumbed to the American disease of an irrational fear of communism and spoke out against a second trial ... "
"Jackson’s words were the final nail in the coffin of Roosevelt’s pledge to bring the Nazis and those who aided them to justice. American corporations could now breathe easily. There would be no extended trial of Nazi industrialists to expose them.
"Sen. Langer’s committee forced Gen. Clay to stop the execution of all death sentences. While conservatives in the United States succeeded in swaying American opinion to view war criminals as victims of Roosevelt, it was clear by 1950 that West Germans also rejected the validity of the trials. Leading the cause of war criminals in Germany were the German Catholic and Protestant churches. Bishop Fargo Muench went so far as to call for a general amnesty. Langer compared the Nuremberg Trials to the purges by Stalin."
................................................................................................
"McCloy was hardly in a position to grant a general amnesty after President Truman spoke in January 1951. The State Department’s legal adviser, John Raymond, drafted a memo on war crimes for Truman that was a wholesale reaffirmation of the original Nuremberg and Dachau trials, and an unequivocal argument against amnesty.
"The release of Krupp proved to be the most controversial. Once again, background events are important in understanding the event. The United States was already embroiled in the Korean War. A new war scare was spreading like wildfire across the American homeland. Fears of a Soviet invasion of Europe were pervasive. A debate about the vulnerability of Europe opened in Congress. Sen. Taft charged that President Truman already usurped his authority by defending Korea and had no right to increase American troop strength in Europe. Former President Herbert Hoover argued it would be pointless to try to defend Europe. News from Korea was dismal. UN forces were taking a terrible beating at the hands of the Red Chinese. MacArthur asked whether Washington considered the possibility of being driven out of Korea. The day McCloy signed the release of the industrialists, Frankfurt radio was reporting the plight of a United States-French combat regiment trapped 12 miles behind enemy lines north of Yoju.
"In the trial of Krupp, the prosecution decided to try Alfried and not his father, Gustav. The prosecution judged Gustav too sick to endure the rigors of a trial. After his conviction, Alfried retained the services of an American attorney, Earl Carroll. Carroll’s job was to free Krupp and get his property restored. Rumors reported Carroll was to get 5 percent of everything he could recover, roughly $25 million. Some disputed that his fee was that high, but it was very handsome, so much so that once Krupp was freed, Carroll reportedly retired.
"Carroll’s argument for Krupp’s release was based on three false assumptions. First he argued that Alfried held a junior position at the Krupp firm. Second, that under American law, assets could only be forfeited if they had been acquired illegally, which was not the case with Krupp’s prewar assets. Finally, Carroll argued that Krupp was a victim of discrimination because he was the only war criminal whose assets were confiscated.
"The answering brief responded to all three claims. The first claim was proven false by a 1943 interfirm circular declaring Alfried directed the entire enterprise. The second pointed out that the Nuremberg Trials acted under the law of the Four-Power coalition and not American law. The four-power agreement specified the forfeiture of assets. Finally, Krupp was not the only industrialist whose assets were confiscated. The brief noted that IG Farben was a corporation and not solely owned like the Krupp firm, and forfeiture would penalize the stockholders for the crimes of the management.
"Nevertheless, by freeing Krupp and returning his seized assets, McCloy justified his position by first claiming that Alfried was a playboy with no real authority in the firm. Second, McCloy portrayed Alfried’s Nazi connections as indiscriminate youthful distractions. However, the record is clear that Alfried was more than a youthful playboy who hung around with a bad crowd.
"Krupp was the largest employer of slave labor in Nazi Germany. By 1941, Germany faced a severe labor shortage, compounded by Hitler’s dictate against employing women. Both Britain and the United States filled many jobs in their defense factories with women. American housewives turned out in droves to work in West Coast aircraft plants in response to the famed Rosie the Riveter posters. More than 3 million American women, many in their teens, worked in war-related jobs. In England, more than 2 million women worked in munitions factories. However, in Germany, fewer than 200,000 women were employed, mainly as cooks and maids. It was not until July 1944 that Hitler reversed his ban on employing women. By then, it was too late and Allied bombing disrupted the registration.
"After Albert Speer turned over his labor responsibilities to Fritz Sauckel, manhunts became coordinated and routine in the occupied territories. The Nazis rounded up men and women and transported them back to the fatherland as slave laborers. Krupp was one of the most persistent customers of the new labor czar. At Nuremberg, Brig. Gen. Walter Schieber conceded that Krupp negotiated directly with the SS for concentration camp inmates.
"Krupp’s attorneys argued Alfried had no role in enslaving foreign civilians. While in theory the roundups were official acts of the Nazi government, once concluded, industrialists were invited to take their share. Some refused, but there is no record of Krupp turning down the offer. Alfried’s files were full of incriminating evidence. In the third year of the war, his files revealed the slave labor was reaching Essen two months, sometimes three months, after requisitioned. Krupp sent three executives to lodge formal protests about the dealy with the Wehrmacht, the Gestapo and the SS. Alfried appointed Heinrich Lehmann as his liaison with the German Labor Front, and as director of labor procurement and recruiting. With cooperating authorities, Lehmann drafted entire factories in France. In Holland, Lehmann drafted 30,000 ironworkers and shipwrights, many of whom were sent to Germany in chains when they showed reluctance.
"Often, Alfried would complain about the quality of workers he received. In a file note from 1942 he said:
""I am under the impression that the better Russian workers are at this time being chosen for works in central and eastern Germany. We really get the rejects only. Just now 600 Russians consisting of 450 women and 150 juveniles arrived."
"Any complaint from Krupp drew instant attention in Berlin. On July 8, a frantic subordinate sent a report to Speer denying that Krupp was getting low-grade slaves.
""The requirements of the firm Fried Krupp A.G. for replacement for German workers drafted into the armed forces have been met currently and in time. The complaints of the Krupp firm about allegedly insufficient labor allocations are unfounded. I have once again asked Sauckel to send Krupp 3,000 to 4,000 more workers in entire convoys from the Russian civilian workers presently arriving in Service Command VI."
"The quotes above show that Krupp was somewhat of an antagonist, demanding more and better slaves, once again destroying the myth the Nazi Party was all-powerful. It was not the party that held the power; it was the moneyed industrialists behind the party who were all-powerful."
................................................................................................
"An excellent example was the “Jewish problem.” The Nazi Party and top officials were committed to the Endlösung, the Final Solution or liquidation, and vehemently opposed enslaving the Jews. By 1942, the SS began questioning the Final Solution. It was working, but the cost of ammunition was shocking and hurt the war effort. Himmler then began experimenting with gas vans. An April 25, 1942 memorandum from the Krupp headquarters noted that to produce 80 new SIGs (heavy infantry guns), expansion was needed. Alfried recommended manufacturing in the concentration camp in Sudetenland.
"Four weeks later, Alfried put the question to Hitler. In his appeal to Hitler, Krupp affirmed his belief that every party member was in favor of liquidating Jews, Gypsies, anti-Nazi criminals and antisocials. However, Krupp believed they should contribute something to the fatherland before being exterminated. Properly driven, each could contribute a lifetime of work in months. Hitler hesitated, but Krupp persisted. Soon Krupp had the solution. The answer was merely economics or bribery. Krupp proposed paying the SS four marks a day for each inmate, from which seven-tenths of a mark would be deducted for food. Opposition to his new proposal vanished overnight. In September, Hitler signed the order approving the use of Jewish slave labor.
"Krupp anticipated Hitler’s order of Sept. 18 and teletyped a message to Sauckel’s Berlin office, notifying the labor director that Krupp was ready to employ between 1,050 and 1,100 Jewish workers. In his teletype, Krupp requested workers with specific skills in metalworking. Krupp had an immediate objective: producing fuses. The Sudetenland camp was too small for mass production, so Krupp proposed to start production at Auschwitz. Assured that Auschwitz would have ample labor supplies, Krupp executives approved 2 million marks for the project.
"Krupp’s project was delayed largely because of the commandant’s view that the work should be done by Germans. Krupp contacted Obersturmfuhrer Sommer, a junior SS officer stationed in Speer’s office. Krupp requested a record of all skilled Jews, selected 500 and demanded immediate action.
"As the war continued and Alfried rose in power, the use of slave labor by Krupp increased. By the end of the war, Krupp employed nearly 100,000 slaves in more than 100 factories. Slaves were beaten and tortured regularly in Krupp’s factories. The slightest infraction could bring on a life-threatening beating. Shelter and food for the inmates employed by Krupp was inadequate at best. Many inmates were forced to sleep on the ground, unprotected from the elements. The cruelty and barbaric treatment of the slave laborers in Krupp’s camps was unsurpassed anywhere in Germany. In fact, Gen. Adolf Westhoff of the OKW, the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces, stated that Krupp’s treatment of Russian prisoners did not meet with the Wehrmacht’s approval.
"While there is no evidence of Krupp ordering his slaves beaten or tortured, there also is no evidence he discouraged it. There is evidence that Krupp withheld prisoners’ food allotment, and proof that Alfried was aware of the beatings and torture of slaves, making him a full accomplice."
"Drexel Sprecher, a prominent Washington attorney, observed the Nuremberg Trials and decided that Krupp’s treatment of slave labor was far worse than any other firm, including IG Farben. Sprecher reasoned the cause lay in Krupp’s one-person rule. Alfried’s power was absolute.
"Slavery was the most serious charge lodged against Krupp, but Krupp was equally guilty of plunder. Before the Allied invasion of North Africa, Krupp ruled a vast empire stretching from the Ukraine to the Atlantic, and from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. Most of this empire was procured from their original owners in the occupied lands. Alfried Krupp toured Europe in a Luftwaffe fighter looking for plants to add to his empire. Using subterfuge, the plants were technically purchased. The reality was the plants had been signed over to Krupp under duress and threats of death from the Nazis.
"One such company was the Elmag factories in Alsace. The plants on three sites were seized and transferred to Krupp under the laws covering enemy property. What sets the Elmag factories apart from the hundreds of other looted plants were the actions taken by the workers following the Allied invasion of Normandy. Once the Allies established beachheads at Normandy, workers started to disappear into the hills at an alarming rate, to await liberation. Krupp sent roughly 60 slave laborers to build a camp for 1,250 more slaves. The workers at Elmag were so alarmed over the treatment of the slaves, they openly protested and threatened to strike. At Nuremberg, Ernst Wirtz, head of the concentration camp, was sentenced to eight years. As the Allies closed in on Alsace, Krupp removed the slave laborers and simply moved the factories to Bavaria.
"The actions of the workers at Elmag are noteworthy. Even under the barbaric rule of the Nazis, some men stood up and refused to be crushed by the yoke of fascist despots. Their defiance should be remembered and praised. Their actions point to the guilt of those who simply shrugged off Nazi atrocities. Cowards should have no peace."
"Alfried’s father, Gustav Krupp, initially opposed Hitler, but Alfried was an early supporter of Hitler and the Nazi Party. He joined the party and the SS in 1931. Throughout the 1930s, Alfried remained a loyal contributor. In the SS, he rose to the rank of colonel. McCloy’s portrayal of Alfried as an indiscriminate youth was a transparent smoke screen. Born a year after Adolf Eichmann, Alfried was part of the generation that included Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.
"Thus, it should be no surprise McCloy’s pardons were met with much controversy in the United States and Great Britain. Nevertheless, this Nazi war criminal would receive an even greater reward in the span of 10 short years after walking out of Landsberg Prison. At the end of that decade, Krupp’s industrial empire was the 12th largest firm in the world - and the only one of them solely owned.
"“Good” Nazis like Krupp could count on being rewarded. However, the Jewish victims of Nazi war criminals could count on receiving nothing or, at best, a meager settlement for their slave labor. In 1959, under the threat of a lawsuit by an American lawyer representing Jewish survivors of the Krupp camps, Krupp announced a voluntary settlement. A fund setting aside 4 million marks would pay each survivor $750 for their ordeal. The payment was soon cut to $500 when more survivors were found than Krupp anticipated. The fund ran out of money before all survivors received their meager payments."
"An excellent example was the “Jewish problem.” The Nazi Party and top officials were committed to the Endlösung, the Final Solution or liquidation, and vehemently opposed enslaving the Jews. By 1942, the SS began questioning the Final Solution. It was working, but the cost of ammunition was shocking and hurt the war effort. Himmler then began experimenting with gas vans. An April 25, 1942 memorandum from the Krupp headquarters noted that to produce 80 new SIGs (heavy infantry guns), expansion was needed. Alfried recommended manufacturing in the concentration camp in Sudetenland.
"Four weeks later, Alfried put the question to Hitler. In his appeal to Hitler, Krupp affirmed his belief that every party member was in favor of liquidating Jews, Gypsies, anti-Nazi criminals and antisocials. However, Krupp believed they should contribute something to the fatherland before being exterminated. Properly driven, each could contribute a lifetime of work in months. Hitler hesitated, but Krupp persisted. Soon Krupp had the solution. The answer was merely economics or bribery. Krupp proposed paying the SS four marks a day for each inmate, from which seven-tenths of a mark would be deducted for food. Opposition to his new proposal vanished overnight. In September, Hitler signed the order approving the use of Jewish slave labor.
"Krupp anticipated Hitler’s order of Sept. 18 and teletyped a message to Sauckel’s Berlin office, notifying the labor director that Krupp was ready to employ between 1,050 and 1,100 Jewish workers. In his teletype, Krupp requested workers with specific skills in metalworking. Krupp had an immediate objective: producing fuses. The Sudetenland camp was too small for mass production, so Krupp proposed to start production at Auschwitz. Assured that Auschwitz would have ample labor supplies, Krupp executives approved 2 million marks for the project.
"Krupp’s project was delayed largely because of the commandant’s view that the work should be done by Germans. Krupp contacted Obersturmfuhrer Sommer, a junior SS officer stationed in Speer’s office. Krupp requested a record of all skilled Jews, selected 500 and demanded immediate action.
"As the war continued and Alfried rose in power, the use of slave labor by Krupp increased. By the end of the war, Krupp employed nearly 100,000 slaves in more than 100 factories. Slaves were beaten and tortured regularly in Krupp’s factories. The slightest infraction could bring on a life-threatening beating. Shelter and food for the inmates employed by Krupp was inadequate at best. Many inmates were forced to sleep on the ground, unprotected from the elements. The cruelty and barbaric treatment of the slave laborers in Krupp’s camps was unsurpassed anywhere in Germany. In fact, Gen. Adolf Westhoff of the OKW, the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces, stated that Krupp’s treatment of Russian prisoners did not meet with the Wehrmacht’s approval.
"While there is no evidence of Krupp ordering his slaves beaten or tortured, there also is no evidence he discouraged it. There is evidence that Krupp withheld prisoners’ food allotment, and proof that Alfried was aware of the beatings and torture of slaves, making him a full accomplice."
................................................................................................
"Drexel Sprecher, a prominent Washington attorney, observed the Nuremberg Trials and decided that Krupp’s treatment of slave labor was far worse than any other firm, including IG Farben. Sprecher reasoned the cause lay in Krupp’s one-person rule. Alfried’s power was absolute.
"Slavery was the most serious charge lodged against Krupp, but Krupp was equally guilty of plunder. Before the Allied invasion of North Africa, Krupp ruled a vast empire stretching from the Ukraine to the Atlantic, and from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. Most of this empire was procured from their original owners in the occupied lands. Alfried Krupp toured Europe in a Luftwaffe fighter looking for plants to add to his empire. Using subterfuge, the plants were technically purchased. The reality was the plants had been signed over to Krupp under duress and threats of death from the Nazis.
"One such company was the Elmag factories in Alsace. The plants on three sites were seized and transferred to Krupp under the laws covering enemy property. What sets the Elmag factories apart from the hundreds of other looted plants were the actions taken by the workers following the Allied invasion of Normandy. Once the Allies established beachheads at Normandy, workers started to disappear into the hills at an alarming rate, to await liberation. Krupp sent roughly 60 slave laborers to build a camp for 1,250 more slaves. The workers at Elmag were so alarmed over the treatment of the slaves, they openly protested and threatened to strike. At Nuremberg, Ernst Wirtz, head of the concentration camp, was sentenced to eight years. As the Allies closed in on Alsace, Krupp removed the slave laborers and simply moved the factories to Bavaria.
"The actions of the workers at Elmag are noteworthy. Even under the barbaric rule of the Nazis, some men stood up and refused to be crushed by the yoke of fascist despots. Their defiance should be remembered and praised. Their actions point to the guilt of those who simply shrugged off Nazi atrocities. Cowards should have no peace."
"Alfried’s father, Gustav Krupp, initially opposed Hitler, but Alfried was an early supporter of Hitler and the Nazi Party. He joined the party and the SS in 1931. Throughout the 1930s, Alfried remained a loyal contributor. In the SS, he rose to the rank of colonel. McCloy’s portrayal of Alfried as an indiscriminate youth was a transparent smoke screen. Born a year after Adolf Eichmann, Alfried was part of the generation that included Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.
"Thus, it should be no surprise McCloy’s pardons were met with much controversy in the United States and Great Britain. Nevertheless, this Nazi war criminal would receive an even greater reward in the span of 10 short years after walking out of Landsberg Prison. At the end of that decade, Krupp’s industrial empire was the 12th largest firm in the world - and the only one of them solely owned.
"“Good” Nazis like Krupp could count on being rewarded. However, the Jewish victims of Nazi war criminals could count on receiving nothing or, at best, a meager settlement for their slave labor. In 1959, under the threat of a lawsuit by an American lawyer representing Jewish survivors of the Krupp camps, Krupp announced a voluntary settlement. A fund setting aside 4 million marks would pay each survivor $750 for their ordeal. The payment was soon cut to $500 when more survivors were found than Krupp anticipated. The fund ran out of money before all survivors received their meager payments."
................................................................................................
"Friedrich Flick was another who walked out of Landsberg Prison with Krupp. At Nuremberg, Flick was found guilty of one count of using slave labor. Generally, the judges at Nuremberg were poorly qualified and hostile to the prosecution, especially in the trials of the industrialists. Three judges ruled the director and owner of a corporation should not be held accountable for slavery and looting by his companies, unless the prosecution could prove that he personally ordered each particular crime to be carried out. This wrongful ruling allowed a defense of necessity, the corporate equivalent of acting under orders.
"Amazingly, with the legal precedent set by this ruling, a 19-year-old soldier could be found guilty of war crimes for following orders, but the head of a corporation employing thousands of slaves could not."
"Like Krupp, Flick was a steel and coal baron who employed roughly 48,000 slave laborers from the concentration camps. An estimated 80 percent of these workers died. From 1929-32, Flick gave money to several right-wing parties, including 50,000 Reichmarks to the Nazis. He joined Himmler’s Circle in 1935 and the Nazi Party in 1937. From 1936 to 1944, Flick contributed 100,000 Reichmarks annually to Himmler’s Circle.
"On his release, Flick immediately set about rebuilding his empire. By 1955, he owned more than 100 corporations, including a 40 percent share of Daimler-Benz AG. He was reportedly the richest man in Germany, the fifth wealthiest in the world. On his death in 1972, Flick left over $1 billion to his son. The slave laborers have yet to receive any compensation from Flick."
"One of the beneficiaries of Flick’s empire was the Christian Democratic Party and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Former Nazis, including Flick, contributed handsomely to the Christian Democrats after the war. ... Kohl admitted to accepting payments totaling $53,000 from the Flick group from 1977 to 1979. The German press reports the sums were four times larger. If the Allies had not relented in the 4Ds program, Kohl might never have come to power.
"There is no question that Flick was a Nazi war criminal who exerted his influence soon after leaving prison on the policies of Germany’s postwar government. There is no question of his guilt in employing slave labor, or that he refused to pay restitution to the victims of his slave labor camps. Yet within 10 years of the war’s end, he was a behind-the-scenes force in German politics. One can only wonder who really won the war.
"Flick’s connections went far beyond the new German government, extending as far as the White House through the Bush family. On March 19, 1934 the New York Times reported that the Polish government was fighting American and German stockholders who controlled the Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Co., accusing the company of mismanagement, excessive borrowing, fictitious bookkeeping and gambling in securities. In December, the Polish government issued warrants for several directors accused of tax evasion. The directors accused were German, and they fled to Germany for sanctuary. They were then replaced with Polish directors. Flick retaliated by restricting credits until the new Polish directors were unable to pay the workers regularly. The Times noted Flick owned two-thirds of the company’s stock; U.S. interests owned the other third.
"The owner of the U.S. interests was none other than the Harriman Fifteen Corp. President of this American corporation was George Walker, Prescott Bush’s father-in-law. The sole directors of Harriman Fifteen were Prescott Bush and Averell Harriman. Harriman also served as chairman of Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp. The holdings of Brown Brothers Harriman in Consolidated Silesian were a small part of a larger partnership between Brown Brothers Harriman and the German Steel Trust. In the 1920s, the relationship between Brown Brothers Harriman and the German Steel Trust was established through Thyssen. Flick was a major co-owner of the trust. Before 1932, the German Steel Trust also was one of the most generous donors to Hitler, the SS and SA, and it figured prominently in his appointment as chancellor. Prescott Bush and George Walker supervised the partnership between the Trust and Brown Brothers Harriman. This relationship extended to Union Bank, which made Prescott and Walker bankers for the Trust. The U.S. government seized control of Union Banking from Prescott Bush during the war."
"Friedrich Flick was another who walked out of Landsberg Prison with Krupp. At Nuremberg, Flick was found guilty of one count of using slave labor. Generally, the judges at Nuremberg were poorly qualified and hostile to the prosecution, especially in the trials of the industrialists. Three judges ruled the director and owner of a corporation should not be held accountable for slavery and looting by his companies, unless the prosecution could prove that he personally ordered each particular crime to be carried out. This wrongful ruling allowed a defense of necessity, the corporate equivalent of acting under orders.
"Amazingly, with the legal precedent set by this ruling, a 19-year-old soldier could be found guilty of war crimes for following orders, but the head of a corporation employing thousands of slaves could not."
................................................................................................
"Like Krupp, Flick was a steel and coal baron who employed roughly 48,000 slave laborers from the concentration camps. An estimated 80 percent of these workers died. From 1929-32, Flick gave money to several right-wing parties, including 50,000 Reichmarks to the Nazis. He joined Himmler’s Circle in 1935 and the Nazi Party in 1937. From 1936 to 1944, Flick contributed 100,000 Reichmarks annually to Himmler’s Circle.
"On his release, Flick immediately set about rebuilding his empire. By 1955, he owned more than 100 corporations, including a 40 percent share of Daimler-Benz AG. He was reportedly the richest man in Germany, the fifth wealthiest in the world. On his death in 1972, Flick left over $1 billion to his son. The slave laborers have yet to receive any compensation from Flick."
"One of the beneficiaries of Flick’s empire was the Christian Democratic Party and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Former Nazis, including Flick, contributed handsomely to the Christian Democrats after the war. ... Kohl admitted to accepting payments totaling $53,000 from the Flick group from 1977 to 1979. The German press reports the sums were four times larger. If the Allies had not relented in the 4Ds program, Kohl might never have come to power.
"There is no question that Flick was a Nazi war criminal who exerted his influence soon after leaving prison on the policies of Germany’s postwar government. There is no question of his guilt in employing slave labor, or that he refused to pay restitution to the victims of his slave labor camps. Yet within 10 years of the war’s end, he was a behind-the-scenes force in German politics. One can only wonder who really won the war.
"Flick’s connections went far beyond the new German government, extending as far as the White House through the Bush family. On March 19, 1934 the New York Times reported that the Polish government was fighting American and German stockholders who controlled the Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Co., accusing the company of mismanagement, excessive borrowing, fictitious bookkeeping and gambling in securities. In December, the Polish government issued warrants for several directors accused of tax evasion. The directors accused were German, and they fled to Germany for sanctuary. They were then replaced with Polish directors. Flick retaliated by restricting credits until the new Polish directors were unable to pay the workers regularly. The Times noted Flick owned two-thirds of the company’s stock; U.S. interests owned the other third.
"The owner of the U.S. interests was none other than the Harriman Fifteen Corp. President of this American corporation was George Walker, Prescott Bush’s father-in-law. The sole directors of Harriman Fifteen were Prescott Bush and Averell Harriman. Harriman also served as chairman of Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp. The holdings of Brown Brothers Harriman in Consolidated Silesian were a small part of a larger partnership between Brown Brothers Harriman and the German Steel Trust. In the 1920s, the relationship between Brown Brothers Harriman and the German Steel Trust was established through Thyssen. Flick was a major co-owner of the trust. Before 1932, the German Steel Trust also was one of the most generous donors to Hitler, the SS and SA, and it figured prominently in his appointment as chancellor. Prescott Bush and George Walker supervised the partnership between the Trust and Brown Brothers Harriman. This relationship extended to Union Bank, which made Prescott and Walker bankers for the Trust. The U.S. government seized control of Union Banking from Prescott Bush during the war."
................................................................................................
"In 1931, the Governor of the Bank of England was Montagu Collet Norman, grandson of the boss of Brown Brothers during the Civil War. Norman was known as the most avid of Hitler’s supporters within British ruling circles. When Montagu of the Bank of England visited New York, he always stayed at the home of his close friend, Prescott Bush. The Bush family dealings with the Nazis were extensive. The U.S. Property Custodian seized 23 corporations from Prescott Bush during and after the war for trading with the enemy. Much of the Bush wealth came from the Nazis."
"Following the war, the government of Germany fervently denied the guilt of the war criminals, particularly the industrialists. The government was not alone in its denial; German business leaders were at the forefront in proclaiming German industries innocent of collaborating with the Nazis. During the Cold War, only a few pamphlets and publications condemned the Nazi industrialists. The corporations hired journalists and historians to flood the markets worldwide with material exonerating their corporations and placing full blame on the Nazi leadership. Most of the material produced was whitewash. This propaganda blitz fits the Nazis’ plan."
"The control former Nazi businessmen exerted over the press came almost immediately after the war. In 1949, the autobiography written by Richard Willstätter, a Jewish Nobel Prize-winning chemist, was published posthumously. Willstätter fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and wrote his autobiography in exile in Switzerland. He included a short passage critical of the anti-Semitic remarks made by Carl Duisberg, the founder of IG Farben, when Willstätter resigned from the University of Munich in 1924.
"The short passage was unremarkable and would have passed through history unnoticed by all except a few scholars if executives from Bayer had not intervened. Bayer was part of IG Farben. Heinrich Hörlein, a Bayer director and retired executive, launched an all-out attack besmirching Willstätter’s reputation and promoting Carl Duisberg and Bayer. Hörlein found himself in the dock at Nuremberg, but was acquitted. For a short time, an open debate persisted in Germany over the culpability of the German chemical industry and war crimes.
"Bayer and Hörlein soon prevailed. Under pressure, the publisher agreed to delete the short passage in all future editions and the English translation.
"German corporations still protect their image in the most ruthless fashion. Twenty-three years after publishing Willstätter’s autobiography, another controversy arose. In 1972, F.C. Delius, a German satirist, published a mock history of Siemens, coinciding with the company’s 125th anniversary. Delius’ book was not immediately recognized as a satire and, within a month, Siemens took action against the publisher. After three years of legal procedures, a provincial appeals court in Stuttgart ruled that several of the book’s claims, including the Auschwitz assertion, were false, and ruled that Delius’ ideas, despite being presented as satire, were damaging. In the settlement, both parties agreed to have the lines in dispute blacked out in all future editions, including the latest, published in 1995.
"While some Americans may feel smug that such censorship occurred in Germany, the English translation of Willstätter’s book also does not contain the passage that was offensive to Bayer. The censorship effort was global.
"Perhaps the best example of historical revisionism and whitewashing comes from the United States. In several chapters, the relationship between the pro-Nazi America First group and the American Security Council is mentioned. One member of both fascist groups was the founder of Regnery Press, publisher of many of the smears made against President Clinton. The first two books published by Regnery are prime examples of pro-Nazi sympathizers whitewashing the Nazi crimes. One of the books was critical of the Allied bombing of Germany, and the other was critical of the Nuremberg Trials. Both contain many factual errors and present a revisionist view of history that in no way conforms to the truth. A review of the current officers of Regnery reveals the organization is still slanted to the hard right. Various officers are connected with fringe right-wing groups, such as the Claremont Institute and the American Enterprise Institute, as well as the Republican Party.
"The censorship and whitewashing of Nazi atrocities and collusion of German business with the Nazis continue today in the Untied States. One of the largest publishers in the Untied States is the former Nazi publisher, Bertelsmann. The Bertelsmann publishing empire includes Random House, Bantam and Doubleday Dell; it is a partner with Barnes & Noble in a new Internet bookstore. Bertelsmann also holds a large share of America Online, and owns book clubs, magazines, newspapers and music labels, such as RCA; it co-owns CLT-UFA, Europe’s biggest TV and radio company. Bertelsmann owns Brown Printing Co., although that information is conspicuously missing from the Web pages of Brown Printing. Brown prints many of the popular magazines, including such titles as Byte and Seventeen, and a host of scientific journals, such as Science and The New England Medical Journal. Bertelsmann is the world’s third largest media empire and the largest publisher of English-language trade books in the world.
"Bertelsmann makes a concerted effort at hiding its Nazi past. In its official corporate history, Bertelsmann circulates the myth that the Nazis closed its publishing business for refusing to follow the party line. That is a lie. The Nazis did not close Bertelsmann; Bertelsmann willingly cooperated with the Nazis. When investigative reporters asked Bertelsmann to verify the claim that the Nazis closed it, the company removed all references to the era from its Web pages.
"Throughout the 1930s, Bertelsmann published books favored by Goebbels. Some of the titles were People Without Space (Volk ohne Raum) and Between the Vistula and the Volga. The latter was an anti-Jewish diatribe claiming the Jews massacred Ukrainian women and children. Following the war, the Allied Control Council denied Bertelsmann’s application for a publishing license. Heinrich Mohn, a founder, principal owner and chief executive, conveniently omitted his membership in SS and his support for Hitler’s Youth. In 1949, Mohn stepped down as chief executive and was replaced by his son, Reinhard. Bertelsmann then reapplied for a publishing license. According to the denazification files, Reinhard served in the Luftwaffe and the elite Hermann Goering Division. With the Cold War already emerging and the failure of the 4Ds program evident, the license was promptly granted."
"In 1931, the Governor of the Bank of England was Montagu Collet Norman, grandson of the boss of Brown Brothers during the Civil War. Norman was known as the most avid of Hitler’s supporters within British ruling circles. When Montagu of the Bank of England visited New York, he always stayed at the home of his close friend, Prescott Bush. The Bush family dealings with the Nazis were extensive. The U.S. Property Custodian seized 23 corporations from Prescott Bush during and after the war for trading with the enemy. Much of the Bush wealth came from the Nazis."
"Following the war, the government of Germany fervently denied the guilt of the war criminals, particularly the industrialists. The government was not alone in its denial; German business leaders were at the forefront in proclaiming German industries innocent of collaborating with the Nazis. During the Cold War, only a few pamphlets and publications condemned the Nazi industrialists. The corporations hired journalists and historians to flood the markets worldwide with material exonerating their corporations and placing full blame on the Nazi leadership. Most of the material produced was whitewash. This propaganda blitz fits the Nazis’ plan."
................................................................................................
"The control former Nazi businessmen exerted over the press came almost immediately after the war. In 1949, the autobiography written by Richard Willstätter, a Jewish Nobel Prize-winning chemist, was published posthumously. Willstätter fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and wrote his autobiography in exile in Switzerland. He included a short passage critical of the anti-Semitic remarks made by Carl Duisberg, the founder of IG Farben, when Willstätter resigned from the University of Munich in 1924.
"The short passage was unremarkable and would have passed through history unnoticed by all except a few scholars if executives from Bayer had not intervened. Bayer was part of IG Farben. Heinrich Hörlein, a Bayer director and retired executive, launched an all-out attack besmirching Willstätter’s reputation and promoting Carl Duisberg and Bayer. Hörlein found himself in the dock at Nuremberg, but was acquitted. For a short time, an open debate persisted in Germany over the culpability of the German chemical industry and war crimes.
"Bayer and Hörlein soon prevailed. Under pressure, the publisher agreed to delete the short passage in all future editions and the English translation.
"German corporations still protect their image in the most ruthless fashion. Twenty-three years after publishing Willstätter’s autobiography, another controversy arose. In 1972, F.C. Delius, a German satirist, published a mock history of Siemens, coinciding with the company’s 125th anniversary. Delius’ book was not immediately recognized as a satire and, within a month, Siemens took action against the publisher. After three years of legal procedures, a provincial appeals court in Stuttgart ruled that several of the book’s claims, including the Auschwitz assertion, were false, and ruled that Delius’ ideas, despite being presented as satire, were damaging. In the settlement, both parties agreed to have the lines in dispute blacked out in all future editions, including the latest, published in 1995.
"While some Americans may feel smug that such censorship occurred in Germany, the English translation of Willstätter’s book also does not contain the passage that was offensive to Bayer. The censorship effort was global.
"Perhaps the best example of historical revisionism and whitewashing comes from the United States. In several chapters, the relationship between the pro-Nazi America First group and the American Security Council is mentioned. One member of both fascist groups was the founder of Regnery Press, publisher of many of the smears made against President Clinton. The first two books published by Regnery are prime examples of pro-Nazi sympathizers whitewashing the Nazi crimes. One of the books was critical of the Allied bombing of Germany, and the other was critical of the Nuremberg Trials. Both contain many factual errors and present a revisionist view of history that in no way conforms to the truth. A review of the current officers of Regnery reveals the organization is still slanted to the hard right. Various officers are connected with fringe right-wing groups, such as the Claremont Institute and the American Enterprise Institute, as well as the Republican Party.
"The censorship and whitewashing of Nazi atrocities and collusion of German business with the Nazis continue today in the Untied States. One of the largest publishers in the Untied States is the former Nazi publisher, Bertelsmann. The Bertelsmann publishing empire includes Random House, Bantam and Doubleday Dell; it is a partner with Barnes & Noble in a new Internet bookstore. Bertelsmann also holds a large share of America Online, and owns book clubs, magazines, newspapers and music labels, such as RCA; it co-owns CLT-UFA, Europe’s biggest TV and radio company. Bertelsmann owns Brown Printing Co., although that information is conspicuously missing from the Web pages of Brown Printing. Brown prints many of the popular magazines, including such titles as Byte and Seventeen, and a host of scientific journals, such as Science and The New England Medical Journal. Bertelsmann is the world’s third largest media empire and the largest publisher of English-language trade books in the world.
"Bertelsmann makes a concerted effort at hiding its Nazi past. In its official corporate history, Bertelsmann circulates the myth that the Nazis closed its publishing business for refusing to follow the party line. That is a lie. The Nazis did not close Bertelsmann; Bertelsmann willingly cooperated with the Nazis. When investigative reporters asked Bertelsmann to verify the claim that the Nazis closed it, the company removed all references to the era from its Web pages.
"Throughout the 1930s, Bertelsmann published books favored by Goebbels. Some of the titles were People Without Space (Volk ohne Raum) and Between the Vistula and the Volga. The latter was an anti-Jewish diatribe claiming the Jews massacred Ukrainian women and children. Following the war, the Allied Control Council denied Bertelsmann’s application for a publishing license. Heinrich Mohn, a founder, principal owner and chief executive, conveniently omitted his membership in SS and his support for Hitler’s Youth. In 1949, Mohn stepped down as chief executive and was replaced by his son, Reinhard. Bertelsmann then reapplied for a publishing license. According to the denazification files, Reinhard served in the Luftwaffe and the elite Hermann Goering Division. With the Cold War already emerging and the failure of the 4Ds program evident, the license was promptly granted."
................................................................................................
"Besides freeing the Nazi industrialists, McCloy announced a drastic reduction in the sentences of 74 of the remaining 104 cases, including commuting 10 death sentences. Even McCloy’s whitewashing committee, the Peck Commission, recommended that all death sentences for members of the Einzatzgruppen were justified. Only four of the Einzatzgruppen prisoners and Oswald Pohl’s death sentences were upheld. The cold-blooded murderers of Malmedy would go free.
"Not only did high commissioner McCloy empty Landsberg of war criminals, he also helped some of the most notorious war criminals escape justice. One benefactor of McCloy’s generous protection was the Butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie. The French were aware that Barbie was in the American Zone and requested that the United States hand him over. McCloy’s reply was brutally cold; he refused. He turned down the French “because the allegations of the citizens of Lyon can be disregarded as being hearsay only.” McCloy was well aware his reply was a lie, as Barbie was identified on the CROWCASS list of war criminals for immediate arrest.
"Others benefiting from American protection were Eichmann and Baron Otto von Bolschwing. The latter directed the murder of Jews in Bucharest. In 1954, the CIA brought von Bolschwing to the United States. Former CIA director Richard Helms justified such action by saying: “We’re not in the Boy Scouts. If we’d wanted to be in the Boy Scouts we would have joined the Boy Scouts.”"
"At a news conference at his headquarters in Bad Tolz, Patton made the offhand remark: “This Nazi thing is just like a Democratic and Republican election fight.” Patton’s remark brought a stern reprimand from Eisenhower, and he was removed three days later. Nevertheless, Patton’s remark characterized the common apathy of the American Army about German history and Nazi policies.
"Cardinal Faulhaber was not alone in his opposition to denazification. From 1933, Catholic and Protestant churches openly supported Hitler. Despite their knowledge of Nazi crimes, they never withdrew their support. In May 1945, the German cardinals refused to accept the shared guilt of all Germans for the war and the unfolding story of the Holocaust, shamefully reaffirming the 1934 concordat. In June 1945, in the first joint pastoral message, the bishops praised the clergy for having resisted the Nazis. According to the bishops, maintaining the Catholic schools was an act of supreme resistance. The achievement was praised by Pope Pius XII. Pius XII had extensive dealings with the Nazis and, after the war, used the church as a ratline to help Nazi war criminals escape from Europe and justice.
"Bishop von Galen told his flock: “If anyone says that the entire German population and each of us is implicated in the crimes committed in foreign countries, and especially in the concentration camps, that is an untrue and unjust accusation against many of us.” Theological support for political survival was at hand. Since the Catholic Church considers guilt is an individual matter, it denied the possibility of collective guilt.
"The Protestant Church was slower to reach such a self-serving conclusion. Of all the Protestant leaders, Pastor Niemöller was the only one to accept the idea of collective guilt. Bishop Wurm did so at first, but his early acceptance of the denazification program soon turned to total opposition, largely because of Law No. 8. This law originated from Gen. Clay’s anger on hearing that an Augsburg butcher, a former Nazi, still gave preferences to former party members. On Sept. 26, 1945, Clay issued Law No. 8, requiring the dismissal of any party member or sympathizer from any employment other than common labor. Ironically, the butcher was self-employed."
"Besides freeing the Nazi industrialists, McCloy announced a drastic reduction in the sentences of 74 of the remaining 104 cases, including commuting 10 death sentences. Even McCloy’s whitewashing committee, the Peck Commission, recommended that all death sentences for members of the Einzatzgruppen were justified. Only four of the Einzatzgruppen prisoners and Oswald Pohl’s death sentences were upheld. The cold-blooded murderers of Malmedy would go free.
"Not only did high commissioner McCloy empty Landsberg of war criminals, he also helped some of the most notorious war criminals escape justice. One benefactor of McCloy’s generous protection was the Butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie. The French were aware that Barbie was in the American Zone and requested that the United States hand him over. McCloy’s reply was brutally cold; he refused. He turned down the French “because the allegations of the citizens of Lyon can be disregarded as being hearsay only.” McCloy was well aware his reply was a lie, as Barbie was identified on the CROWCASS list of war criminals for immediate arrest.
"Others benefiting from American protection were Eichmann and Baron Otto von Bolschwing. The latter directed the murder of Jews in Bucharest. In 1954, the CIA brought von Bolschwing to the United States. Former CIA director Richard Helms justified such action by saying: “We’re not in the Boy Scouts. If we’d wanted to be in the Boy Scouts we would have joined the Boy Scouts.”"
................................................................................................
"At a news conference at his headquarters in Bad Tolz, Patton made the offhand remark: “This Nazi thing is just like a Democratic and Republican election fight.” Patton’s remark brought a stern reprimand from Eisenhower, and he was removed three days later. Nevertheless, Patton’s remark characterized the common apathy of the American Army about German history and Nazi policies.
"Cardinal Faulhaber was not alone in his opposition to denazification. From 1933, Catholic and Protestant churches openly supported Hitler. Despite their knowledge of Nazi crimes, they never withdrew their support. In May 1945, the German cardinals refused to accept the shared guilt of all Germans for the war and the unfolding story of the Holocaust, shamefully reaffirming the 1934 concordat. In June 1945, in the first joint pastoral message, the bishops praised the clergy for having resisted the Nazis. According to the bishops, maintaining the Catholic schools was an act of supreme resistance. The achievement was praised by Pope Pius XII. Pius XII had extensive dealings with the Nazis and, after the war, used the church as a ratline to help Nazi war criminals escape from Europe and justice.
"Bishop von Galen told his flock: “If anyone says that the entire German population and each of us is implicated in the crimes committed in foreign countries, and especially in the concentration camps, that is an untrue and unjust accusation against many of us.” Theological support for political survival was at hand. Since the Catholic Church considers guilt is an individual matter, it denied the possibility of collective guilt.
"The Protestant Church was slower to reach such a self-serving conclusion. Of all the Protestant leaders, Pastor Niemöller was the only one to accept the idea of collective guilt. Bishop Wurm did so at first, but his early acceptance of the denazification program soon turned to total opposition, largely because of Law No. 8. This law originated from Gen. Clay’s anger on hearing that an Augsburg butcher, a former Nazi, still gave preferences to former party members. On Sept. 26, 1945, Clay issued Law No. 8, requiring the dismissal of any party member or sympathizer from any employment other than common labor. Ironically, the butcher was self-employed."
................................................................................................
"While Law No. 8 followed the guidelines for denazification, it was largely unenforceable. Once the law was issued, Bishop Wurm from Württemberg led the campaign against it. In the political vacuum left by Germany’s defeat, the clergy held enormous power. No other body had the organization or self-confidence. As the church’s opposition to the 4Ds program intensified, its influence over the people increased. Wurm’s early protest against Law No. 8 was what he termed the dismissal of thousands of innocent civil servants who had been members of the Nazi Party. Wurm claimed many were politically indifferent to the Nazis and had simply joined the party to keep their job. There was some truth to this.
"Nevertheless, Wurm admitted to Gen. Clay that many clergy, including himself, had joined the Nazi Party and supported Hitler, believing it might produce a religious revival. Wurm even referred to Mein Kampf, where Hitler had written that National Socialism and Christianity could work together. Wurm justified his beliefs by the signing of the Concordat, and the agreements between Nazi Germany and Britain before the war.
"The American Religious Affairs Division listed 351 Protestant clergy as active Nazis. While the Catholic Church hid its Nazi priests in monasteries, the Protestant church refused to remove Nazis from its churches. By October 1946, only three of the 351 active Nazi clergy had been removed.
"Bishop Wurm also was a principal member of A Committee for Christian Aid to War Prisoners, formed illegally in 1948. A group of Nazi jurists in Munich, who served as counsel for major war criminals, formed the committee. Dr. Rudolf Aschenauer and Ernst Achenbach were two prominent leaders behind the group, whose purpose was to spread propaganda denouncing the war crime trials. The Nazis used Wurm and other leading clerics to camouflage their activities. Other prominent religious leaders in the committee were Cardinal Josef Frings, Catholic Bishop Johann Neuhaeussler and Protestant Bishop Meiser. Cardinal Frings demanded a halt in the executions.
"Under the sponsorship of Frings and Wurm, the group developed a wide network to save the war criminals from the hangman. The Catholic Church and the Protestant Evangelisches Hilfswerk supported them. The latter organization provided shelter and jobs to hundreds of ex-Nazis, especially Ribbentrop’s diplomats.
"Frings and Wurm also headed another group, The Committee for Justice and Trade. This group consisted of ex-officers, high government officials, jurists, educators, industrialists and church leaders who raised money to aid all war criminals. The organization had a mysterious bank account (Konto Gustav) in which more than 60 industrialists regularly deposited large sums."
"In January 1946, a secret report issued by the Public Safety Branch revealed the true extent of opposition that Gen. Clay and the occupying army faced. This report estimated that only one percent of the German population were committed anti-Nazis. In the same month, David Robinson, an American negotiator for Gen. Clay, reported that German political leaders admitted a free election would bring a modified Nazi government to power.
"Bishop Wurm was relentless in his opposition to the 4Ds program and pushed Gen. Clay into setting up tribunals that included two German citizens to review and remove known Nazis from positions of power. Under pressure, Clay relented to the bishop’s demands. The resulting tribunals made a mockery of justice.
"Special Agent Charles Hick visited the villages of Marktheidenfeld and Aschaffenburg after hearing rumors the locals referred to the denazification panels as Nazi Welfare Organizations. He reported the conditions were far worse than could be imagined. The case against the Nazi wartime mayor Wilhelm Siebenlist had collapsed. Siebenlist, a long-time party member, made a fortune by exploiting his office under the Nazis. This Nazi profiteer had 14 witnesses, including 10 employees, willing to speak in his favor. There was only one witness for the prosecution, a suspected Nazi.
"Hick first believed the case collapsed because of Horst Schutze, the prosecutor. Schutze had been jailed three times in three months for embezzlement. Hick also thought Heinrich Müller, the second prosecutor, might be blamed. Müller, a long-time party member, had nine charges of fraud against him. However, Julius Listmann publicly claimed credit for Siebenlist’s acquittal. Listmann, the tribunal’s investigator, was the proud owner of a new car from the former Nazi mayor.
"The Siebenlist case was not exceptional. Rather, it typified the findings of the tribunals across Germany. Much of the blame for the failure of the tribunals was due to the Catholic Church. Local priests created the impression that it was a sin to give damaging testimony. Instead, it became an honor to testify that former Nazis were good churchgoers and not Nazis. Such testimonies were known as Fragebogen, or questionnaires, false testimony that they had been resistance fighters.
"The Catholic Church even went as far as to order its members not to work in any of the tribunals. The Catholic priest in Steinach went further, convincing a nearly illiterate panel that even the most rabid Nazis were mere followers. The panel then ranked these rabid Nazis in the “lowest threat” categories. The priest had joined the Nazis in 1925. In Uffenheim, the local priest warned his followers not to speak to the prosecutor, who was a Jew who had just returned from Auschwitz. In Unterfranken and Mittelfranken, Nazi profiteers such as Hans Glas, a former SS member, was fined only 2,000 marks. Glas had an annual income of more than 2,000 marks. Xavier Lang, another Nazi profiteer, also was fined the same paltry sum. Lang had an annual income of more than 700,000 marks.
"American forces failed to protect the few tribunal members and prosecutors who were anti-Nazi. Those members were subject to intimidation and assault from former Nazis. The Werewolves, an underground Nazi organization that continued a guerrilla war after the surrender of Germany, murdered other tribunal members and prosecutors."
"While Law No. 8 followed the guidelines for denazification, it was largely unenforceable. Once the law was issued, Bishop Wurm from Württemberg led the campaign against it. In the political vacuum left by Germany’s defeat, the clergy held enormous power. No other body had the organization or self-confidence. As the church’s opposition to the 4Ds program intensified, its influence over the people increased. Wurm’s early protest against Law No. 8 was what he termed the dismissal of thousands of innocent civil servants who had been members of the Nazi Party. Wurm claimed many were politically indifferent to the Nazis and had simply joined the party to keep their job. There was some truth to this.
"Nevertheless, Wurm admitted to Gen. Clay that many clergy, including himself, had joined the Nazi Party and supported Hitler, believing it might produce a religious revival. Wurm even referred to Mein Kampf, where Hitler had written that National Socialism and Christianity could work together. Wurm justified his beliefs by the signing of the Concordat, and the agreements between Nazi Germany and Britain before the war.
"The American Religious Affairs Division listed 351 Protestant clergy as active Nazis. While the Catholic Church hid its Nazi priests in monasteries, the Protestant church refused to remove Nazis from its churches. By October 1946, only three of the 351 active Nazi clergy had been removed.
"Bishop Wurm also was a principal member of A Committee for Christian Aid to War Prisoners, formed illegally in 1948. A group of Nazi jurists in Munich, who served as counsel for major war criminals, formed the committee. Dr. Rudolf Aschenauer and Ernst Achenbach were two prominent leaders behind the group, whose purpose was to spread propaganda denouncing the war crime trials. The Nazis used Wurm and other leading clerics to camouflage their activities. Other prominent religious leaders in the committee were Cardinal Josef Frings, Catholic Bishop Johann Neuhaeussler and Protestant Bishop Meiser. Cardinal Frings demanded a halt in the executions.
"Under the sponsorship of Frings and Wurm, the group developed a wide network to save the war criminals from the hangman. The Catholic Church and the Protestant Evangelisches Hilfswerk supported them. The latter organization provided shelter and jobs to hundreds of ex-Nazis, especially Ribbentrop’s diplomats.
"Frings and Wurm also headed another group, The Committee for Justice and Trade. This group consisted of ex-officers, high government officials, jurists, educators, industrialists and church leaders who raised money to aid all war criminals. The organization had a mysterious bank account (Konto Gustav) in which more than 60 industrialists regularly deposited large sums."
................................................................................................
"In January 1946, a secret report issued by the Public Safety Branch revealed the true extent of opposition that Gen. Clay and the occupying army faced. This report estimated that only one percent of the German population were committed anti-Nazis. In the same month, David Robinson, an American negotiator for Gen. Clay, reported that German political leaders admitted a free election would bring a modified Nazi government to power.
"Bishop Wurm was relentless in his opposition to the 4Ds program and pushed Gen. Clay into setting up tribunals that included two German citizens to review and remove known Nazis from positions of power. Under pressure, Clay relented to the bishop’s demands. The resulting tribunals made a mockery of justice.
"Special Agent Charles Hick visited the villages of Marktheidenfeld and Aschaffenburg after hearing rumors the locals referred to the denazification panels as Nazi Welfare Organizations. He reported the conditions were far worse than could be imagined. The case against the Nazi wartime mayor Wilhelm Siebenlist had collapsed. Siebenlist, a long-time party member, made a fortune by exploiting his office under the Nazis. This Nazi profiteer had 14 witnesses, including 10 employees, willing to speak in his favor. There was only one witness for the prosecution, a suspected Nazi.
"Hick first believed the case collapsed because of Horst Schutze, the prosecutor. Schutze had been jailed three times in three months for embezzlement. Hick also thought Heinrich Müller, the second prosecutor, might be blamed. Müller, a long-time party member, had nine charges of fraud against him. However, Julius Listmann publicly claimed credit for Siebenlist’s acquittal. Listmann, the tribunal’s investigator, was the proud owner of a new car from the former Nazi mayor.
"The Siebenlist case was not exceptional. Rather, it typified the findings of the tribunals across Germany. Much of the blame for the failure of the tribunals was due to the Catholic Church. Local priests created the impression that it was a sin to give damaging testimony. Instead, it became an honor to testify that former Nazis were good churchgoers and not Nazis. Such testimonies were known as Fragebogen, or questionnaires, false testimony that they had been resistance fighters.
"The Catholic Church even went as far as to order its members not to work in any of the tribunals. The Catholic priest in Steinach went further, convincing a nearly illiterate panel that even the most rabid Nazis were mere followers. The panel then ranked these rabid Nazis in the “lowest threat” categories. The priest had joined the Nazis in 1925. In Uffenheim, the local priest warned his followers not to speak to the prosecutor, who was a Jew who had just returned from Auschwitz. In Unterfranken and Mittelfranken, Nazi profiteers such as Hans Glas, a former SS member, was fined only 2,000 marks. Glas had an annual income of more than 2,000 marks. Xavier Lang, another Nazi profiteer, also was fined the same paltry sum. Lang had an annual income of more than 700,000 marks.
"American forces failed to protect the few tribunal members and prosecutors who were anti-Nazi. Those members were subject to intimidation and assault from former Nazis. The Werewolves, an underground Nazi organization that continued a guerrilla war after the surrender of Germany, murdered other tribunal members and prosecutors."
................................................................................................
"Conditions in Germany after the failure of the 4Ds program was summed up by Strang and Steele, two British political officers who toured Germany. They reported the Nazis remained a privileged class. The failure to remove Nazi supervisors and shopkeepers left them in control of the daily lives of the German population. The anti-Nazis did not have the strength to challenge the former order. The foremost anti-Nazis had been executed by the Nazis, or perished in the concentration camps.
"The views of Strang and Steele let the British lose interest in denazification further. Only American criticism prevented them from completely leaving the program.
"In 1952, McCloy returned to the United States and became a consultant for the Ford Foundation, which had close ties to the CIA and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1953, he became chairman of Chase National Bank, which soon merged into Chase Manhattan Bank. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he served on the Warren Commission, and was involved in many dealings between the U.S. and other governments, private industry and banks."
................................................................................................
"McCloy’s departure from Germany marked the beginning of a new phase of postwar Germany. Western Germany from then on was self-governed with little interference from the occupying armies. Adenauer had been elected as chancellor and his government was loudly proclaimed to be a democracy that had rid itself of the Nazi menace. This was excessively optimistic. Former Nazis filled the ranks of the Adenauer government. Adenauer himself was compromised by past associations with Nazis. He took money from Nazis that was intended to reestablish national socialists like Friedrich Flick, who gave generously to Adenauer’s party.
"Two of the most influential men in the chancellery were Dr. Hans Globke and Dr. Herbert Blankenhorn. Despite their loathsome records, Adenauer entrusted them men to rebuild the government. Hans Globke served the Nazis as the top official in the Office for Jewish Affairs in the Ministry of Interior. He was involved in forming the racial laws and drafting the text of Hitler’s race laws. Globke also was the author of the notorious commentary that interpreted the Nuremberg laws, easing the way for the Holocaust. When the Nazis decided on mass extermination of the Jews, Globke’s superior resigned as a matter of conscience. Globke filled his position. As chief legal adviser and head of Jewish Affairs, Globke was a direct participant in the Holocaust.
"On Sept. 28, 1960, Der Spiegel reported Globke had direct dealings with Eichmann. The article quoted testimony from convicted war criminal Max Marten. In 1943, Eichmann requested to send 20,000 Jews from Macedonia to Palestine. Marten needed Globke’s permission for the release, but Globke refused, insisting on a strict adherence to Hitler’s order for liquidation.
"On Oct. 30, 1955, Die Welt described Globke as the second in command of the German ship of state. The paper reported that he alone had access to Adenauer at all times. Globke used his power to appoint many Nazis to important government positions. Some suggested he did more to renazify West Germany than anyone else.
"McCloy and the Military Occupation Government had to have known of Globke’s record, because there was criticism from the start. On July 12, 1950, the legal expert of the Social Democratic Party, Adolf Arndt, spoke before the Bundestag, describing Globke’s record in detail, and accusing him of committing mass murder with legal paragraphs. On Oct. 16, 1951, Dr. Gerhard Luetkens, the Social Democrat’s deputy, charged Globke before the Bundestag with packing the Foreign Office with ex-Nazis.
"On June 11, 1958, Deutsche Zeitung in a full-page article explained how Globke was able to keep rigid control over every ministry. As Secretary of State, Globke opened all cabinet meetings and determined the agenda. All appointments to office had to cross Globke’s desk, so he was able to install loyal friends in every ministry. Globke was an old friend of Reinhard Gehlen, and provided him access to Adenauer. In 1955, when the federal Republic became a sovereign state, the Bonn government openly recognized Gehlen’s network of spies, a home to ex-SS and other Nazis, as an arm of the government. The network was now effectively directly under Globke."
................................................................................................
"Blakenhorn’s record is as dark as Globke’s. Nevertheless, the Allied occupation allowed Adenauer to appoint Blankenhorn to rebuild the Foreign Office, where he served as chief for many years. Secretary of State Stettinius warned the occupation government about him, in a letter to Robert Murphy on April 20, 1945. An excerpt:
""While in Washington, Blankenhorn is known to have been active and aggressive as a propagandist working through mainly social contacts, for the Nazi party and Hitler. Racialism was one of his favorite subjects. While professing great sympathy for the United States, he was yet an ardent and convinced member of the Nazi Party and was also a member of the SS."
"Stettinius sent his warning letter after receiving an OSS report from Murphy that summed up Blankenhorn as truly, thoroughly Nazi. Three weeks after the Stettinius letter, Grew sent another warning to Murphy."
"McCloy’s departure from Germany marked the beginning of a new phase of postwar Germany. Western Germany from then on was self-governed with little interference from the occupying armies. Adenauer had been elected as chancellor and his government was loudly proclaimed to be a democracy that had rid itself of the Nazi menace. This was excessively optimistic. Former Nazis filled the ranks of the Adenauer government. Adenauer himself was compromised by past associations with Nazis. He took money from Nazis that was intended to reestablish national socialists like Friedrich Flick, who gave generously to Adenauer’s party.
"Two of the most influential men in the chancellery were Dr. Hans Globke and Dr. Herbert Blankenhorn. Despite their loathsome records, Adenauer entrusted them men to rebuild the government. Hans Globke served the Nazis as the top official in the Office for Jewish Affairs in the Ministry of Interior. He was involved in forming the racial laws and drafting the text of Hitler’s race laws. Globke also was the author of the notorious commentary that interpreted the Nuremberg laws, easing the way for the Holocaust. When the Nazis decided on mass extermination of the Jews, Globke’s superior resigned as a matter of conscience. Globke filled his position. As chief legal adviser and head of Jewish Affairs, Globke was a direct participant in the Holocaust.
"On Sept. 28, 1960, Der Spiegel reported Globke had direct dealings with Eichmann. The article quoted testimony from convicted war criminal Max Marten. In 1943, Eichmann requested to send 20,000 Jews from Macedonia to Palestine. Marten needed Globke’s permission for the release, but Globke refused, insisting on a strict adherence to Hitler’s order for liquidation.
"On Oct. 30, 1955, Die Welt described Globke as the second in command of the German ship of state. The paper reported that he alone had access to Adenauer at all times. Globke used his power to appoint many Nazis to important government positions. Some suggested he did more to renazify West Germany than anyone else.
"McCloy and the Military Occupation Government had to have known of Globke’s record, because there was criticism from the start. On July 12, 1950, the legal expert of the Social Democratic Party, Adolf Arndt, spoke before the Bundestag, describing Globke’s record in detail, and accusing him of committing mass murder with legal paragraphs. On Oct. 16, 1951, Dr. Gerhard Luetkens, the Social Democrat’s deputy, charged Globke before the Bundestag with packing the Foreign Office with ex-Nazis.
"On June 11, 1958, Deutsche Zeitung in a full-page article explained how Globke was able to keep rigid control over every ministry. As Secretary of State, Globke opened all cabinet meetings and determined the agenda. All appointments to office had to cross Globke’s desk, so he was able to install loyal friends in every ministry. Globke was an old friend of Reinhard Gehlen, and provided him access to Adenauer. In 1955, when the federal Republic became a sovereign state, the Bonn government openly recognized Gehlen’s network of spies, a home to ex-SS and other Nazis, as an arm of the government. The network was now effectively directly under Globke."
................................................................................................
"Blakenhorn’s record is as dark as Globke’s. Nevertheless, the Allied occupation allowed Adenauer to appoint Blankenhorn to rebuild the Foreign Office, where he served as chief for many years. Secretary of State Stettinius warned the occupation government about him, in a letter to Robert Murphy on April 20, 1945. An excerpt:
""While in Washington, Blankenhorn is known to have been active and aggressive as a propagandist working through mainly social contacts, for the Nazi party and Hitler. Racialism was one of his favorite subjects. While professing great sympathy for the United States, he was yet an ardent and convinced member of the Nazi Party and was also a member of the SS."
"Stettinius sent his warning letter after receiving an OSS report from Murphy that summed up Blankenhorn as truly, thoroughly Nazi. Three weeks after the Stettinius letter, Grew sent another warning to Murphy."
................................................................................................
"Long before the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, Nazi diplomats made extensive plans for a quick comeback. They organized a Niederlage (defeat) section tasked with working out detailed plans to overcome any surrender. Many of the Nazi diplomats disappeared into harmless and previously prepared emergency shelters, such as director positions of orphanages or employment in the Evangelical Relief Society. These positions seemed harmless, but their intent was not.
"Many of the Nazi diplomats were heavily implicated in war crimes. However, the Allies only investigated a few of them in the Wilhelmstrasse Trial of 1949. Around that time, the Neue Zeitung, the official American newspaper in Germany, warned of preparations for the Ribbentrop clique to recapture the Foreign Office. In 1950, when Adenauer asked him to set up a new Foreign Office, Blankenhorn presented the nucleus of the Ribbentrop group. Adenauer must have known that Blankenhorn was implicated in war crimes of deportation and mass murder. On April 22, 1952, the Swiss newspaper, Die Tat, reported that in the Rademacher trial, documents implicating Blankenhorn were never introduced as evidence, despite their presence in the prosecutor’s files. The article stressed that the Bonn Foreign Office pressured the court not to introduce the incriminating evidence.
"The persistent attacks by a few democratic papers over reactivating to the Ribbentrop group were soon echoed by the Social Democratic opposition in the Bundestag. Two broadcasts on Bavarian Radio Network by Wilhelm von Cube, a fighting democrat, aroused public anger. Von Cube proved that 85 percent of the leading officials of the Foreign Office had been Nazi Party members serving Hitler. The Bundestag then took up the investigation of 20 officials. The Bundestag report confirmed that former Ribbentrop diplomats held domineering positions in the Foreign Office, who had done the utmost to whitewash their records by exchanging affidavits - Persilscheine or “soap coupons,” a pledge the accused was whiter than white. The report called for the immediate ouster of Werner von Grundherr, Werner von Bargen, Kurt Heinburg and Herbert Dittmann, and recommended preventing seven other former Nazis from assuming diplomatic missions abroad.
"In addition, the report also proved the Foreign Office conspired to protect Franz Rademacher, who was guilty of the murder of 1,500 Jews in Belgrade. The court sentenced him to only three years and eight months in prison, while allowing him to remain free pending his appeal. Rademacher quickly escaped to Argentina where he was greeted as a hero who escaped the clutches of Jewish jackals.
"On Oct. 23, 1952, in a debate before the Bundestag, Adenauer admitted that two-thirds of the diplomats in higher positions were former Nazis. He lamented that he could not build a Foreign Office without their skills, and quickly ignored the Bundestag’s report. After the 1953 election, Adenauer presented his second cabinet members as staunch democrats. However, the truth was this cabinet was full of Nazi Party and SS members. Few were ever removed from office.
"One exception was the Minister for Expellees, Theodor Overlaender, the Reichsfuehrer of the German Alliance in the East. He packed his ministry with ex-Nazis. However, he was soon at the center of a storm when it became known that he was responsible for liquidating thousands of Jews and Polish intellectuals in July 1941. A special SS task force under his command committed the mass murder when it occupied Lvov, Poland. In 1960, Overlaender was forced to resign.
"In the early 1960s, more than 60 West Germany ambassadors and foreign diplomats were former Nazi Party members who worked with Rademacher in organizing the Final Solution. Hans Albers, formerly assigned to Warsaw by Ribbentrop, became ambassador to Nicaragua. George Vogel, a former SS officer, served as ambassador to Venezuela. The South American appointments are noteworthy, because that continent became a favorite destination of war criminals escaping from Europe."
"Long before the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, Nazi diplomats made extensive plans for a quick comeback. They organized a Niederlage (defeat) section tasked with working out detailed plans to overcome any surrender. Many of the Nazi diplomats disappeared into harmless and previously prepared emergency shelters, such as director positions of orphanages or employment in the Evangelical Relief Society. These positions seemed harmless, but their intent was not.
"Many of the Nazi diplomats were heavily implicated in war crimes. However, the Allies only investigated a few of them in the Wilhelmstrasse Trial of 1949. Around that time, the Neue Zeitung, the official American newspaper in Germany, warned of preparations for the Ribbentrop clique to recapture the Foreign Office. In 1950, when Adenauer asked him to set up a new Foreign Office, Blankenhorn presented the nucleus of the Ribbentrop group. Adenauer must have known that Blankenhorn was implicated in war crimes of deportation and mass murder. On April 22, 1952, the Swiss newspaper, Die Tat, reported that in the Rademacher trial, documents implicating Blankenhorn were never introduced as evidence, despite their presence in the prosecutor’s files. The article stressed that the Bonn Foreign Office pressured the court not to introduce the incriminating evidence.
"The persistent attacks by a few democratic papers over reactivating to the Ribbentrop group were soon echoed by the Social Democratic opposition in the Bundestag. Two broadcasts on Bavarian Radio Network by Wilhelm von Cube, a fighting democrat, aroused public anger. Von Cube proved that 85 percent of the leading officials of the Foreign Office had been Nazi Party members serving Hitler. The Bundestag then took up the investigation of 20 officials. The Bundestag report confirmed that former Ribbentrop diplomats held domineering positions in the Foreign Office, who had done the utmost to whitewash their records by exchanging affidavits - Persilscheine or “soap coupons,” a pledge the accused was whiter than white. The report called for the immediate ouster of Werner von Grundherr, Werner von Bargen, Kurt Heinburg and Herbert Dittmann, and recommended preventing seven other former Nazis from assuming diplomatic missions abroad.
"In addition, the report also proved the Foreign Office conspired to protect Franz Rademacher, who was guilty of the murder of 1,500 Jews in Belgrade. The court sentenced him to only three years and eight months in prison, while allowing him to remain free pending his appeal. Rademacher quickly escaped to Argentina where he was greeted as a hero who escaped the clutches of Jewish jackals.
"On Oct. 23, 1952, in a debate before the Bundestag, Adenauer admitted that two-thirds of the diplomats in higher positions were former Nazis. He lamented that he could not build a Foreign Office without their skills, and quickly ignored the Bundestag’s report. After the 1953 election, Adenauer presented his second cabinet members as staunch democrats. However, the truth was this cabinet was full of Nazi Party and SS members. Few were ever removed from office.
"One exception was the Minister for Expellees, Theodor Overlaender, the Reichsfuehrer of the German Alliance in the East. He packed his ministry with ex-Nazis. However, he was soon at the center of a storm when it became known that he was responsible for liquidating thousands of Jews and Polish intellectuals in July 1941. A special SS task force under his command committed the mass murder when it occupied Lvov, Poland. In 1960, Overlaender was forced to resign.
"In the early 1960s, more than 60 West Germany ambassadors and foreign diplomats were former Nazi Party members who worked with Rademacher in organizing the Final Solution. Hans Albers, formerly assigned to Warsaw by Ribbentrop, became ambassador to Nicaragua. George Vogel, a former SS officer, served as ambassador to Venezuela. The South American appointments are noteworthy, because that continent became a favorite destination of war criminals escaping from Europe."
................................................................................................
"The Nazi penetration of the Bonn government was not confined to key federal government positions. All across Germany, city governments, schools and police departments were rife with former Nazis. Nazi penetration of the police was acute in Germany’s larger states, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, Scheswig-Holstein and Bavaria. On Oct. 16, 1959, the Social Democrats exposed 20 SS officers who held top police positions in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Social Democrats specifically charged that former SS officers were chiefs of criminal divisions in cities like Cologne, Dortmund and Essen. They also charged that former Nazis dominated the whole police organization, where promotions and appointments were awarded to reliable SS men.
"In March 1959, the government of Baden-Württemberg reported to the Diet that 152 former Gestapo officials were employed as state police. The chief of the criminal division in Stuttgart was Dobritz, a former Gestapo officer sentenced to death by a French court in absentia for torture and manslaughter.
"In the late 1950s, an avalanche of reports and investigations surfaced charging current police officials with war crimes. In April 1959, the State Prosecutor launched an investigation of 23 police officers in Berlin. All were suspected of the mass murder of 97,000 Jews in Bialystok, Poland. In July of 1959, officials arrested the chief of the criminal division in the district of the Palatinate, Georg Heuser, for liquidating Jews in Minsk. Then the head of the criminal division in Saarbrücken, Klemmer was arrested in 1959. Klemmer, a former Gestapo officer, admitted to ordering mass executions in the East. In January 1960, Georg Lothar Hoffmann, chief of the criminal division in the state of Hesse, was arrested and charged with mass murder in Maidanek concentration camp.
"While other agencies of state and local government were just as infested by former Nazis, the infiltration of the police was an especially serious matter. No citizen could report a war criminal without fear of reprisal, especially when the criminal divisions of the police were under the control of former Gestapo and SS officers. Citizens risked their lives and freedom if they challenged the Nazi line.
"There is plentiful evidence that this infestation of the police was pre-planned. The November 1957 issue of the Frankfurter Hefte exposed the number of news and publishing media willing to promote the Nazi line:
"In the Federal Republic there exist today 46 political associations of this character. The Nazi-militaristic wing is served by 30 newspapers, 68 Rightist book and magazine publishers, and 120 former Nazi publicists. In addition there are approximately 50 nationalistic youth organizations.”
"The failure to denazify Germany was largely due to a deliberate sabotaging of the 4Ds program by those seeking to protect U.S. corporations that traded with Hitler throughout the war, yet one cannot overlook the Nazis’ determined plan to regain power after war’s end. Gen. Otto Remer, who founded the Socialist Reichs Party, denied the Holocaust ever happened, and claimed the Allies had the ovens built after the war. In 1952, Germany outlawed the Socialist Reichs Party. Within a few months, authorities found the Nazis reorganized more than 60 Tarn (camouflaged) groups in the state of Lower Saxony."
"The Nazi penetration of the Bonn government was not confined to key federal government positions. All across Germany, city governments, schools and police departments were rife with former Nazis. Nazi penetration of the police was acute in Germany’s larger states, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, Scheswig-Holstein and Bavaria. On Oct. 16, 1959, the Social Democrats exposed 20 SS officers who held top police positions in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Social Democrats specifically charged that former SS officers were chiefs of criminal divisions in cities like Cologne, Dortmund and Essen. They also charged that former Nazis dominated the whole police organization, where promotions and appointments were awarded to reliable SS men.
"In March 1959, the government of Baden-Württemberg reported to the Diet that 152 former Gestapo officials were employed as state police. The chief of the criminal division in Stuttgart was Dobritz, a former Gestapo officer sentenced to death by a French court in absentia for torture and manslaughter.
"In the late 1950s, an avalanche of reports and investigations surfaced charging current police officials with war crimes. In April 1959, the State Prosecutor launched an investigation of 23 police officers in Berlin. All were suspected of the mass murder of 97,000 Jews in Bialystok, Poland. In July of 1959, officials arrested the chief of the criminal division in the district of the Palatinate, Georg Heuser, for liquidating Jews in Minsk. Then the head of the criminal division in Saarbrücken, Klemmer was arrested in 1959. Klemmer, a former Gestapo officer, admitted to ordering mass executions in the East. In January 1960, Georg Lothar Hoffmann, chief of the criminal division in the state of Hesse, was arrested and charged with mass murder in Maidanek concentration camp.
"While other agencies of state and local government were just as infested by former Nazis, the infiltration of the police was an especially serious matter. No citizen could report a war criminal without fear of reprisal, especially when the criminal divisions of the police were under the control of former Gestapo and SS officers. Citizens risked their lives and freedom if they challenged the Nazi line.
"There is plentiful evidence that this infestation of the police was pre-planned. The November 1957 issue of the Frankfurter Hefte exposed the number of news and publishing media willing to promote the Nazi line:
"In the Federal Republic there exist today 46 political associations of this character. The Nazi-militaristic wing is served by 30 newspapers, 68 Rightist book and magazine publishers, and 120 former Nazi publicists. In addition there are approximately 50 nationalistic youth organizations.”
"The failure to denazify Germany was largely due to a deliberate sabotaging of the 4Ds program by those seeking to protect U.S. corporations that traded with Hitler throughout the war, yet one cannot overlook the Nazis’ determined plan to regain power after war’s end. Gen. Otto Remer, who founded the Socialist Reichs Party, denied the Holocaust ever happened, and claimed the Allies had the ovens built after the war. In 1952, Germany outlawed the Socialist Reichs Party. Within a few months, authorities found the Nazis reorganized more than 60 Tarn (camouflaged) groups in the state of Lower Saxony."
................................................................................................
"Roosevelt’s death a month before the surrender of the Nazis also contibuted to the 4Ds program failure. The burden on Truman in his first year in office was immense. In the first month alone, he had to deal with Germany’s surrender and, before the summer was out, the use of the atomic bomb and Japan’s surrender. When he came into office, Truman had no idea of Roosevelt’s Operation Safehaven or the details of the atomic bomb. He therefore put his trust in his advisers.
"One of those advisers was independent oilman Edwin Pauley. Like Forrestal, he was a spy for Allen Dulles in the Roosevelt administration and the Democratic Party. He had been part of Roosevelt’s Petroleum Administration for the War, and played a role in selecting Truman as the vice presidential candidate in the 1944 election. In gratitude, Truman appointed Pauley to be the U.S. representative in the Allied Reparations Committee, despite his obvious conflicts of interest. He was simultaneously made industrial and commercial adviser to the Potsdam Conference, and given the rank of ambassador. Using his position, Pauley was able to help the Dulles brothers shift Nazi assets out of Europe. He knew that most of the Nazi assets were located in the Western zone, but deceived the Soviets long enough for Allen Dulles to spirit much of the remaining Nazis assets out of Europe.
"After losing his nomination as Naval Secretary to replace Forrestal, Pauley returned to the oil business. Pauley was soon embroiled in another controversy, this one over Mexico and oil. In short, Pauley was caught running a CIA shakedown of Mexican politicians. At one point, the CIA was using Permex as a business cover and money laundry for Pauley’s political contributions. The CIA-Permex connection lasted many years. One notable employee of Permex during these years was William F. Buckley Jr. Politically, Pauley played both sides, and was a committed Nixon supporter.
George H. W. Bush set up Zapata Petroleum during this time and leased oil rigs to Pauley. Pauley was Bush’s best customer. In 1959, Mexico changed its laws to mandate that Mexican nationals must own oil companies. Bush stood to lose his most lucrative account. Using a fiscal sleight of hand, Bush sold the Nola 1 rig, thus hiding an American share of 50 percent. The only losers in the deal were the shareholders of Zapata, according to Barrons. Unfortunately, the details of the deal can no longer be scrutinized since the SEC destroyed Zapata records for 1960-66. The destruction of the SEC records occurred shortly after George H. W. Bush was sworn in as vice president in 1981."
................................................................................................
" ... Until WWI, England was the dominant power in Europe, and the British were determined to hold onto their position. England’s strategic geographical location allowed it to block the sea-lanes of any European challenger. The only serious threats to British power before WWI were France and Germany. Besides the threat of a blockade, Britain fostered wars between continental rivals, thereby weakening the dominant power on the continent. In this way, England preserved her supremacy in Europe at minimal cost. Throughout the latter half of the 1700s and the 1800s, England faced no serious threat to its position. Any potential threat was quickly dealt with.
"Toward the end of WWI, a new threat arose for the British - the Bolshevik Revolution, if it spread beyond the borders of Russia. Between the wars, Britain regarded the Soviets as their prime enemy on the continent. Hitler’s armies had come within sight of Moscow, but at a heavy price to both the Soviets and the Nazis. Churchill delayed any invasion of Europe as long as possible. He was following the long English tradition of allowing Britain’s enemies to kill each other. Rather than a cross-channel invasion, he talked Roosevelt into an invasion of North Africa, primarily to protect the Suez Canal and British shipping lanes. He further delayed the Normandy invasion by promoting the invasion of Italy. Churchill then argued for an assault through the Balkans, thereby cutting the advancing Soviets off from central Europe.
"It was only faced with Roosevelt’s stern demand for a cross-channel invasion after the meeting of the Big Three that Churchill agreed. Churchill favored an easy peace with Germany and only reluctantly accepted the Morgenthau Plan at Montreal. However, by this time Britain was reduced to beggar status and was desperate to hang on to its remaining empire. It was in no position to disagree if postwar aid was at stake."
"Roosevelt’s death a month before the surrender of the Nazis also contibuted to the 4Ds program failure. The burden on Truman in his first year in office was immense. In the first month alone, he had to deal with Germany’s surrender and, before the summer was out, the use of the atomic bomb and Japan’s surrender. When he came into office, Truman had no idea of Roosevelt’s Operation Safehaven or the details of the atomic bomb. He therefore put his trust in his advisers.
"One of those advisers was independent oilman Edwin Pauley. Like Forrestal, he was a spy for Allen Dulles in the Roosevelt administration and the Democratic Party. He had been part of Roosevelt’s Petroleum Administration for the War, and played a role in selecting Truman as the vice presidential candidate in the 1944 election. In gratitude, Truman appointed Pauley to be the U.S. representative in the Allied Reparations Committee, despite his obvious conflicts of interest. He was simultaneously made industrial and commercial adviser to the Potsdam Conference, and given the rank of ambassador. Using his position, Pauley was able to help the Dulles brothers shift Nazi assets out of Europe. He knew that most of the Nazi assets were located in the Western zone, but deceived the Soviets long enough for Allen Dulles to spirit much of the remaining Nazis assets out of Europe.
"After losing his nomination as Naval Secretary to replace Forrestal, Pauley returned to the oil business. Pauley was soon embroiled in another controversy, this one over Mexico and oil. In short, Pauley was caught running a CIA shakedown of Mexican politicians. At one point, the CIA was using Permex as a business cover and money laundry for Pauley’s political contributions. The CIA-Permex connection lasted many years. One notable employee of Permex during these years was William F. Buckley Jr. Politically, Pauley played both sides, and was a committed Nixon supporter.
George H. W. Bush set up Zapata Petroleum during this time and leased oil rigs to Pauley. Pauley was Bush’s best customer. In 1959, Mexico changed its laws to mandate that Mexican nationals must own oil companies. Bush stood to lose his most lucrative account. Using a fiscal sleight of hand, Bush sold the Nola 1 rig, thus hiding an American share of 50 percent. The only losers in the deal were the shareholders of Zapata, according to Barrons. Unfortunately, the details of the deal can no longer be scrutinized since the SEC destroyed Zapata records for 1960-66. The destruction of the SEC records occurred shortly after George H. W. Bush was sworn in as vice president in 1981."
................................................................................................
" ... Until WWI, England was the dominant power in Europe, and the British were determined to hold onto their position. England’s strategic geographical location allowed it to block the sea-lanes of any European challenger. The only serious threats to British power before WWI were France and Germany. Besides the threat of a blockade, Britain fostered wars between continental rivals, thereby weakening the dominant power on the continent. In this way, England preserved her supremacy in Europe at minimal cost. Throughout the latter half of the 1700s and the 1800s, England faced no serious threat to its position. Any potential threat was quickly dealt with.
"Toward the end of WWI, a new threat arose for the British - the Bolshevik Revolution, if it spread beyond the borders of Russia. Between the wars, Britain regarded the Soviets as their prime enemy on the continent. Hitler’s armies had come within sight of Moscow, but at a heavy price to both the Soviets and the Nazis. Churchill delayed any invasion of Europe as long as possible. He was following the long English tradition of allowing Britain’s enemies to kill each other. Rather than a cross-channel invasion, he talked Roosevelt into an invasion of North Africa, primarily to protect the Suez Canal and British shipping lanes. He further delayed the Normandy invasion by promoting the invasion of Italy. Churchill then argued for an assault through the Balkans, thereby cutting the advancing Soviets off from central Europe.
"It was only faced with Roosevelt’s stern demand for a cross-channel invasion after the meeting of the Big Three that Churchill agreed. Churchill favored an easy peace with Germany and only reluctantly accepted the Morgenthau Plan at Montreal. However, by this time Britain was reduced to beggar status and was desperate to hang on to its remaining empire. It was in no position to disagree if postwar aid was at stake."
................................................................................................
"Martin Bormann carefully planned the Nazi comeback plan and had the support of Hitler. The plans relied solely on two proven methods - an unyielding loyalty to the fatherland and the Nazi Party. Bormann based his plans on the two successful methods that the Germans used in WWI: the old German concept of total warfare and Tarnung, which proved indispensable during WWI and its aftermath.
"Bormann’s plan relied on carefully chosen Nazi agents and sympathizers placed in foreign countries. Captured documents confirm that the sabotage of 4Ds was systematic and part of Bormann’s intricate and well-planned plot for the Nazis to regain power. Further conformation comes from the attitude of top IG Farben officials during their interrogation and trial. Well aware that they would not suffer any harsh penalty, they were indignant at having to suffer through the charade of an interrogation and trials.
"The captured documents also confirm the distinct trends starting around 1943: the removal of officials who steadfastly opposed fascism, the rise in anti-communism and the frantic peace efforts. These were all parts of the Nazi plot to regain power. Moreover, the captured documents note the connection between the Republican Party and the Nazis. Indeed, the 1946 election played a pivotal role in the Nazis’ plan as the Republicans gained a majority in Congress. Once they held the majority in Congress and the 4Ds program was dead, there would be no decartelization or harsh peace. Businesses would be free to renew their cartel ties to IG Farben and other German corporations. Standard Oil was bold enough during the war to confirm that it intended to renew its cartel agreements once the war ended.
"The disruption of the Malmedy trials in both Germany and in the United States by such figures as Joe McCarthy confirms the outline of the plot as laid out in the captured documents. It is well-documented that McCarthy received election funding from known fascists. This was only the beginning of Tail Gunner Joe’s role in the Nazi comeback plot. He later played a greater part in the removal of dedicated people from government offices who staunchly opposed fascism."
"At the center of the sabotage of the denazification program in the United States were three Wall Street firms: Brown Brothers Harriman, Dillon and Read, and Sullivan & Cromwell. At the very eye of this corruption were Prescott Bush, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles. All were traitors to their country, and all worked feverishly to cover up their own crimes and those of others. None gave up their Nazi connections; in fact, the Bush family’s continuing connection to known Nazis was a campaign issue in the 1988 election.
"The second part of the Nazi comeback plot involved provoking a war between the West and East. The Nazis felt secure with their Tarnung and hidden looted treasure, but their quickest and easiest way back to power would be by provoking a war between the United States and Soviet Union.
"The Nazis recognized Americans harbored an abhorrent phobia toward communism, and were wildly successful in exploiting it. Gen. Clay’s war warning from Berlin was the product of the Gehlen organization, a group of former Nazi intelligence officers and SS recruited by the OSS-CIA. It could be regarded as the first shot of the Cold War."
"The Nazis were willing to provoke a war even if it meant propelling the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust. It was the only part of the comeback plot that relied almost entirely on Nazi sympathizers in the United States. The Nazis were not disappointed. Joe McCarthy soon brought the nation to a feverish peak of mass hysteria in Red hunting. The Dulles brothers rose to positions of power to further the hysteria. John Foster Dulles had a key role in the inciting the Korean War. Any government official dedicated to fighting fascism was removed from office, often by being branded a communist.
"Throughout his administration, Truman faced a hostile Congress with a Republican majority and anti-communist hysteria reigning supreme. Old fascist supporters such as Fred Hartley, who was a staunch backer of fascism and Japan on the floor of the House, were rehabilitated. In less than 10 years of having his companies seized for trading with the enemy, Prescott Bush was elected to Congress. He never faced treason charges. Bush played a pivotal role in selecting Richard Nixon as vice presidential candidate in 1952. Nixon made his first step in politics by agreeing to hide evidence from captured Nazi documents that implicated Allen Dulles as a traitor. In return, Dulles agreed to finance Nixon’s first election campaign. Much of Nixon’s funding for his race for the House of Representatives was provided by the same New York banks that helped to fund the Nazis. The man Nixon replaced was dedicated to removing the last traces of fascism in Europe, and was a sharp critic of the direction the 4Ds program was taking, in going soft on the Nazis and cartels. Native fascists in the United States missed no tricks in branding Voorhis as a communist."
"The Nazi plan for a comeback had two fatal flaws. It called for a comeback about 15 years after the end of the war. They did not realize that the Allies would divide Germany. At first, the Allies planned to reunite Germany as soon as possible, but with the rising tide of anti-communism whipped up by Nazi sympathizers in the United States, the NATO Allies decided on a permanent division of Germany. The Korean War appeared too soon for the Nazis. Germany was still divided and largely in ruins; while reconstruction had advanced at a rapid pace in Western Germany, there was still a large Allied occupying force there. German reunification would be delayed until the 1980s, after the Soviet Union imploded.
"With no other superpower to hold the United States in check, fascism began a rebirth in the 1980s.
"The Fourth Reich indeed rose, but not in Germany.
"It rose in the United States."
"Martin Bormann carefully planned the Nazi comeback plan and had the support of Hitler. The plans relied solely on two proven methods - an unyielding loyalty to the fatherland and the Nazi Party. Bormann based his plans on the two successful methods that the Germans used in WWI: the old German concept of total warfare and Tarnung, which proved indispensable during WWI and its aftermath.
"Bormann’s plan relied on carefully chosen Nazi agents and sympathizers placed in foreign countries. Captured documents confirm that the sabotage of 4Ds was systematic and part of Bormann’s intricate and well-planned plot for the Nazis to regain power. Further conformation comes from the attitude of top IG Farben officials during their interrogation and trial. Well aware that they would not suffer any harsh penalty, they were indignant at having to suffer through the charade of an interrogation and trials.
"The captured documents also confirm the distinct trends starting around 1943: the removal of officials who steadfastly opposed fascism, the rise in anti-communism and the frantic peace efforts. These were all parts of the Nazi plot to regain power. Moreover, the captured documents note the connection between the Republican Party and the Nazis. Indeed, the 1946 election played a pivotal role in the Nazis’ plan as the Republicans gained a majority in Congress. Once they held the majority in Congress and the 4Ds program was dead, there would be no decartelization or harsh peace. Businesses would be free to renew their cartel ties to IG Farben and other German corporations. Standard Oil was bold enough during the war to confirm that it intended to renew its cartel agreements once the war ended.
"The disruption of the Malmedy trials in both Germany and in the United States by such figures as Joe McCarthy confirms the outline of the plot as laid out in the captured documents. It is well-documented that McCarthy received election funding from known fascists. This was only the beginning of Tail Gunner Joe’s role in the Nazi comeback plot. He later played a greater part in the removal of dedicated people from government offices who staunchly opposed fascism."
................................................................................................
"At the center of the sabotage of the denazification program in the United States were three Wall Street firms: Brown Brothers Harriman, Dillon and Read, and Sullivan & Cromwell. At the very eye of this corruption were Prescott Bush, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles. All were traitors to their country, and all worked feverishly to cover up their own crimes and those of others. None gave up their Nazi connections; in fact, the Bush family’s continuing connection to known Nazis was a campaign issue in the 1988 election.
"The second part of the Nazi comeback plot involved provoking a war between the West and East. The Nazis felt secure with their Tarnung and hidden looted treasure, but their quickest and easiest way back to power would be by provoking a war between the United States and Soviet Union.
"The Nazis recognized Americans harbored an abhorrent phobia toward communism, and were wildly successful in exploiting it. Gen. Clay’s war warning from Berlin was the product of the Gehlen organization, a group of former Nazi intelligence officers and SS recruited by the OSS-CIA. It could be regarded as the first shot of the Cold War."
"The Nazis were willing to provoke a war even if it meant propelling the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust. It was the only part of the comeback plot that relied almost entirely on Nazi sympathizers in the United States. The Nazis were not disappointed. Joe McCarthy soon brought the nation to a feverish peak of mass hysteria in Red hunting. The Dulles brothers rose to positions of power to further the hysteria. John Foster Dulles had a key role in the inciting the Korean War. Any government official dedicated to fighting fascism was removed from office, often by being branded a communist.
"Throughout his administration, Truman faced a hostile Congress with a Republican majority and anti-communist hysteria reigning supreme. Old fascist supporters such as Fred Hartley, who was a staunch backer of fascism and Japan on the floor of the House, were rehabilitated. In less than 10 years of having his companies seized for trading with the enemy, Prescott Bush was elected to Congress. He never faced treason charges. Bush played a pivotal role in selecting Richard Nixon as vice presidential candidate in 1952. Nixon made his first step in politics by agreeing to hide evidence from captured Nazi documents that implicated Allen Dulles as a traitor. In return, Dulles agreed to finance Nixon’s first election campaign. Much of Nixon’s funding for his race for the House of Representatives was provided by the same New York banks that helped to fund the Nazis. The man Nixon replaced was dedicated to removing the last traces of fascism in Europe, and was a sharp critic of the direction the 4Ds program was taking, in going soft on the Nazis and cartels. Native fascists in the United States missed no tricks in branding Voorhis as a communist."
"The Nazi plan for a comeback had two fatal flaws. It called for a comeback about 15 years after the end of the war. They did not realize that the Allies would divide Germany. At first, the Allies planned to reunite Germany as soon as possible, but with the rising tide of anti-communism whipped up by Nazi sympathizers in the United States, the NATO Allies decided on a permanent division of Germany. The Korean War appeared too soon for the Nazis. Germany was still divided and largely in ruins; while reconstruction had advanced at a rapid pace in Western Germany, there was still a large Allied occupying force there. German reunification would be delayed until the 1980s, after the Soviet Union imploded.
"With no other superpower to hold the United States in check, fascism began a rebirth in the 1980s.
"The Fourth Reich indeed rose, but not in Germany.
"It rose in the United States."
................................................................................................
"Chapter 7, Nazi Gold".
................................................................................................
"Chapter 7, Nazi Gold".
................................................................................................
"The Merkers Treasure."
"The wealth robbed from the victims of the Nazis helped fund the so-called European miracle of reconstruction.
"The Nazis had precise plans for a comeback, resting on their ability to hide their ill-gotten loot from the Allies, and on aid from friends in foreign countries, including the United States. Some of the hoard was hidden safely in secret Swiss bank accounts; other portions were shipped to South America (mainly to Argentina) for safekeeping. One conduit to Argentina was controlled and directed by Martin Bormann. Bormann’s fate is still uncertain, and valuables he sent to Argentina in project Action Feuerland are still shrouded in a fog of mystery and intrigue."
" ... A good deal of the American effort to recover the Nazi gold fell under Operation Safehaven. However, no one realized the enormous size and complexity of the task until early April 1945. Late in the evening of March 22, 1945, units of Lt. Gen. George Patton’s Third Army crossed the Rhine. What at first was a trickle of soldiers crossing the river soon turned into a raging flood of troops."
They got information about Nazi loot hidden in a mine at Merkers.
"Military wires blazed with requests for reinforcements to guard the mine. At first, Russell ordered the 712th Tank Battalion to advance to Merkers to guard the entrances. The Ninetieth Division Military Police provided additional forces. By evening, American troops discovered five more possible entrances to the mine, and it was obvious one tank battalion was not enough. Maj. Gen. Herbert L. Earnest then ordered the First Battalion of the 357th Infantry Regiment to go to Merkers and reinforce the 712th. Russell also told an XII corps G5 officer what was going on at the mine.
"On the morning of April 7, American forces placed guards at each additional entrance. At 10 a.m., Russell and two other officers with Rave and mine officials entered the main entrance, where a shaft took them 2,200 feet below the surface. In the main tunnel, they found 550 sacks of Reichsmarks, and located the main vault behind a 3-foot thick brick wall that enclosed an area at least 100 feet wide. In the center was a heavy bank vault door.
"Patton was informed that a large quantity of paper money but no gold was found. As Patton’s forces continued their lightning advance into Germany, he ordered the 357th Infantry Regiment, except for the First Battalion, to move out and join the Ninetieth Infantry Division. Patton also ordered the vault door blown open.
"Early on April 8, Russell, with a public affairs officer, photographers, reporters and soldiers of the 282nd Engineer Combat Battalion, reentered the mine. The vault door was easily blown open and they entered Room 8. The size of the hoard was simply stunning; stretching before them was a room about 75 feet wide and 150 feet long. The room was lighted, but not ventilated.
"Before them were more than 7,000 bags stretching all the way to the back of the room. The bags were laid out in 20 neat rows about knee-high and separated by roughly 2.5 feet. Baled currency was neatly stacked along one side of the room. At the back were 18 bags and 189 suitcases, trunks and boxes; each carefully marked with the name Melmer. It was obvious that these containers belonged to the SS. It also was the first clue to the complexity and scope of the Nazi looting of Europe.
"Russell and his men broke some of the seals on the bags to inventory the stash: 8,198 bars of gold bullion; 55 boxes of crated gold bullion; hundreds of bags of gold items; more than 1,300 bags of gold Reichsmarks, British gold pounds and French gold francs; 711 bags of American $20 gold pieces; hundreds of bags of gold and silver coins; hundreds of bags of foreign currency; nine bags of valuable coins; 2,380 bags and 1,300 boxes of Reichsmarks (2.76 billion Reichsmarks); 20 silver bars; 40 bags containing silver bars; 63 boxes and 55 bags of silver plate; one bag containing six platinum bars; and 110 bags of currency from various countries. In other tunnels, they found a large quantity of artwork. The hoard also revealed the brutality of the Nazi regime. Included in the inventory were bags of teeth containing gold fillings extracted from concentration camp victims.
"Once aware of the enormous size of the hoard, Patton considered the matter to be political and immediately requested that it be turned over to SHAEF. Eisenhower appointed Col. Bernard D. Bernstein, deputy chief, Financial Branch, G-5 Division of SHAEF. On April 15, a convoy with constant overhead fighter protection moved the treasure to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt.
"By mid-August, the gold was weighed and appraised. SHAEF valued the gold at $262,213,000, the silver at $270,469. A ton of platinum and eight bags of rare coins were not appraised. Early in 1946, SHAEF turned the gold over to the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency, which eventually turned it over to the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold. The Tripartite Commission returned the gold to the central banks of the countries from which it was looted. Due to the Cold War, some of the gold was not distributed until 1996.
"The manner in which the Allies divided the Merkers gold is plagued with controversy. The Allies took no account of how much was from smelting dental gold. Interestingly enough, in 1948, the army microfilmed the records of the Reichsbank’s Precious Metals Department and turned them over to Albert Thoms, who was working for the successor bank. These records disappeared in Germany and were not relocated again until the 1990s.
"No other cache of gold and valuables found in Europe rivaled the size of the Merkers find. In the Philippines, one of the caches of the Golden Lily, the Japanese Emperor’s looted treasure, reportedly unearthed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, was larger. The only other possible cache from Europe that could rival the Merkers find would be the Croatian Ustashi treasure. However, the gold and valuables looted by the Ustashis have never been located.
"The best evidence suggests that the Ustashis smuggled them out of Europe through the Vatican-CIA ratline. How much of the Ustashi cache made it into the Vatican vaults remains shrouded in secrecy and mystery. American forces located several other smaller caches, mostly in the alpine region on the German-Austrian border, where the Nazis tried to stage a final stand."
"Considering South America was a prime refuge for the Nazis after the war, it is instructive to look at changes in the gold reserves of South American countries, particularly Argentina. Argentina’s gold reserves increased from 313.83 metric tons in 1940 to 1064 tons in 1945. The increase in the gold reserves of Argentina was $635 million. To put that figure in perspective, the U.S. budget for 1940 was about $9.4 billion. Brazil also saw an increase in gold reserves from 45 metric tons in 1940 to 314 tons in 1945, or an increase of about $228 million."
" ... However, gold was only part of the plan. Even more valuable were the bearer stocks and bonds, and the Nazi front corporations set up worldwide by Bormann. They held valuable patents, and produced a steady income stream to finance the Nazi underground."
"The Merkers Treasure."
"The wealth robbed from the victims of the Nazis helped fund the so-called European miracle of reconstruction.
"The Nazis had precise plans for a comeback, resting on their ability to hide their ill-gotten loot from the Allies, and on aid from friends in foreign countries, including the United States. Some of the hoard was hidden safely in secret Swiss bank accounts; other portions were shipped to South America (mainly to Argentina) for safekeeping. One conduit to Argentina was controlled and directed by Martin Bormann. Bormann’s fate is still uncertain, and valuables he sent to Argentina in project Action Feuerland are still shrouded in a fog of mystery and intrigue."
................................................................................................
" ... A good deal of the American effort to recover the Nazi gold fell under Operation Safehaven. However, no one realized the enormous size and complexity of the task until early April 1945. Late in the evening of March 22, 1945, units of Lt. Gen. George Patton’s Third Army crossed the Rhine. What at first was a trickle of soldiers crossing the river soon turned into a raging flood of troops."
They got information about Nazi loot hidden in a mine at Merkers.
"Military wires blazed with requests for reinforcements to guard the mine. At first, Russell ordered the 712th Tank Battalion to advance to Merkers to guard the entrances. The Ninetieth Division Military Police provided additional forces. By evening, American troops discovered five more possible entrances to the mine, and it was obvious one tank battalion was not enough. Maj. Gen. Herbert L. Earnest then ordered the First Battalion of the 357th Infantry Regiment to go to Merkers and reinforce the 712th. Russell also told an XII corps G5 officer what was going on at the mine.
"On the morning of April 7, American forces placed guards at each additional entrance. At 10 a.m., Russell and two other officers with Rave and mine officials entered the main entrance, where a shaft took them 2,200 feet below the surface. In the main tunnel, they found 550 sacks of Reichsmarks, and located the main vault behind a 3-foot thick brick wall that enclosed an area at least 100 feet wide. In the center was a heavy bank vault door.
"Patton was informed that a large quantity of paper money but no gold was found. As Patton’s forces continued their lightning advance into Germany, he ordered the 357th Infantry Regiment, except for the First Battalion, to move out and join the Ninetieth Infantry Division. Patton also ordered the vault door blown open.
"Early on April 8, Russell, with a public affairs officer, photographers, reporters and soldiers of the 282nd Engineer Combat Battalion, reentered the mine. The vault door was easily blown open and they entered Room 8. The size of the hoard was simply stunning; stretching before them was a room about 75 feet wide and 150 feet long. The room was lighted, but not ventilated.
"Before them were more than 7,000 bags stretching all the way to the back of the room. The bags were laid out in 20 neat rows about knee-high and separated by roughly 2.5 feet. Baled currency was neatly stacked along one side of the room. At the back were 18 bags and 189 suitcases, trunks and boxes; each carefully marked with the name Melmer. It was obvious that these containers belonged to the SS. It also was the first clue to the complexity and scope of the Nazi looting of Europe.
"Russell and his men broke some of the seals on the bags to inventory the stash: 8,198 bars of gold bullion; 55 boxes of crated gold bullion; hundreds of bags of gold items; more than 1,300 bags of gold Reichsmarks, British gold pounds and French gold francs; 711 bags of American $20 gold pieces; hundreds of bags of gold and silver coins; hundreds of bags of foreign currency; nine bags of valuable coins; 2,380 bags and 1,300 boxes of Reichsmarks (2.76 billion Reichsmarks); 20 silver bars; 40 bags containing silver bars; 63 boxes and 55 bags of silver plate; one bag containing six platinum bars; and 110 bags of currency from various countries. In other tunnels, they found a large quantity of artwork. The hoard also revealed the brutality of the Nazi regime. Included in the inventory were bags of teeth containing gold fillings extracted from concentration camp victims.
"Once aware of the enormous size of the hoard, Patton considered the matter to be political and immediately requested that it be turned over to SHAEF. Eisenhower appointed Col. Bernard D. Bernstein, deputy chief, Financial Branch, G-5 Division of SHAEF. On April 15, a convoy with constant overhead fighter protection moved the treasure to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt.
"By mid-August, the gold was weighed and appraised. SHAEF valued the gold at $262,213,000, the silver at $270,469. A ton of platinum and eight bags of rare coins were not appraised. Early in 1946, SHAEF turned the gold over to the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency, which eventually turned it over to the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold. The Tripartite Commission returned the gold to the central banks of the countries from which it was looted. Due to the Cold War, some of the gold was not distributed until 1996.
"The manner in which the Allies divided the Merkers gold is plagued with controversy. The Allies took no account of how much was from smelting dental gold. Interestingly enough, in 1948, the army microfilmed the records of the Reichsbank’s Precious Metals Department and turned them over to Albert Thoms, who was working for the successor bank. These records disappeared in Germany and were not relocated again until the 1990s.
"No other cache of gold and valuables found in Europe rivaled the size of the Merkers find. In the Philippines, one of the caches of the Golden Lily, the Japanese Emperor’s looted treasure, reportedly unearthed by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, was larger. The only other possible cache from Europe that could rival the Merkers find would be the Croatian Ustashi treasure. However, the gold and valuables looted by the Ustashis have never been located.
"The best evidence suggests that the Ustashis smuggled them out of Europe through the Vatican-CIA ratline. How much of the Ustashi cache made it into the Vatican vaults remains shrouded in secrecy and mystery. American forces located several other smaller caches, mostly in the alpine region on the German-Austrian border, where the Nazis tried to stage a final stand."
"Considering South America was a prime refuge for the Nazis after the war, it is instructive to look at changes in the gold reserves of South American countries, particularly Argentina. Argentina’s gold reserves increased from 313.83 metric tons in 1940 to 1064 tons in 1945. The increase in the gold reserves of Argentina was $635 million. To put that figure in perspective, the U.S. budget for 1940 was about $9.4 billion. Brazil also saw an increase in gold reserves from 45 metric tons in 1940 to 314 tons in 1945, or an increase of about $228 million."
" ... However, gold was only part of the plan. Even more valuable were the bearer stocks and bonds, and the Nazi front corporations set up worldwide by Bormann. They held valuable patents, and produced a steady income stream to finance the Nazi underground."
................................................................................................
"Safehaven Operations"
"The Allies used various methods and programs to recover Nazi gold. Poland took the first measures against Nazi looting by moving their gold reserves to Romania before they were invaded. Unluckily, the Nazis soon overran Romania too, and seized the Polish gold.
"Several other European countries made similar efforts. French officials at the National Bank shipped their treasure to the United States. At the end of 1939, Belgium entrusted the French with $223 million for safekeeping. Soon after the German invasion of the Low Countries, Belgium urged France to ship its gold to London aboard military cruisers. However, the French transferred the gold to Dakar, in its West African colony of Senegal. After the fall of France and negotiations with Vichy, the Nazis got the Belgian gold.
"Within the first hour of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, Dutch authorities shipped their gold reserves in Amsterdam to England. A second boat carrying 11 metric tons of Dutch gold reserves stored in Rotterdam struck a mine near the coastline, and was marooned. By 1942, the Nazis recovered most of the gold aboard. Other European countries failed to take any precautions, and the Nazis seized their gold reserves as soon as they were overrun. In this way, most of the gold reserves in the central banks of Europe fell to the Nazis, except for those of France and a portion of those of the Dutch.
"The first action taken by the United States was Executive Order 8389, signed by Roosevelt on April 10, 1940 freezing Norwegian and Danish assets in the United States. Eventually, the United States froze the assets of every country except England, Japan and China. Freezing assets blocked Nazi accesss to them in the United States."
"On Jan. 5, 1943, the Inter-Allied Declaration Against Acts of Dispossession Committed in Territories Under Enemy Occupation or Control, better known as the London Declaration, was announced. The measure declared the Allies would no longer recognize the transfer of property in occupied countries, even if it appeared legal. The Allies were aware that the Nazis were forcing people in occupied countries to sell or transfer their property to them. Up to then, the Nazis had painstakingly created the illusion that such transfers were legal.
"On Feb. 22, 1944, the United States announced in its Declaration on Gold Purchases that it would no longer recognize the transfer of gold loot from the Axis, nor buy gold from any country that had not broken relations with the Axis. England and the Soviet Union followed with similar declarations."
"On Dec. 6, 1944, Operation Safehaven was organized. Four days later, the State Department released a paper urging a soft line toward Switzerland. This was the first step in sabotaging efforts to return assets to Holocaust victims. In essence, it continued a feud between the Treasury and State departments regarding peace terms and the 4Ds program.
"In February 1945, the Yalta Conference agreed that reparations would be exacted from Germany. The conference also set the groundwork for the Allied Reparations Commission."
"Operation Safehaven was by far the best known and biggest action the Allies launched to recover assets looted by the Nazis. ..."
"In May 1944, Samuel Klaus, Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the Treasury Department, proposed a plan for a fact-finding mission to neutral countries dealing with the problem of hidden Nazi assets. ... "
"Klaus found the conditions in Spain the most troubling. There, U.S. Ambassador Carlton Hayes was unsympathetic to Safehaven’s investigations, although Spain was the country most damaging to its objectives. In fact, the OSS had to work out of Portugal due to the ambassador, who identified undercover agents to the Spanish police. Hayes insisted on censoring all incoming and outgoing OSS messages. He even blocked the broadcast of Safehaven publicity material for a time. Hayes was friendly to a fault with the Franco regime; however, he is credited with keeping Spain from joining the Axis, even though such an alliance probably never was part of the Nazis’ plans. Just as Hitler recognized the need for a neutral Switzerland to get foreign currency and laundered gold through, the Nazis most likely recognized the need for a neutral port on the Atlantic to receive supplies, for instance, gasoline imported through Spain after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.
"Hayes was aware of Spain’s oil imports. On Feb. 26, 1943, he commented that oil products in Spain were considerably easier to get than on the East Coast of the United States. The supply of gasoline and petroleum products available equaled the full capacity of Spain’s tanker fleet. Standard Oil supplied the gasoline from its oil fields in South America. This presented the Roosevelt administration with a Pandora’s box of dilemmas. Forcing Standard to stop the shipments could have resulted in an interruption in the U.S. oil supply. At one point during the war, Standard threatened to do just that."
"Safehaven Operations"
"The Allies used various methods and programs to recover Nazi gold. Poland took the first measures against Nazi looting by moving their gold reserves to Romania before they were invaded. Unluckily, the Nazis soon overran Romania too, and seized the Polish gold.
"Several other European countries made similar efforts. French officials at the National Bank shipped their treasure to the United States. At the end of 1939, Belgium entrusted the French with $223 million for safekeeping. Soon after the German invasion of the Low Countries, Belgium urged France to ship its gold to London aboard military cruisers. However, the French transferred the gold to Dakar, in its West African colony of Senegal. After the fall of France and negotiations with Vichy, the Nazis got the Belgian gold.
"Within the first hour of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, Dutch authorities shipped their gold reserves in Amsterdam to England. A second boat carrying 11 metric tons of Dutch gold reserves stored in Rotterdam struck a mine near the coastline, and was marooned. By 1942, the Nazis recovered most of the gold aboard. Other European countries failed to take any precautions, and the Nazis seized their gold reserves as soon as they were overrun. In this way, most of the gold reserves in the central banks of Europe fell to the Nazis, except for those of France and a portion of those of the Dutch.
"The first action taken by the United States was Executive Order 8389, signed by Roosevelt on April 10, 1940 freezing Norwegian and Danish assets in the United States. Eventually, the United States froze the assets of every country except England, Japan and China. Freezing assets blocked Nazi accesss to them in the United States."
"On Jan. 5, 1943, the Inter-Allied Declaration Against Acts of Dispossession Committed in Territories Under Enemy Occupation or Control, better known as the London Declaration, was announced. The measure declared the Allies would no longer recognize the transfer of property in occupied countries, even if it appeared legal. The Allies were aware that the Nazis were forcing people in occupied countries to sell or transfer their property to them. Up to then, the Nazis had painstakingly created the illusion that such transfers were legal.
"On Feb. 22, 1944, the United States announced in its Declaration on Gold Purchases that it would no longer recognize the transfer of gold loot from the Axis, nor buy gold from any country that had not broken relations with the Axis. England and the Soviet Union followed with similar declarations."
"On Dec. 6, 1944, Operation Safehaven was organized. Four days later, the State Department released a paper urging a soft line toward Switzerland. This was the first step in sabotaging efforts to return assets to Holocaust victims. In essence, it continued a feud between the Treasury and State departments regarding peace terms and the 4Ds program.
"In February 1945, the Yalta Conference agreed that reparations would be exacted from Germany. The conference also set the groundwork for the Allied Reparations Commission."
................................................................................................
"Operation Safehaven was by far the best known and biggest action the Allies launched to recover assets looted by the Nazis. ..."
"In May 1944, Samuel Klaus, Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the Treasury Department, proposed a plan for a fact-finding mission to neutral countries dealing with the problem of hidden Nazi assets. ... "
"Klaus found the conditions in Spain the most troubling. There, U.S. Ambassador Carlton Hayes was unsympathetic to Safehaven’s investigations, although Spain was the country most damaging to its objectives. In fact, the OSS had to work out of Portugal due to the ambassador, who identified undercover agents to the Spanish police. Hayes insisted on censoring all incoming and outgoing OSS messages. He even blocked the broadcast of Safehaven publicity material for a time. Hayes was friendly to a fault with the Franco regime; however, he is credited with keeping Spain from joining the Axis, even though such an alliance probably never was part of the Nazis’ plans. Just as Hitler recognized the need for a neutral Switzerland to get foreign currency and laundered gold through, the Nazis most likely recognized the need for a neutral port on the Atlantic to receive supplies, for instance, gasoline imported through Spain after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.
"Hayes was aware of Spain’s oil imports. On Feb. 26, 1943, he commented that oil products in Spain were considerably easier to get than on the East Coast of the United States. The supply of gasoline and petroleum products available equaled the full capacity of Spain’s tanker fleet. Standard Oil supplied the gasoline from its oil fields in South America. This presented the Roosevelt administration with a Pandora’s box of dilemmas. Forcing Standard to stop the shipments could have resulted in an interruption in the U.S. oil supply. At one point during the war, Standard threatened to do just that."
................................................................................................
"Cooperation between the OSS and Safehaven was informal until Nov. 30, 1944, when instructions sent to all OSS stations detailed the intelligence requirement expected by the program. Safehaven was able to use already active OSS operations, redirecting them slightly toward the collection of economic data.
"This made Safehaven dependent on the personalities of the various OSS station chiefs. As mentioned, the ambassador had compromised OSS missions in Spain. In Switzerland, Allen Dulles was the station chief. Dulles had already been exposed in an earlier operation, a joint program with the British, for spying on Americans, and he was suspected of being sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Roosevelt deliberately sent Dulles to Switzerland where he would be most tempted to help his clients. When Dulles reached Berne, he was aware that he was being watched. He knew he could not use official channels to help his clients in the United States. So he used his Vatican connections to help the Nazis and couriers with diplomatic immunity. The Vatican readily agreed to help Dulles in its zeal to regain its assets in Germany and further its fanatical anti-communist philosophy.
"Declassified files show that Slovenian Bishop Gregory Rozman was trying to arrange the transfer of huge quantities of Nazi-controlled gold and Western currency discreetly secreted in Swiss banks during the war. The bishop was sent to Berne with the help of Dulles’ friends in the intelligence service. For a few months, the Allies were successful in preventing Rozman from getting the funds. Then, suddenly, Rozman had the money for his Nazi friends living in Argentina. Dulles had fixed it. This incident may be only the tip of the iceberg. In 1945, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Dulles of laundering funds from the Nazi Bank of Hungary to Switzerland. Similar charges were made against Dulles’ agent, Hans Bernd Gisevius, who worked for the OSS while serving at the Reichsbank. The State Department quickly took over the case from the Treasury, after which the investigation was silenced and dropped. Gisevius also was involved in the ratlines.
"Dulles’ career in Berne during WWII was marked by several money-laundering cases. After the Nazis tipped off Dulles that the Swiss codes had been broken, he shifted his laundering activities to the banks of Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. He used a roundabout route through Japan, aided by Vatican couriers. After the war, all the banks in these countries refused to allow Allied investigators to look at their books. One of Dulles’ dirtiest tricks may have been an effort to buy more time to move Nazi gold through Switzerland. A former East Bloc intelligence officer confirmed that Dulles warned the Nazis that their code had been broken. Shortly afterwards, the SS told the High Command to tighten code security, stop using the radio and switch to couriers. For once, the Allies had no information on German battle plans. This most likely explains how the Germans were able to launch the Battle of the Bulge as a complete surprise.
"Dulles and his comrades exerted a good deal of influence to ensure that U.S. investments in Nazi Germany were not seized for reparations. In Switzerland, the SS bought a large amount of stock in American corporations and laundered money through the Chase and the Corn Exchange banks. Even more brazen was the case of the Pan Am clippers hired by the W.R. Grace Corp., to transport Nazi gems, currency, stock and bonds to South America. These operations were the product of Dulles’ money laundering for the Nazis. Several American officers readily admit that much of the Nazi gold was never turned over to them. One officer tells of being in a huge vault filled with gold, gems and currency that never appeared in any U.S. files.
"Dulles backed Germany for a long time, seeing it as a bulwark against the Soviets. The young Lt. William Casey was another OSS agent who shared this view. Casey served in the SI division in France and the Lowlands following liberation. In a report from Paris, Casey wrote that Safehaven was a valuable field of endeavor, especially because of the potential for leverage with German financial circles. After the war, Casey worked on Wall Street before becoming Reagan’s CIA Director."
"In 1946, Dulles’ men simply changed their OSS uniforms and became the War Department Strategic Service Unit. Sometimes they were the War Department Detachment; other times, the Document Disposal Unit. In effect, there were two factions left from the OSS - a liberal faction that took orders from the president and the other under the control of Dulles. The latter faction was hoping for a conservative victory by Dewey so it could unleash an émigré army against the Soviets. Dulles had a secret ally in Region IV around Munich, where the CIC was helping to recruit ex-Nazis.
"Due to Dulles’ close association with German industrialists, he was unwilling to give the attention to Safehaven that Washington expected. In November 1944, with the Allies now in control of France, a land route to Switzerland was reestablished, making it possible to send an X2 agent to Berne to help run the Safehaven program there. By April 1945, X2 in Berne had unearthed a great deal of information on Nazi dealings, including:
"Gold and bonds looted from Europe and received by certain Swiss banks.
"Additional funds sent by the Deutsche Verkehrs-Kreditbank of Karlsruhe to Basel.
"Stocks and bonds held in Zurich by private firms for the Nazi Party.
"Hoards of Swiss francs credited to private accounts in various Swiss banks.
"Cash and property held in Liechtenstein.
"More than 2 million francs held by the Reichsbank in Switzerland.
"Forty-five million Reichsmarks held in covert Swiss bank accounts."
"Cooperation between the OSS and Safehaven was informal until Nov. 30, 1944, when instructions sent to all OSS stations detailed the intelligence requirement expected by the program. Safehaven was able to use already active OSS operations, redirecting them slightly toward the collection of economic data.
"This made Safehaven dependent on the personalities of the various OSS station chiefs. As mentioned, the ambassador had compromised OSS missions in Spain. In Switzerland, Allen Dulles was the station chief. Dulles had already been exposed in an earlier operation, a joint program with the British, for spying on Americans, and he was suspected of being sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Roosevelt deliberately sent Dulles to Switzerland where he would be most tempted to help his clients. When Dulles reached Berne, he was aware that he was being watched. He knew he could not use official channels to help his clients in the United States. So he used his Vatican connections to help the Nazis and couriers with diplomatic immunity. The Vatican readily agreed to help Dulles in its zeal to regain its assets in Germany and further its fanatical anti-communist philosophy.
"Declassified files show that Slovenian Bishop Gregory Rozman was trying to arrange the transfer of huge quantities of Nazi-controlled gold and Western currency discreetly secreted in Swiss banks during the war. The bishop was sent to Berne with the help of Dulles’ friends in the intelligence service. For a few months, the Allies were successful in preventing Rozman from getting the funds. Then, suddenly, Rozman had the money for his Nazi friends living in Argentina. Dulles had fixed it. This incident may be only the tip of the iceberg. In 1945, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Dulles of laundering funds from the Nazi Bank of Hungary to Switzerland. Similar charges were made against Dulles’ agent, Hans Bernd Gisevius, who worked for the OSS while serving at the Reichsbank. The State Department quickly took over the case from the Treasury, after which the investigation was silenced and dropped. Gisevius also was involved in the ratlines.
"Dulles’ career in Berne during WWII was marked by several money-laundering cases. After the Nazis tipped off Dulles that the Swiss codes had been broken, he shifted his laundering activities to the banks of Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. He used a roundabout route through Japan, aided by Vatican couriers. After the war, all the banks in these countries refused to allow Allied investigators to look at their books. One of Dulles’ dirtiest tricks may have been an effort to buy more time to move Nazi gold through Switzerland. A former East Bloc intelligence officer confirmed that Dulles warned the Nazis that their code had been broken. Shortly afterwards, the SS told the High Command to tighten code security, stop using the radio and switch to couriers. For once, the Allies had no information on German battle plans. This most likely explains how the Germans were able to launch the Battle of the Bulge as a complete surprise.
"Dulles and his comrades exerted a good deal of influence to ensure that U.S. investments in Nazi Germany were not seized for reparations. In Switzerland, the SS bought a large amount of stock in American corporations and laundered money through the Chase and the Corn Exchange banks. Even more brazen was the case of the Pan Am clippers hired by the W.R. Grace Corp., to transport Nazi gems, currency, stock and bonds to South America. These operations were the product of Dulles’ money laundering for the Nazis. Several American officers readily admit that much of the Nazi gold was never turned over to them. One officer tells of being in a huge vault filled with gold, gems and currency that never appeared in any U.S. files.
"Dulles backed Germany for a long time, seeing it as a bulwark against the Soviets. The young Lt. William Casey was another OSS agent who shared this view. Casey served in the SI division in France and the Lowlands following liberation. In a report from Paris, Casey wrote that Safehaven was a valuable field of endeavor, especially because of the potential for leverage with German financial circles. After the war, Casey worked on Wall Street before becoming Reagan’s CIA Director."
................................................................................................
"In 1946, Dulles’ men simply changed their OSS uniforms and became the War Department Strategic Service Unit. Sometimes they were the War Department Detachment; other times, the Document Disposal Unit. In effect, there were two factions left from the OSS - a liberal faction that took orders from the president and the other under the control of Dulles. The latter faction was hoping for a conservative victory by Dewey so it could unleash an émigré army against the Soviets. Dulles had a secret ally in Region IV around Munich, where the CIC was helping to recruit ex-Nazis.
"Due to Dulles’ close association with German industrialists, he was unwilling to give the attention to Safehaven that Washington expected. In November 1944, with the Allies now in control of France, a land route to Switzerland was reestablished, making it possible to send an X2 agent to Berne to help run the Safehaven program there. By April 1945, X2 in Berne had unearthed a great deal of information on Nazi dealings, including:
"Gold and bonds looted from Europe and received by certain Swiss banks.
"Additional funds sent by the Deutsche Verkehrs-Kreditbank of Karlsruhe to Basel.
"Stocks and bonds held in Zurich by private firms for the Nazi Party.
"Hoards of Swiss francs credited to private accounts in various Swiss banks.
"Cash and property held in Liechtenstein.
"More than 2 million francs held by the Reichsbank in Switzerland.
"Forty-five million Reichsmarks held in covert Swiss bank accounts."
................................................................................................
"Nazi money flowed in a circle from Germany to the Vatican, then on to Argentina and back to Germany. Argentina’s economy boomed from the influx. The so-called economic miracle of the 1950s came from the same money the Nazis looted from Europe in the 1940s.
"From the beginning, Safehaven was an ambitious project with several goals, including immediately forcing the neutral countries to stop trading with the Nazis. The secondary goals of Safehaven follow:
"To restrict German economic penetration outside the borders of the Reich.
"To prevent Germany from sequestering assets in neutral countries.
"To ensure that German assets would be available for postwar reparations and to rebuild Europe.
"To prevent the escape of those members of the Nazi ruling elite already cited for war crimes trials."
"The British Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) estimated that the Merkers hoard made up only 20 percent of all the gold Germany held. In August 1945, the Bank of England estimated there would only be enough gold available for a 58 percent restitution of claims. Even this only included claims by central banks, without private claims. Where did the rest of the gold go? Although the CIA still denies that the Nazis had a plan for a comeback, captured documents show otherwise. Even members of Congress and, in particular, members of the Kilgore Committee, were aware of Nazi plans."
"By the time the Battle of the Bulge raged, Bormann had successfully moved assets out of Germany. In 1938, the number of patent registrations to German companies was 1,618, but after the Red House meeting, it rose to 3,377. Bormann also created a two-price scheme with Germany’s trading partners. The lower price was cleared or settled at the end of the banking day. The neutral importers retained the higher price on their books and the difference was collected in a German account as flight capital. Under this scheme, Bormann amassed about $18 million kroner and $12 million Turkish lira. Balance sheets showed he bought seven mines in central Sweden. He also created 750 new corporations scattered across the globe, representing a wide array of economic areas - from steel and chemicals to electrical companies. The firms’ locations were in: Portugal, 58; Spain, 112; Sweden, 233; Switzerland, 234; Turkey, 35; and Argentina, 98. All the corporations created by Bormann issued bearer bonds, so ownership was impossible to prove.
"Bormann had several means of dispersing Nazi assets. He used diplomatic pouches of Nazi Foreign Policy Minister von Ribbentrop to send gold, diamonds, stocks and bonds to Sweden twice a month. A similar pattern was used to ferry valuables to South America. Bormann also allowed other Nazis to transfer their valuables through the same channels."
"In 1941, German investment in the United States held a voting majority in 170 American corporations and minority ownership in another 108. Many of these corporations were part of the IG Farben cartel. In addition, U.S. corporations had investments in Germany totaling $420 million. With his program for flight capital well on its way, Bormann gave permission for Nazis to once again buy American stocks.
"Purchase of American stocks usually was done through a neutral country, typically Switzerland or Argentina. From foreign exchange funds on deposit in Switzerland and Argentina, large demand deposits were placed in such New York banks as National City, Chase, Manufacturers Hanover, Morgan Guaranty and Irving Trust. Manning reports the Nazis bought more than $5 billion in American stocks in this way. These same banks were active in supporting Germany. In addition, every major Nazi corporation transferred assets and personnel to its foreign subsidiaries."
"Intelligence reports since 1940 indicated the Nazis accumulated a fortune of roughly $1 billion in 1940 dollars, or about $10 billion today. The discovery of the Merkers hoard created a complex set of problems. First, the find was only about half of the estimated Nazi treasure. While the Merker’s hoard was most of the Reichsbank’s holdings, there was more gold and currency left in Berlin. Second, dividing the treasure presented a myriad of problems that remain controversial today."
" ... The SS account held the earnings skimmed from the Aktion Reinhardt operation that began in 1943 to strip the concentration camp inmates of all gold coins, jewelry and clothing. ... "
" ... Some of these private treasures, such as Goering’s, were substantial in their own right, while others were more modest. The value of these private treasure hoards is unknown, as is the fate of many of them."
"Additional caches were uncovered in the Merkers area. In another mine, the Allies found 400 tons of records from the German Patent Office, enough to fill 30 railroad cars. Another discovery included more than 2 million books, the records of the German High Command and much more."
"Nazi money flowed in a circle from Germany to the Vatican, then on to Argentina and back to Germany. Argentina’s economy boomed from the influx. The so-called economic miracle of the 1950s came from the same money the Nazis looted from Europe in the 1940s.
"From the beginning, Safehaven was an ambitious project with several goals, including immediately forcing the neutral countries to stop trading with the Nazis. The secondary goals of Safehaven follow:
"To restrict German economic penetration outside the borders of the Reich.
"To prevent Germany from sequestering assets in neutral countries.
"To ensure that German assets would be available for postwar reparations and to rebuild Europe.
"To prevent the escape of those members of the Nazi ruling elite already cited for war crimes trials."
................................................................................................
"The British Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) estimated that the Merkers hoard made up only 20 percent of all the gold Germany held. In August 1945, the Bank of England estimated there would only be enough gold available for a 58 percent restitution of claims. Even this only included claims by central banks, without private claims. Where did the rest of the gold go? Although the CIA still denies that the Nazis had a plan for a comeback, captured documents show otherwise. Even members of Congress and, in particular, members of the Kilgore Committee, were aware of Nazi plans."
"By the time the Battle of the Bulge raged, Bormann had successfully moved assets out of Germany. In 1938, the number of patent registrations to German companies was 1,618, but after the Red House meeting, it rose to 3,377. Bormann also created a two-price scheme with Germany’s trading partners. The lower price was cleared or settled at the end of the banking day. The neutral importers retained the higher price on their books and the difference was collected in a German account as flight capital. Under this scheme, Bormann amassed about $18 million kroner and $12 million Turkish lira. Balance sheets showed he bought seven mines in central Sweden. He also created 750 new corporations scattered across the globe, representing a wide array of economic areas - from steel and chemicals to electrical companies. The firms’ locations were in: Portugal, 58; Spain, 112; Sweden, 233; Switzerland, 234; Turkey, 35; and Argentina, 98. All the corporations created by Bormann issued bearer bonds, so ownership was impossible to prove.
"Bormann had several means of dispersing Nazi assets. He used diplomatic pouches of Nazi Foreign Policy Minister von Ribbentrop to send gold, diamonds, stocks and bonds to Sweden twice a month. A similar pattern was used to ferry valuables to South America. Bormann also allowed other Nazis to transfer their valuables through the same channels."
"In 1941, German investment in the United States held a voting majority in 170 American corporations and minority ownership in another 108. Many of these corporations were part of the IG Farben cartel. In addition, U.S. corporations had investments in Germany totaling $420 million. With his program for flight capital well on its way, Bormann gave permission for Nazis to once again buy American stocks.
"Purchase of American stocks usually was done through a neutral country, typically Switzerland or Argentina. From foreign exchange funds on deposit in Switzerland and Argentina, large demand deposits were placed in such New York banks as National City, Chase, Manufacturers Hanover, Morgan Guaranty and Irving Trust. Manning reports the Nazis bought more than $5 billion in American stocks in this way. These same banks were active in supporting Germany. In addition, every major Nazi corporation transferred assets and personnel to its foreign subsidiaries."
"Intelligence reports since 1940 indicated the Nazis accumulated a fortune of roughly $1 billion in 1940 dollars, or about $10 billion today. The discovery of the Merkers hoard created a complex set of problems. First, the find was only about half of the estimated Nazi treasure. While the Merker’s hoard was most of the Reichsbank’s holdings, there was more gold and currency left in Berlin. Second, dividing the treasure presented a myriad of problems that remain controversial today."
" ... The SS account held the earnings skimmed from the Aktion Reinhardt operation that began in 1943 to strip the concentration camp inmates of all gold coins, jewelry and clothing. ... "
" ... Some of these private treasures, such as Goering’s, were substantial in their own right, while others were more modest. The value of these private treasure hoards is unknown, as is the fate of many of them."
"Additional caches were uncovered in the Merkers area. In another mine, the Allies found 400 tons of records from the German Patent Office, enough to fill 30 railroad cars. Another discovery included more than 2 million books, the records of the German High Command and much more."
................................................................................................
"With the capture of Merkers, the Allies were fast closing in on Berlin. As they advanced, the Nazis made a last desperate attempt to save the remaining Reichsbank assets by moving them to southern Germany in the alpine redoubt area. Many top Nazi officials desperate to save themselves also fled to this region with the fortunes looted from their victims.
"Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Reich Security Head Office, amassed one such private fortune and transported it into the Bavarian Alps to save himself and his ill-gotten gain. Only one document survives detailing the contents:
"50 cases of gold coins and gold articles (each case weighing 100 pounds)
"2 million U.S. dollars
"2 million Swiss francs
"5 cases of diamonds and gemstones
"a stamp collection worth 5 million gold marks
"110 pounds of gold bars
"Goering also transported his private hoard to the region, including a large collection of vintage wines. The Nazis did not ship all the Reichsbank’s assets to Merkers, leaving some in Berlin to pay the troops and cover other expenses in the final days of the war. Reichsbank assets left in Berlin included a prodigious quantity of paper money, 730 gold bars and millions in gold coins. The gold bars were valued at nearly $10 million.
"As the Allies continued to advance with the Russians on Berlin, the Nazis shipped most of the remaining assets of the Reichsbank to southern Germany aboard two special trains, code named Adler (meaning eagle) and Dohle (meaning jackdaw). Once these trains left Berlin, $3,434,625 of gold still remained in Berlin.
"Because of the rapid Allied advance and air cover, the trains were unable to travel directly to Munich, and were forced to take an alternate route through Czechoslovakia. On April 16, three days after leaving Berlin, the trains were stranded about 10 miles from Pilsen, waiting for the tracks to be cleared for a final run to Munich. While stranded, the Nazis loaded some of the treasure onto trucks for the remaining trip to Munich. On April 19, the trains were just inside the Bavarian border, and the Nazis again loaded another portion of the treasure onto trucks.
"By nightfall on April 19, the train was about 50 miles south of Munich at Peissenberg, where the Nazis planned to hide the treasure in a lead mine. However, the electricity was out and the mine began to fill with water. The Nazi in charge of the treasure decided to hide it in a small town named Mittenwald. At this point, it is believed the fortune consisted:
"365 bags, each containing two gold bars
"9 envelopes of records
"4 boxes of bullion
"2 bags of gold coins
"6 cases of Danish coins
"94 bags of foreign exchange
"34 printing plates and a supply of banknote paper"
"American authorities later duped Spacil into leading them to a small cache containing 19 bags of gold coins, bullion worth $11,722, and paper money consisting of $160,179 and £96,614 sterling. Many other private hoards were hidden in this area of southern Germany.
"Starting on April 19, 1945, the Allied gold rush teams were in full operation, headed by Col. Bernstein, Cmdr. Joel Fisher and Lt. Herbert DuBois. Helping them were Albert Thoms, chief of the Precious Metals Department of the Reichsbank, and Emil Puhl, vice president of the Reichsbank. Gold rush teams soon located several treasure hoards. On April 26, at the Reichsbank branch in Halle, they found 65 bags of foreign currency, which included about $1 million; at Plauen, they found 35 bags of gold coins, including 1 million Swiss francs and a quarter-million gold dollars. On April 27, they learned of 82 bars of gold bullion in Aue, which was still heavily defended. On April 28, they located more than 600 silver bars and 500 cases of silver bars, which comprised the entire silver reserves of Hungary. On April 29, they found 82 gold bars at Eschwege; the following day, they found additional gold bars hidden under a manure pile at Coburg. On May 1, they found 34 cases and two bags of non-Reich gold in Nuremberg. The gold recovery teams shipped these hoards to Frankfurt.
"Both combat troops and gold teams found caches of looted treasure, including the famed gold train containing treasures from Hungary. Total estimated value of the treasure recovered from the train was $500 million, including $350 million of gold.
"Robert Kempner, the chief prosecutor for the Nazi diplomats’ trial, expressed in a letter to Perry Lankhuff of the political division of the military government many of the problems that plagued complete recovery of the Nazi gold. The letter appears below.
""In the course of our trial against Nazi diplomats which has just been concluded, it was brought to light that the German Foreign Office had - besides other gold funds - a special Ribbentrop gold fund, in gold bullion, weighing approximately fifteen tons. Leads and newspaper accounts from various countries in the Western Hemisphere indicate that unrecovered Foreign Office gold, probably in the hands of former German Foreign Office officials, is still at work for anti-American purposes. Large numbers of former German diplomats who had to do with the Foreign Office gold are still in foreign countries, e.g., Spain, Italy, Ireland, Argentina, Sweden, and Switzerland, living well from unknown resources.
""It should be noted that besides other former German diplomats, a brother-in-law of Ribbentrop is living in Switzerland, and at least two other German Foreign Office officials who dealt with German gold matters.
"Out of the fifteen tons, about eleven tons of Ribbentrop’s Foreign Office gold was hurriedly removed from Berlin in 1945:
"1. 6.5 tons to Ribbentrop’s Castle Fuschl in Austria (now American Zone of Austria). The larger part of this consignment was allegedly turned over to American troops in the neighborhood of Fuschl. However German Foreign Office officials stated here in Nürnberg the amount allegedly turned over was less than the amount, which was shipped to Fuschl.
"2. 2 tons to Schleswig-Holstein in the British Zone allegedly turned over to the British.
""3. 3 tons to the South of Germany on the shores of Lake Konstanze, an area then in American hands. Out of the last amount, two-thirds of a ton was taken to Berne, Switzerland, in the closing days of the war. This was done in the presence of the son of the former German Minister of Foreign Affairs, von Neurath, who according to newspaper reports, arrived a short time ago in the Argentine.
""About four tons were sent between 1943 and 1945 to German embassies, notably to Madrid, Spain (one ton), to Stockholm, Sweden (one-half ton), to Berne, Switzerland (three-fourths ton), to Ankara, Turkey (about 1 ton), to Lisbon, Portugal (an unknown quantity).""
"With the capture of Merkers, the Allies were fast closing in on Berlin. As they advanced, the Nazis made a last desperate attempt to save the remaining Reichsbank assets by moving them to southern Germany in the alpine redoubt area. Many top Nazi officials desperate to save themselves also fled to this region with the fortunes looted from their victims.
"Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Reich Security Head Office, amassed one such private fortune and transported it into the Bavarian Alps to save himself and his ill-gotten gain. Only one document survives detailing the contents:
"50 cases of gold coins and gold articles (each case weighing 100 pounds)
"2 million U.S. dollars
"2 million Swiss francs
"5 cases of diamonds and gemstones
"a stamp collection worth 5 million gold marks
"110 pounds of gold bars
"Goering also transported his private hoard to the region, including a large collection of vintage wines. The Nazis did not ship all the Reichsbank’s assets to Merkers, leaving some in Berlin to pay the troops and cover other expenses in the final days of the war. Reichsbank assets left in Berlin included a prodigious quantity of paper money, 730 gold bars and millions in gold coins. The gold bars were valued at nearly $10 million.
"As the Allies continued to advance with the Russians on Berlin, the Nazis shipped most of the remaining assets of the Reichsbank to southern Germany aboard two special trains, code named Adler (meaning eagle) and Dohle (meaning jackdaw). Once these trains left Berlin, $3,434,625 of gold still remained in Berlin.
"Because of the rapid Allied advance and air cover, the trains were unable to travel directly to Munich, and were forced to take an alternate route through Czechoslovakia. On April 16, three days after leaving Berlin, the trains were stranded about 10 miles from Pilsen, waiting for the tracks to be cleared for a final run to Munich. While stranded, the Nazis loaded some of the treasure onto trucks for the remaining trip to Munich. On April 19, the trains were just inside the Bavarian border, and the Nazis again loaded another portion of the treasure onto trucks.
"By nightfall on April 19, the train was about 50 miles south of Munich at Peissenberg, where the Nazis planned to hide the treasure in a lead mine. However, the electricity was out and the mine began to fill with water. The Nazi in charge of the treasure decided to hide it in a small town named Mittenwald. At this point, it is believed the fortune consisted:
"365 bags, each containing two gold bars
"9 envelopes of records
"4 boxes of bullion
"2 bags of gold coins
"6 cases of Danish coins
"94 bags of foreign exchange
"34 printing plates and a supply of banknote paper"
"American authorities later duped Spacil into leading them to a small cache containing 19 bags of gold coins, bullion worth $11,722, and paper money consisting of $160,179 and £96,614 sterling. Many other private hoards were hidden in this area of southern Germany.
"Starting on April 19, 1945, the Allied gold rush teams were in full operation, headed by Col. Bernstein, Cmdr. Joel Fisher and Lt. Herbert DuBois. Helping them were Albert Thoms, chief of the Precious Metals Department of the Reichsbank, and Emil Puhl, vice president of the Reichsbank. Gold rush teams soon located several treasure hoards. On April 26, at the Reichsbank branch in Halle, they found 65 bags of foreign currency, which included about $1 million; at Plauen, they found 35 bags of gold coins, including 1 million Swiss francs and a quarter-million gold dollars. On April 27, they learned of 82 bars of gold bullion in Aue, which was still heavily defended. On April 28, they located more than 600 silver bars and 500 cases of silver bars, which comprised the entire silver reserves of Hungary. On April 29, they found 82 gold bars at Eschwege; the following day, they found additional gold bars hidden under a manure pile at Coburg. On May 1, they found 34 cases and two bags of non-Reich gold in Nuremberg. The gold recovery teams shipped these hoards to Frankfurt.
"Both combat troops and gold teams found caches of looted treasure, including the famed gold train containing treasures from Hungary. Total estimated value of the treasure recovered from the train was $500 million, including $350 million of gold.
................................................................................................
"Robert Kempner, the chief prosecutor for the Nazi diplomats’ trial, expressed in a letter to Perry Lankhuff of the political division of the military government many of the problems that plagued complete recovery of the Nazi gold. The letter appears below.
""In the course of our trial against Nazi diplomats which has just been concluded, it was brought to light that the German Foreign Office had - besides other gold funds - a special Ribbentrop gold fund, in gold bullion, weighing approximately fifteen tons. Leads and newspaper accounts from various countries in the Western Hemisphere indicate that unrecovered Foreign Office gold, probably in the hands of former German Foreign Office officials, is still at work for anti-American purposes. Large numbers of former German diplomats who had to do with the Foreign Office gold are still in foreign countries, e.g., Spain, Italy, Ireland, Argentina, Sweden, and Switzerland, living well from unknown resources.
""It should be noted that besides other former German diplomats, a brother-in-law of Ribbentrop is living in Switzerland, and at least two other German Foreign Office officials who dealt with German gold matters.
"Out of the fifteen tons, about eleven tons of Ribbentrop’s Foreign Office gold was hurriedly removed from Berlin in 1945:
"1. 6.5 tons to Ribbentrop’s Castle Fuschl in Austria (now American Zone of Austria). The larger part of this consignment was allegedly turned over to American troops in the neighborhood of Fuschl. However German Foreign Office officials stated here in Nürnberg the amount allegedly turned over was less than the amount, which was shipped to Fuschl.
"2. 2 tons to Schleswig-Holstein in the British Zone allegedly turned over to the British.
""3. 3 tons to the South of Germany on the shores of Lake Konstanze, an area then in American hands. Out of the last amount, two-thirds of a ton was taken to Berne, Switzerland, in the closing days of the war. This was done in the presence of the son of the former German Minister of Foreign Affairs, von Neurath, who according to newspaper reports, arrived a short time ago in the Argentine.
""About four tons were sent between 1943 and 1945 to German embassies, notably to Madrid, Spain (one ton), to Stockholm, Sweden (one-half ton), to Berne, Switzerland (three-fourths ton), to Ankara, Turkey (about 1 ton), to Lisbon, Portugal (an unknown quantity).""
................................................................................................
"The recent release of classified documents shows the recovered funds were deposited in the Land Central Bank in Munich, where the gold and currency vanished. None of the recoveries around Garmisch ever reached the Federal Exchange Depository. Various American authorities in the chain from Garmisch to Frankfurt were all familiar with the proper procedures for transferring funds, but the funds would reach Munich and then disappear. After an exhaustive search, authors Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting decided that $432,985,013 from the Reichsbank was unaccounted for. Included were diamonds, securities and currencies given to Otto Skorzeny by SS General Spacil totaling more than $9.1 million, of which the Allies only recovered $492,401. In one case, Maj. Roger Rawley recovered $8 million in paper currency and turned it over to Maj. Kenneth McIntyre. From there, the funds disappeared."
"Many Americans tried to strike it rich in the black market economy, but most failed. The lucky few came predominantly from the Office of Military Government in Bavaria. The head of the Financial Division in Munich was Col. Russell Lord and his aide, Maj. John McCarthy from Property Control. Both figure prominently in the disappearance of gold and currency once it reached Munich. Once the gold from Garmisch was turned over to the proper authorities in Munich, only McCarthy and Lord had access to it. An American investigator also accused McCarthy of having a hand in the drug trade in and around Garmisch and Munich."
"By the middle of July 1947, Col. Smith completed his preliminary investigation and filed his report to Gen. Clay. The report pointed out that there was enough evidence to warrant a full-scale investigation, and Gen. Clay issued an order to that effect. Fearing for his life, Smith asked for an immediate transfer. Afterward, the military governor and post commander of Garmisch were shipped back to the States and several other officers transferred out of the area. The Inspector General Office suddenly closed the investigation. Kulka alleges the order to stop the investigation came from Clay’s office. He also claims half of the U.S. command would have been in trouble if the investigation continued. Files gathered by Smith and Kulka were destroyed."
"The Garmisch affair did not end with Smith and Kulka. In September in Bad Tohr, Frank Gammache was charged with misappropriation of military property, and disorderly and discreditable conduct. The charges were trivial compared to the criminal activity in the area. Gammache was going to be the small fall guy. Operation Garpeck opened a further investigation. Heading the operation were Victor Peccarelli and Philip von Pfluge Benzell. The case soon reached to San Francisco, where now civilian Capt. Neumann lived. The investigation into Maj. McCarthy reopened. McCarthy’s influence still lingered in Munich, as files on him disappeared before investigators got to them. Shortly after they began bugging his phone, McCarthy learned of the tap and moved.
"The investigation soon crossed the path of journalist Guenter Reinhardt, who came from a German Jewish banking family. At the age of 21, he came to the United States and got his first job at a bank in New York. In 1933, he became a freelance journalist who wrote a syndicated column on foreign affairs for the McClure newspapers. Various banking and civic groups commissioned Reinhardt to conduct an investigation into Germany’s likely future international relations. Reinhardt turned over to the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization the information he uncovered about Nazi activities in the United States. This led him into activities with American Intelligence. In 1934, he acted as a liaison between the McCormick Committee and the FBI. In 1942-43, Reinhardt infiltrated communist organizations for the bureau. In 1946, he joined the CIC in Germany.
"By all reports, Reinhardt was an enthusiastic and dedicated agent in Europe. However, he soon began to show signs of stress and fatigue when he realized the whole system was corrupt. By the summer of 1947, he realized that his CIC career was in jeopardy. His superiors secretly arranged to send Reinhardt home. He complained about the transfer, but there was no appeal and he was forbidden to go to the Inspector General, under threat of immediate arrest. He was further warned that if he spoke with the press or tried to get another job in Germany, he would be arrested for violating security regulations. In addition, they threatened to drag his German girlfriend through the mud.
"Outraged at the actions and threats, Reinhardt dictated the first of two memos. The formal 48-page report revealed the irregularities and fake intelligence reports in the Munich region, and accused CIC of widespread corruption and incompetence. The report, written in November, caused an immediate shake-up. The operations chief for Bavaria was dismissed and the executive officer was transferred. However, there also was a cover-up of two chains, one from Garmisch to Augsburg and another from Munich to Nuremberg. After he arrived in New York in December, Reinhardt wrote his second memo, a 55-page document that was divided into nine sections. The opening section, “Loot and Smuggling Situation,” described how U.S. personnel continued to smuggle valuables into the States; the higher the rank, the greater the problem. Reinhardt detailed how a general’s baggage contained 166 crates laden with silverware, china and other valuables looted from castles around Hesse. After his appointment as a special consultant, Reinhardt dictated his memo to Assistant Secretary of Army Gordon Gray, who later became director of the CIA.
"The heart of the memo charged that a group of Americans and Germans headed by John McCarthy were involved in widespread corruption in the Garmisch area and wielded enough power to derail any investigations. The memo was sent to Gen. Clay in Germany and caused an immediate uproar. Clay hated scandals in his command. Rather than clean up the mess, he launched another vast cover-up. Gen. Weems canceled the ongoing Operation Garpeck shortly after Reinhardt’s memo arrived in Germany. The Army decided the charges were overblown.
"McCarthy and his superior, Col. Lord, did not escape unscathed. While they survived charges from the Reinhardt memo, their boundless greed eventually caught up with them. The pair planned to buy various IG Farben plants through a front they set up in Liechtenstein. An investigation ordered by Gen. Clay unmasked their scheme and the Army discharged them. However, Gen. Clay made no public announcement of the illegality of the scheme or its outcome. Yet while the military government in the Munich area was beset with corruption, the looting of the Nazi hoard pales in comparison to the money laundered by the neutral countries."
"The plot to counterfeit British pounds figured prominently in the Nazi finance plans. Perhaps one of the most understood affairs of the war, it is often mistakenly referred to as Operation Bernhard; its true name was Operation Andrew or Andreas. No one knows for certain the extent of the action, or how many bogus notes the Nazis placed in circulation.
"The Bank of London had its own reasons to keep mum about the forged bills it found in circulation as the Nazis designed Operation Andrew to bring about the downfall of the British pound. The operation was the brainchild of Alfred Nanjocks, a fanatical Nazi. Nanjocks was the officer who simulated the Polish attack on the German radio station that started the war. After occupying the Low Countries, Heydrich transferred Nanjocks to the documents division of the SD, because he had earned a reputation of being too reckless and violent for his own good. Forging passports was not to the hothead’s liking. However, flooding the world in bogus currency to destabilize the English economy appealed to him. Nanjocks was imagining just that.
"The British were the first to try disrupting the enemy’s economy using counterfeit money. The British forged German auxiliary certificates of payment for 50 Reichspfennige and dropped them from planes all over Germany.
"Immediately after, Nanjocks took the idea to Heydrich, who not only approved the scheme, but also added the forging of American dollars and sought out Hitler’s approval. Hitler refused to approve the forging of dollars, because at that time Germany was not at war with the United States. Funk and other bureaucrats did not like the idea much. Funk worried that destabilizing the pound could create a creditor backlash and destabilize the Reichsmark. Funk’s worries testify to the degree of collusion between the Bank of England and the Nazis.
"Heydrich assigned the matter to RSHA Bureau IV, which created a new division, SHARP 4, to oversee it. In the summer of 1942, the Nazis set up the forging ring inside the Sachsenhausen concentration camp headed by SS major Fredrich Kruger. The operation was formally known as Aktion1 in Berlin. The use of inmate labor limited security problems, but the group had a tough time developing a suitable paper. Max Bober, a printer by profession, headed the team of 60 inmates. The counterfeiters were isolated from the rest of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Nazis provided the inmates with everything they needed, but sabotage would have resulted in their immediate death. It was not until 1943 that a Hahnemuhl plant produced a suitable paper. The factory delivered 12,000 sheets a month to the operation. Each sheet produced eight notes. Even then, the forged notes were only mediocre at best. It was not until the Nazis located Salomon Smolianoff, an expert counterfeiter, that they could produce suitable notes."
"The operation eventually shipped the equivalent of $4.5 billion in British pounds to Berlin and then all over the world. Nazi agents used the forged notes to buy legitimate objects, which they then resold for stable world currencies. German embassies in the neutral countries received some of the notes to exchange for local currency. The first attempt to distribute the notes widely was disastrous. The German military arrested their own agents when they tried to pass the forged notes, because Action1 was top secret.
"At some point, the underlying mission of Action 1 changed. Himmler and Lt. Grobel, head of Bureau VI, became greedy. They imagined laundering the notes on a large scale and skimming the profits for their personal benefit. To carry out the widespread distribution, Friedrich Schwend was brought into the operation. In the 1920s, Schwend was an arms dealer. He married the niece of the Minister of Exterior Baron von Neurath. Through his wife’s family connections, he received an appointment as the personal administrator of the wealthy Bunge family. This is the same Bunge family that made a small fortune by shorting the market the day John F. Kennedy was murdered. In the 1930s, Schwend was working from New York managing the investments of Bunge & Born."
"Operation Andrew continued to the end of the war. The Bank of England suffered enormous losses. Even with the Russians closing in on Sachsenhausen, the operation did not shut down. It just moved to southern Germany, near the Austrian border. There, it continued to produce fake notes until about May 3. Some of the last forged notes ended up at the bottom of Lake Topltz. The Nazis hid crates of forged notes there in a midnight rowboat operation. The boxes were recovered in 2000. The fate of the balance of the notes is unknown."
"As much as half of the Reichsbank gold remains unaccounted for. Bormann undoubtedly transferred some of it out of Germany, and top Nazi officials and U.S. personnel looted other portions of the treasure. However, a great deal of looted gold was used by the Nazis to buy munitions and raw material from neutral countries."
"It was not until three months before the defeat of Germany that Switzerland took any action against the Nazis. Further, it was only one month before the defeat of the Nazis when the Swiss finally banned gold trades with them. The willingness of the other neutrals to take action against the Nazis followed a similar timeline. They did nothing until it was clear the Nazis were defeated."
"The recent release of classified documents shows the recovered funds were deposited in the Land Central Bank in Munich, where the gold and currency vanished. None of the recoveries around Garmisch ever reached the Federal Exchange Depository. Various American authorities in the chain from Garmisch to Frankfurt were all familiar with the proper procedures for transferring funds, but the funds would reach Munich and then disappear. After an exhaustive search, authors Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting decided that $432,985,013 from the Reichsbank was unaccounted for. Included were diamonds, securities and currencies given to Otto Skorzeny by SS General Spacil totaling more than $9.1 million, of which the Allies only recovered $492,401. In one case, Maj. Roger Rawley recovered $8 million in paper currency and turned it over to Maj. Kenneth McIntyre. From there, the funds disappeared."
"Many Americans tried to strike it rich in the black market economy, but most failed. The lucky few came predominantly from the Office of Military Government in Bavaria. The head of the Financial Division in Munich was Col. Russell Lord and his aide, Maj. John McCarthy from Property Control. Both figure prominently in the disappearance of gold and currency once it reached Munich. Once the gold from Garmisch was turned over to the proper authorities in Munich, only McCarthy and Lord had access to it. An American investigator also accused McCarthy of having a hand in the drug trade in and around Garmisch and Munich."
"By the middle of July 1947, Col. Smith completed his preliminary investigation and filed his report to Gen. Clay. The report pointed out that there was enough evidence to warrant a full-scale investigation, and Gen. Clay issued an order to that effect. Fearing for his life, Smith asked for an immediate transfer. Afterward, the military governor and post commander of Garmisch were shipped back to the States and several other officers transferred out of the area. The Inspector General Office suddenly closed the investigation. Kulka alleges the order to stop the investigation came from Clay’s office. He also claims half of the U.S. command would have been in trouble if the investigation continued. Files gathered by Smith and Kulka were destroyed."
"The Garmisch affair did not end with Smith and Kulka. In September in Bad Tohr, Frank Gammache was charged with misappropriation of military property, and disorderly and discreditable conduct. The charges were trivial compared to the criminal activity in the area. Gammache was going to be the small fall guy. Operation Garpeck opened a further investigation. Heading the operation were Victor Peccarelli and Philip von Pfluge Benzell. The case soon reached to San Francisco, where now civilian Capt. Neumann lived. The investigation into Maj. McCarthy reopened. McCarthy’s influence still lingered in Munich, as files on him disappeared before investigators got to them. Shortly after they began bugging his phone, McCarthy learned of the tap and moved.
"The investigation soon crossed the path of journalist Guenter Reinhardt, who came from a German Jewish banking family. At the age of 21, he came to the United States and got his first job at a bank in New York. In 1933, he became a freelance journalist who wrote a syndicated column on foreign affairs for the McClure newspapers. Various banking and civic groups commissioned Reinhardt to conduct an investigation into Germany’s likely future international relations. Reinhardt turned over to the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization the information he uncovered about Nazi activities in the United States. This led him into activities with American Intelligence. In 1934, he acted as a liaison between the McCormick Committee and the FBI. In 1942-43, Reinhardt infiltrated communist organizations for the bureau. In 1946, he joined the CIC in Germany.
"By all reports, Reinhardt was an enthusiastic and dedicated agent in Europe. However, he soon began to show signs of stress and fatigue when he realized the whole system was corrupt. By the summer of 1947, he realized that his CIC career was in jeopardy. His superiors secretly arranged to send Reinhardt home. He complained about the transfer, but there was no appeal and he was forbidden to go to the Inspector General, under threat of immediate arrest. He was further warned that if he spoke with the press or tried to get another job in Germany, he would be arrested for violating security regulations. In addition, they threatened to drag his German girlfriend through the mud.
"Outraged at the actions and threats, Reinhardt dictated the first of two memos. The formal 48-page report revealed the irregularities and fake intelligence reports in the Munich region, and accused CIC of widespread corruption and incompetence. The report, written in November, caused an immediate shake-up. The operations chief for Bavaria was dismissed and the executive officer was transferred. However, there also was a cover-up of two chains, one from Garmisch to Augsburg and another from Munich to Nuremberg. After he arrived in New York in December, Reinhardt wrote his second memo, a 55-page document that was divided into nine sections. The opening section, “Loot and Smuggling Situation,” described how U.S. personnel continued to smuggle valuables into the States; the higher the rank, the greater the problem. Reinhardt detailed how a general’s baggage contained 166 crates laden with silverware, china and other valuables looted from castles around Hesse. After his appointment as a special consultant, Reinhardt dictated his memo to Assistant Secretary of Army Gordon Gray, who later became director of the CIA.
"The heart of the memo charged that a group of Americans and Germans headed by John McCarthy were involved in widespread corruption in the Garmisch area and wielded enough power to derail any investigations. The memo was sent to Gen. Clay in Germany and caused an immediate uproar. Clay hated scandals in his command. Rather than clean up the mess, he launched another vast cover-up. Gen. Weems canceled the ongoing Operation Garpeck shortly after Reinhardt’s memo arrived in Germany. The Army decided the charges were overblown.
"McCarthy and his superior, Col. Lord, did not escape unscathed. While they survived charges from the Reinhardt memo, their boundless greed eventually caught up with them. The pair planned to buy various IG Farben plants through a front they set up in Liechtenstein. An investigation ordered by Gen. Clay unmasked their scheme and the Army discharged them. However, Gen. Clay made no public announcement of the illegality of the scheme or its outcome. Yet while the military government in the Munich area was beset with corruption, the looting of the Nazi hoard pales in comparison to the money laundered by the neutral countries."
................................................................................................
"The plot to counterfeit British pounds figured prominently in the Nazi finance plans. Perhaps one of the most understood affairs of the war, it is often mistakenly referred to as Operation Bernhard; its true name was Operation Andrew or Andreas. No one knows for certain the extent of the action, or how many bogus notes the Nazis placed in circulation.
"The Bank of London had its own reasons to keep mum about the forged bills it found in circulation as the Nazis designed Operation Andrew to bring about the downfall of the British pound. The operation was the brainchild of Alfred Nanjocks, a fanatical Nazi. Nanjocks was the officer who simulated the Polish attack on the German radio station that started the war. After occupying the Low Countries, Heydrich transferred Nanjocks to the documents division of the SD, because he had earned a reputation of being too reckless and violent for his own good. Forging passports was not to the hothead’s liking. However, flooding the world in bogus currency to destabilize the English economy appealed to him. Nanjocks was imagining just that.
"The British were the first to try disrupting the enemy’s economy using counterfeit money. The British forged German auxiliary certificates of payment for 50 Reichspfennige and dropped them from planes all over Germany.
"Immediately after, Nanjocks took the idea to Heydrich, who not only approved the scheme, but also added the forging of American dollars and sought out Hitler’s approval. Hitler refused to approve the forging of dollars, because at that time Germany was not at war with the United States. Funk and other bureaucrats did not like the idea much. Funk worried that destabilizing the pound could create a creditor backlash and destabilize the Reichsmark. Funk’s worries testify to the degree of collusion between the Bank of England and the Nazis.
"Heydrich assigned the matter to RSHA Bureau IV, which created a new division, SHARP 4, to oversee it. In the summer of 1942, the Nazis set up the forging ring inside the Sachsenhausen concentration camp headed by SS major Fredrich Kruger. The operation was formally known as Aktion1 in Berlin. The use of inmate labor limited security problems, but the group had a tough time developing a suitable paper. Max Bober, a printer by profession, headed the team of 60 inmates. The counterfeiters were isolated from the rest of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Nazis provided the inmates with everything they needed, but sabotage would have resulted in their immediate death. It was not until 1943 that a Hahnemuhl plant produced a suitable paper. The factory delivered 12,000 sheets a month to the operation. Each sheet produced eight notes. Even then, the forged notes were only mediocre at best. It was not until the Nazis located Salomon Smolianoff, an expert counterfeiter, that they could produce suitable notes."
"The operation eventually shipped the equivalent of $4.5 billion in British pounds to Berlin and then all over the world. Nazi agents used the forged notes to buy legitimate objects, which they then resold for stable world currencies. German embassies in the neutral countries received some of the notes to exchange for local currency. The first attempt to distribute the notes widely was disastrous. The German military arrested their own agents when they tried to pass the forged notes, because Action1 was top secret.
"At some point, the underlying mission of Action 1 changed. Himmler and Lt. Grobel, head of Bureau VI, became greedy. They imagined laundering the notes on a large scale and skimming the profits for their personal benefit. To carry out the widespread distribution, Friedrich Schwend was brought into the operation. In the 1920s, Schwend was an arms dealer. He married the niece of the Minister of Exterior Baron von Neurath. Through his wife’s family connections, he received an appointment as the personal administrator of the wealthy Bunge family. This is the same Bunge family that made a small fortune by shorting the market the day John F. Kennedy was murdered. In the 1930s, Schwend was working from New York managing the investments of Bunge & Born."
"Operation Andrew continued to the end of the war. The Bank of England suffered enormous losses. Even with the Russians closing in on Sachsenhausen, the operation did not shut down. It just moved to southern Germany, near the Austrian border. There, it continued to produce fake notes until about May 3. Some of the last forged notes ended up at the bottom of Lake Topltz. The Nazis hid crates of forged notes there in a midnight rowboat operation. The boxes were recovered in 2000. The fate of the balance of the notes is unknown."
"As much as half of the Reichsbank gold remains unaccounted for. Bormann undoubtedly transferred some of it out of Germany, and top Nazi officials and U.S. personnel looted other portions of the treasure. However, a great deal of looted gold was used by the Nazis to buy munitions and raw material from neutral countries."
"It was not until three months before the defeat of Germany that Switzerland took any action against the Nazis. Further, it was only one month before the defeat of the Nazis when the Swiss finally banned gold trades with them. The willingness of the other neutrals to take action against the Nazis followed a similar timeline. They did nothing until it was clear the Nazis were defeated."
................................................................................................
"Many other Swedish corporations that enjoyed profitable dealings with the Nazis. The one most cherished by Germany was Enskilda Bank, owned by the Wallenbergs. The Nazis borrowed funds and laundered their stolen gold there. Safehaven documents revealed that the United States was tracking the pro-Nazi activities of the Wallenbergs for several years. In February 1945, in a letter to Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Morgenthau charged that Enskilda was making large loans to the Nazis without collateral, and covertly investing money for German capitalists in U.S. industries, in line with the Bormann plans. He further charged the bank was repeatedly connected with large black market operations.
"Morgenthau identified Jacob Wallenberg as strongly pro-Nazi and rejected the claim that Marcus Wallenberg was for the Allies. Like S&K, the Wallenbergs were playing both sides. Cousin Raul Wallenberg helped to save 20,000 Jews in Budapest. When the Soviet army recaptured Budapest, Raul was arrested as an American spy. In June 1996, U.S. News and World Report published a review of declassified documents indicating that Raul Wallenberg was indeed a spy for the OSS."
" ... From the outset, Sweden agreed to the danger of Nazi assets being used to provide a rival, but contested the legality of the Allies’ claim to the assets.
"On July 18, the two sides reached an agreement. Of the estimated 378 million kroner (about $90.7 million) in German assets in Sweden, Sweden agreed to divide the assets as follows: 50 million kroner (about $12.5 million) went to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (later the International Refugee Organization); 75 million kroner (about $18 million) went to the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (IARA), excluding the amounts the United States, Britain and France received; 150 million kroner (about $36 million) went for aid in preventing disease and unrest in Germany. The last sum was used in Sweden or other countries to buy essential commodities for the German economy. Moreover, the agreement allowed for Swedish and German owners of liquidated property to be compensated in German currency. It also allowed for a mission to travel to the U.S., British and French zones of occupied Germany to inspect Swedish properties. Further it called for the release of frozen Swedish assets in the United States (estimated at the time at $200 million); the removal of any blacklists; and permission for the Allies to hold in reserve their claims to German properties in Sweden.
"In the agreement, Sweden would restitute 7,555 kilograms of fine gold (roughly $8.1 million), the same quantity stemming from the Bank of Belgium. The United States would hold Sweden harmless from any claims arising from transfers from the Swedish Riksbank to third countries. Finally, the agreement banned the Allies from claims to any gold received by Sweden from Germany and transferred to third countries before June 1, 1945 or any additional claims after July 1, 1947. In his report, Rubin noted the talks advanced smoothly and without bitterness.
"Sweden formally approved the agreement in November 1946. Shortly before the deadline for gold claims expired on July 1, 1947, the Allies filed a request for the return of 638 looted Dutch gold bars (worth about $10 million). Sweden challenged a portion of these claims. The Swedish challenge rested on the claim that some of this gold was acquired before the London Declaration. The Allies claimed the agreement included all the gold received. The debate over the Dutch gold continued into the 1950s. Eventually, in 1955, Sweden returned about 6 tons of gold (about $6.8 million) to the Netherlands.
"Other problems arose in fulfilling the agreement. Sweden did not turn over the gold specified in the July 1946 agreement by the March 1948 deadline. Although Sweden quickly fulfilled its obligation to IRO in July 1947, it was not as forthcoming with the funds for IARA. Throughout the period, Sweden argued that Law 5 was invalid.
"The latest investigation conducted by a bank-appointed commission revealed Sweden accepted 59.7 metric tons of gold from the Nazis. The newly discovered gold bears the same mark as that stolen from the Netherlands. The investigation also found 6 tons of gold of undetermined origin that could have come from the victims of the concentration camps. This additional find of gold was missed by the Safehaven operation. So far, Sweden has only returned 13.2 tons to Belgium and the Netherlands. The commission turned over its findings to the Swedish government. It was unclear whether that commission would have the power to recommend returning the gold. One of the investigators says Sweden has a moral but not a legal obligation to return the gold. The report was released in 1997."
................................................................................................
"Britain and the United States began to enlist Sweden in the Safehaven program in 1944. Britain was in favor of restricting the program in Sweden to gold, while the United States wanted to include other assets. The United States used trade agreements as an inducement for cooperation. The Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, voiced its approval of Safehaven and in February 1945, Sweden began an inventory of its gold and foreign currency to see how much was linked to the Nazis. By spring, the British agreed with the Americans and drafted a proposal for Sweden, which then served as a basis for talks in Lisbon and Madrid. By summer 1945, Sweden had passed several measures to restrict the sale or dispersal of German property, and expanded the range of its census to include all types of German property. In January 1946, at the urging of the Allies, Sweden broadened the laws to include German subsidiaries. In November 1945, Sweden gave the Treasury Department a report on Swedish gold transactions. From it, the Treasury decided Sweden had received $22.7 million in looted gold from Belgium. The United States soon reduced the amount to $17 million."
................................................................................................
"Before the outbreak of WWII, Portugal held strong and long-standing political and emotional ties to Britain, dating back to the 14th century Anglo-Portuguese Alliance against Spain. England was Portugal’s largest trading partner in 1938. Portugal joined the British early in WWI and sent 50,000 troops to the frontlines.
"Portugal’s association with Nazi Germany emerged during the Spanish Civil War. Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar sided with Franco and Hitler, helped Germany smuggle arms to Franco’s forces and sent Portuguese volunteers to fight. Salazar hoped thereby to achieve his long-term goal of stabilization and development of the country’s economy. By the end of 1938, Germany was Portugal’s second largest trading partner. However, Salazar did protest Hitler’s invasion of Catholic Poland."
" ... In October 1942, Britain capitalized on its long-standing relationship by inducing Portugal to accept sterling in payment for goods. Britain’s gold reserves were low, and both Sweden and Switzerland were demanding payment in gold."
"Portugal’s economic success hinged on its rich wolframite or tungsten ore deposits. The Nazis were dependent on Portugal and Spain for this mineral. Tungsten has various uses, including light bulb filaments, but it was of particular value in producing war munitions. Germany’s machining industry used tungsten carbide almost exclusively, whereas the United States was still largely using inferior molybdenum-tipped tools, mainly because of the cartel agreement GE held with Krupp for carboloy or cemented tungsten carbide. In addition, tungsten was useful in armor-piercing munitions. The Allies were not solely dependent on Portugal or Spain and could buy wolframite from other sources, but it was their goal was to deprive Nazi Germany of as much tungsten ore as possible, so they bought as much as possible from Portugal. ... "
"On May 14, 1945, a week after Germany’s defeat, Portugal passed law 34,600 freezing all German assets in the country, creating a licensing system for unblocking these assets, providing a census of these assets, prohibiting trade of foreign currency notes and establishing a penalty regime to enforce these provisions. On May 23, Portugal extended the law to include all its colonies. Included in these assets were the German government buildings. On May 6, at the request of the Allies, Portugal had seized all German government buildings. Included in the seizure were 5,000 gold sovereigns found in the German Legation in Lisbon.
"While the Portuguese law gave the appearance of cooperation, the State Department feared it contained too many loopholes. For one, the census excluded participation by the Allies. The law also allowed for the transfer of blocked assets to individuals for their subsistence, and the normal exercise of commercial and industrial activity. In a report issued on June 19, 1946, the Division of Economic Security Controls decided that German firms continued to operate without any serious handicaps and many of the Nazis’ assets had dissipated. Moreover, the Portuguese census failed to uncover any holdings the Allies had not already identified."
................................................................................................
"The Lisbon talks of 1946-47 failed to resolve any of these issues. Portugal took a firm stand in 1945 that it was not responsible for returning gold it had exchanged with Germany during the war for tangible assets. Portugal claimed it never received German gold shipments from 1938 to ‘45. Allied intelligence decided Portugal received $143.8 million in gold from the Swiss National Bank, about half of the increase in the country’s gold reserves. Of this amount, the Allies were certain that $22.6 million was from gold looted from Belgium. During the negotiations, the Allies proposed that Portugal turn over $50.5 million. The Allies contended that this amount of gold was obtained after 1942 when it was clear to everyone the German gold reserves had expanded by the looting of Europe. Portugal claimed it was not aware of such looting. Later during the negotiations, Portugal contended that all the gold it gained had been in good faith and was not looted. Throughout the long period of negotiations stretching into the 1950s, Portugal only agreed to return $4.4 million.
"Recent evidence shows that Portugal’s claims were, at best, disingenuous. In a confidential report, Victor Gautier, a high-ranking Swiss National Bank official, reported in his meeting with Albino Garble Peso, secretary general of the Banco de Portugal, that Portugal would not accept gold directly from the Nazis, due to political motivations and legal risks. He further noted Portuguese objections would evaporate if the money passed via the Swiss. These statements and others in Gautier’s report make it clear the Portuguese wanted the Nazi gold with a clean slate from the Swiss money launderers. Initially, Portugal used the Bank of International Settlements and the Yugoslav National Bank in Basel to launder the Nazi gold.
"However, starting in 1941 the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia forced Portugal to look for other routes. Also, on Jan. 8, 1942, Montagu C. Norman, Director of the Bank of England, notified Thomas McKittrick, the American Director of the Bank of International Settlements, that it would no longer recognize shipments of gold from the International Bank to Portugal. Portugal then insisted the Reichsbank sell its gold for francs to the Swiss National Bank. The Reichsbank then deposited the francs into the Banco de Portugal account with the Swiss bank. The Banco de Portugal used these francs to buy the gold from the Swiss National Bank. In addition, the Portuguese used three accounts in the Swiss bank. Portugal used one to deposit gold transferred in payment for the purchase of escudos by SNB from the Banco de Portugal. It used the second account for gold bought from the Banco de Portugal, financed with the Swiss francs. The last account closed the circle by transferring gold on orders from Berlin to the Banco de Portugal account in Zurich.
"The Banco Espirito Santo also played a significant role in buying wolframite for the Nazis. An October 1945 FEA report charged that the bank was the financial agent for Nazi purchases of wolfram or wolframite (wolfram is the word for tungsten in German and other languages). After the Allies compelled the bank to forgo its German ties, the Nazis transferred their accounts to the Banco Lisboa e Acores.
"A significant amount of gold was smuggled into Portugal. The German Commercial Attaché in Madrid admitted to smuggling almost $1 million in English gold sovereigns from Berlin to the German embassy in Lisbon. The coins were sent in diplomatic pouches in 1943-44. Another report noted $360,000 in gold was flown to Portugal in June-July 1944 and deposited in the Bank of Portugal under the name of the ambassador. The bank director admitted several other dignitaries had special accounts, including the brother of Franco.
"While the Portuguese reached an early agreement with the Allies on German property, the issue of gold stalled the talks. Moreover, Portugal tied the property agreement to the gold issue and refused to liquidate the property. This delaying action only served to erode the value of the Nazi property seized. Talks continued off and on, formally and informally.
"Recently declassified documents show the American negotiators were aware of an OSS memo dated Feb. 7, 1946 stating that Portugal had received 124 tons of Nazi gold. Nevertheless, Allied negotiators were only seeking a return of 44 tons. The Azores complicated the negotiations from the end of the war until 1953. Portugal granted the U.S. permission to build an air base in the Azores for use during the war and for five years after. By July 1947, the State Department was urging negotiators to ease the hard-line approach and seek a compromise with Portugal on the gold issue. Foremost in the change of stance at the State Department was the Azores air base negotiation. In 1945, the Joint Chiefs designated the Azores as one of nine essential strategic bases needed to preserve the security of the United States. In 1947, the United States broke off the negotiations on gold until completion of the Azores negotiations.
"In 1948, Robert Lovett wrote the Treasury Secretary that “overriding political and strategic considerations of our foreign policy make it essential that the Portugal assets in the United States be unblocked.” A week later, the Treasury Department weakened the licensing procedures, effectively unblocking the assets. With that action, the United States lost all leverage over Portugal. On July 17, 1951, the State Department wired the embassy in Lisbon to settle on the Portuguese terms. The State Department based the decision on the overriding importance of politico-military objectives. Portugal had become a full member of NATO. Also at stake was a long-term lease for an air base in the Azores. Based on the priority of the Cold War objectives and after consulting British authorities, the State Department recommended settling the gold issue with Portugal for a mere $4.4 million.
"The Treasury Department would only agree to the terms if it received a letter signed at the Assistant Secretary level indicating there were political considerations warranting a settlement and that any agreement would not result in claims against the United States. Acting Assistant Secretary for European Affairs James Bonbright signed the letter to the Treasury. The United States finally agreed with Portugal on June 24, 1953. However, Portugal hinged the agreement on the condition of reaching an agreement with West Germany. It took until June 1958 before Germany and Portugal concluded an agreement. The next year, Portugal returned the $4.4 million in gold."
................................................................................................
"While many of the neutrals leaned toward fascism, none were fully fascist like Franco’s Spain. Both Germany and Italy provided support for Franco during the Spanish Civil War. In 1941, Franco sent 40,000 volunteers to Germany. Known as the Blue Division, they served for two years on the Russian front. Although Franco declared neutrality as soon as war broke out in Europe, Spain hovered on the brink of joining the Axis powers through 1940-41. Spanish belligerency was premised on an early German victory over Britain and Germany’s agreement to allow Spain to expand territorially into French Morocco, Africa and perhaps even Europe.
"The Nazis recognized the strategic location of Spain early on. As early as mid-1940, the Nazis had comprehensive plans to invade Gibraltar. The plans, code-named Operation Felix, originally called for a mid-1941 operation in which two corps would move by road across Spain, with Franco’s permission. Spain’s rail system was a different gauge than the rest of Europe, forcing the Nazis to rely on the roads. Once in position, Gibraltar was to be attacked from both the land and air with deadly Nazi efficiency. The plans also included two extra divisions to attack Morocco once Operation Felix succeeded.
"A Nazi seizure of Gibraltar would add weeks for oil tankers to reach Britain from the Mideast and give the Nazis strategic control of the Mediterranean. Franco certainly must have been aware of Britain’s precarious situation in 1940. With the empire under attack worldwide, it was hardly capable of defending itself against a follow-up attack on Morocco, the country that Franco eyed. Nevertheless, the Nazis failed to get Franco’s approval. Whether this was due to the intervention of the American ambassador or poor Nazi diplomacy, it has to be one of the biggest diplomatic and strategic setbacks for the Nazis.
"After 1941, there were similar plans to attack Gibraltar. However, once Hitler invaded Russia, any such plans were impractical. The Germans did not have the manpower or equipment to open a new battlefront."
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"Allied efforts to recover gold from Turkey were never pursued with any vigor. Turkey’s geographical location, controlling access to the Black Sea and its border with the Soviet Union made it a cornerstone for U.S. strategic interests in the coming Cold War. In 1946, formal talks were held to consider the gold received from the Nazis, as well as German assets in Turkey. The Allies estimated that German assets totaled $51 million. In March 1947, the Truman Doctrine included Turkey with Greece. In July, the United States signed a $150 million trade agreement with Turkey that dealt a deathblow to any further negotiations on restitution. Turkey never turned over any gold."
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"In January 1942, Argentina agreed to the terms of the Rio Conference, severing all commercial and financial relations with the Axis powers. In June 1942, Argentina agreed to the Final Act of the Inter-American Conference on Economic and Financial Controls, obligating all states to end commercial intercourse with the Axis. Argentina ignored the terms and continued business with the Nazis. Moreover, during 1942, Juan Goyeneche, a confidential agent of Peron, and Adrian Escobar, Argentina’s Ambassador to Spain, traveled through war-torn Europe, meeting with Nazi and Vatican officials. Goyeneche collaborated extensively with the Foreign Intelligence Branch of the SS. Escobar and his consul Aquilino Lopez were collaborating with Himmler’s secret service by crossing into Vichy France and reporting details on Spanish and Allied diplomats.
"After extensive meetings with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Luigi Magione, an agreement was reached in which, once peace was established, Argentina would generously apply its immigration laws. This seemingly innocent meeting takes on critical importance at the end of the war. It proves the Vatican was planning on helping Nazis war criminals escape from Europe as early as 1942. This meeting set up the Vatican ratlines.
""On Oct. 10, the Pope received Escobar and welcomed Argentina’s view that it was proper for the Vatican to engage in the peace talks. Goyeneche traveled to Germany and met with Ribbentrop seeking Nazi support for the nationalist candidate in the 1943 elections. This façade of neutrality was maintained until 1943 and the colonels’ revolution that eventually brought Peron to power.
"Once in power, the colonels sought arms from Germany in case war broke out between Argentina and Brazil. By September 1943, the colonels gave up the idea of smuggling arms into Argentina from Germany and, instead, sought an alliance with the Nazis. The group of colonels dispatched Osmar Hellmuth and Carlos Velez to Spain to negotiate. Unfortunately for the colonels, U.S. Magic intercepts detected the upcoming mission from transmissions between the SS agent in Argentina, a Capt. Becker, and Schellenberg in Germany, and had the British seize Hellmuth when the ship docked in Trinidad.
"The seizure of Hellmuth failed to deter further plots. Peron and Becker continued to plan the overthrow of neighboring governments to set up a pro-Nazi block in South America. Peron wrote in a secret manifest of the colonels:
""Forming alliances will be the first step. We have Paraguay; we have Bolivia and Chile. With Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile, it will be easy to pressure Uruguay. Then the five united nations will easy draw in Brazil because of its type of government and its large nucleus of Germans. With Brazil fallen, the American continent will be ours.""
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"During the final year of the war, Argentina was a prime destination for many of the assets that Bormann spirited out of Germany for a rebirth of the Third Reich. Following the war, Argentina also was a prime destination for Nazi war criminals. Even war criminals who escaped to other South American countries generally first entered the continent through Argentina. While other South American countries generally supported the U.S. policies during the war, there was no cooperation from Argentina. Other countries adhered to the Proclaimed List and took steps to eliminate any smuggling efforts. The Treasury Department urged harsher actions toward Argentina than the State Department was willing to impose. The State Department was hampered by a fear that a harsher policy would alienate other South American countries and by a difference of opinion with the British. During both world wars, England depended on Argentina for beef. However, as early as 1942, Argentina’s neutrality policy made it a leading focus of the Treasury Department and the Board of Economic Warfare."
"Safehaven negotiations with Argentina started in 1944. However, the distressed relations restrained any progress in the negotiations. In February 1944, Argentine President Ramirez delegated his powers to Gen. Edelmiro Farrell. The United States failed to recognize the Farrell government and recalled the ambassador. In August and September, the State Department announced more sanctions against Argentina due to its failure to comply with denazification. In response, Argentina withdrew from the Montevideo Committee for the political defense of the continent. The Argentine Central Bank provided little help to U.S. investigators in locating German assets. After Cordell Hull resigned as Secretary of State in November 1944, the incoming Secretary, Edward Stettinius, developed an easier policy toward Argentina. Nelson Rockefeller, the appointed wartime chief of South American intelligence, also favored easier terms with Argentina. Rockefeller-controlled banks illegally transferred funds between the U.S. and Argentina from frozen accounts."
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"Recognizing its increasing isolation from other nations in the Western Hemisphere, Argentina declared war against Germany in the last month of hostilities.
"On Feb. 11, 1946, the State Department released the famed Blue Book on Argentina. The book confirmed that the Argentine government asserted no control over German firms, delaying the efforts to seize the Nazi assets until they were dispersed elsewhere. The book also confirmed that Nazi Germany sent large sums of money to its embassy in Argentina without any serious obstacles. Some historians credit the release of the Blue Book for Peron’s election as part of an anti-American backlash. On May 22, 1946, the Safehaven team reported the total value of German assets at roughly $200 million. The assets included bank balances, real estate and merchandise. The Safehaven team found no caches of art or gems, and assumed that Argentina was not a major destination of looted treasure. The team also reported that no records revealed Argentina receiving Nazi gold.
"As early as 1942, the United States knew of illegal Argentina currency dealings. In April 1942, the U.S. Consulate in Switzerland reported that an Argentine diplomat was smuggling dollars stolen by the Nazis to his homeland for sale; the funds were then transferred to Switzerland. British cables from 1944 show Argentina conducted vigorous trade with Switzerland and often the payment was in gold. By 1945, the State and Treasury departments found decisive evidence of extensive transactions involving the transfer of Argentine pesos, Reichsmarks and Swiss francs from Argentina to Switzerland. In May 1947, Argentina proposed a transfer of $170 million to its Federal Reserve account. Concern over the source of the gold only momentarily delayed the transfer. Guyatt reports that in 1973, after returning to power, Peron sold 400 tons of gold on the black market. Peron code-named the sale Bormann 1345. While the Spanish government tutored the sale, the transfer agent labeled it political. Despite the massive increase in Argentina’s gold reserve and the number of Nazi war criminals who found sanctuary in Argentina, even after 50 years there is little proof of Argentina accepting gold from the Nazis.
"The Cold War badly compromised Safehaven investigations in Argentina. On June 3, 1947, President Truman and Argentine Ambassador Ivanissevich issued a joint announcement that the two countries would renew consultations with other Latin American countries about creating a treaty of mutual aid. In September, Argentina joined the United States and other American Republics in agreeing to the Inter-American Treaty for Reciprocal Assistance, the Rio Pact, for mutual defense against aggression. Bormann’s cloaked companies in Argentina, as well as any treasure, were safe and secure. The hemisphere had to be protected from communism."
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"On April 10, 1941, following the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, the so-called independent state of Croatia was established, headed by Ante Pavelic, a member of the fascist Croat Ustashi political movement. Mussolini declared Croatia a protectorate of Italy. Both Italy and the Nazis supported Croatia. The Ustashi also were closely aligned with the Vatican. On May 18, 1941, Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles reaffirmed the exile government of Yugoslavia did not recognize the independent state of Croatia. Shortly after, Croatia sealed the U.S. embassy in Zagreb. Since Croatia only existed as a state during the war and the United States never recognized it, the figures presented in this section are likely to be subject to revision in the future.
"Postwar reports suggest the Ustashi treasury had at its disposal more than $80 million, mostly gold coins, some stolen from their victims. On May 31, 1944, Croatia deposited $403,000 in the Swiss National Bank. On Aug. 4, 1944, Croatia deposited another $1.1 million in gold. An OSS report in July 1945 concluded that Croat-owned commercial accounts in Bern totaled more than $93,000. The Historical Section of the Task Force of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs shows that on July 24, 1945, the Swiss National Bank returned to the National Bank of Yugoslavia all 1,338 kilograms of gold in 121 ingots in the account of the wartime Croatian regime.
"While bank records of deposit are not likely to change much, the gold the Ustashi carried as they fled to Austria as the war was reaching an end is very much in doubt. Estimates placed the value of gold Ante Pavelic had when entering Austria at $5 million-$6 million. Whatever the value of the loot, it is certain that much of it was used to set up and run a ratline with the Vatican. In October 1946, U.S. intelligence reported to the Treasury Department that the Ustashi had $47 million deposited in the Vatican before transfer to Spain and then to Argentina. Due to the Cold War, the Allies expended little effort in returning the thousands of war criminals from Italy to Yugoslavia. The issue of Ustashi gold received even less attention at the war’s conclusion."
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"In August 1938, after the Anschluss the Federal Council ordered the borders closed. Fearing a mix of refugees, including Jews, the Federal Council petitioned the Nazi government in Berlin to affix a “J” stamp on all Jewish passports. The Nazis initially were not keen on the idea because they were still using immigration as a way to free Germany of Jews. Negotiations continued throughout late summer and autumn. Eventually, the Swiss threatened to require visas for all Germans entering Switzerland. The Nazis then proposed the “J” stamp on passports as a solution. Now it was a Nazi idea in the eyes of the Federal Council.
"The only reason the Swiss were so intent on such a marking on passports was to make it easier for border guards to turn away Jews. Despite the myth of Switzerland as a refuge for Jews during the war, border guards turned away more than 30,000 Jewish refugees. In August 1942, the Federal Council passed another law to seal the border to Jewish refugees, despite vigorous pleas from some church members and the press. The Swiss people were not anti-Semitic and opposed the government’s policy. Other than closing the border to Jews, Switzerland passed no anti-Jewish laws. The Jewish community in Switzerland was divided, with a minority favoring demonstrations to allow more Jewish immigration and a majority favoring a policy of “don’t make trouble.”
"Even if the Jewish refugees were able to get past the border guards, Swiss officials demanded to see their passports. If the passport had the “J” stamp, the officials forced the hapless Jews back into the hands of the Nazis. Border guard Grueninger received his order in 1938 not to allow in any Jews. However, Grueninger allowed 3,600 Jews entry and helped them to alter their passports so they could remain. Alerted by the Nazis of Grueninger’s acts of humanity, the Swiss suspended him in December 1938. In January 1939, the government filed charges against him for forging documents. In 1941, a court found him guilty of insubordination and took away his job, retirement and severance pay, and levied a stiff fine. Afterward, he never was able to find a suitable job and was dogged by rumors that he demanded money and sexual favors from those he helped. The former boarder guard vigorously denied the unfounded rumors."
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"From the beginning, Swiss government officials knew of the early methodology of the Nazi genocide. The Nazis invited Swiss army doctors to serve on the Eastern Front to treat wounded Nazi soldiers in Operation Barbarossa. At that stage, roving bands of the Einsatzgruppen carried out the killings by shooting the Jews they rounded up. While the Swiss doctors did not see the killing squads, they saw the effects and reported them to the Red Cross and government officials. A 1943 National Bank Legal report mentions the deportations and persecutions of Jews."
"The earliest news of the Holocaust to reach the West came in a telegram on Aug. 8, 1942 from Gerhart Riegner. The informant who provided the information was a Leipzig businessman, Eduard Scholte.
""Received alarming report that in Fuhrer’s headquarters plan discussed and under consideration according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled Germany numbering three and a half to four million should after deportation and concentration in the east be exterminated at one blow to resolve once and for all the Jewish question in Europe. Action reported planned for autumn; methods under discussion including prussic acid. We transmit information with all necessary reservation as exactitude cannot be confirmed. Informant stated to have close connections with highest German authorities and his reports generally reliable."
"Unfortunately, this report was widely disbelieved, even by Jews. Allen Dulles labeled it hysterical Jewish propaganda. Rabbi Stephen Wise, one of the recipients of the telegram, released it to the press on Nov. 24, 1942. After that, everyone was aware of the savagery and horror occurring in the Third Reich."
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"A Feb. 5, 1946 report by the economic intelligence group Allied Claims Against Swiss for Return of Looted Gold provides the best estimate of gold looted from the central banks of Europe. The report estimates the total amount of gold the Nazis accumulated at $648 million. At the outbreak of the war, the best estimate of the Nazi gold reserves was $100 million. The Nazis looted the difference of $548 million from the countries of Europe. The report estimates from bank records that the Nazis sold between $275 million and $282 million to the Swiss National Bank. In addition, the Nazis sold another $20 million to commercial Swiss banks. The report proves that much of the gold ended up in Portugal and Spain after the Swiss laundered it."
"A six-page report, Safehaven No. 2969, detailed the extent of Nazi assets in Switzerland. The document was sent by Americans in Bern to the Secretary of State. ... In the report, a Swiss banker estimates the banks held $110 million in Nazi assets. ..."
"In addition, the Nazis had large amounts of gold, currency, gems and art stored away in safe-deposit boxes. The British estimated the value of 53 paintings at $484,000. The report determined the total value of all the looted paintings at $390 million-$545 million."
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"In February 1945, after much wrangling about imposing sterner measures against Switzerland, Lauchlin Currie, assistant to President Roosevelt, headed the American delegation to Switzerland for talks on stopping the wartime trade and to begin negotiations on gold issues. William Rappard headed the Swiss delegation, although the man pulling the strings was Walter Stucki. In March, Currie reported some success. The Swiss agreed to freeze all German assets; ban importation, exportation and dealing in all foreign currencies; and restrict Swiss purchases of gold from Germany. While the Currie mission was greeted as a success, controversy soon followed. In May 1945, the U.S. Legation in Bern reported the Swiss bought 3,000 kilograms of gold from Germany. The Currie agreement clearly excluded the buy. However, the Swiss argued the gold was not looted.
"In June 1945, Harley Kilgore chaired the Senate’s War Mobilization Subcommittee. In the hearings, he introduced documents uncovered by Allied investigators of correspondence between German Reichsbank Vice President Emil Puhl and the German Minister of Economic Affairs Walter Funk about German-Swiss commercial discussions conducted during the Currie Mission. The treachery of the Swiss received widespread publicity. Orvis A. Schmidt, Director of Foreign Funds Control for the Treasury Department and a member of the Currie Mission to Bern, testified before the subcommittee:
""Even at this late date, the Swiss Government is loath to take the necessary steps to force banks and other cloaking institutions to disclose the owners of assets held in or through Switzerland. This means that German assets held in or through Switzerland will not be identified. Thus, the true picture of German financial and industrial penetration throughout the world will be kept a secret. By the same token, Swiss banks will continue to profit by protecting, through their secrecy laws, German’s war potential and the hidden assets of it financiers and industrialists.""
"In March 1946, formal talks with Switzerland, United States, Britain and France opened in Washington. U.S. negotiators held an optimistic view that the Swiss were committed to the Currie Mission agreement. On the other hand, Switzerland viewed its actions during the war as consistent with the internationally recognized obligations and rights of a neutral power. The Swiss asserted that international law granted the Nazis’ seizure of monetary gold from the occupied countries (the right of occupying powers to war booty). Thus, the receipt of the gold by Switzerland was legal. Switzerland argued the Allies’ claim to Nazi assets beyond Germany’s border was illegal and a violation of Swiss sovereignty. In addition, Switzerland sought the removal of all Swiss companies and individuals from the Allied blacklist."
................................................................................................
" ... Treasury briefing material for the U.S. negotiators urged a global approach to the gold issue, rather than settling the amount of looted gold in each transaction. Also, the Treasury wanted an open-end clause in any agreement, which required Switzerland to return any looted gold found in the future. Treasury Assistant Secretary Harry Dexter White insisted that Swiss funds remain blocked in the United States until the Swiss provided ironclad guarantees that they would identify and seize all accounts under German control. White estimated total of German assets in Switzerland, excluding numbered accounts and cloaked assets, to be $500 million.
"The American negotiators had the benefit of two comprehensive evaluations of German gold movements during World War II. Both reports were prepared from the records of the Reichsbank. Otto Fletcher, Special Assistant to the Division of Economic Security Controls of the State Department, estimated that at the beginning of the war, Nazi gold reserves totaled $120 million. He estimated the Nazis acquired another $661 million in monetary gold during the war, most of which was looted. Fletcher also reported that all gold sold by the Nazis after early 1943 was looted. His report showed the Nazis sold or transferred $414 million in looted gold to the Swiss National Bank. The second report, prepared by James Mann of the Treasury Department, estimated the total monetary gold looted by Germany at $579 million, out of $785 million available after June 30, 1940. Mann’s report decided the Swiss took $289 million in gold from the Nazis."
" ... the Swiss released a report, Swiss Observations With Regard to the Gold Problem that differed markedly from Allied calculations about German gold holdings at the beginning of the war, and questioned the credibility of information provided by former Reichsbank Vice President Emil Puhl. Puhl told Allied investigators the Swiss National Bank knew the gold was looted because he had told them."
" ... Finally, on April 24, Seymour Rubin told Under Secretary Acheson and Assistant Secretary Clayton that the Swiss suspended the talks. The Allies sought the return of $130 million in gold looted from Belgium and traceable to Switzerland."
................................................................................................
"Negotiations with Switzerland continued until 1952 before reaching a final accord. Throughout the years, Switzerland displayed a disregard and contempt for the Allies’ authority. Swiss duplicity marked all the negotiations, especially in the heirless assets. With heirless assets, the Swiss banks had no problems liquidating accounts for the benefit of the bank, but refused all help to Jews seeking the accounts of loved ones lost in the Holocaust. Often the banks demanded a death certificate, knowing the Nazis never issued them for concentration camps victims. This final issue was not settled until the 1990s initiative started by President Clinton and headed by Eizenstat.
"Although there were renewed talks in the 1990s, Swiss duplicity still abounds. A new scandal emerged in 1997 when former bank guard Christoph Meili came forward with evidence that Union Bank of Switzerland was shredding documents about its activities with the Nazis. Meili, a night guard at Union Bank, discovered a large quantity of documents waiting to be shredded. Among them were records of accounts from the war years. The young guard turned over two books and pages ripped from another to a Jewish organization in Switzerland. Swiss law forbids destroying documents that might relate to WWII investigations. As a reward for his efforts to uncover the truth, Union Bank fired Meili. The government also is studying whether he violated any Swiss secrecy laws. The young man was threatened with the kidnapping of his daughters and has since moved to the United States. Even in the U.S., Meili still receives death threats. President Clinton signed a bill granting the Meili family permanent resident status. Christoph Meili has the distinction of being the only Swiss citizen ever granted political asylum in the United States."
................................................................................................
"Many other Swedish corporations that enjoyed profitable dealings with the Nazis. The one most cherished by Germany was Enskilda Bank, owned by the Wallenbergs. The Nazis borrowed funds and laundered their stolen gold there. Safehaven documents revealed that the United States was tracking the pro-Nazi activities of the Wallenbergs for several years. In February 1945, in a letter to Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Morgenthau charged that Enskilda was making large loans to the Nazis without collateral, and covertly investing money for German capitalists in U.S. industries, in line with the Bormann plans. He further charged the bank was repeatedly connected with large black market operations.
"Morgenthau identified Jacob Wallenberg as strongly pro-Nazi and rejected the claim that Marcus Wallenberg was for the Allies. Like S&K, the Wallenbergs were playing both sides. Cousin Raul Wallenberg helped to save 20,000 Jews in Budapest. When the Soviet army recaptured Budapest, Raul was arrested as an American spy. In June 1996, U.S. News and World Report published a review of declassified documents indicating that Raul Wallenberg was indeed a spy for the OSS."
" ... From the outset, Sweden agreed to the danger of Nazi assets being used to provide a rival, but contested the legality of the Allies’ claim to the assets.
"On July 18, the two sides reached an agreement. Of the estimated 378 million kroner (about $90.7 million) in German assets in Sweden, Sweden agreed to divide the assets as follows: 50 million kroner (about $12.5 million) went to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (later the International Refugee Organization); 75 million kroner (about $18 million) went to the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (IARA), excluding the amounts the United States, Britain and France received; 150 million kroner (about $36 million) went for aid in preventing disease and unrest in Germany. The last sum was used in Sweden or other countries to buy essential commodities for the German economy. Moreover, the agreement allowed for Swedish and German owners of liquidated property to be compensated in German currency. It also allowed for a mission to travel to the U.S., British and French zones of occupied Germany to inspect Swedish properties. Further it called for the release of frozen Swedish assets in the United States (estimated at the time at $200 million); the removal of any blacklists; and permission for the Allies to hold in reserve their claims to German properties in Sweden.
"In the agreement, Sweden would restitute 7,555 kilograms of fine gold (roughly $8.1 million), the same quantity stemming from the Bank of Belgium. The United States would hold Sweden harmless from any claims arising from transfers from the Swedish Riksbank to third countries. Finally, the agreement banned the Allies from claims to any gold received by Sweden from Germany and transferred to third countries before June 1, 1945 or any additional claims after July 1, 1947. In his report, Rubin noted the talks advanced smoothly and without bitterness.
"Sweden formally approved the agreement in November 1946. Shortly before the deadline for gold claims expired on July 1, 1947, the Allies filed a request for the return of 638 looted Dutch gold bars (worth about $10 million). Sweden challenged a portion of these claims. The Swedish challenge rested on the claim that some of this gold was acquired before the London Declaration. The Allies claimed the agreement included all the gold received. The debate over the Dutch gold continued into the 1950s. Eventually, in 1955, Sweden returned about 6 tons of gold (about $6.8 million) to the Netherlands.
"Other problems arose in fulfilling the agreement. Sweden did not turn over the gold specified in the July 1946 agreement by the March 1948 deadline. Although Sweden quickly fulfilled its obligation to IRO in July 1947, it was not as forthcoming with the funds for IARA. Throughout the period, Sweden argued that Law 5 was invalid.
"The latest investigation conducted by a bank-appointed commission revealed Sweden accepted 59.7 metric tons of gold from the Nazis. The newly discovered gold bears the same mark as that stolen from the Netherlands. The investigation also found 6 tons of gold of undetermined origin that could have come from the victims of the concentration camps. This additional find of gold was missed by the Safehaven operation. So far, Sweden has only returned 13.2 tons to Belgium and the Netherlands. The commission turned over its findings to the Swedish government. It was unclear whether that commission would have the power to recommend returning the gold. One of the investigators says Sweden has a moral but not a legal obligation to return the gold. The report was released in 1997."
................................................................................................
"Britain and the United States began to enlist Sweden in the Safehaven program in 1944. Britain was in favor of restricting the program in Sweden to gold, while the United States wanted to include other assets. The United States used trade agreements as an inducement for cooperation. The Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, voiced its approval of Safehaven and in February 1945, Sweden began an inventory of its gold and foreign currency to see how much was linked to the Nazis. By spring, the British agreed with the Americans and drafted a proposal for Sweden, which then served as a basis for talks in Lisbon and Madrid. By summer 1945, Sweden had passed several measures to restrict the sale or dispersal of German property, and expanded the range of its census to include all types of German property. In January 1946, at the urging of the Allies, Sweden broadened the laws to include German subsidiaries. In November 1945, Sweden gave the Treasury Department a report on Swedish gold transactions. From it, the Treasury decided Sweden had received $22.7 million in looted gold from Belgium. The United States soon reduced the amount to $17 million."
................................................................................................
"Before the outbreak of WWII, Portugal held strong and long-standing political and emotional ties to Britain, dating back to the 14th century Anglo-Portuguese Alliance against Spain. England was Portugal’s largest trading partner in 1938. Portugal joined the British early in WWI and sent 50,000 troops to the frontlines.
"Portugal’s association with Nazi Germany emerged during the Spanish Civil War. Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar sided with Franco and Hitler, helped Germany smuggle arms to Franco’s forces and sent Portuguese volunteers to fight. Salazar hoped thereby to achieve his long-term goal of stabilization and development of the country’s economy. By the end of 1938, Germany was Portugal’s second largest trading partner. However, Salazar did protest Hitler’s invasion of Catholic Poland."
" ... In October 1942, Britain capitalized on its long-standing relationship by inducing Portugal to accept sterling in payment for goods. Britain’s gold reserves were low, and both Sweden and Switzerland were demanding payment in gold."
"Portugal’s economic success hinged on its rich wolframite or tungsten ore deposits. The Nazis were dependent on Portugal and Spain for this mineral. Tungsten has various uses, including light bulb filaments, but it was of particular value in producing war munitions. Germany’s machining industry used tungsten carbide almost exclusively, whereas the United States was still largely using inferior molybdenum-tipped tools, mainly because of the cartel agreement GE held with Krupp for carboloy or cemented tungsten carbide. In addition, tungsten was useful in armor-piercing munitions. The Allies were not solely dependent on Portugal or Spain and could buy wolframite from other sources, but it was their goal was to deprive Nazi Germany of as much tungsten ore as possible, so they bought as much as possible from Portugal. ... "
"On May 14, 1945, a week after Germany’s defeat, Portugal passed law 34,600 freezing all German assets in the country, creating a licensing system for unblocking these assets, providing a census of these assets, prohibiting trade of foreign currency notes and establishing a penalty regime to enforce these provisions. On May 23, Portugal extended the law to include all its colonies. Included in these assets were the German government buildings. On May 6, at the request of the Allies, Portugal had seized all German government buildings. Included in the seizure were 5,000 gold sovereigns found in the German Legation in Lisbon.
"While the Portuguese law gave the appearance of cooperation, the State Department feared it contained too many loopholes. For one, the census excluded participation by the Allies. The law also allowed for the transfer of blocked assets to individuals for their subsistence, and the normal exercise of commercial and industrial activity. In a report issued on June 19, 1946, the Division of Economic Security Controls decided that German firms continued to operate without any serious handicaps and many of the Nazis’ assets had dissipated. Moreover, the Portuguese census failed to uncover any holdings the Allies had not already identified."
................................................................................................
"The Lisbon talks of 1946-47 failed to resolve any of these issues. Portugal took a firm stand in 1945 that it was not responsible for returning gold it had exchanged with Germany during the war for tangible assets. Portugal claimed it never received German gold shipments from 1938 to ‘45. Allied intelligence decided Portugal received $143.8 million in gold from the Swiss National Bank, about half of the increase in the country’s gold reserves. Of this amount, the Allies were certain that $22.6 million was from gold looted from Belgium. During the negotiations, the Allies proposed that Portugal turn over $50.5 million. The Allies contended that this amount of gold was obtained after 1942 when it was clear to everyone the German gold reserves had expanded by the looting of Europe. Portugal claimed it was not aware of such looting. Later during the negotiations, Portugal contended that all the gold it gained had been in good faith and was not looted. Throughout the long period of negotiations stretching into the 1950s, Portugal only agreed to return $4.4 million.
"Recent evidence shows that Portugal’s claims were, at best, disingenuous. In a confidential report, Victor Gautier, a high-ranking Swiss National Bank official, reported in his meeting with Albino Garble Peso, secretary general of the Banco de Portugal, that Portugal would not accept gold directly from the Nazis, due to political motivations and legal risks. He further noted Portuguese objections would evaporate if the money passed via the Swiss. These statements and others in Gautier’s report make it clear the Portuguese wanted the Nazi gold with a clean slate from the Swiss money launderers. Initially, Portugal used the Bank of International Settlements and the Yugoslav National Bank in Basel to launder the Nazi gold.
"However, starting in 1941 the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia forced Portugal to look for other routes. Also, on Jan. 8, 1942, Montagu C. Norman, Director of the Bank of England, notified Thomas McKittrick, the American Director of the Bank of International Settlements, that it would no longer recognize shipments of gold from the International Bank to Portugal. Portugal then insisted the Reichsbank sell its gold for francs to the Swiss National Bank. The Reichsbank then deposited the francs into the Banco de Portugal account with the Swiss bank. The Banco de Portugal used these francs to buy the gold from the Swiss National Bank. In addition, the Portuguese used three accounts in the Swiss bank. Portugal used one to deposit gold transferred in payment for the purchase of escudos by SNB from the Banco de Portugal. It used the second account for gold bought from the Banco de Portugal, financed with the Swiss francs. The last account closed the circle by transferring gold on orders from Berlin to the Banco de Portugal account in Zurich.
"The Banco Espirito Santo also played a significant role in buying wolframite for the Nazis. An October 1945 FEA report charged that the bank was the financial agent for Nazi purchases of wolfram or wolframite (wolfram is the word for tungsten in German and other languages). After the Allies compelled the bank to forgo its German ties, the Nazis transferred their accounts to the Banco Lisboa e Acores.
"A significant amount of gold was smuggled into Portugal. The German Commercial Attaché in Madrid admitted to smuggling almost $1 million in English gold sovereigns from Berlin to the German embassy in Lisbon. The coins were sent in diplomatic pouches in 1943-44. Another report noted $360,000 in gold was flown to Portugal in June-July 1944 and deposited in the Bank of Portugal under the name of the ambassador. The bank director admitted several other dignitaries had special accounts, including the brother of Franco.
"While the Portuguese reached an early agreement with the Allies on German property, the issue of gold stalled the talks. Moreover, Portugal tied the property agreement to the gold issue and refused to liquidate the property. This delaying action only served to erode the value of the Nazi property seized. Talks continued off and on, formally and informally.
"Recently declassified documents show the American negotiators were aware of an OSS memo dated Feb. 7, 1946 stating that Portugal had received 124 tons of Nazi gold. Nevertheless, Allied negotiators were only seeking a return of 44 tons. The Azores complicated the negotiations from the end of the war until 1953. Portugal granted the U.S. permission to build an air base in the Azores for use during the war and for five years after. By July 1947, the State Department was urging negotiators to ease the hard-line approach and seek a compromise with Portugal on the gold issue. Foremost in the change of stance at the State Department was the Azores air base negotiation. In 1945, the Joint Chiefs designated the Azores as one of nine essential strategic bases needed to preserve the security of the United States. In 1947, the United States broke off the negotiations on gold until completion of the Azores negotiations.
"In 1948, Robert Lovett wrote the Treasury Secretary that “overriding political and strategic considerations of our foreign policy make it essential that the Portugal assets in the United States be unblocked.” A week later, the Treasury Department weakened the licensing procedures, effectively unblocking the assets. With that action, the United States lost all leverage over Portugal. On July 17, 1951, the State Department wired the embassy in Lisbon to settle on the Portuguese terms. The State Department based the decision on the overriding importance of politico-military objectives. Portugal had become a full member of NATO. Also at stake was a long-term lease for an air base in the Azores. Based on the priority of the Cold War objectives and after consulting British authorities, the State Department recommended settling the gold issue with Portugal for a mere $4.4 million.
"The Treasury Department would only agree to the terms if it received a letter signed at the Assistant Secretary level indicating there were political considerations warranting a settlement and that any agreement would not result in claims against the United States. Acting Assistant Secretary for European Affairs James Bonbright signed the letter to the Treasury. The United States finally agreed with Portugal on June 24, 1953. However, Portugal hinged the agreement on the condition of reaching an agreement with West Germany. It took until June 1958 before Germany and Portugal concluded an agreement. The next year, Portugal returned the $4.4 million in gold."
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"While many of the neutrals leaned toward fascism, none were fully fascist like Franco’s Spain. Both Germany and Italy provided support for Franco during the Spanish Civil War. In 1941, Franco sent 40,000 volunteers to Germany. Known as the Blue Division, they served for two years on the Russian front. Although Franco declared neutrality as soon as war broke out in Europe, Spain hovered on the brink of joining the Axis powers through 1940-41. Spanish belligerency was premised on an early German victory over Britain and Germany’s agreement to allow Spain to expand territorially into French Morocco, Africa and perhaps even Europe.
"The Nazis recognized the strategic location of Spain early on. As early as mid-1940, the Nazis had comprehensive plans to invade Gibraltar. The plans, code-named Operation Felix, originally called for a mid-1941 operation in which two corps would move by road across Spain, with Franco’s permission. Spain’s rail system was a different gauge than the rest of Europe, forcing the Nazis to rely on the roads. Once in position, Gibraltar was to be attacked from both the land and air with deadly Nazi efficiency. The plans also included two extra divisions to attack Morocco once Operation Felix succeeded.
"A Nazi seizure of Gibraltar would add weeks for oil tankers to reach Britain from the Mideast and give the Nazis strategic control of the Mediterranean. Franco certainly must have been aware of Britain’s precarious situation in 1940. With the empire under attack worldwide, it was hardly capable of defending itself against a follow-up attack on Morocco, the country that Franco eyed. Nevertheless, the Nazis failed to get Franco’s approval. Whether this was due to the intervention of the American ambassador or poor Nazi diplomacy, it has to be one of the biggest diplomatic and strategic setbacks for the Nazis.
"After 1941, there were similar plans to attack Gibraltar. However, once Hitler invaded Russia, any such plans were impractical. The Germans did not have the manpower or equipment to open a new battlefront."
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"Allied efforts to recover gold from Turkey were never pursued with any vigor. Turkey’s geographical location, controlling access to the Black Sea and its border with the Soviet Union made it a cornerstone for U.S. strategic interests in the coming Cold War. In 1946, formal talks were held to consider the gold received from the Nazis, as well as German assets in Turkey. The Allies estimated that German assets totaled $51 million. In March 1947, the Truman Doctrine included Turkey with Greece. In July, the United States signed a $150 million trade agreement with Turkey that dealt a deathblow to any further negotiations on restitution. Turkey never turned over any gold."
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"In January 1942, Argentina agreed to the terms of the Rio Conference, severing all commercial and financial relations with the Axis powers. In June 1942, Argentina agreed to the Final Act of the Inter-American Conference on Economic and Financial Controls, obligating all states to end commercial intercourse with the Axis. Argentina ignored the terms and continued business with the Nazis. Moreover, during 1942, Juan Goyeneche, a confidential agent of Peron, and Adrian Escobar, Argentina’s Ambassador to Spain, traveled through war-torn Europe, meeting with Nazi and Vatican officials. Goyeneche collaborated extensively with the Foreign Intelligence Branch of the SS. Escobar and his consul Aquilino Lopez were collaborating with Himmler’s secret service by crossing into Vichy France and reporting details on Spanish and Allied diplomats.
"After extensive meetings with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Luigi Magione, an agreement was reached in which, once peace was established, Argentina would generously apply its immigration laws. This seemingly innocent meeting takes on critical importance at the end of the war. It proves the Vatican was planning on helping Nazis war criminals escape from Europe as early as 1942. This meeting set up the Vatican ratlines.
""On Oct. 10, the Pope received Escobar and welcomed Argentina’s view that it was proper for the Vatican to engage in the peace talks. Goyeneche traveled to Germany and met with Ribbentrop seeking Nazi support for the nationalist candidate in the 1943 elections. This façade of neutrality was maintained until 1943 and the colonels’ revolution that eventually brought Peron to power.
"Once in power, the colonels sought arms from Germany in case war broke out between Argentina and Brazil. By September 1943, the colonels gave up the idea of smuggling arms into Argentina from Germany and, instead, sought an alliance with the Nazis. The group of colonels dispatched Osmar Hellmuth and Carlos Velez to Spain to negotiate. Unfortunately for the colonels, U.S. Magic intercepts detected the upcoming mission from transmissions between the SS agent in Argentina, a Capt. Becker, and Schellenberg in Germany, and had the British seize Hellmuth when the ship docked in Trinidad.
"The seizure of Hellmuth failed to deter further plots. Peron and Becker continued to plan the overthrow of neighboring governments to set up a pro-Nazi block in South America. Peron wrote in a secret manifest of the colonels:
""Forming alliances will be the first step. We have Paraguay; we have Bolivia and Chile. With Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile, it will be easy to pressure Uruguay. Then the five united nations will easy draw in Brazil because of its type of government and its large nucleus of Germans. With Brazil fallen, the American continent will be ours.""
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"During the final year of the war, Argentina was a prime destination for many of the assets that Bormann spirited out of Germany for a rebirth of the Third Reich. Following the war, Argentina also was a prime destination for Nazi war criminals. Even war criminals who escaped to other South American countries generally first entered the continent through Argentina. While other South American countries generally supported the U.S. policies during the war, there was no cooperation from Argentina. Other countries adhered to the Proclaimed List and took steps to eliminate any smuggling efforts. The Treasury Department urged harsher actions toward Argentina than the State Department was willing to impose. The State Department was hampered by a fear that a harsher policy would alienate other South American countries and by a difference of opinion with the British. During both world wars, England depended on Argentina for beef. However, as early as 1942, Argentina’s neutrality policy made it a leading focus of the Treasury Department and the Board of Economic Warfare."
"Safehaven negotiations with Argentina started in 1944. However, the distressed relations restrained any progress in the negotiations. In February 1944, Argentine President Ramirez delegated his powers to Gen. Edelmiro Farrell. The United States failed to recognize the Farrell government and recalled the ambassador. In August and September, the State Department announced more sanctions against Argentina due to its failure to comply with denazification. In response, Argentina withdrew from the Montevideo Committee for the political defense of the continent. The Argentine Central Bank provided little help to U.S. investigators in locating German assets. After Cordell Hull resigned as Secretary of State in November 1944, the incoming Secretary, Edward Stettinius, developed an easier policy toward Argentina. Nelson Rockefeller, the appointed wartime chief of South American intelligence, also favored easier terms with Argentina. Rockefeller-controlled banks illegally transferred funds between the U.S. and Argentina from frozen accounts."
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"Recognizing its increasing isolation from other nations in the Western Hemisphere, Argentina declared war against Germany in the last month of hostilities.
"On Feb. 11, 1946, the State Department released the famed Blue Book on Argentina. The book confirmed that the Argentine government asserted no control over German firms, delaying the efforts to seize the Nazi assets until they were dispersed elsewhere. The book also confirmed that Nazi Germany sent large sums of money to its embassy in Argentina without any serious obstacles. Some historians credit the release of the Blue Book for Peron’s election as part of an anti-American backlash. On May 22, 1946, the Safehaven team reported the total value of German assets at roughly $200 million. The assets included bank balances, real estate and merchandise. The Safehaven team found no caches of art or gems, and assumed that Argentina was not a major destination of looted treasure. The team also reported that no records revealed Argentina receiving Nazi gold.
"As early as 1942, the United States knew of illegal Argentina currency dealings. In April 1942, the U.S. Consulate in Switzerland reported that an Argentine diplomat was smuggling dollars stolen by the Nazis to his homeland for sale; the funds were then transferred to Switzerland. British cables from 1944 show Argentina conducted vigorous trade with Switzerland and often the payment was in gold. By 1945, the State and Treasury departments found decisive evidence of extensive transactions involving the transfer of Argentine pesos, Reichsmarks and Swiss francs from Argentina to Switzerland. In May 1947, Argentina proposed a transfer of $170 million to its Federal Reserve account. Concern over the source of the gold only momentarily delayed the transfer. Guyatt reports that in 1973, after returning to power, Peron sold 400 tons of gold on the black market. Peron code-named the sale Bormann 1345. While the Spanish government tutored the sale, the transfer agent labeled it political. Despite the massive increase in Argentina’s gold reserve and the number of Nazi war criminals who found sanctuary in Argentina, even after 50 years there is little proof of Argentina accepting gold from the Nazis.
"The Cold War badly compromised Safehaven investigations in Argentina. On June 3, 1947, President Truman and Argentine Ambassador Ivanissevich issued a joint announcement that the two countries would renew consultations with other Latin American countries about creating a treaty of mutual aid. In September, Argentina joined the United States and other American Republics in agreeing to the Inter-American Treaty for Reciprocal Assistance, the Rio Pact, for mutual defense against aggression. Bormann’s cloaked companies in Argentina, as well as any treasure, were safe and secure. The hemisphere had to be protected from communism."
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"On April 10, 1941, following the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, the so-called independent state of Croatia was established, headed by Ante Pavelic, a member of the fascist Croat Ustashi political movement. Mussolini declared Croatia a protectorate of Italy. Both Italy and the Nazis supported Croatia. The Ustashi also were closely aligned with the Vatican. On May 18, 1941, Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles reaffirmed the exile government of Yugoslavia did not recognize the independent state of Croatia. Shortly after, Croatia sealed the U.S. embassy in Zagreb. Since Croatia only existed as a state during the war and the United States never recognized it, the figures presented in this section are likely to be subject to revision in the future.
"Postwar reports suggest the Ustashi treasury had at its disposal more than $80 million, mostly gold coins, some stolen from their victims. On May 31, 1944, Croatia deposited $403,000 in the Swiss National Bank. On Aug. 4, 1944, Croatia deposited another $1.1 million in gold. An OSS report in July 1945 concluded that Croat-owned commercial accounts in Bern totaled more than $93,000. The Historical Section of the Task Force of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs shows that on July 24, 1945, the Swiss National Bank returned to the National Bank of Yugoslavia all 1,338 kilograms of gold in 121 ingots in the account of the wartime Croatian regime.
"While bank records of deposit are not likely to change much, the gold the Ustashi carried as they fled to Austria as the war was reaching an end is very much in doubt. Estimates placed the value of gold Ante Pavelic had when entering Austria at $5 million-$6 million. Whatever the value of the loot, it is certain that much of it was used to set up and run a ratline with the Vatican. In October 1946, U.S. intelligence reported to the Treasury Department that the Ustashi had $47 million deposited in the Vatican before transfer to Spain and then to Argentina. Due to the Cold War, the Allies expended little effort in returning the thousands of war criminals from Italy to Yugoslavia. The issue of Ustashi gold received even less attention at the war’s conclusion."
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"In August 1938, after the Anschluss the Federal Council ordered the borders closed. Fearing a mix of refugees, including Jews, the Federal Council petitioned the Nazi government in Berlin to affix a “J” stamp on all Jewish passports. The Nazis initially were not keen on the idea because they were still using immigration as a way to free Germany of Jews. Negotiations continued throughout late summer and autumn. Eventually, the Swiss threatened to require visas for all Germans entering Switzerland. The Nazis then proposed the “J” stamp on passports as a solution. Now it was a Nazi idea in the eyes of the Federal Council.
"The only reason the Swiss were so intent on such a marking on passports was to make it easier for border guards to turn away Jews. Despite the myth of Switzerland as a refuge for Jews during the war, border guards turned away more than 30,000 Jewish refugees. In August 1942, the Federal Council passed another law to seal the border to Jewish refugees, despite vigorous pleas from some church members and the press. The Swiss people were not anti-Semitic and opposed the government’s policy. Other than closing the border to Jews, Switzerland passed no anti-Jewish laws. The Jewish community in Switzerland was divided, with a minority favoring demonstrations to allow more Jewish immigration and a majority favoring a policy of “don’t make trouble.”
"Even if the Jewish refugees were able to get past the border guards, Swiss officials demanded to see their passports. If the passport had the “J” stamp, the officials forced the hapless Jews back into the hands of the Nazis. Border guard Grueninger received his order in 1938 not to allow in any Jews. However, Grueninger allowed 3,600 Jews entry and helped them to alter their passports so they could remain. Alerted by the Nazis of Grueninger’s acts of humanity, the Swiss suspended him in December 1938. In January 1939, the government filed charges against him for forging documents. In 1941, a court found him guilty of insubordination and took away his job, retirement and severance pay, and levied a stiff fine. Afterward, he never was able to find a suitable job and was dogged by rumors that he demanded money and sexual favors from those he helped. The former boarder guard vigorously denied the unfounded rumors."
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"From the beginning, Swiss government officials knew of the early methodology of the Nazi genocide. The Nazis invited Swiss army doctors to serve on the Eastern Front to treat wounded Nazi soldiers in Operation Barbarossa. At that stage, roving bands of the Einsatzgruppen carried out the killings by shooting the Jews they rounded up. While the Swiss doctors did not see the killing squads, they saw the effects and reported them to the Red Cross and government officials. A 1943 National Bank Legal report mentions the deportations and persecutions of Jews."
"The earliest news of the Holocaust to reach the West came in a telegram on Aug. 8, 1942 from Gerhart Riegner. The informant who provided the information was a Leipzig businessman, Eduard Scholte.
""Received alarming report that in Fuhrer’s headquarters plan discussed and under consideration according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled Germany numbering three and a half to four million should after deportation and concentration in the east be exterminated at one blow to resolve once and for all the Jewish question in Europe. Action reported planned for autumn; methods under discussion including prussic acid. We transmit information with all necessary reservation as exactitude cannot be confirmed. Informant stated to have close connections with highest German authorities and his reports generally reliable."
"Unfortunately, this report was widely disbelieved, even by Jews. Allen Dulles labeled it hysterical Jewish propaganda. Rabbi Stephen Wise, one of the recipients of the telegram, released it to the press on Nov. 24, 1942. After that, everyone was aware of the savagery and horror occurring in the Third Reich."
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"A Feb. 5, 1946 report by the economic intelligence group Allied Claims Against Swiss for Return of Looted Gold provides the best estimate of gold looted from the central banks of Europe. The report estimates the total amount of gold the Nazis accumulated at $648 million. At the outbreak of the war, the best estimate of the Nazi gold reserves was $100 million. The Nazis looted the difference of $548 million from the countries of Europe. The report estimates from bank records that the Nazis sold between $275 million and $282 million to the Swiss National Bank. In addition, the Nazis sold another $20 million to commercial Swiss banks. The report proves that much of the gold ended up in Portugal and Spain after the Swiss laundered it."
"A six-page report, Safehaven No. 2969, detailed the extent of Nazi assets in Switzerland. The document was sent by Americans in Bern to the Secretary of State. ... In the report, a Swiss banker estimates the banks held $110 million in Nazi assets. ..."
"In addition, the Nazis had large amounts of gold, currency, gems and art stored away in safe-deposit boxes. The British estimated the value of 53 paintings at $484,000. The report determined the total value of all the looted paintings at $390 million-$545 million."
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"In February 1945, after much wrangling about imposing sterner measures against Switzerland, Lauchlin Currie, assistant to President Roosevelt, headed the American delegation to Switzerland for talks on stopping the wartime trade and to begin negotiations on gold issues. William Rappard headed the Swiss delegation, although the man pulling the strings was Walter Stucki. In March, Currie reported some success. The Swiss agreed to freeze all German assets; ban importation, exportation and dealing in all foreign currencies; and restrict Swiss purchases of gold from Germany. While the Currie mission was greeted as a success, controversy soon followed. In May 1945, the U.S. Legation in Bern reported the Swiss bought 3,000 kilograms of gold from Germany. The Currie agreement clearly excluded the buy. However, the Swiss argued the gold was not looted.
"In June 1945, Harley Kilgore chaired the Senate’s War Mobilization Subcommittee. In the hearings, he introduced documents uncovered by Allied investigators of correspondence between German Reichsbank Vice President Emil Puhl and the German Minister of Economic Affairs Walter Funk about German-Swiss commercial discussions conducted during the Currie Mission. The treachery of the Swiss received widespread publicity. Orvis A. Schmidt, Director of Foreign Funds Control for the Treasury Department and a member of the Currie Mission to Bern, testified before the subcommittee:
""Even at this late date, the Swiss Government is loath to take the necessary steps to force banks and other cloaking institutions to disclose the owners of assets held in or through Switzerland. This means that German assets held in or through Switzerland will not be identified. Thus, the true picture of German financial and industrial penetration throughout the world will be kept a secret. By the same token, Swiss banks will continue to profit by protecting, through their secrecy laws, German’s war potential and the hidden assets of it financiers and industrialists.""
"In March 1946, formal talks with Switzerland, United States, Britain and France opened in Washington. U.S. negotiators held an optimistic view that the Swiss were committed to the Currie Mission agreement. On the other hand, Switzerland viewed its actions during the war as consistent with the internationally recognized obligations and rights of a neutral power. The Swiss asserted that international law granted the Nazis’ seizure of monetary gold from the occupied countries (the right of occupying powers to war booty). Thus, the receipt of the gold by Switzerland was legal. Switzerland argued the Allies’ claim to Nazi assets beyond Germany’s border was illegal and a violation of Swiss sovereignty. In addition, Switzerland sought the removal of all Swiss companies and individuals from the Allied blacklist."
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" ... Treasury briefing material for the U.S. negotiators urged a global approach to the gold issue, rather than settling the amount of looted gold in each transaction. Also, the Treasury wanted an open-end clause in any agreement, which required Switzerland to return any looted gold found in the future. Treasury Assistant Secretary Harry Dexter White insisted that Swiss funds remain blocked in the United States until the Swiss provided ironclad guarantees that they would identify and seize all accounts under German control. White estimated total of German assets in Switzerland, excluding numbered accounts and cloaked assets, to be $500 million.
"The American negotiators had the benefit of two comprehensive evaluations of German gold movements during World War II. Both reports were prepared from the records of the Reichsbank. Otto Fletcher, Special Assistant to the Division of Economic Security Controls of the State Department, estimated that at the beginning of the war, Nazi gold reserves totaled $120 million. He estimated the Nazis acquired another $661 million in monetary gold during the war, most of which was looted. Fletcher also reported that all gold sold by the Nazis after early 1943 was looted. His report showed the Nazis sold or transferred $414 million in looted gold to the Swiss National Bank. The second report, prepared by James Mann of the Treasury Department, estimated the total monetary gold looted by Germany at $579 million, out of $785 million available after June 30, 1940. Mann’s report decided the Swiss took $289 million in gold from the Nazis."
" ... the Swiss released a report, Swiss Observations With Regard to the Gold Problem that differed markedly from Allied calculations about German gold holdings at the beginning of the war, and questioned the credibility of information provided by former Reichsbank Vice President Emil Puhl. Puhl told Allied investigators the Swiss National Bank knew the gold was looted because he had told them."
" ... Finally, on April 24, Seymour Rubin told Under Secretary Acheson and Assistant Secretary Clayton that the Swiss suspended the talks. The Allies sought the return of $130 million in gold looted from Belgium and traceable to Switzerland."
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"Negotiations with Switzerland continued until 1952 before reaching a final accord. Throughout the years, Switzerland displayed a disregard and contempt for the Allies’ authority. Swiss duplicity marked all the negotiations, especially in the heirless assets. With heirless assets, the Swiss banks had no problems liquidating accounts for the benefit of the bank, but refused all help to Jews seeking the accounts of loved ones lost in the Holocaust. Often the banks demanded a death certificate, knowing the Nazis never issued them for concentration camps victims. This final issue was not settled until the 1990s initiative started by President Clinton and headed by Eizenstat.
"Although there were renewed talks in the 1990s, Swiss duplicity still abounds. A new scandal emerged in 1997 when former bank guard Christoph Meili came forward with evidence that Union Bank of Switzerland was shredding documents about its activities with the Nazis. Meili, a night guard at Union Bank, discovered a large quantity of documents waiting to be shredded. Among them were records of accounts from the war years. The young guard turned over two books and pages ripped from another to a Jewish organization in Switzerland. Swiss law forbids destroying documents that might relate to WWII investigations. As a reward for his efforts to uncover the truth, Union Bank fired Meili. The government also is studying whether he violated any Swiss secrecy laws. The young man was threatened with the kidnapping of his daughters and has since moved to the United States. Even in the U.S., Meili still receives death threats. President Clinton signed a bill granting the Meili family permanent resident status. Christoph Meili has the distinction of being the only Swiss citizen ever granted political asylum in the United States."
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March 04, 2020 - March 14, 2020 - April 29, 2020.
ASIN: B008UAQPRO
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March 04, 2020 - March 14, 2020 - April 29, 2020.
ASIN: B008UAQPRO
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