If this subject interests you, consider my book Mein Kampf - An analysis also. Thanks
Hitler and His Secret Partners
Written by James Pool (1933-1945)
Book Review/Synopsis
By Richard E. Noble
“... looting and plunder were the primary motives of Hitler and the pro-Nazi industrialists and generals who were his secret partners. It made little difference to them if they had to kill, make war, and exterminate to get the wealth and natural resources they wanted. Hitler, Nazi bosses, and pro-Nazi industrialist grew rich off robbing Jews and using them as slave labor ... the financial motives of Hitler and his partners have never been examined ... In Nazi Germany those who financed Hitler were well rewarded with enormous war profits, confiscated Jewish property, loot from the conquered countries, and most important, power ... After the war, Hitler’s supporters in business and the army tried to minimize the role they had played in the Nazi government. But this book will prove they ruled Germany along with Hitler as almost equal partners, and even though they remained behind the scenes, they were equally responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich ... The King of England did more than any other single individual to help Hitler rearm Germany.”
And so we begin Mr. Pool’s second adventure into Hitler’s financial backing.
Adolf was not a poor little boy from the ghetto. He was from a fairly comfortable middle class home. He dropped out of high school when he was sixteen. His father had died when he was fourteen and his Mother had no control on the boy. He was, like both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, a “mama’s boy.”
He nursed his mother in her last days as she died from breast cancer and not long after that he joined the ranks of the homeless. “He got a job on a construction project, but when he refused to join a socialist labor union some of the other workers who were Marxists beat him up and kicked him off the job.” Since the Marxists were the leaders of the Social Democratic Party the author suggests that this is what might have started Adolf on his road to anti-Semitism.
“Hitler won the Iron Cross second class in 1914. He was wounded in the leg in 1916. In August of 1918, he won the Iron Cross first class, Germany’s highest honor, which was rarely given to enlisted men ... Hitler never rose above the rank of corporal ... he was a patriot to the last ... The war had a decisive effect on Hitler’s character ... It gave him a sense of discipline and self-confidence the violence and carnage he saw all around him brutalized him. His regiment had one of the highest causality rates in the German Army. World War I educated him in violence.”
Clearly we never think of Adolf Hitler as being Audie Murphy-like - a hero to his people as a brave and courageous soldier. We have been trained to view Hitler as a mad man; not a brave, courageous war veteran and charismatic leader who may have eventually gone mad.
In 1918 there was a general strike throughout all of Germany. Munitions workers in Berlin walked off their jobs demanding peace. “The soldier is expected to fight for victory and the homeland goes on strike against it!” To Hitler this was “the greatest villainy of the war.”
To my way of thinking this is the Vietnam Soldier Syndrome. We still have Vietnam veterans today who feel that they were stabbed in the back by the American war protesters back on the “home front” - even after more than fifteen unsuccessful years of war, millions of dead Vietnamese, ten of thousands of dead young Americans and billions and billions of taxpayers dollars. And I can’t help thinking that this is the psychological syndrome of every soldier who has ever been on the losing side of any war.
Hitler was then blinded by a chlorine gas attack in 1918 in Ypres, Belgium. Hitler had fears that he might never be able to paint again. While he was recuperating, the anti-war movement was spreading across Germany. The German navy at the port of Kiel mutinied. The rebelling sailors ran up the red flag of revolution. The Kaiser abdicated and Friedrich Ebert became chancellor.
The Communists called themselves Spartacists and they attacked the Ebert government. Ebert organized the “Free Corps” to challenge the Communist Revolutionaries. Important Communist leaders like Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were captured and shot and Rioting broke out all over Germany. Kurt Eisner the left wing leader of the Bavarian government was then assassinated. The Communists were no more than an unorganized mob who terrorized the general public. The German upper classes were terrified by these events. “The Communist revolution in Germany in 1918 played an important part in the rise of German anti-Semitism - Eisner, Liebknecht and Luxemburg had all been Jews. The Communist uprising and revolution was key to the counter patriot revolution and its anti-Semitism of the future.”
By 1933 Hitler had been appointed chancellor of Germany by elected president Hindenburg.
“The aristocrats and the gentleman of the Right who made up the majority of Hitler’s cabinet hated the concept of democracy even more than the Nazi’s did. These men belonged to the old ruling class of the Kaiser’s Germany. They wanted to regain their old position of supremacy, lost in 1918. They wanted to restore the Monarchy, suppress the socialist unions, avenge the loss of World War I and make Germany the dominant power in Europe. It was obvious why such reactionary nationalists helped put Hitler in power: their goals and his were very similar.”
The army and the generals were the power behind all power during the Weimar government. General von Schleicher, of the army, provided Hitler with over ten million marks. An emergency decree gave the Nazi the right to prohibit public meetings and suppress newspapers if they incited civil disobedience. Hitler’s right-hand man Herman Goering was instrumental in the use of violence and control. “Goering auxiliary police used their nightsticks to help their Nazi comrades ‘give the Reds a good beating’. Also, they often intimidated the general public by marching into restaurants and trying to force the frightened patrons to buy photographs of Hitler or Goering at exorbitant prices.”
Hitler spoke to the powerful industrialist’s passions; “An impossible situation is created when one section of a people favors private property while another denies it. A struggle of that sort tears a people apart and the fight continues until one section emerges victorious ... It is not by accident that one man produces more than another; the concept of private property is rooted in this fact ... human beings are anything but equal. As far as the economy is concerned, I have but one desire, namely, that it may enter upon a peaceful future. There will however, not be a domestic peace unless Marxism has been exterminated.”
Hitler was expecting a civil war. His immediate enemy and biggest political rival was the Communists and the German Communist party.
The Reichstag Fire - this was a major event; like the explosion of the Maine in Havana, the Alamo in Texas, the sinking of the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, the burning of Rome while Nero fiddled or today’s catastrophe of 9/11. Just as there is a historical controversy behind all of these events, the Reichstag fire is no less controversial.
Marinus van der Lubbe, a twenty-four year old eccentric, Communist from Holland - considered a half-wit fanatic by many - was arrested, tried convicted and eventually beheaded. But rumor and many historians alike have put the blame of the Reichstag Fire on Hitler or Georing or the Nazis in general.
Van der Lubbe even confessed that he did it as a protest. He was captured not twenty minutes after the fire began standing outside the burning building watching it blaze. But the theory is that he was but an accident to the real event that was sponsored by the Nazis themselves in order to turn the circumstance of the event into political propaganda against the Communists and set the German people into a panic. Whatever the true events behind the Reichstag fire, it became the perfect propaganda weapon for Hitler and his Nazis.
At the very scene of the fire Hitler screamed to the British reporter Sefton Delmer; “God grant that this is the work of the Communists. You are witnessing the beginning of a great new epoch in German history. This fire is the beginning ... You see this building, you see how it is aflame? If the Communists got hold of Europe and had control of it for ... two months, the whole continent would be aflame like this building ... Now we will show them! Anyone who stands in our way will be mowed down! The German people have been soft too long. Every Communist official must be shot. All Communist deputies must be hanged this very night. All friends of the Communists must be locked up, and that goes for the Social Democrats as well.”
Hitler then proposed an emergency decree “The decree called for the suspension of all civil liberties: the right of freedom of speech, free press, freedom of assembly. The Weimar constitution, which had granted the rights of a democratic society to Germans since 1919, was to be wiped out in one blow.”
Though the German people believed the Hitler’s Communist conspiracy story, the rest of the world had its doubts. “Soon there was a growing sentiment that the Nazis had burned the Reichstag themselves as a pretext for suppressing the Communist party. In order to quiet the international uproar, Hitler agreed to a public trial for van der Lubbe and three other Communists accused of being conspirators. Fortunately for Hitler the trial would not begin until after the elections.”
Georing also spoke out, “My measures will not be crippled by any bureaucracy. I won’t have to worry about justice, my mission is only to destroy and exterminate [Marxism]. We won’t forget them. We are building concentration camps now ... You must not be shocked by what some people call excesses. Flogging, general cruelty, even deaths ... these are the inevitable in a forceful sweeping, young revolution.”
In the next election the Nazis won with 44% of the electorate - the Communist, the Social Democrats and the Nationalist parties shared the majority.
“… princes and aristocrats were now contributing large sums to the Nazis, not as large as the industrialists, but significant sums nevertheless.”
While the Nazis pushed for an Enabling Act which would give them power over the legislature and the budget “Hitler’s agents had been negotiating with papal representatives ... Pope Pius the XI was adamantly anti-Communist and pro-Fascist. He was pleased with Mussolini’s Fascist government in Italy.” The Pope abandoned the German Catholic Center party. With the support of the Pope and the destabilizing of the Catholic Center party Hitler then went to the legislature and threatened - they could either give him the power to rule with the Enabling Act or he would use force to get it. “The hatred with which the Nazis fought, pummeled, and persecuted their own opponents contained all the bitterness and savage brutality of an abused underling who finally rises to the top and is determined to avenge himself.” [There is evidence that Hitler’s father may have been abusive. I’ve read one account that claimed that a youth Hitler was hospitalized from one beating from his father. I don’t know if this beating account is historically accurate.]
The Nazis won. “Hitler ... would no longer be restrained by the Richstag and democracy ... The Enabling Act seemed to be a milestone for Krupp. The day after the passage of the Enabling Act he wrote a formal letter to Hitler stating that he and the other industrialists of the Ruhr agreed that Germany finally had “the basis for a stable government” ... Krupp agreed to become Hitler’s chief fund-raiser, and Hitler in turn promised to appoint Krupp the fuehrer of German industry ... Over the years Gustav Krupp contributed six million marks of his own money to the Adolf Hitler Fund ... Many German industrialists, particularly weapons manufacturers like Krupp, were not advocates of the free enterprise system. Industry had traditionally sought political favors and regarded the government as an ally. They were actually eager for an authoritarian regime, especially one that would abolish Marxist trade unions. The more government contracts a company could get, the greater its profits.”
Shortly after declaring May Day a national Holiday; “S.A. Brownshirts and police seized and occupied all labor union officers, newspapers, cooperative centers, and lodging houses. Eighty-eight union leaders were arrested. Special units under the direction of Dr. Ley (Hitler’s Labor Minister) seized the labor union banks, files, and bank accounts. Total union assets seized amounted to over 184,000,000 marks. It would be enough money to support the Nazi party for over a year. It was over sixty times the amount of money the industrialists had given the Nazis for the March elections, and it was over six times the thirty million Gustav Krupp had raised for Hitler. Hitler’s true labor policy became very clear less than a month later when he issued a decree ending collective bargaining ... disputes would be settled by Nazi “labor trustees”. Ley further promised ‘to restore absolute leadership to the natural leader of the factory - that is the employer - only the employer can decide.’ By the summer of 1933, Hitler had made great strides on the road to dictatorship. He had firmly established Nazi control throughout Germany by controlling the police. The Communists had been suppressed. He had abolished democracy with the Enabling Act. He had taken over the labor unions and seized their great wealth. Finally he had outlawed all opposition political parties by using the powers granted to him in the Enabling Act ... He had come to power on a coalition of three forces - mass popular support, financial support from certain business interests, and support from a powerful group of pro-Nazi officers in the army.”
Now comes the Roehm affair. This is a major event in the Hitler career.
In one week-end a series of assassinations and outrageous Godfather type murders transpire. I have read several different accounts. They all differ in the details but certain facts appear consistent. The S.A. under the leadership of Roehm was being led or encouraged to what was described as a Second Revolution. They were taking over factory and public places and conducting firing squads.
The S.A. whose ranks had swelled to over 4 million were a rag-tag paramilitary army of ex-soldiers, unemployed, poor, lower class and under-class. Although they had fought bitterly and bloodily against the workingman-Communists, the S.A.’s brand of political Socialism was not that much different from the Communist’s objectives. They wanted jobs, they wanted businesses and banks and whatever taken over by the government.
They liked the street fighting and the fear and power that their lawlessness had gained them. They felt that they were responsible for Hitler’s success and that he was cow-towing to the capitalist and rich and powerful of every type.
Hitler had been convinced by his close advisers that Roehm was fomenting a coup. So it seems that Hitler, Goering, Gobbels, Himmler, Ley and the gang decided to nip this situation in the bud. Hitler was also pressured by Hindenberg the most powerful leader in the nation. Hindenberg supported the conventional national military and not this paramilitary gang of S. A. style street thugs. At 4 million the S.A. out numbered the national military and the police put together. Hindenberg demanded that Hitler bring this group under control or lose his support and the support of the conventional army.
Thus followed all the assassinations - anywhere from 80 to 1000 depending on the source - Roehm included.
After the old general - Hindenberg died; “Hitler decided to call a plebiscite to prove that a majority of the German people approved of his assumption of Hindenberg’s office as head of state. On August 19, over forty-five million Germans went to the polls; thirty-eight million voted “yes’ in favor of Hitler’s assumption to supreme power.”
Germany had been secretly rearming against the treaty of Versailles since the War had ended - this continued to be the case under Hitler. The economy was steadily improving and Hitler got bolder and bolder. He had ended reparations, left the League of Nations, started conscription and ended demilitarization of the Rhineland, and had the support of the King of England - Edward VIII. It does seem today to be an historical fact that the King and his American bride, Wallace Simpson, were supporters of Hitler and Nazism if not engaged in out right treason to Britain.
Financial Hitler Supporters were lining up.
Hitler then began his campaign of state confiscation of the wealth of the German Jews. “On the night of November 9, [Kristallnacht - 1938] the worst pogrom in modern German history took place. This orgy of violence and destruction was set off by the death in Paris, that afternoon, of Ernst von Rath, the third secretary at the German Embassy. Rath was shot by Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen year old Polish Jew who was enraged because his parents had been expelled from Germany...”
Hitler’s personal wealth was enhanced by his collecting of paintings and from his book Mein Kampf “It had sold reasonably well when it was initially published ... When Hitler became chancellor in 1933 sales of Mein Kampf reached a total of one million copies, making Hitler a millionaire for the first time ... With the Nazi power Mein Kampf, became compulsory reading in schools and was given at government expense, to all newlyweds at their weddings ... By 1940, Mein Kampf had sold over six million copies.”
The Adolf Hitler Fund became Hitler personal trust fund and was administered by Martin Bormann. “Whenever Hitler wanted money for anything Bormann paid.” Gustav Krupp, chairman of the fund said the purpose of the fund was “to represent a token of gratitude to the leader of the nation.’ It seems that Hitler also owned Eher Publishing, which had been made exempt from taxation, as was Hitler himself.
Hitler spent huge amounts on building public buildings - which also made friends and associates who received the contracts very wealthy.
“In four years Germany must be wholly independent of foreign imports if the same materials can be produced in Germany … Seventy-five percent of the money spent on the Four Year Plan was to go to I G. Farben for the development of synthetic gasoline and rubber ... Historians have been unable to determine exactly why Hitler decided to move against Austria in early 1938 ... the simple fact was Germany did not have enough raw materials to continue rearmament. There were serious shortages of strategic metals, oil, rubber, cotton, and fats. From 1933 to 1937 Germany had been able to purchase some of the needed raw materials on world markets, but by 1938 she had run out of money to buy imports ... Hitler was trapped. He had spent Germany into insolvency. There was only one way out - march into central Europe where there were some of the natural resources Germany needed, including an adequate food supply ... Once Austria was taken, Czechoslovakia would be at a strategic disadvantage because it would be surrounded on three sides ... annexation of Austria would temporarily solve many of Germany’s economic problems.”
Both France and Britain had refused to commit any military support to Austria and when Hitler needed more financing he invaded Czechoslovakia.
“In Chamberlain’s mind, the Nazis, when compared to the Communists, were the lesser of two evils ... Chamberlain saw Hitler as a bulwark against Communism ... He was trying to talk Hitler out of war and show that Britain would help him get what he wanted by peaceful means.” Mr. Pool is of the opinion that it was Chamberlain’s goal to maintain the balance of power in Europe and not necessarily “appeasement” ... Hitler got just what he wanted. Chamberlain saved Hitler from the secret coup among the German generals that was in the making. Hitler got the Skoda Munitions Works, the Czech Sudeten bunkers and fortifications and one of the best equipped armies in Europe - including 1,582 airplanes; 2,175 pieces of field artillery; 469 tanks; 500 antiaircraft guns; 43,000 machine guns; 1,090,000 rifles; 14,000 revolvers; a billion rounds of ammunition and 3 million artillery shells.”
While Chamberlain and Daladier of France got cheers Churchill proclaimed Munich to be a “total and unmitigated defeat”.
“On the night of August 31, 1939, artillery, and several hundred thousand German soldiers quickly moved to the Polish border ... The richest prize Hitler won in Poland was the Province of Upper Silesia, which was abundant in natural resources, especially coal, iron and zinc. It produced almost as much iron as the Ruhr, 90 percent of Germany’s zinc needs and eighty million tons of coal a year. Upper Silesia had been German territory before 1818 and would be essential to the German war economy Germany’s war objectives in World War II were not the result of Hitler’s megalonmaniacal ambitions, they were the very same war aims Germany had in World War I. Hitler the loyal soldier of the old Imperial army, was just championing these objectives anew. In World War I Germany wanted the annexation of French Lorraine, the isolation of Britain, and recognition of German hegemony on the Continent. In the east Germany sought the annexation of much of Poland and the Baltic States, to make economic satellite states of Romania, the Ukraine, the Crimea, and a permanently weakened Russia ... There was nothing particularly Nazi about Hitler’s war aim. Hitler’s partners - the Nazi business tycoons and the militarists - all endorsed his aim.” According to Mr. Pool for the German industrialist World War II was business as usual.
In England Chamberlain was finally forced to resign and Winston Churchill was his replacement. After the near slaughter at Dunkirk, the Germans headed towards Paris via Belgium. With the French surrender or capitulation, Hitler established a Versailles type armistice on the French and in the same railroad car where Germany had surrendered in 1918. “France had to pay 400 million franks a day, which amounted to 60 percent of the French government income ... (They) were forced to deliver 3 million tons of wheat, two million tons of oats, 700,000 tons of potatoes, 75,000 tons of butter, 50,000 tons of cheese, half the wine production, 87 million bottles of champagne. The Nazi also took 73 percent of French iron production, approximately 80 percent of copper and nickel output, and 55 percent of aluminum output. The French were allowed to keep 30 percent of their wool production, 16 percent of their cotton, and 13 percent of their linen production.” Hitler then decided to launch an air attack against Britain - the mighty Luftwaffe against the R.A.F. It was called the Battle of Britain and was supposed to be an easy victory for the much lauded Goering Airforce. Churchill ended up calling it Britain Finest Hour. The Germans were turned back. They decided to go east.
Back at the Palace we had Kennedy, Lindbergh, the Windsors, Chamberlain, the Cliveden Set and an expensive array of the rich, wealthy, and powerful. Joe Kennedy was an avid supporter of Chamberlain, Hitler, and Franco. He spoke out against both Communists and Jews. Kennedy recommended sending European Jews to Africa “and other uninhabited places in the British Empire".
There was the Kennedy-Chamberlain Plan for the Jews and the Himmler Madagascar plan ... “Which proposed settling Germany’s Jews on the remote island of Madagascar off the African coast. Nevertheless there was a catch; the world Jewish community would have to raise over $600 million to pay the costs of transporting and settling the refugees ... In 1939 ... Kennedy met with James D. Moody, the head of General Motors in Germany. Together they concocted a plan for a massive American and British gold loan for Hitler.”
Even after the British declared war on Germany, Kennedy fought to keep the U.S. neutral. “There is no place in this fight for us ... no reason - economic, financial or social - to justify the United States entering the war.” Kennedy was eventually forced to resign his post as U.S. Ambassador to Britain.
“By 1941 Lindbergh was the leading figure in the America First Committee, an isolationist group organized to keep America out of the war ... He said there were three groups trying to drag America into the war; the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt administration ... Their (the Jews) greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion picture, our press, our radio and our Government.” Lindbergh was taking up where his good friend and employer, Henry Ford, had left off with his publication in the 1920s of the “International Jew”.
Mr. Pool then highlights the Treasonous accusations against Edward VIII and his American bride Wallace Simpson and the “real” reasons behind the Kings abdication of his throne.
Then came Pearl Harbor and the Japanese followed by operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia. “Many historians consider Hitler’s attack on Russia as his greatest mistake, caused by an uncontrollable megalomania and a Napoleonic complex. Germany had always tried to avoid a two front war. Why did Germany now start another war with Russia before he defeated England? Actually if he wanted to survive the war with Britain, Hitler had little choice but to attack Russia. Germany was slowly being strangled by the British naval blockade, but since Hitler had decided an invasion of England was too risky, his only hope was to conquer Russia, where he would get enough natural resources to outlast Britain. Hitler had been worried for some time about Germany’s inability to feed it own population. ‘In the case of foods, autarchy (self-sufficiency is definitely impossible ... To deal with the problem of food shortages by permanently lowering the standard of living or by rationing is impossible.’ By 1941, in addition to Germany’s serious food shortages there was also a critical lack of oil, which presented an immediate military danger. Germany was cut off from oil imports from the United States, South America, and Iran. The only way Hitler could continue the war was by purchasing oil from Russia. Stalin could, however, cut off Germany’s oil at any time, so Hitler decided to strike first.”
Mr. Pool then describes the battle for the spoils of Russia. “Alfried Krupp, the head of the Krupp steel firm, probably profited more from Hitler’s Russian empire than any other industrialist … After the fall of Dnepropetrovsk, Krupp’s agents took over the huge Molotov Works, one of the largest steel mills in Europe. Krupp also took over two of the most modern machine factories in the world, the Azova Plant and the Iiyitch works, both located in the Ukraine.”
But the tide turned, with the rain and then the cold winter. “Stalingrad was the worst defeat the German Army had suffered in over a hundred years. Militarily it marked the turning of the tide for Hitler. It also marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi coalition.”
If Hitler couldn’t beat the English and now couldn’t beat the Russians and establish the Aryan race as supreme the least he could do in terms of his personal goals was exterminate the Jews - and make a lot of people rich while he was at it. “Contrary to the opinion of most historians, Hitler’s plans to exterminate the Jews were not based solely on racial hatred. When Hitler and the Nazis decided to wipe out the Jewish people, they were motivated at least in part by the thought that it would be profitable ... Hitler did not approach the problem of extermination of the Jews haphazardly. He had carefully studied some of the most prominent examples of mass murder in history. His four principal inspirations were the slaughter of the American Indians, the killings of the Armenians by the Turks, the Red Terror during the Communist revolution in Russia, and the Japanese butchery at Nanking in 1937 ... He was very interested in the way the Indian population had rapidly declined due to epidemics and starvation when the United States government forced them to live on the reservations. He thought the American government’s forced migrations of the Indians over great distances to barren reservation land was a deliberate policy of extermination.”
If Hitler was going to lose, he would make sure that the Jews would lose also. “If the international Jewish financiers succeed in plunging the nations of Europe into another world war, then the result will be not the Bolshevization of the world and thereby the victory of Jewry - but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”
The Jews could not be deported or exported - the non-German world had refused to take them. Consequently they would either be worked to death as slave laborers for the government and the S.S. and the industrialists or exterminated. “When it came to the mistreatment of slave laborers, Alfried Krupp, the steel and munitions manufacturer, was one of the worst violators ... Speer and Sauckel were unable to supply enough slave laborers to satisfy Alfried Krupp. To get more slaves Krupp decided to organize slave raiding expeditions of his own ... One of Krupp’s executives was placed in charge of “labor procurement” and traveled from country to country to round up slave laborers. If they offered any resistance, they were sent back to Essen in leg irons.”
The selective bombing of German industry is another interesting point. “The German synthetic oil plants had been able to increase production to such an extent because they had suffered very little from Allied air raids. It has remained one of the great mysteries of the war why the Allies did not bomb the German synthetic oil factories sooner. The Allied commanders were certainly aware of their locations and their strategic significance. Perhaps the answer to this mystery was given by Heinrich Buetefisch, one of the directors of I.G. Farben, when he said:
‘There was a gentlemen’s agreement between heavy industry in Germany and abroad that I. G.’s synthetic gasoline plants would not be bombed.”
[Mr. Pool finds this a mystery and so did William Manchester, the historian, in his book the Arms of Krupp - but it does not seem so mysterious to me. In my personal readings I have found that I. G. Farben had considerable International backing and investment. A few that come to mind are: Sullivan and Cromwell, Allen and John Foster Duties, A. Harimen, Prescott Bush, and Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of England. I’m sure there were many, many more.]
“The looting of valuable artworks began as soon as the Germans conquered France ... Hitler’s art dealer, Haberstock, came to Paris, he arrived in style and stayed at the Ritz Hotel.” While Hitler, Goering and other Nazi notable were gathering up wealth with both hands Krupp, I. G. Farben and others were working Jew and other minorities to death. “The Nazis concluded that the Jewish workers could live on body fat for three months.” Then at Belzec, Auschwitz, Chelmno and other such notorious “institutes” the overworked, now useless Jews were being exterminated. “The Nazis decided to set up a vast industrial empire based on the slave labor of concentration camp inmates. Pro-Nazi private industrialists were to set up factories at the concentration camps or just outside the camp gates. Other money-making enterprises were to be operated by the S.S. themselves. The center of the Nazi slave labor empire was to be the concentration camp at Auschwitz … Auschwitz became a vast institution as large as a modern city. At the peak of its size in 1944 it imprisoned over 100,000 men and women, not including the approximately 12,000 people killed every day ... Auschwitz was primarily the industrial center with factories of Farben, Krupp and others. Birkenau was the killing center with gas chambers and ovens ... I.G. Farben was the largest private industry at Auschwitz. They invested heavily in the two factories they built at the camp ... With less profit motive the enthusiasm for shipping Jews hundreds of miles to kill them would not have been as great ... The first real concentration camp factory was the porcelain factory at Dachau ... At Auschwitz, Oranienburg, Neuengamme, Stuttof and Treblinka the S. S. operated large brick factories .. The S.S. also operated an agency as a business that hired out skilled craftsmen to private industry ... The average S. S. man regarded looting as a bonus he was entitled to for participating in such operations ... Stangl later said that he believed the primary motive behind the entire extermination program was plunder … There were also German companies that actually profited from the ghoulish work of extermination itself. Two firms in the heating equipment business sold ovens ... other companies made mattresses from human hair, fertilizer from bones, and one Danzig company made soap from human fat ... Jews would continue to work and die as slave laborers for the Nazis up until the last day of the war.”
As the war turned against Hitler so did many industrialists and military generals. There were plots to kill Hitler and to overthrow the Nazis - they failed and when discovered the plotters were killed or tortured or put into concentration camps.
“In March of 1945 Speer attended a secret meeting of industrialists in the Ruhr to discuss the strategy for the postwar recovery of German industry ... the Ruhr barons were trying to extricate themselves from the last phase of the war with as little loss as possible.”
Hitler’s reaction to the survival notions of the Generals and Industrialists was interesting: “If the war is lost the people will also perish. This fate is inevitable. There is no necessity to take into consideration the basis which the people would need to continue a most primitive existence. On the contrary, it would be wiser to destroy even these things ourselves, because this nation has proved to be the weaker one and the future belongs solely to the stronger Eastern Nation. Besides, those who remain after the battle are only the inferior ones; for the good ones have all already fallen.”
Well, one certainly can’t say that Hitler was inconsistent in his philosophy. His Social Darwinism is strong to the finish. If you are a loser, you should be destroyed. “May it, at some future time, become part of the code of honor of the German officer that the surrender of a district or of a town is impossible, and that above all the leaders must march ahead as shining examples, faithfully doing their duty unto death ... I have decided therefore to remain in Berlin and there of my own free will to choose death at the moment when I believe the position of the Fuehrer and the Chancellor itself can no longer be held. I die with a happy heart, aware of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our soldiers at the front.”
