Last century saw the rise and clash of three dominant political
ideologies capitalism, Marxism and fascism. The inherent conflicts between these
ideologies created a deep and sinister impact on the world politics and
humanity at large. Towards the end of 1920, the meteoric rise of National Socialism
in Germany, and with it of Nazi dictatorship, emerged as a major threat to
communist Russia and Capitalist United states.
In those eventful 12 years of Nazi rule (1933-1945) that culminated
into WWII, Germany created a powerful industrial -military complex which was
far more potent and interconnected than anyone had ever seen. As a result of
this alliance between Nazi leadership and industrial-military complex, many big
corporations in those times witnessed a sudden upsurge in their profits. Industries
big and small all over Germany became part of Hitler's massive war machine. In
fact, many of the most dominant corporations of our time made fortunes funding
both sides of the war and this not only had German firms but also some of the
major US and European companies and banking giants. This blogpost is an attempt to
explore such mutualistic relationships between some of these big corporations and the
Nazi leadership.
I.G. Farben
Without I. G.'s immense productive facilities ,its intense research, and
vast international affiliations, Germany's prosecution of the war would have
been unthinkable and impossible; Farben not only directed its energies toward
arming Germany, but concentrated on weakening her intended victims, and this
double-barreled attempt to expand the German industrial potential for war and
to restrict that of the rest of the world was not conceived and executed
"in the normal course of business." The proof is overwhelming that I.
G. Farben officials had full prior knowledge of Germany's plan for world
conquest and of each specific aggressive act later undertaken ....
I.G. Farben obtained all major government and military
contracts, thanks to its nazi connections, to build factories and provide
rubber, gasoline, lubricating oils, magnesium, fibres, explosives and other
chemicals. In its most infamous plant at Auschwitz, it even installed its own patented
pesticide Zyklon
B in the gas chambers. It didn’t stop there. Farben used unwilling inmates
in these camps as guinea pigs to test their chemicals, pharmaceuticals and vaccines
resulting in disturbing consequences.
In this due course I.G Farben immensely grew in size and power
and acquired controlling interests in numerous German and foreign firms. Its reach was not restricted to Europe alone.
It formed complex cartels with US firms such as Standard Oil of New Jersey (Rockefeller
owned), DuPont, Alcoa, Dow Chemical, and others to acquire the raw materials
from abroad. It also received heavy financing from Wall Street bankers such as
National city bank, Federal Reserve Bank of NY. In the Nuremberg trials, all
directors of Farben were charged guilty of war crimes.
Thyssen and Krupp
Thyssen, a major German steel manufacturer set by by
influential German industrialist August thyssen, merged with another German
firm Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp in 1999 to form
ThyssenKrupp, a large conglomerate world famous for its elevators.
Krupps were a very prominent 400 year old German dynasty and famous steel
manufacturers. After Nazi seizing power in 1933, Hitler appointed Gustav Krupp
von Bohlen und Halbach, then controller of Krupp industry, as chairman of the
Reich Federation of German Industry who eventually succeeded by his son Alfried
Krupp. During Nazi rearmament program, Krupp was the principal German maker of
large caliber artillery, armor plate, and other high quality armament, the
largest private builder of U-boats and warships, the infamous German Panzer
tanks, and the second largest producer of iron and coal in Germany. On the
other hand Fritz Thyssen, son of August thyssen, was influenced by
Nazi ideology of supression of communist and social democrats but could not swallow
the idea of anti-Semitism. While trying to emigrate to France but was captured by Nazi army. He was sent to Dachau camp and remained there till he
was liberated by axis forces.
Volkswagen and
Porsche
Likewise, The Quandt family empire, which became a major
shareholder in
BMW after the Second World War building it up to become one of
the most desirable car brands were linked inseparably with Nazis. Family patriarch,
Günther Quandt and his son Herbert collaborated with Nazis and used
estimated 50,000 slave laborers from concentration camps in their factories to supply
arms contracts to the regime.
Similarly, another giant in the German automobile industry,
Mercedes Benz accepted that its armament
production accounted for an ever-growing proportion of the company’s revenues
up to the start of the war. The company focused on the manufacture and
assembly of military components for the army, navy and air force. Daimler-Benz
also used forced laborers. These prisoners of war, abducted civilians and
detainees from concentration camps were housed close to the plants. Forced
laborers from Western Europe lived in guest houses, private accommodation or
schools.