Big Business That Made It Big Under The Nazi Regime

While posting in another thread about the recently arrested Hans Lipschis for crimes at Auschwitz, someone mentioned a fact i'd forgotton, that IBM made their first computer to keep count of the prisoners in the death camps.

Then i started to think, how many more "household names" made it big using slave labour from the camps, or through contracts with the nazi's and the result was a little surprising.

HUGO BOSS used prisoners of war and slave labour. He was an "avowed nazi", who had photo's of he and Hitler on his wall. In 1946 he was fined 100,00 marks, lost his voting rights and his capacity to run a business, due to the fact he was an early member of the nazi party and a "beneficiary of nacional socialism". He made the smartest SS and Hitler Youth uniforms in all of the Riech.
(I just knew that "deaths head" insignia had too much class for combat)

ALLIANZ Kurt Schmitt, director of Allianz until 1933 was Hitlers Riechs ecomonic minister from 1933 until 1935. He joined the SS in 1935.
They insured Auschhwitz and complied with the regime from the 1930's until the fall of the Riech.

KODAK was still trading with the Nazi's long after the war started buying directly from Germany, occupied France and Hungary, a German ally.
For 1943 alone the US embassy in London described the purchases as "fairly substancial from enemy territory".

BAYER, yes the famous aspirin makers made something that took all the pain away from 6,000,000 inmates of the death camps, ZYKLON B the cyanide based pesticide used in the gas chambers. They also funded and aided Josef Mengele's experiments.

SIEMENS used slave labour massivly throught the war.

COCA COLA, yes i was disgusted to, but not suprised. Coke played both sides for a while until the syrup run out in Germany in 1941 and they could import due to restrictions. So, they invented a new fruit flavoured drink for the Nazi's..FANTA, the unofficial drink of a new generation - of Hitler Youth.

STANDARD OIL.
The Luftwaffe needed tetraethyl lead gas. Standard had it. supply and demand. Without Standard, the Luftwaffe wouldn't have taken off.

CHASE BANK, froze the accounts of jewish clients in Europe for the Nazi's and provided a banking service for the Third Riech. They made millions of dollars in commisions of a special type of German mark they sold to Americans Nazi sympathisers of Geman descent in the early years of the war.

RANDOM HOUSE PUBLISHERS Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann A.G., worked for the Nazis... they published Hitler propaganda, and a book called "Sterilization and Euthanasia: A Contribution to Applied Christian Ethics" and the ever popular "The christmas book of the Hitler Youth"

There are many many more to add but i havn't time.

I just found it amazing to think that the business's we take for granted today all have (or had) the same secret to hide.

in 50 or so years, I wonder which companies we will look back at that benefited greatly from the Bush Administration and both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan??? Halliburton comes to mind...

You forgot IBM

IBM and the holocaust

Nice thread

Originally posted by jhn7537
in 50 or so years, I wonder which companies we will look back at that benefited greatly from the Bush Administration and both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan??? Halliburton comes to mind...

The exact same ones now benefiting under the obama regime. He is just as bad as bush, actually worse imo.

Originally posted by DarthMuerte

Originally posted by jhn7537
in 50 or so years, I wonder which companies we will look back at that benefited greatly from the Bush Administration and both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan??? Halliburton comes to mind...

The exact same ones now benefiting under the obama regime. He is just as bad as bush, actually worse imo.

I was going to get to him next

Originally posted by jhn7537
in 50 or so years, I wonder which companies we will look back at that benefited greatly from the Bush Administration and both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan??? Halliburton comes to mind...

The Carlye Group will be on the list, thats for sure.

Congress must cut off Bush family war profits.

Originally posted by kloejen
You forgot IBM

IBM and the holocaust

Nice thread

edit on 9/5/2013 by kloejen because: (no reason given)

No, i didnt forget them...i mentioned that someone else had mentioned them in another thread. It was because of IBM i wrote this thread.

There are many companies who supported the Nazis. You mentioned Siemens, a German company, but why stop there? BMW made aero engines, Daimler-Benz (Mercedes) made all sorts of engines, guns and (surprise, surprise) employed forced labour. Hundreds of companies supplied the Nazis and still exist.

It is not news to the British and French that while they struggled to hold back Nazi tyranny, US companies profited by selling material to the Nazis, although munitions were prohibited, I believe. That said, I wonder how many merchantmen were sunk en route by the unrestricted submarine warfare prosecuted by the Nazis, not to mention the more peaceful blockade by the Royal Navy on Germany bound material.

It was two years into the war before the US finally decided to join the fray, stereotypically shouting “for freedom” with bare chest pushed out and pen raised to re-write history, as if they had been there from the start with principles and mojo intact.

At the end of the day, no matter how many aero engine BMW churned out, it was Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney that powered the winning side.

Regards

The second world war is one reason I have no respect for the big Cognac producers round here.

While fellow countrymen were hounded and treated like enemies, as were many Europeans, the Cognac producers were allowed to carry on trading and exporting throughout the war and their establishments were reasonably protected. Their trade overseas was affected by a slightly more limited funding from outside sources but made up for by the new German interest in their product.

Traitors for profit. I cannot forgive their greed and cowardice. Bribery was rife I'm sure.

If you're expecting corporations to be guided by morals then I have news for you, they weren't then and they are not now. The goal is the almighty dollar not rectitude.

The one that left me freaked out the most was HUGO BOSS....i had no idea..every time i put on his aftershave from now on i will face the mirror, click my heels together and sing the Horst Wessel in his honour...