FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for World War II
Edsel Ford (President of the Ford Motor Co.), Charles E. Mitchell
(President of National City Bank in New York City), Walter C. Teagle
(President of Standard Oil of New York), Paul Warburg (Chairman of
the Federal Reserve), and Herman Metz (Director of the Warburg’s
Bank of Manhattan). Several Germans on this Board were found guilty
of war crimes at Nuremburg. A U.S. War Department investigation
revealed that without Farben’s support, “Germany’s prosecution of the
war would have been unthinkable and impossible.”Hitler received support and financing from the aristocracy and elite of
Germany, including Gustav Krupp (industrialist), Carl Duisberg
(founder of I.G. Farben), Ernst Tengelmann (director of the Ruhr coal
mining operation), Dr. Hjalmar Schacht (prominent banker), and Fritz
Thyssen (Chairman of the Board of United Steel Works, Germany’s
largest company). Hitler maintained that the Nazi Party would continue
“only until the German people had been freed from the threat of
Marxism and could reach a decision as to whether the final form of
government would be a republic or a monarchy.” Thyssen told the
Kaiser that Hitler was made Chancellor only as “a transitional stage
leading to the reintroduction of the German monarchy.”America’s Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, reported to
President Roosevelt in August, 1936:“At the present moment, more than a hundred American
corporations have subsidiaries here or cooperative
understandings. The du Ponts have their allies in Germany that
are aiding in the armament business. Their chief ally is the I. G.
Farben Company (the primary supporter of Hitler) ... Standard Oil
Company (of New York) sent $2,000,000 here in December, 1933,
and has made $500,000 a year helping Germans make Ersatz gas
for war purposes; but Standard Oil cannot take any of its earnings
out of the country except in goods ... The International Harvester
Company President told me their business here rose 33% a year
but they could take nothing out. Even our airplane people have
secret arrangements with Krupps. General Motors Company and
Ford do enormous business here through subsidiaries and take
no profits out. I mention these facts because they complicate
things and add to war dangers.”