America's Secret Establishment

An Introduction to The Order of Skull and Bones (condensed edition)
-- by: Antony C. Sutton, 1986, source: Liberty House Press
MHP hypertext version for non-profit educational use only

3.4  Antithesis: Financing the Nazis

Financial and political support for the National Socialists

The Marxist version of the Hegelian dialectic poses financial capitalism as thesis and Marxist revolution as antithesis... Lenin's statement that the State will "wither away" at the synthesis stage is nonsensical. In fact, as all contemporary Marxist states testify, the State in practice becomes all-powerful. The immediate task of "the revolution" is to convey all power to the State...

We suggest that world forces may be seen differently, although still in terms of the Hegelian dialectic... If we can show that The Order has artificially encouraged and developed both revolutionary Marxism and National Socialism, while retaining some control over the nature and degree of the conflict, then it follows that The Order will be able to determine the evolution and nature of the New World Order [synthesis].

Where Did the Nazis Get Their Funds for Revolution?

In " Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler" [see text --ed], we described several financial conduits between Wall Street and the Nazi party. This was later supplemented by publication of a long suppressed book, "Hitler's Secret Backers". Still other books have emphasized the Fritz Thyssen financial connection to Hitler. After he split with Hitler, Thyssen himself wrote a book, "I Paid Hitler". We are now in a position to merge the evidence in these books with other material and our documentation on The Order.

The records of the U.S. Control Council for Germany contain the post-war intelligence interviews with prominent Nazis. From these we have verification that the major conduit for funds to Hitler was Fritz Thyssen and his Bank fur Handel und Schiff... Documents linking Wall Street to Hitler have for the most part been removed from U.S. Control Council records.

Who Was Thyssen?

Fritz Thyssen wa the German steel mangnate who associated himself with the Nazi movement in the early 1920s. When interrogated in 1945 under Project Dustbin, Thyssen recalled that he was approached in 1923 by General Ludendorf... Shortly after this meeting Thyssen was introduced to Hitler and provided funds for the Nazis through General Ludendorf.

In 1930-31 Emil Kirdorf approached Thyssen and subsequently sent Rudolf Hess to negotiate further funding for the Nazi Party. This time Thyssen arranged a credit of 250,000 marks at the Bank Voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V. in Rotterdam, Holland.

Thyssen was former head of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke, the German steel trust, financed by Dillon, Read of New York. [He] played a decisive role in the rise of Hitler to power by contributing liberally to the Nazi Party and by influencing his fellow industrialists to join him in support of the Fuehrer. In reward for his efforts, Thyssen was showered with political and economic favors by the Third Reich and enjoyed almost unlimited power and prestige under the Nazi regime until his break with Hitler in 1939 over the decision to invade Poland and precipitate the Second World War.

Like Hitler, Thyssen regarded the Treaty of Versailles [ending World War I] as "a pact of shame" which must be overthrown if the Fatherland were to rise again... Thyssen set out along the same road as his father, August Thyssen, aided by ample Wall Street loans to build German industry. [He] became an active member of the Stahlhelm and later, through Goering, joined the Nazis. Finally, after the crash of 1931 had brought German industry to the verge of bankruptcy, he openly embraced National Socialism.

During the next 2 years, Thyssen dedicated his fortune and his influence to bring Hitler to power. In 1932 he arranged the famous meeting in the Dusseldorf Industrialists' Club, at which Hitler addressed the leading businessmen of the Ruhr and the Rhineland... By the time of German Presidential elections later that year, Thyssen obtained contributions to Hitler's campaign fund from the industrial combines.

The Union Banking Connection

This flow of funds went through Thyssen banks. The Bank fur Handel und Schiff cited as the conduit in the U.S. Intelligence report was a subsidiary of the August Thyssen Bank, and founded in 1918 with H.J. Kouwenhoven and D.C. Schutte as managing partners. In brief, it was Thyssen's personal banking operation, and affiliated with the W.A. Harriman financial interests in New York.

Furthermore, the Thyssen front bank in Holland -- i.e. the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V. -- controlled the Union Banking Corporation in New York.

The Harrimans had a financial interest in Union Banking Corporation, and E. Roland Harriman (1917), Averell's brother, was a director. The Union Banking Corporation of New York City was a joint Thyssen-Harriman operation with the following directors in 1932:

E. Roland Harriman (1917)

Vice President of W.A. Harriman & Co., New York

H.J. Kouwenhoven (Nazi)

Nazi banker, managing partner of August Thyssen Bank and Bank voor Handel en Scheepvart N.V. (the transfer bank for Thyssen's funds)

Knight Woolley (1917)

Director, Guaranty Trust, New York and Director, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Cornelius Lievense

President, Union Banking Corp. and Director, Holland-American Investment Corp.

Ellery Sedgewick James (1917)

Partner, Brown Brothers & Co., New York

Johann Groeninger (Nazi)

Director, Bank voor Handel en Scheepvart and Director, Vereinigte Stahlwerke (Thyssen's steel operations)

J.L. Guinter

Director, Union Banking Corp.

Prescott Sheldon Bush (1917)

Partner, Brown Brothers, Harriman (and father of Vice President George H.W. Bush)

The eight directors of Union Banking Corporation are an interesting bunch indeed... Out of eight directors of Thyssen's bank in New York, we can therefore identify six who were either Nazis or members of The Order.

This private bank was formerly named Von Heydt Bank and von Heydt is named by Shoup in "Hitler's Secret Backers" as the intermediary from Guaranty Trust in New York to Hitler between 1930 and 1933. Above all, remember that Shoup was writing in 1933 when this information was still only known to those on the inside...

In brief, when we merge the information in Project Dustbin with Shoup's "Hitler's Secret Backers" we find the major overseas conduit for Nazi financing traces back to The Order and specifically cell D 115 [the class of 1917]. (see note [E1])

Profit From Conflict

Out of war and revolution come opportunities for profit. Conflict can be used for profit by corporations under control and influence of The Order. In World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnamese War we can cite examples of American corporations that traded with "the enemy" for profit.

Corporations -- even large corporations -- are dominated by banks and trust companies, and in turn these banks and trust companies are dominated by The Order and its allies.

The [cargo ship] M.S. Frederick S. Fales owned by Standard Vacuum Company was sunk by a German submarine on September 21, 1940. Yet in 1941, Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) had six Standard Oil tankers under Panamanian registry, manned by Nazi officers to carry fuel oil from Standard Oil refineries to the Canary Islands, a refueling base of Nazi submarines (see War Department document).

Yet another example is that of Chase Bank. Chase was linked to The Order through the Rockefeller family, Percy Rockefeller (1900) and Vice-President Reeve Schley (Scroll & Key). Directors of Chase in The Order included: Frederick Allen (1900), W.E.S. Griswold (1899), and Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose brother Gwynne Vanderbilt (1899) represented the family before his death. President of Chase was Winthrop Aldrich.

The extent of Chase collaboration with the Nazis is staggering -- and this was at a time when Nelson Rockefeller had an intelligence job in Washington aimed AGAINST Nazi operations in Latin America.

In December 1944, Treasury Department officials examined the records of the Chase Bank in Paris. On December 20, 1944 the senior U.S. examiner sent a memorandum to Treasury Secretary Morgenthau with the preliminary results of the Paris examination. Here's an extract from that report:

a. Niederman, of Swiss nationality, manager of Chase, Paris, was unquestionably a collaborator.

b. The Chase head office in New York was informed of Niederman's collaborationist policy but took no steps to remove him...

c. The German authorities were anxious to keep the Chase open and indeed took exceptional measures to provide sources of revenue.

d. The German authorities desired "to be friends" with the important American banks because they expected that these banks would be useful after the war as an instrument of German policy in the United States.

e. The Chase, Paris showed itself most anxious to please the German authorities in every possible way...

f. The whole objective of the Chase policy and operation was to maintain the position of the bank at any cost.

In brief, Chase Bank was a Nazi collaborator, but the above preliminary report is as far as the investigation proceeded. The report was killed on orders from Washington, D.C.

On the other hand, Chase Bank, later Chase Manhattan Bank, has been a prime promoter of exporting U.S. technology to the Soviet Union. This goes all the way back to the early 1920s when Chase broke U.S. regulations in order to aid the Soviets.

In conclusion, we have seen that the two arms of the dialectic described...clashed in World War II. Furthermore, the corporate segment of the elite profited from Lend Lease to the Soviets and by underground cooperation with Nazi interests. The political wing of The Order was at the same time preparing a new dialectic for the post World War II era.