War Crimes of the Deutsche Bank and the Dresdner Bank: Office of Military Government (U.S.) Reports
Christopher Simpson, editor | | ISBN: 978-0-8419-1407-0 $55.00 |
| 2002/417 pages/LC: 2001039596 Distributed for Holmes & Meier Publishers |
DESCRIPTION
In 1946-1947 the Finance Division of the Office of Military Government (OMGUS) recommended that Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank leaders be tried as war criminals and barred from ever holding positions of importance in German economic and political life. But these recommendations were never implemented, and officials from both banks went on to become key figures in German postwar development. Decades later, Christopher Simpson has uncovered the full story of the OMGUS reports, reproducing hundreds of pages gleaned from declassified reports and analyzing their significance in light of today's heated debates over the reemergence of these banks as financial giants, their role in the Holocaust, and how historical memory is to be defined.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Simpson is professor of journalism at American University. His publications include The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law, and Genocide in the Twentieth Century and Universities and Empire: Money and Politics in the Social Sciences During the Cold War.
CONTENTS
- Buried Records and Modern Controversies—C. Simpson.
- OMGUS REPORT: THE DEUTSCHE BANK.
- Recommendations.
- Summary.
- History.
- Scope of the Institution.
- Management and Organization.
- Political Connections.
- Influence and Control over Domestic Financial Institutions.
- Influence and Control over Industry.
- Rearmament and War Financing.
- Aryanization.
- Slave Labor.
- Foreign Operations of the Deutsche Bank.
- Deutsche Bank Today.
- Profiles.
- OMGUS REPORT: THE DRESDNER BANK.
- Recommendations.
- Growth of the Dresdner Bank.
- Organization of the Dresdner Bank.
- The Dresdner Bank as a Concentration of Economic Power.
- Operations of the Dresdner Bank in Germany.
- Operations of the Dresdner Bank Outside Germany.
- The Dresdner Bank Today.
- Profiles.
"This is a work of major significance. No library that attempts to cover the Holocaust will be complete without it."—Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, Policy Exchange
"Simpson's edited compilation, providing these documents in English for the first time since the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1946–47, is both straightforward and timely. [Simpson] suggests that a deliberate decision by political leaders had buried these documents until recently. His argument is credible.... The fact that the Deutsche Bank, and a number of its wartimes executives, emerged as key players in administering the Marshall Plan and pan-European finances only adds to the importance of this newly available evidence. Among the documents are lists of interlocking directorates, assets, and organizational charts, along with connections to IG Farben and other businesses. Beyond the obvious historical importance and the contemporary issues of compensating victims, this volume asks us to consider larger issues about business ethics and the role of finance in service to the state."—Choice