Prescott Bush, 1.5 Million Dollars and Auschwitz:
\nHow the Bush Family Wealth is Linked to the Jewish Holocaust<\/p>\n
While the Enron scandal currently
\nunfolds, another Bush family business scandal
\nlurks beneath the shadows of history that may
\ndwarf it.<\/p>\n
On April 19, 2001, President George W.
\nBush spent some of Holocaust Remembrance
\nDay in the Capital Rotunda with holocaust
\nsurvivors, allied veterans, and their families.
\nIn a ceremony that included Jewish prayers
\nand songs sung by holocaust victims in the
\ncamps, Benjamin Meed, a survivor of the
\nWarsaw ghetto uprising, movingly described
\nto the gathering what he experienced on April
\n19, 1943.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stood outside a Catholic church, which
\nfaced the ghetto,\u201d Mr. Meed said, \u201ca young
\nJewish boy posing as a gentile. As I watched
\nthe ghetto being bombarded by the German
\nartillery, I could see many of the Jews of my
\ncommunity jumping out of windows of
\nburning buildings. I stood long and mute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The survivor concluded his reminiscence
\nsaying, \u201cWe tremble to think what could
\nhappen if we allow a new generation to arise
\nignorant of the tragedy which is still shaping
\nthe future.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Bush, appearing almost
\nuncomfortable, read a statement that said that
\nhumanity was \u201cbound by conscience to
\nremember what happened\u201d and that \u201cthe
\nrecord has been kept and preserved.\u201d The
\nrecord, Mr. Bush stated, was that one of the
\nworst acts of genocide in human history
\n\u201ccame not from crude and uneducated men,
\nbut from men who regarded themselves as<\/p>\n
cultured and well schooled, modern men,
\nforward looking. Their crime showed the
\nworld that evil can slip in and blend in amid
\nthe most civilized surroundings. In the end
\nonly conscience can stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while President Bush publicly
\nembraced the community of holocaust
\nsurvivors in Washington last spring, he and
\nhis family have been keeping a secret from
\nthem for over 50 years about Prescott Bush,
\nthe president\u2019s grandfather. According to
\nclassified documents from Dutch intelligence
\nand US government archives, President
\nGeorge W. Bush\u2019s grandfather, Prescott Bush
\nmade considerable profits off Auschwitz slave
\nlabor. In fact, President Bush himself is an
\nheir to these profits from the holocaust which
\nwere placed in a blind trust in 1980 by his
\nfather, former president George Herbert
\nWalker Bush.<\/p>\n
Throughout the Bush family\u2019s decades
\nof public life, the American press has gone
\nout of its way to overlook one historical fact<\/p>\n
\u2013 that through Union Banking Corporation
\n(UBC), Prescott Bush, and his father-in-law,
\nGeorge Herbert Walker, along with German
\nindustrialist Fritz Thyssen, financed Adolf
\nHitler before and during World War II. It was
\nfirst reported in 1994 by John Loftus and
\nMark Aarons in\u2013The Secret War Against the
\nJews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the
\nJewish People.
\nThe US government had known that
\nmany American companies were aiding Hitler,<\/p>\n
like Standard Oil, General Motors and Chase
\nBank, all of which was sanctioned after Pearl
\nHarbor. But as The New York Times reporter
\nCharles Higham later discovered, and
\npublished in his 1983 groundbreaking book,\u2013<\/p>\n
Trading With The Enemy; The Nazi American
\nMoney Plot 1933-1949, \u201cthe government
\nsmothered everything during and even after
\nthe war.\u201d Why?<\/p>\n
According to Higham, the US
\ngovernment believed \u201ca public scandal …
\nwould have drastically affected public morale,
\ncaused widespread strikes and perhaps
\nprovoked mutinies in the armed services.\u201d
\nHigham claims the government thought \u201ctheir
\ntrial and imprisonment would have made it
\nimpossible for the corporate boards to help
\nthe American war effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Prescott Bush\u2019s banks were
\nnot just financing Hitler as previously
\nreported. In fact, there was a distinct business
\nlink much deeper than Mr. Higham or Mr.
\nLoftus knew at the time their books were
\npublished.<\/p>\n
A classified Dutch intelligence file which
\nwas leaked by a courageous Dutch
\nintelligence officer, along with newly surfaced
\ninformation from U.S. government archives,
\n\u201cconfirms absolutely,\u201d John Loftus says, the
\ndirect links between Bush, Thyssen and
\ngenocide profits from Auschwitz.<\/p>\n
The business connections between
\nPrescott Bush and Fritz Thyssen were more
\ndirect than what has been previously written.
\nThis new information reveals how Prescott<\/p>\n
Bush and UBC, which he managed directly,
\nprofited from the Holocaust. A case can be
\nmade that the inheritors of the Prescott Bush
\nestate could be sued by survivors of the
\nHolocaust and slave labor communities. To
\nunderstand the complete picture of how
\nPrescott Bush profited from the Holocaust, it
\nis necessary to return to the year 1916, where
\nit all began.<\/p>\n
Post World War I: Thyssen Empire On The Ropes<\/p>\n
By 1916, August Thyssen could see the
\nwriting on the wall. The \u201cGreat War\u201d was
\nspinning out of control, grinding away at
\nGermany\u2019s resources and economy. The
\ngovernment was broke and his company,
\nThyssen & Co., with 50,000 German workers
\nand annual production of 1,000,000 tons of
\nsteel and iron, was buckling under the war\u2019s
\npressure. As the main supplier of the German
\nmilitary, August Thyssen knew Germany
\nwould be defeated once the US entered the
\nwar.<\/p>\n
At 74, \u201cKing\u201d August Thyssen knew he
\nwas also running out of time. His first born
\n\u201cprince\u201d Friedrich (Fritz) Thyssen, had been
\ngroomed at the finest technical business
\nschools in Europe and was destined to inherit
\nhis father\u2019s estimated $100,000,000 fortune
\nand an industrial empire located at
\nMuehhlheim on the Ruhr.<\/p>\n
In addition to Fritz, plans were also made
\nfor the second son Heinrich. At the outbreak
\nof the war, Heinrich Thyssen discreetly<\/p>\n
by Toby Rogers
\nillustration Ryan James<\/p>\n
changed his citizenship from German to
\nHungarian and married the Hungarian
\naristocrat Baroness Margrit Bornemisza de
\nKaszon. Soon Heinrich Thyssen switched his
\nname to Baron Thyssen Bornemisza de
\nKaszon.<\/p>\n
Near the end of World War I, August
\nThyssen opened the Bank voor Handel en
\nScheepvaart in Rotterdam. The neutral
\nHolland was the perfect location outside of
\nGermany to launder assets from the August
\nThyssen Bank in Berlin when the financial
\ndemands of the Allied forces surfaced. But
\nthe war ended much sooner than even Thyssen
\ncalculated and what developed caught the
\n\u201cRockefeller of the Ruhr\u201d off guard.<\/p>\n
On November 10, 1918, German
\nsocialists took over Berlin. The following
\nmorning at 5 a.m., what was left of Germany<\/p>\n
surrendered to the Allies, officially ending
\nWorld War I. \u201cAt the time of the Armistice
\nand the signing of the Treaty of Versailles,
\nmy Father and I were deeply saddened by the
\nspectacle of Germany\u2019s abject humiliation,\u201d
\nThyssen recalled later in his autobiography, I
\nPaid Hitler.<\/p>\n
After the war, chaos descended on
\nGermany as food ran short. Winter was
\nlooming over a starving nation when on Dec.
\n7, 1918, the socialist Spartacists League came
\nknocking on the Thyssen Villa with armed
\nmilitia. August and Fritz were arrested and
\ndragged from jail to jail across Germany for
\nfour days. Along the way, they were lined up
\nin staged executions designed to terrorize
\nthem.<\/p>\n
It worked. When released, the two
\nThyssens were horrified at the new political
\nclimate in their beloved Germany. They
\ncould not accept that Germany was
\nresponsible for its own demise. All
\nGermany\u2019s problems, the Thyssens felt,
\n\u201chave almost always been due to foreigners.\u201d
\nIt was the Jews, he and many others believed,
\nwho were secretly behind the socialist
\nmovement across the globe.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Fritz\u2019s younger brother
\nBaron Thyssen Bornemisza de Kaszon
\nmoved to Rotterdam and became the
\nprincipal owner of the Bank voor Handel en
\nScheepvaart. All the Thyssens needed now
\nwas an American branch.<\/p>\n
1920s: The Business Ties That Bind<\/p>\n
Railroad baron E.H. Harriman\u2019s son
\nAverell wanted nothing to do with railroads,
\nso his father gave him an investment firm,<\/p>\n
W.A. Harriman & Company in New York
\nCity. E.H. hired the most qualified person in
\nthe country to run the operation, George
\nHerbert Walker. Averell hired his little brother
\nEdward Roland \u201cBunny\u201d Harriman as a vice
\npresident.
\nBy 1920, George Herbert Walker had
\nalready built a fortune in Missouri. Walker, a
\ncharismatic former heavyweight boxing
\nchampion, was a human pit bull. He lived life
\nto the fullest, owning mansions around the
\neast coast and one of the most extravagant
\napartments in Manhattan. His hobbies were
\ngolf, hunting, drinking scotch and beating his
\nsons to a pulp. Elsie Walker, one of Walker\u2019s
\ngrandchildren described Walker as a \u201ctough
\nold bastard\u201d whose children had no love \u201cfor
\ntheir father.\u201d He was also a religious bigot
\nwho hated Catholics, although his parents
\nraised him to be one. According to other
\nsources, he also did not like Jews.<\/p>\n
In 1922, Averell Harriman traveled to
\nGermany to set up a W.A. Harriman & Co.
\nbranch in Berlin. The Berlin branch was also
\nrun by Walker. While in Germany, he met with
\nthe Thyssen family for the first time. Harriman<\/p>\n
agreed to help the Thyssens with their plan
\nfor an American bank.<\/p>\n
The following year, a wounded Germany
\nwas growing sicker. The government had no
\nsolution and froze while Germany rotted from
\nwithin. With widespread strikes and
\nproduction at a near standstill, Fritz Thyssen
\nlater recalled, \u201cWe were at the worst time of
\nthe inflation. In Berlin the government was
\nin distress. It was ruined financially. Authority
\nwas crumbling. In Saxony a communist
\ngovernment had been formed and the Red
\nterror, organized by Max Hoelz, reigned
\nthrough the countryside. The German Reich
\n… was now about to crumble.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October, 1923, an emotionally
\ndesperate Fritz Thyssen went to visit one of
\nhis and Germany\u2019s great military heroes,
\nGeneral Erich Ludendorff. During the 1918
\nsocialist rule in Berlin, Ludendorff organized
\na military resistance against the socialists and
\nthe industrialists were in great debt to him.
\nWhen Thyssen met with Ludendorff, they
\ndiscussed Germany\u2019s economic collapse.
\nThyssen was apocalyptic, fearing the worst
\nwas yet to come. Ludendorff disagreed.
\n\u201cThere is but one hope,\u201d Ludendorff said,
\n\u201cAdolph Hitler and the National Socialist
\nparty.\u201d Ludendorff respected Hitler
\nimmensely. \u201cHe is the only man who has any
\npolitical sense.\u201d Ludendorff encouraged
\nThyssen to join the Nazi movement. \u201cGo
\nlisten to him one day\u201d he said to Thyssen.<\/p>\n
Thyssen followed General Ludendorff\u2019s
\nadvice and went to a number of meetings to
\nhear Hitler speak. He became mesmerized by
\nHitler. \u201cI realized his orator gifts and his
\nability to lead the masses. What impressed me
\nmost however was the order that reigned over
\nhis meetings, the almost military discipline
\nof his followers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thyssen arranged to meet privately with
\nHitler and Ludendorff in Munich. Hitler told
\nThyssen the Nazi movement was in financial
\ntrouble, it was not growing fast enough and
\nwas nationally irrelevant. Hitler needed as
\nmuch money as possible to fight off the
\nCommunists\/Jewish conspiracy against
\nEurope. Hitler envisioned a fascist German
\nmonarchy with a nonunion, antilock national
\nwork force.<\/p>\n
Thyssen was overjoyed with the Nazi
\nplatform. He gave Hitler and Ludendorff
\n100,000 gold marks ($25,000) for the infant
\nNazi party. Others in the steel and coal
\nindustries soon followed Thyssen\u2019s lead,
\nalthough none came close to matching him.
\nMany business leaders in Germany supported
\nHitler\u2019s secret union-hating agenda. However,
\nsome donated because they feared they would
\nbe left out in the cold if he actually ever seized
\npower.<\/p>\n
Most industry leaders gave up on Hitler
\nafter his failed coup in 1923. While Hitler
\nspent a brief time in jail, the Thyssens, through<\/p>\n
the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, opened
\nthe Union Banking Corporation in 1924.<\/p>\n
Union Banking Corporation<\/p>\n
Early in 1924, Hendrick J.
\nKouwenhoven, the managing director of Bank
\nvoor Handel en Scheepvaart, traveled to New
\nYork to meet with Walker and the Harriman
\nbrothers. Together, they established The
\nUnion Banking Corporation. The UBC\u2019s
\nheadquarters was located at the same 39
\nBroadway address as Harriman & Co.<\/p>\n
As the German economy recovered
\nthrough the mid to late \u201820s, Walker and
\nHarriman\u2019s firm sold over $50,000,000 worth
\nof German bonds to American investors, who
\nprofited enormously from the economic boom
\nin Germany. In 1926, August Thyssen died at
\nthe age of 84. Fritz was now in control of one
\nof the largest industrial families in Europe.
\nHe quickly created the United Steel Works
\n(USW), the biggest industrial conglomerate
\nin German history. Thyssen hired Albert
\nVolger, one of the Ruhr\u2019s most influential
\nindustrial directors, as director General of
\nUSW.<\/p>\n
Thyssen also brought Fredich Flick,
\nanother German family juggernaut, on board.
\nFlick owned coal and steel industries
\nthroughout Germany and Poland and
\ndesperately wanted to invest into the Thyssen
\nempire. One of the primary motivations for
\nthe Thyssen\/Flick massive steel and coal
\nmerger was suppressing the new labor and
\nsocialist movements.<\/p>\n
That year in New York, George Walker
\ndecided to give his new son in law, Prescott
\nBush, a big break. Walker made Bush a vice
\npresident of Harriman & Co. Prescott\u2019s new
\noffice employed many of his classmates from
\nhis Yale class of 1917, including Roland
\nHarriman and Knight Woolley. The three had
\nbeen close friends at Yale and were all
\nmembers of Skull and Bones, the mysterious
\non-campus secret society. Despite the upbeat
\nfraternity atmosphere at Harriman & Co., it
\nwas also a place of hard work, and no one
\nworked harder than Prescott Bush.<\/p>\n
In fact, Walker hired Bush to help him
\nsupervise the new Thyssen\/Flick United Steel
\nWorks. One section of the USW empire was
\nthe Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation
\nand the Upper Silesian Coal and Steel
\nCompany located in the Silesian section of
\nPoland. Thyssen and Flick paid Bush and
\nWalker generously, but it was worth every
\ndime. Their new business arrangement
\npleased them all financially, and the collective
\ntalents of all four men and their rapid success
\nastonished the business world.<\/p>\n
In the meantime Hitler and the Nazi party
\nwere broke. Since the German economic
\nrecovery, members and donations had dried
\nup, leaving the Nazi movement withering on<\/p>\n
It has been 60 years since one of the great money laundering scandals of
\nthe 20th century ended and only now are we beginning to see the true
\nhistorical aspects of this important period of world history, a history that
\nthe remaining Holocaust survivors beg humanity to \u201cnever forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
the vine. In 1927, Hitler was desperate for
\ncash; his party was slipping into debt. Hitler
\ntold his private secretary Rudolf Hess to shake
\ndown wealthy coal tycoon and Nazi
\nsympathizer Emil Kirdorf. Kirdorf paid off
\nHitler\u2019s debt that year but the following year,
\nhe too had no money left to contribute.<\/p>\n
In 1928, Hitler had his eyes on the
\nenormous Barlow Palace located in
\nBriennerstrasse, the most aristocratic section
\nof Munich. Hitler wanted to convert the palace
\ninto the Nazi national headquarters and
\nchange its name to the Brown House but it
\nwas out of his price range. Hitler told Hess to
\ncontact Thyssen. After hearing the Hess
\nappeal, Thyssen felt it was time to give Hitler
\na second chance. Through the Bank voor
\nHandel en Scheepvaart, Thyssen said he
\n\u201cplaced Hess in possession of the required
\nfunds\u201d to purchase and redesign the Palace.
\nThyssen later said the amount was about
\n250,000 marks but leading Nazis later claimed
\nthat just the re-molding cost over 800,000
\nmarks (equivalent to $2 million today).<\/p>\n
Regardless of the cost, Hitler and
\nThyssen became close friends after the
\npurchase of the Brown House. At the time,
\nneither knew how influential that house was
\nto become the following year when, in 1929,
\nthe great depression spread around the world.
\nWith the German economic recovery up in
\nflames, Hitler knew there was going to be a
\nline out the door of industrialists waiting to
\ngive him cash.<\/p>\n
1930s: Hitler Rises \u2013 Thyssen\/Bush Cash In<\/p>\n
Thyssen would later try to claim that his
\nweekends with Hitler and Hess at his
\nRhineland castles were not personal but
\nstrictly business and that he did not approve
\nof most of Hitler\u2019s ideas, but the well-known
\njournalist R.G Waldeck, who spent time with
\nThyssen at a spa in the Black Forest,
\nremembered quite differently. Waldeck said<\/p>\n
when he and Thyssen would walk through the
\ncool Black Forest in 1929-30, Thyssen would
\ntell Waldeck that he believed in Hitler. He
\nspoke of Hitler \u201cwith warmth\u201d and said the
\nNazis were \u201cnew men\u201d that would make
\nGermany strong again. With the depression
\nbleeding Europe, Thyssen\u2019s financial support
\nmade Hitler\u2019s rise to power almost inevitable.<\/p>\n
The great depression also rocked
\nHarriman & Co. The following year,
\nHarriman & Co. merged with the London firm
\nBrown\/Shipley. Brown\/Shipley kept its name,
\nbut Harriman & Co. changed its name to
\nBrown Brothers, Harriman. The new firm
\nmoved to 59 Wall St. while UBC stayed at 39
\nBroadway. Averell Harriman and Prescott
\nBush reestablished a holding company called
\nThe Harriman 15 Corporation. One of the
\ncompanies Harriman had held stock in was
\nthe Consolidated Silesian Steel Company.
\nTwo thirds of the company was owned by
\nFriedrich Flick. The rest was owned by
\nHarriman.<\/p>\n
In December 1931, Fritz Thyssen
\nofficially joined the Nazi party. When Thyssen
\njoined the movement, the Nazi party was
\ngaining critical mass around Germany. The
\ncharismatic speeches and persona of Hitler,
\nthe depression and the Thyssen\u2019s Bank voor
\nHandel en Scheepvaart all contributed to
\nHitler\u2019s sudden rise in popularity with the
\nGerman people.<\/p>\n
In September 1932, Thyssen invited a
\ngroup of elite German industrial tycoons to
\nhis castle to meet with Hitler. They spent
\nhours questioning Hitler, who answered all
\ntheir questions with the\u2019\u201cutmost satisfaction,\u201d
\nThyssen remembered. The money poured in
\nfrom the industrial circles mostly due to
\nHitler\u2019s \u201cmonarchistic attitude\u201d towards labor
\nand issues of class.<\/p>\n
But by November, German voters grew
\nweary of Hitler\u2019s antidemocratic tendencies
\nand turned to the Communist party, which
\ngained the most seats in the fall election. The<\/p>\n
Nazis lost a sweeping 35 seats in the
\nReichstag, but since the Nazis were already
\nsecretly negotiating a power sharing alliance
\nwith Hindenberg that would ultimately lead
\nto Hitler declaring himself dictator, the outcry
\nof German voters was politically insignificant.<\/p>\n
By 1934, Hindenberg was dead and
\nHitler completely controlled Germany. In
\nMarch, Hitler announced his plans for a vast
\nnew highway system. He wanted to connect
\nthe entire Reich with an unprecedented wide
\nroad design, especially around major ports.
\nHitler wanted to bring down unemployment
\nbut, more importantly, needed the new roads
\nfor speedy military maneuvers.<\/p>\n
Hitler also wanted to seriously upgrade
\nGermany\u2019s military machine. Hitler ordered
\na\u2019\u201crebirth of the German army\u201d and
\ncontracted Thyssen and United Steel Works
\nfor the overhaul. Thyssen\u2019s steel empire was
\nthe cold steel heart of the new Nazi war
\nmachine that led the way to World War II,
\nkilling millions across Europe.<\/p>\n
Thyssen\u2019s and Flick\u2019s profits soared into
\nthe hundreds of millions in 1934 and the Bank
\nvoor Handel en Scheepvaart and UBC in New
\nYork were overflowing with money. Prescott
\nBush became managing director of UBC and
\nhandled the day-to-day operations of the new
\nGerman economic plan. Bush\u2019s shares in UBC
\npeaked with Hitler\u2019s new German order. But
\nwhile production rose, cronyism did as well.<\/p>\n
On March 19, 1934, Prescott Bush
\nhanded Averell Harriman a copy of that day\u2019s
\nNew York Times. The Polish government was
\napplying to take over Consolidated Silesian
\nSteel Corporation and Upper Silesian Coal
\nand Steel Company from\u2019\u201cGerman and
\nAmerican interests\u201d because of rampant
\n\u201cmismanagement, excessive borrowing,
\nfictitious bookkeeping and gambling in
\nsecurities.\u201d The Polish government required
\nthe owners of the company, which accounted
\nfor over 45% of Poland\u2019s steel production, to
\npay at least its full share of back taxes. Bush<\/p>\n
and Harriman would eventually hire attorney
\nJohn Foster Dulles to help cover up any
\nimproprieties that might arise under
\ninvestigative scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Hitler\u2019s invasion of Poland in 1939
\nended the debate about Consolidated Silesian
\nSteel Corporation and Upper Silesian Coal
\nand Steel Company. The Nazis knocked the
\nPolish Government off Thyssen, Flick and
\nHarriman\u2019s steel company and were planning
\nto replace the paid workers. Originally Hitler
\npromised Stalin they would share Poland and
\nuse Soviet prisoners as slaves in Polish
\nfactories. Hitler\u2019s promise never actually
\nmaterialized and he eventually invaded
\nRussia.<\/p>\n
1940s: Business As Usual<\/p>\n
Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation
\nwas located near the Polish town of
\nOswiecim, one of Poland\u2019s richest mineral
\nregions. That was where Hitler set up the
\nAuschwitz concentration camp. When the
\nplan to work Soviet prisoners fell through, the
\nNazis transferred Jews, communists, gypsies
\nand other minority populations to the camp.
\nThe prisoners of Auschwitz who were able to
\nwork were shipped to 30 different companies.
\nOne of the companies was the vast
\nConsolidated Silesian Steel Corporation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody\u2019s made the connection before
\nbetween Consolidated Silesian Steel
\nCorporation, Auschwitz and Prescott Bush,\u201d
\nJohn Loftus told Clamor.
\n\u201cThat was the reason why Auschwitz was built
\nthere. The coal deposits could be processed<\/p>\n
into either coal or additives for aviation
\ngasoline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though Thyssen and Flick\u2019s
\nConsolidated Steel was in their possession,
\nHitler\u2019s invasions across Europe spooked
\nthem, bringing back memories of World War<\/p>\n
I. Thyssen and Flick sold Consolidated Steel
\nto UBC. Under the complete control of
\nHarriman and management of Bush, the
\ncompany became Silesian American
\nCorporation which became part of UBC and
\nHarriman\u2019s portfolio of 15 corporations.
\nThyssen quickly moved to Switzerland and
\nlater France to hide from the terror about to
\nbe unleashed by the Nazi war machine he had
\nhelped build.
\nA portion of the slave labor force in
\nPoland was \u201cmanaged by Prescott Bush,\u201d
\naccording to a Dutch intelligence agent. In
\n1941, slave labor had become the lifeblood
\nof the Nazi war machine. The resources of
\nPoland\u2019s rich steel and coal field played an
\nessential part in Hitler\u2019s invasion of Europe.<\/p>\n
According to Higham, Hitler and the
\nFraternity of American businessmen \u201cnot only
\nsought a continuing alliance of interests for
\nthe duration of World War II, but supported
\nthe idea of a negotiated peace with Germany
\nthat would bar any reorganization of Europe
\nalong liberal lines. It would leave as its residue
\na police state that would place the Fraternity
\nin postwar possession of financial, industrial,
\nand political autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six days after Pearl Harbor and the US
\ndeclaration of war at the end of 1941,
\nPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of
\nthe Treasury Henry Morgenthau and US<\/p>\n
Attorney General Francis Biddle signed the
\nTrading With the Enemy Act, which banned
\nany business interests with US enemies of
\nwar. Prescott Bush continued with business
\nas usual, aiding the Nazi invasion of Europe
\nand supplying resources for weaponry that
\nwould eventually be turned on American
\nsolders in combat against Germany.<\/p>\n
On October 20, 1942, the U.S.
\ngovernment had had enough of Prescott Bush
\nand his Nazi business arrangements with
\nThyssen. Over the summer, The New York
\nTribune had exposed Bush and Thyssen,
\nwhom the Tribune dubbed \u201cHitler\u2019s Angel.\u201d
\nWhen the US government saw UBC\u2019s books,
\nthey found out that Bush\u2019s bank and its
\nshareholders \u201care held for the benefit of …
\nmembers of the Thyssen family, [and] is
\nproperty of nationals … of a designated enemy
\ncountry.\u201d The list of seven UBC share holders
\nwas:<\/p>\n
E. Roland Harriman \u2013 3991 shares
\nCornelis Lievense \u2013 4 shares
\nHarold D.Pennington \u2013 1 share
\nRay Morris\u2013\u2013 1 share
\nPrescott S. Bush \u2013 1 share
\nH.J. Kouwenhoven \u2013 1 share
\nJohann G. Groeninger \u2013 1 share.
\nThe UBC books also revealed the myriad of
\nmoney and holding companies funneled from
\nthe Thyssens and the government realized UBC
\nwas just the tip of the iceberg. On November
\n17, 1942, The US government also took over
\nthe Silesian American Corporation, but did not
\nprosecute Bush for the reasons Higham noted
\nearlier. The companies were allowed to operate<\/p>\n
within the Government Alien Property
\ncustodian office with a catch \u2013 no aiding the
\nNazis. In 1943, while still owning his stock,
\nPrescott Bush resigned from UBC and even
\nhelped raise money for dozens of war-related
\ncauses as chairman of the National War Fund.<\/p>\n
After the war, the Dutch government
\nbegan investigating the whereabouts of some
\njewelry of the Dutch royal family that was
\nstolen by the Nazis. They started looking into
\nbooks of the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart.
\nWhen they discovered the transaction papers
\nof the Silesian American Corporation, they
\nbegan asking the bank manager H.J.
\nKounhoven a lot of questions. Kouwenhoven
\nwas shocked at the discovery and soon traveled
\nto New York to inform Prescott Bush.
\nAccording to Dutch intelligence,
\nKouwenhoven met with Prescott soon after
\nChristmas, 1947. Two weeks later,
\nKouwenhoven apparently died of a heart
\nattack.<\/p>\n
1950s: Bush Sells UBC Stock<\/p>\n
By 1948, Fritz Thyssen\u2019s life was in ruins.
\nAfter being jailed by the Nazis, he was jailed
\nby the Allies and interrogated extensively, but
\nnot completely, by US investigators. Thyssen
\nand Flick were ordered to pay reparations and
\nserved time in prison for their atrocious crimes
\nagainst humanity.<\/p>\n
On February 8, 1951, Fritz Thyssen died
\nbitterly in Argentina at the age of 78. Thyssen
\nwas angry at the way he was treated by Europe
\nafter the war and how history would remember
\nhim as Hitler\u2019s most important and prominent
\nfinancier.<\/p>\n
When Thyssen died, the Alien Property
\nCustodian released the assets of the Union
\nBanking Corporation to Brown Brothers
\nHarriman. The remaining stockholders cashed
\nin their stocks and quietly liquidated the rest
\nof UBC\u2019s blood money.<\/p>\n
Prescott Bush received $1.5 million for
\nhis share in UBC. That money enabled Bush
\nto help his son, George Herbert Walker Bush,
\nto set up his first royalty firm, Overby
\nDevelopment Company, that same year. It was
\nalso helpful when Prescott Bush left the
\nbusiness world to enter the public arena in 1952
\nwith a successful senatorial campaign in
\nConnecticut. On October 8th, 1972, Prescott
\nBush died of cancer and his will was enacted
\nsoon after.<\/p>\n
In 1980, when George H.W. Bush was
\nelected vice president, he placed his father\u2019s
\nfamily inherence in a blind trust. The trust was
\nmanaged by his old friend and quail hunting
\npartner, William \u201cStamps\u201d Farish III. Bush\u2019s
\nchoice of Farish to manage the family wealth
\nis quite revealing in that it demonstrates that
\nthe former president might know exactly where
\nsome of his inheritance originated. Farish\u2019s
\ngrandfather, William Farish Jr., on March 25th,
\n1942, pleaded \u201cno contest\u201d to conspiring with
\nNazi Germany while president of Standard Oil
\nin New Jersey. He was described by Senator
\nHarry Truman in public of approaching
\n\u201ctreason\u201d for profiting off the Nazi war
\nmachine. Standard Oil, invested millions in IG
\nFarben, who opened a gasoline factory within
\nAuschwitz in 1940. The billions \u201cStamps\u201d
\ninherited had more blood on it then Bush, so
\nthe paper trail of UBC stock would be safe
\nduring his 12 years in presidential politics.<\/p>\n
It has been 60 years since one of the great
\nmoney laundering scandals of the 20th century
\nended and only now are we beginning to see
\nthe true historical aspects of this important
\nperiod of world history, a history that the
\nremaining Holocaust survivors beg humanity
\nto \u201cnever forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loftus believes history will view Prescott
\nBush as harshly as Thyssen. \u201cIt is bad enough
\nthat the Bush family helped raise the money
\nfor Thyssen to give Hitler his start in the 1920s,
\nbut giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time
\nof war is treason. The Bush bank helped the
\nThyssens make the Nazi steel that killed Allied
\nsolders. As bad as financing the Nazi war
\nmachine may seem, aiding and abetting the
\nHolocaust was worse. Thyssen\u2019s coal mines
\nused Jewish slaves as if they were disposable
\nchemicals. There are six million skeletons in
\nthe Thyssen family closet, and a myriad of
\ncriminal and historical questions to be
\nanswered about the Bush family\u2019s complicity.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no question that the Bush family
\nneeds to donate at least $1.5 million to the
\nproper holocaust reparation fund. Since
\nPrescott Bush is dead, the only way to
\ncompensate is for the main inheritors of his
\nestate to make amends with surviving slaves
\nand the families of slaves who died in Bush
\nand Thyssen\u2019s coal mines. If the Bush family
\nrefuses to contribute the money to compensate
\nfor Prescott Bush\u2019s involvement in the
\nHolocaust, it is like denying the Holocaust
\nitself and their role in one of the darkest
\nmoments in world history.<\/p>\n
Special thanks to John Loftus, Emmy winning
\njournalist, author and current president of the
\nFlorida Holocaust Museum.<\/p>\n
……………………………………………………..H<\/p>\n
……………………….E<\/p>\n
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\n…………………………………………………………….G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prescott Bush, 1.5 Million Dollars and Auschwitz: How the Bush Family Wealth is Linked to the Jewish Holocaust While the Enron scandal currently unfolds, another Bush family business scandal lurks beneath the shadows of history that may dwarf it. On April 19, 2001, President George W. Bush spent some of Holocaust Remembrance Day in the … <\/p>\n