HISTORY / POLITICS

THE WAR CRIMES OF
THE DEUTSCHE BANK AND
THE DRESDENER BANK

OMGUS Report

In this book, Christopher Simpson reveals the behind-the-scenes story of the report. Simpson has carefully edited the report and provided notes and explanatory material, making it accessible to a wide range of readers. He brings readers the full story of the banking studies, reproduces hundreds of pages gleaned from declassified reports, and analyzes their significance in light of today's bitter debates over German corporation, the Holocaust, and how historical memory is to be defined.

In November 1946, U.S. Government financial experts inside former Nazi Germany concluded that Germany's most powerful banks must be liquidated if lasting peace was to be achieved. The giant Deutsche and Dredener Banks had completely intertwined themselves with the Nazi regime and were directly responsible for the systematic theft of Jewish property, slave labor, and financing the construction of SS concentration camps. As the Americans in the Finance Division of the Office of Military Government [U.S.] (OMGUS) saw things at the time, the bank leaders should be tried as war criminals and barred from ever holding any positions of importance in German political or economic life.

However, these recommendations were never implemented. In fact, many of the officials of the Deutsche Bank went on to be some of the most important figures in German economic development—and by extension, European economic development—in the postwar period. The Deutsche Bank secretly retained almost a ton of gold taken from the dead at concentration camps; the Dresdener Bank re-emerged as a multinational financial giant. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government buried the 500+ page report of its financial experts in classified files, where they gathered dust for decades.

Today, the Deutsche Bank is the largest financial institution in the world and the Dresdener Bank is not far behind.

"This is a work of major significance. No library that attempts to cover the Holocaust will be complete without it. It is easy to appreciate why two banks which are so prominent in today's world economy should have spent millions of dollars on sponsoring histories of their wartime activities but have been content to leave the vital OMGUS reports of 1946 and 1947 unpublished."
—Michael Pinto-Duschinsky
Chair, International Political Science Association's Research Committee on Political Finance and Political Corruption

"In a meritable effort, Christopher Simpson edited the OMGUS reports on the Deutsche and on the Dresdner Banks. For the first time ever, these extensive and valuable, although not undisputed, key sources are disclosed to a wider, non-scholarly audience."
—Christopher Kopper

"The [Deutsche Bank's] postwar management paid to whitewash the bank's crimes and disparage a few brave U.S. Army investigators who had discovered the truth. This outstanding book is a must-read for those seeking to understand evil in our society."
—Tom Bower, author of Blind Eye to Murder: Britain, America and the Purging of Nazi Germany—A Pledge Betrayed

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, given that the years 1946–47 saw a sea change in American foreign policy as economic reconstruction assumed priority over social and political reform in the Soviet Union. ...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

Christopher Simpson is an associate professor specializing in information literacy at American University's School of Communication in Washington, DC. He has written several books concerning genocide, international human rights law and national security, inclduing The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law and Genocide in the 20th Century. He serves on the Scholarly Advisory Boards for federal interagency commissions concerning looted Nazi assets and administration of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. Simpson is also the editor of the new Holmes & Meier series, Science and Human Rights.