Hitler’s Struggle (part V: Hitler and the Bankers)

Three new players, one old game

By the end of WWI Germany was not only hopelessly broke, but on top had to make front to the war reparation payments imposed during the Treaty of Versailles for 269 billion gold marks (the equivalent to 100,000 tonnes of pure gold); a quantity that was considered excessive by many economists, [1] and which was reduced by 50% in 1929. According to Louis T. McFadden (US House Representative for Pennsylvania): “After WWI, Germany fell into the hands of the international bankers. Those bankers bought her and they now own her, lock, stock, and barrel. They have purchased her industries, they have mortgages on her soil, they control her production, they control all her public utilities. The international German bankers have subsidized the present Government of Germany and they have also supplied every dollar of the money Adolph Hitler has used in his lavish campaign to build up a threat to the government of Bruening. When Bruening fails to obey the orders of the German International Bankers, Hitler is brought forth to scare the Germans into submission. Through the Federal Reserve Board… over $30 billions of American money… has been pumped into Germany… You have all heard of the spending that has taken place in Germany… modernistic dwellings, her great planetariums, her gymnasiums, her swimming pools, her fine public highways, her perfect factories. All this was done on our money. All this was given to Germany through the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board… has pumped so many billions of dollars into Germany that they dare not name the total.”

But unlike Bruening, and even though he had already figured out the whole plot (the Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy), Hitler had no intention to disapoint the bankers. At the contrary, he would work with them towards his own agenda; even though he never trusted the international bankers; not even his own governor of the Reichsbank, Hjalman Schacht -who was a German prominent member of the club of international bankers, and whom, along Montague Norman (governor of the Bank of England) masterminded the Bank of International Settlements (BIS); set to facilitate the enormous reparation payments from WWI between countries, and which was instrumental for Hitler to carry out his plans-. This is how Hitler described Schacht: "It was its consulate skill at swindling other people which made him indispensible at the time. After all, see that the whole gang of financiers as a bunch of crooks, what possible point was there at being scrupulously honest with them. Before each meeting of the International Bank at Basle, half the world was anxious to know whether Schacht would attend or not. It was only after the assurance that he would be there, that the Jew bankers of the entire world packed their bags and prepared to attend. In spite of his ability I could never trust Schacht; for I have often seen how his face lit up when he succeeded in swindling someone out of a 100 marks note."

Apart from the investments from the Federal Reserve described above –and those of other Wall Street private banks, like: Warburg, JP Morgan, Khan Loeb, and Chase-Manhattan-, [2] under Hjalman Schacht and Montague Norman the BIS also transferred investments from the European allied powers into Germany for the expansion of her economy. And even though, since the Nazis came into power in 1933, there were no new investments, existing ones continued to be renewed annually. By 1939, and through the BIS alone, 294 million Gold Swiss Francs were pumped into Germany; which were primarily used for the full re-armament of the country in preparation for war. Hitler was using the greed of the bankers to fund his military campaigns and to loot the gold from the conquered countries; which would be used to repay the bankers and to fund further military campaigns. In 1938, the first thing Hitler did after annexing Austria was to demand the Austrian gold held by the BIS; which transferred 22 tons of gold to the Reichsbank. Next, after invading Czechoslovakia, Hitler also demanded the BIS their gold. However, the Czechs had previously deposited it in a safe haven with the Bank of England. However, at the request of the BIS, £6 million were transferred out of the arks of the Bank of England, and into the Reichsbank, by order of its governor Montague Norman.

After Norman transferred the Czech gold out of the Bank of England, the BIS decided to appoint a new and neutral president, an American by the name of Thomas McKittrick. Under his direction –and after WWII broke out in full- business continued as usual for Hitler and the bankers. The gold from Poland, Holland and Belgium was also transferred to the Reichsbank after these countries were invaded by the Nazis. Even the gold looted from the prisoners in the concentration camps (gold watches, pens, jewellery and even teeth extracted from the victims) was laundered through the BIS into Swiss Francs; even when at least two of its directors had previous knowledge of its origin, for which they were convicted in Nuremberg: Emil Puhl (BIS director and vice-president of the Reichsbank) and Walter Funk (BIS director and president of the Reichsbank). US Intelligence reports shows that the BIS continued to transfer gold from the Nazis all along WWII, until late 1945; and even though I could not find the amounts profited by all the international banks involved in the funding of Hitler and in helping with the laundering and looting, according to Sir Edward Playfair (by then with The HM Treasury) by 1944 Germany was paying £760 thousand per year on pre-war investments to the BIS, and getting 1/3 of it back in dividends; the rest was kept as profit by the Bank of England.

The war ended, but Hitler never turned against the bankers –even though he knew exactly who was responsible for the plot against Germany-, nor the bankers turned against Hitler -even though they knew what he was up to-; at the contrary, they continued doing business all along the war, enjoying safe passage through the axis powers in private planes, and as it has being recently revealed, many British and American commercial banks were eager to please the Nazis -like Chase-Manhattan and Barclays Bank, who froze all Jewish accounts and fired all Jewish employees-. On the other hand, innocent Jews, Freemasons, and left-wingers from Germany and the occupied territories took the blame for the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy... and paid the ultimate price.

But there was someone who stood up against the bankers -thanks to whom this chapter was even possible-: the US Secretary of Treasury under Roosevelt Henry Morgenthau; who not only figured out the whole plot since day one, but put together a 32 portfolios dossier on the funding of Hitler by the BIS, the Bank of England, and other National and Commercial banks; and who always urged Roosevelt to act against the bankers; and who had his career destroyed for challenging the international bankers.

With Hitler out of the way, it was now time for the bankers to take care of a previous investment; or in this case, get rid of them if they didn’t finally comply: I'm talking about the Soviets and their new leader, Joseph Stalin. It was the end of WWII, but the beginning of the Cold War.


... Next chapter: the final solution


Bibliography:
Paul Elston, “Banking with Hitler”, Laurence Rees, Time Watch, BBC, 1998

References:
[1] Olivia Lang, "Why has Germany taken so long to pay off its WWI debt?", BBC News, Retrieved October 3, 2010.
[2] Anthony C. Sutton, “Wall Street and the rise of Hitler”, G S G & Associates Pub, 1976.