Nazi War Finance

Occasional paper [no.] 20 : April 1944.

Paying for Hitler's War is a comparative economic study of twelve Nazi-occupied countries during World War II.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... THE PRINCIPLES OF WAR FINANCE Ever since the success of the first German war loan English speakers and writers have taken a lot of trouble in running down German finance. Their attitude was quite intelligible as long as Great Britain had hopes of winning the war by the financial and economic exhaustion of the enemy. These hopes have gone long ago. England has realized that the road to victory leads over battle fields. Whilst her soldiers are doing manfully their duty in the service of their country, she is compelled to borrow money abroad, in order to finance the huge army she must have. Her financial experts go on trying to beguile the neutrals with stories of the imminent economic and financial collapse of the enemy. They do not seem to see how criminal it would be to sacrifice the lives of so many thousand brave men in the trenches if there really was a short cut to success by blockade and starvation. They boast about the great achievements of the blockade which, according to their views, has cut off the Central Powers from the rest of the world. At the same time they are trying hard to undermine Germany's foreign credit, forgetting evidently that a country, as completely blockaded as Germany is supposed to be, is independent of foreign credits. They are taking great trouble in impressing their views on the neutrals by stopping almost completely the influx of German newspapers, not of war news only, but of financial and economic news as well: Evidently the collapse of German credit is not yet visible in Germany. If Germany was likely to appear as a competitor for loans in the American market this attitude could be easily explained. As this is not likely to happen, it is difficult to understand these methods. Even if Allied authors...

Using documents only recently available, this pioneering book explores the interaction of German, British, French, and American policy at a time when the great depression and the growing political power of the Nazis had created a European crisis--the only such crisis between 1910 and 1941 in which the United States played a leading role. The author uses contemporary records to rectify the later accounts of such participants as Herbert Hoover, Julius Curtius, and Paul Schmidt. He describes the negotiations of the major powers arising out of the Austro-German plans for a customs union, and relates this problem to the question of terminating reparations and war debts. He shows how the Governor of the Bank of England directed British foreign policy into bitter opposition to France and how the German government sought to exploit the German private debt to Wall Street. Edward Bennett comes to the conclusion that the Br ning government, contrary to widely held opinion, received fully as much help as it deserved, while the Western powers were already showing the disunity and irresponsibility which proved so disastrous in later years. Although primarily a diplomatic history, this book also offers fresh information on pre-Hitler Germany, MacDonald's Britain, the Hoover administration, and the early career of Pierre Laval.

For the entire history of human civilization, gold has enraptured people around the globe. The Nazis was no less enthralled by it, and felt that gold was the solution to funding Hitler's war machine. Gold was also on the mind of FDR across the Atlantic, as he worked with Europe's other leaders to bring the United States and the rest of the world out of a severe depression. FDF was hardly the first head of state to turn to gold in difficult times. Throughout history, it has been the refuge of both nations and people in trouble, working at times when nothing else does. Desperate people can buy a loaf of bread or bribe a border guard. Gold can get desperate nations oil to keep tanks running or munitions to fight a war. If the price is right, there is always someone somewhere willing to buy or sell gold. And it was to become the Nazi's most important medium of exchange during the war. Chasing Gold is the story of how the Nazis attempted to grab Europe’s gold to finance history’s bloodiest war. It is filled with high drama and close escapes, laying bare the palate of human emotions. Walking through the tale are giants of world history, as well as ordinary people called upon to undertake heroic action in an extraordinary time.

The Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest financial institution, played an important role in the expropriation of Jewish-owned enterprises during the Nazi dictatorship, both in the existing territories of Germany, and in the area seized by the German army during World War II. In this 2001 book Harold James uses new and previously unavailable materials, many from the bank's own archives, to examine policies which led to the eventual genocide of European Jews. How far did the realization of the vicious and destructive Nazi ideology depend on the acquiescence, the complicity, and the cupidity of existing economic institutions, and individuals? In response to the traditional view that business co-operation with the Nazi regime was motivated by profit, this book closely examines the behaviour of the bank and its individuals to suggest other motivations. No comparable study exists of a single company's involvement in the economic persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.