Companies that supported the Axis Countries

Can someone tell me all the companies they know of that supported the Axis countries during the war? Thanks.

 

antifa,

Check this site out... Allies trading with Hitler – Economic games during World War II - a knol by Spiros Kakos

I'll keep looking

Mark

 

Just a small portion of businesses involved from the website provided above...

Many great American companies were doing business with the Third Reich not only before but also during the Second World War. These companies were not just some small companies trying to make profit, but the largest corporations in America. A small summary of these corporations include IBM, GM, Ford, Alcoa, Du Pont and Standard Oil.
The well known software company IBM was the one which provided Hitler with the technical means to catalogue and organize the “Final Solution”, i.e. the killing of millions of people

Mark

 

Thanks. Any more?

 

Dai Nippon Kōkū

Air Companies

some more for ya!

 

In doing some research on IBM and a previous thread on this forum... there is a lot of speculation and opinion on this subject. IBM most definitely sold the machines, but being tied into the Holocaust and Hitler's agenda?? No way. Just thought I'd throw that out there

Mark

 

Here is some stuff I have put together over the years, and it too includes a mention of IBM and their unwitting aid to the KZ transport question.

U.S. Ambassador in Germany, William Dodd, wrote FDR from Berlin on October 19, 1936 (three years after Hitler came to power), concerning American industrialists and their aid to the Nazis: "Much as I believe in peace as our best policy, I cannot avoid the fears which Wilson emphasized more than once in conversations with me, August 15, 1915 and later: the breakdown of democracy in all Europe will be a disaster to the people. But what can you do? At the present moment more than a hundred American corporations have subsidiaries here or cooperative understandings. The DuPonts have three allies in Germany that are aiding in the armament business. Their chief ally is the I. G. Farben Company, a part of the Government which gives 200,000 marks a year to one propaganda organization operating on American opinion. Standard Oil Company (New Jersey sub-company) sent $2,000,000 here in December 1933 and has made $500,000 a year helping Germans make Ersatz gas for war purposes; but Standard Oil cannot take any of its earnings out of the country except in goods. They do little of this, report their earnings at home, but do not explain the facts. The International Harvester Company president told me their business here, in Germany rose 33% a year (arms manufacture, I believe), but they could take nothing out. Even our airplanes people have secret arrangement with Krupps. General Motor Company and Ford do enormous businesses [sic] here through their subsidiaries and take no profits out. I mention these facts because they complicate things and add to war dangers. (Edgar B. Nixon, ed., Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, Volume III: September 1935-January 1937, [Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1969], p. 456.)
　
IBM set up their first machines in Germany in 1936 or '37 to control the input and delivery systems of the German rail lines, long before the massive KZ system came into being. They were not simply for tabulating Jewish transport to the KZs, the job they were put to much, MUCH later and without IBM’s aid or assistance.

After the Treaty of Versailles, the Krupp family purchased significant shares in the Swedish Bofors arms plant, and exchanged with the Swedes both licenses and patents so that Bofors could help develop and manufacture Krupp products while Krupp itself was forbidden to do so under terms of the Treaty. So a number of German engineers moved to Sweden and worked with Bofors, exchanging designs and development research before the Swedish government ended the arrangement in the 1930s. Out of this collaboration, the Swedes developed their own 40-mm anti-aircraft "Bofors" (AA) gun and the Germans engineered their famous 8.8cm Flugabwehrkanone (88mm Anti-Aircraft Cannon; FLAK) 18, 36, and 37. Also in order to sidestep the Versailles treaty, the Swedish Florman Brothers aircraft concern was invested in, and aided Junkers in aircraft development.

The aforementioned American firms weren't the only ones to have made a profit from the Nazis, J.P. Morgan Bank, Guaranty Trust, Chase Manhattan Bank, at least three Wall Street houses (Dillon, Read; Harris, Forbes; and, National City Company for sure), as well as Standard Oil (New Jersey), Du Pont and Dow Chemical, General Motors, International Harvester Corporation, Ford Motors, and General Electric (A.E.G.) of the United States all helped or profited in one way or the other before and even (in some cases) during the Second World War. G.E. (A.E.G) rounded out its support by technical cooperation with Krupp, which seems to have been aimed at restricting all U.S. development of tungsten carbide.

I.T.T. Corp. held a 28 percent interest in Focke-Wolfe aircraft, American Ford owned Deutsche Ford outright, as well as French Ford and Ford Werke of Belgium. Ford profited from supplying the German Wehrmacht with cars and trucks through out the war. Standard Oil's most egregious role (beyond profiteering), was with technical aid to Nazi development of synthetic rubber and synthetic gasoline through a U.S. research company under the management and control of Standard Oil. Then the Ethyl Gasoline Company (jointly owned by Standard Oil and General Motors), was instrumental in supplying vital tetra-ethyl lead assistance to Nazi Germany with the clear knowledge that the tetra-ethyl lead was for Nazi military purposes. I also believe that the dividends to both GM (from Opel) and Ford from their European subsidiaries continued all through the war years too, through the Swiss and the Swedes or perhaps they were held in neutral banks until post war.

Some of that may have been justified as "weakening" the Germany economy and strengthening our own at the same time however. Everybody it seems took advantage of the situation and had fingers in the pie. For the most part, (with the exception of Ford) the war years themselves saw nothing of the sort. Pre-war yes, but after Dec. 1941 and the reinstatement of the 1917 "Trading with the Enemy Act" in 1942, very little. Dealing with Nazi Germany, or even financing Hitler, may have been ethically and morally repugnant (even then), but it wasn’t illegal until Hitler declared war on the US on Dec. 11th. Six days after Pearl Harbor, FDR evoked the existing 1917 Trading With the Enemies Act.

Admittedly after FDR re-issued the "Trading With The Enemy Act", this stuff should have stopped for the US citizens at least. But before hostilities broke out many people and companies from other nations were doing much the same. Such European industrial giants as Kuhlmann of France, Imperial Chemical Industries of Great Britain, Aussiger Verein, Skoda, and Tatra of Czechoslovakia, along with Boruta of Poland all took advantage of the opportunity to make money until war erupted or their nations were occupied, and all supplied the Third Reich with products and R/D aid.

Don’t forget that GM head Alfred P. Sloan, in whose honor the Sloan School of Business at MIT is named, remarked in 1939, just weeks after the Nazi military seized Czechoslovakia, that GM production and sales in Germany were "highly profitable." James Mooney (see medal next para), who ran GM's overseas branches, held talks with Hitler two weeks after the Nazi invasion of Poland, and subsequently GM's German subsidiary continued to make war materiel for the German army.

And let’s not ignore that the Verdienstkreuz der Deutscher Adler (Service Cross of the German Eagle), had a small number of recipients. A "special" Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle in Gold with Diamonds (Grosskreuz des Deutschen Adlerordens in Gold und Brillanten) was awarded to Benito Mussolini on September 25th,1937. And Henry Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle on his 75th birthday, the 30th of July, 1938.

James D. Mooney, General Motor's chief executive for overseas operations, was also awarded Order of the German Eagle 1st Class one month after Henry Ford was given his Grand Cross, however JD Mooney (a member of the armed forces reserves), was required to submit any medals he received from foreign governments to the U.S. Government. He is the only recipient known to have abandoned his. Charles Lindbergh was awarded his Order of the German Eagle with Star on October 19th, 1938 although on the advice of his wife he never wore his in public. He also never returned it, and like Ford’s medal, it is on display in his museum.

Even Hitler recognized that these men aided the Nazis in some fashion, hence the medals

 

Thanks you guys have been a great help.
Can anyone find what Saab and Volvo did during WW2?

 

Well, when foreign aircraft became less and less available to the Swedes as WW2 approached they started making their own, hence the SAAB company. I think its first planes were designed in 1938 or 39 and started flying shortly afterward.

The Volvo company was involved in making trucks of all sorts for Swedish use, and some export as well. Here is a link to a different forum with a great set of pics of the Volvo trucks of the war years. Including some which had been exported to the Danes.

Axis History Forum • View topic - Swedish Soft Skins

They had some very impressive looking multi drive axle units, and even some of those "gasgen" systems where the fuel is produced by slow buring wood to produce a gas on which the internal combustion engine runs.

Neither of those companies had too much to do in the support of the Axis however, or at least I have never seen such a thing propounded. The Volvo people may have been influenced by some German designs, but whether or not they were supportive of the Axis is a different matter completely.

 

Found a bit more about the "ties" between GE and Krupp before and even during the war. Quite disturbing really.

Goto:

UE News Feature: Nasty Nazi Business - Corporate Deals with Nazi Germany

I had read of the tungsten carbide shortage in American production of steel alloy, but had no idea how deep the collaboration between Krupp and GE went.

 

Crap, I really didn't see that one from you. Don't ask why, I just found that link on that old Zip disk I've been forwarding the other links from, the Konherr Report and such.

Didn't even look at the thread well enough to notice you had posted that one. Oh well, Kudos to you, and savor away. Sorry 'bout that chief!