Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germanys Wealthiest Dynasties

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Lucid and damning an absorbing and infuriating tale of complicity, coverup and denial PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, author of EMPIRE OF PAIN

A groundbreaking investigation of how the Nazis helped German tycoons make billions from the horrors of the Third Reich and World War II and how the world allowed them to get away with it.
In 1946, Gnther Quandt patriarch of Germanys most iconic industrial empire, a dynasty that today controls BMW was arrested for suspected Nazi collaboration. Quandt claimed that he had been forced to join the party by his arch-rival, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and the courts acquitted him. But Quandt lied. And his heirs, and those of other Nazi billionaires, have only grown wealthier in the generations since, while their reckoning with this dark past remains incomplete at best. Many of them continue to control swaths of the world economy, owning iconic brands whose products blanket the globe. The brutal legacy of the dynasties that dominated Daimler-Benz, cofounded Allianz and still control Porsche, Volkswagen and BMW has remained hidden in plain sight until now.

In this landmark work, investigative journalist David de Jong reveals the true story of how Germanys wealthiest business dynasties amassed untold money and power by abetting the atrocities of the Third Reich. Using a wealth of untapped sources, de Jong shows how these tycoons seized Jewish businesses, procured slave labourers and ramped up weapons production to equip Hitlers army as Europe burnt around them. Most shocking of all, de Jong exposes how the wider worlds political expediency enabled these billionaires to get away with their crimes, covering up a bloodstain that defiles the German and global economy to this day.

Reviews

It is impossible to fault de Jongs fierce indignation in his book. He must be right to urge that the descendants of Hitlers tycoons should admit their ancestors criminality
Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Fascinating de Jong tells the story with the brisk clarity of the good financial journalist he is and lets the fact speak for themselves. It leaves you awestruck at the power of greed
Daily Telegraph

The author cleverly weaves his astonishing facts and figures into human stories Its fascinating detail and engaging style makeNazi Billionairesa forceful book, revealing to a wide audience a vital aspect of Germanys ongoing discussion with itself
Spectator

Lucid, and damning, Nazi Billionaires unearths decades of family secrets and exposes the tainted origins of several of the world's most significant dynastic fortunes. As adept in the archive as he is on the page, de Jong draws on a vast wealth of historical evidence to tell an absorbing and infuriating tale of complicity, coverup, and denial, and to unearth the sordid war crimes behind some of today's most vaunted consumer brands
Patrick Radden Keefe, bestselling author of Empire of Pain

Eloquent, thorough, and profound, David de Jongs brilliant debut illuminates a dark chapter of the past while also shining a stark and uncanny light onto our present, and, perhaps, our near future showing how an insidious mix of capitalism and fascism can destroy democracy and countless lives. An absolute must-read
Norman Ohler, bestselling author of Blitzed

As riveting as it is disturbing. At times, it felt like reading the anti-Schindler's List: instead of secretly helping the Jews, Germany's most powerful tycoons brutally exploited their suffering for personal profit
Bradley Hope, bestselling co-author of Billion Dollar Whale

Author Bio

David de Jong is a journalist who previously covered European banking and finance from Amsterdam and hidden wealth and billionaire fortunes from New York for Bloomberg News. His work has also appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, the Wall Street Journal, and the Dutch Financial Daily. A native of the Netherlands, de Jong currently lives in Tel Aviv. He spent four years researching and writing this book from Berlin.