Its Business, Nothing Personal - Assignment Example

It’s Business, Nothing Personal Evaluate the claim that German big business was willingly and profitably cooperated with the Nazi regime in the exploitation of Europe, 1939-45. Introduction To make the claim that certain businesses cooperated with Hitler’s war machine would still have severe repercussions for any company even though more than 60 years have passed since the end of World War II. While many of the topics concerning the Nazi era have become satires and even subjects of comedy (Newsweek, 1990), they still ignite a lot of passion and negative emotions. The probable reason for this is because the remembrance of the era is still alive and recorded history considers the events of the Second World War to be the most important phase of last century if not all of human existence. One of the stronger reactions is given to those companies which are discovered or confess to having links with the Nazi regime and from an examination of historical records as well as various other documents it seems clear that many companies willingly cooperated with the Nazis towards the exploitation of Europe. However, it can be shown that the companies had little interest in ideology or the motives of the Nazis; rather, they were interested in making money since that was their main objective. Business as Usual The economic background of the era is important in this respect because when the Nazis came into power, the economic situation of Germany was disastrous. High unemployment rates meant that the economy was under productive and under pressure. During this time, the economic reorganization of the state was made the responsibility of a respected banker, Hjalmar Schacht. Under his guidance, several changes were made to the economic policy and some of the first economic changes were the elimination of trade unions and establishment of the wage controls in German society (Wikipedia, 2006). These measures certainly helped the business community since trade unions had been able to strike as well as negotiate salaries on a collective basis. Needless to say businesses approved of these ideas and worked hand in hand with the Nazis to improve the economy as Hitler saw fit. The money supply to the economy was expanded with the aid of deficit spending with interest rates held firmly at 4.5%. Shell companies were setup such as the MEFO company which issued bonds but these were actually utilized to hide expenditure on arms which was a violation of the Versailles Treaty (Wikipedia, 2006). The creation of a black market was stopped simply because the Germans could send violators to concentration camps or shot after a summary trial. Imports were limited while exports were expanded leading to an overvalued mark. Despite all of these measures, little industry was nationalized and the majority of businesses remained with private owners. However, regulations were made which created quotas and demanded that national resources be used for production. Larger companies were joined into cartels through government operated administrative committees. Any business which did not tow the line could be threatened with nationalization yet at the same time; nationalized banks were given back to the original owners (Wikipedia, 2006). Creation of public works was a large part of the economic agenda and the public works program called the Reichsarbeitsdienst was used to galvanize the economic sector. While the program started with the creation of the Autobahns across Germany, it later developed a military flavor as it was used to create bunkers, under ground missile silos and other military stations across the conquered areas of Europe. The rearmament process itself led to many businesses benefiting from the German enterprise (Wikipedia, 2006). German Businesses While suspicions of German businesses cooperating with the Nazi regime have been voiced for many years, it was only after declassification of files and the fall of the Berlin Wall that the full extent of the cooperation was made public knowledge (Ford, 2001). In fact, some German businesses were in the process of claiming sympathies from the public for their role in the Nazi era while the reality of the situation was far from making their case a sympathetic one. For example, the case of German media giant, Bertelsmann is one situation which demands a close examination. Bertelsmann claimed that it was shut down by the Nazi government in 1944 and created a legend of Nazi resistance which led to it being granted an operational license in the years after the war. However, as reported by the BBC, it was probably shut down due to the shortages created by the war and not their defiance to the Nazis (BBC, 2002). In fact, the reality was quite different since Bertelsmann made huge profits by collaborating with the Germans at the time and published volumes of anti-Semitic texts during the Nazi era. Moreover, those profits were made using Jewish slave labor in Latvia and Lithuania which took the company from a small school and religious books publisher to one of the media giants in the modern world. The company targeted the youth market with its publication of The Christmas Book of the Hitler Youth which multiplied its sales by a factor of twenty (BBC, 2002). Additionally, Heinrich Mohm, who was the head of the company at the time made substantial donations to the SS funds and had close links with the propaganda ministry and won contracts for more than 19 million books which were published during the war. However, nothing is more interesting than the fact that once these facts were made public by the fact finding commission, the company immediately issued an apology for its activities during the war and the falsification of its own history (BBC, 2002). The chairperson of the group, Gunther Thielen, immediately released a statement which said that, ‘"I would like to express our sincere regret for the inaccuracies the Commission has uncovered in our previous corporate history of the World War Two era as well as for the wartime activities that have been brought to light. (BBC, 2002, Pg. 1)". Not surprisingly, he is not alone in the apology and more than 6,000 German companies who have operated since the Nazi era are taking part in the creation of a $5 billion fund which is supposed to compensate the hundreds of thousands of Nazi slave laborers. Of course there were certain shining examples where industrialists and businesses did not cooperate with the Nazis in any way. Oscar Schindler has been immortalized by Steven Spielberg but in 1973, the international organization which commemorates holocaust survivors, Yad Vashem extended its highest honor to Berthold Beitz who was the head of the Krupp foundation in Essen and had risked his own life to save Jews from concentration camps during the reign of the Third Reich (Wiesen, 1996). There are certainly examples of Germans protecting their Jewish friends from the tortures they could have experienced at the concentration camps and their lives are monuments to heroism (Wiesen, 1996). However, there were also other companies which cooperated in making arms and ammunition, machines for the blitzkrieg and chemical gas for the death chambers. Their crimes were brushed under the carpet for a long time with the effective and intuitive use of public relations techniques as well as an adjustment of historical facts (Hayes, 1987). Dresdner Bank helped in the actual building and creation of Auschwitz where more than 1.5 million people were killed. It supported the SS unit that shot Jewish women and children and took people from their homes to concentration camps. It was also responsible of stealing millions of marks from the money deposited by German Jews. In effect, Dresdner Bank did everything which was profitable to it from the German Nazi government and followed the suggestions of the government to the letter in terms of racist goals and imperialistic motivations. Yet, at the event hosted for the bank’s 125th anniversary, the Nazi history of the bank was glossed over in a single sentence (Scheer & Kammel, 1987). An examination of the banks sealed records was permitted only after threats of boycott and other such tactics had been used and the details of their involvement in the Nazi operations were brought to light. As German companies broaden their horizons and wish to expand into global markets, it is useful for them to clean their slate and begin without any blemishes of the Nazi era therefore, an exercise in apologizing for their behavior is necessary even if it is by a company like Degussa AG that was responsible for producing the Zycklon B gas which was used to exterminate prisoners in camps around Germany (Scheer & Kammel, 1987). These companies include names like Deutsche Bank, Hugo Boss and Daimler AG as well as many others who made millions in the time humanity was being crushed around them. Siemens is another German firm which worked with the Nazi dictators in making sure that slave labor could be exploited and the gains made from the use of the slave labor could be injected back into their business (Scheer & Kammel, 1987). As time goes on and historians dig deeper into the German war machine beyond the atrocities committed in the concentration camps, the truths come out and with them come the lawsuits. Legal Claims A group which represents the gypsies is engaged in a lawsuit against the computer giant IBM saying that the machines created by IBM led to the capture, identification and eventual deaths of more than half a million gypsies in Nazi Germany. Swiss banks have been pressured, cajoled and threatened with lawsuits by international groups to give up the funds which belonged to Jews who were killed in the holocaust. The money had stayed with the banks since 1945 and the banks agreed to the establishment of a $1.25 billion fund to settle their cases with the heirs if any (Ford, 2001). German companies have also been targeted with law suits and automobile manufacturers like Volkswagen and Ford are also being asked to give money to the fund which is supposed to compensate the victims. However, it is doubtful that any money will ever reach the people who were the actual victims or their children since the events took place in a very troubled period of history where the even the broader situation is difficult to understand so the case of one person during the time is even more difficult. Records, names, numbers are often lost, destroyed and the person making the claim can often find it difficult to provide proof of their loss to begin with. Conclusion I do not believe for a second that the companies which cooperated with the Nazi empire during the holocaust are now apologizing because they have realized the mistakes they made. The apology and the money being extended by them is simply a way to make amends so that their products are not boycotted and the media does not give them the negative publicity that tarnishes their image which they have so carefully created. As I see it, it all boils down to the idea of business. Whatever is profitable for the company must be done and whatever causes a loss must be avoided. At the time of the war it was profitable for many German companies to be partners with Hitler since it was good for business. At the same time, it is now profitable to be known as a company which did not support Hitler and if a company is discovered to be a coconspirator, that matter can be quickly fixed by blaming the past directors and offering a few million dollars to help the victims and their heirs most of whom would never be found and remain faceless. It is business as usual and little else which motivates these companies to now help those who they hurt most. Works Cited BBC. “Bertelsmann admits Nazi past”. BBC.co.uk. 2002. BBC UK. 15 May. 2006. Ford, P. “Europes halting path to resolve Nazi era.” Christian Science Monitor 93.132 (2001): 1-12. Hayes, P. “Fritz Roessler and Nazism: The Observations of a German Industrialist, 1930-37.” Central European History; 20.1 (1987): 58-80. Newsweek. “Heil, honey, Im home.” Newsweek 116.17 (1990): 46-47. Scheer, D. and Kammel, B. “Dresdner, Financier of Hitlers SS, Lifts Curtain on Nazi Past.” Bloomberg.com. 2006. Bloomberg Germany. 16 May. 2006. Wiesen, J. “Overcoming Nazism: Big business, public relations.” Central European History 29.2 (1996): 201-237. Wikipedia. “Nazi Germany.” Wikipedia.org. 2006. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 15 May. 2006 Word Count : 2,077 Read More