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How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine
have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how
repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with
the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president
Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington
Saturday September 25, 2004
The Guardian
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a
director and shareholder of companies that profited from their
involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in
the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a
director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were
seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than
60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany
against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and
to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor
to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for
prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the
surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about
the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the
new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that
even after America had entered the war and when there was already
significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked
for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German
businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been
suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish
the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public
scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation
involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages
by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent
publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make
Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his
grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the
Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown
Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German
industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s
before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has
seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based
Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests
and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.
full: How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited</pre>
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine
have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how
repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with
the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president
Ben Aris in Berlin and Duncan Campbell in Washington
Saturday September 25, 2004
The Guardian
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a
director and shareholder of companies that profited from their
involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in
the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a
director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were
seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than
60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany
against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and
to a hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor
to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for
prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the
surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about
the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the
new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that
even after America had entered the war and when there was already
significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked
for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German
businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been
suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish
the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public
scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation
involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages
by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent
publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make
Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his
grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.
While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the
Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown
Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German
industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s
before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has
seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based
Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests
and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.
full: How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited</pre>
