"Hitler's party secretary had decided that his only chance of survival lay in joining the mass exodus. His group attempted to follow a German tank, but according to Kempka, who was with him, it received a direct hit from a Russian shell and Bormann was almost certainly killed.
Arthur Axmann, the Hitler Youth leader, who had deserted his battalion of boys at Pichelsdorf Bridge to save his neck was also present and later deposed that he had seen Bormann's body lying under the bridge where the Invalidstrasse crosses the railway lines.
There was moonlight on his face and Axmann could see no sign of wounds. His presumption was that Bormann had swallowed poison when he saw that his chances of getting through the Russian lines were nil.
Generals Krebs and Burgdorf did not join in the mass attempts to escape. It is believed they shot themselves in the cellar of the New Chancellery."
William S. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, pp.1350
Heil Doenitz from Spike1138 on Vimeo.
"Our Fuehur, Adolf Hitler, fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism, fell for Germany this afternoon in his operational Headquarters in the Reich Chancellery. April 30 the Fuehrer appointed Grand Admiral Doenitz his successor. The Grand Admiral and successor of the Fuehrer now speaks to the German people:
It is my first task to save Germany from the destruction by the advancing Bolshevik enemy. For this aim alone, the struggle continues. As far and as long as the achievement of this aim is impeded by the British and Americans, we shall be forced to carry on our defensive fight against them as well. Under such condition, however the Anglo-Americans will continue the war, not for their own people's but solely for the spreading Bolshevism in Europe."
Originally recorded in June of 1997, this program sets forth the basic facts concerning the genesis and functioning of the remarkable and deadly Bormann organization, named for Reichsleiter Martin Bormann.
(This site contains extensive material documenting the profound connections between the Bush family, the administration of George W. Bush, and the Bormann organization.)
1. The economic and political component of a Third Reich gone underground, the Bormann organization controls corporate Germany and much of the rest of the world. Created and run by Martin Bormann, the organizational genius who was the “the power behind the throne” in Nazi Germany, the Bormann group is a primary element of the analysis presented in the For the Record programs.
2. The broadcast begins with discussion of the resumption of long-dormant investigations of the Nazi money trail created as the Third Reich siphoned off its wealth, in an effort to politically survive the inevitability of military defeat.
(“Nazi Money Trail Heats Up after 50 Years” by Greg Steinmetz; Wall Street Journal; 4/28/97; p. A1.)
3. As noted in this article, much of the Nazi money was reinvested in German corporations.
(Idem.)
4. Although it is not mentioned directly in this article, the story of the Nazi money trail leads, inevitably to the Bormann organization. The purpose of the Bormann flight capital program was set forth by Paul Manning, the heroic author who wrote the story of the Bormann organization.
“Martin Bormann, forty-one at the fall of Berlin, and strong as a bull, was at all times at Hitler’s side, impassive and cool. His be-all and end-all was to guide Hitler, and now to make the decisions that would lead to the eventual rebirth of his country. Hitler; his intuitions at peak level despite his crumbling physical and mental health in the last year of the Third Reich, realized this and approved of it. ‘Bury your treasure,’ he advised Bormann, ‘for you will need it to begin a Fourth Reich.’ [Emphasis added.] That is precisely what Bormann was about when he set in motion the ‘flight capital’ scheme August 10, 1944, in Strasbourg. The treasure, the golden ring, he envisioned for the new Germany was the sophisticated distribution of national and corporate assets to safe havens throughout the neutral nations of the rest of the world.”
(Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; pp. 29–30.)
5a. Manning began his research at the urging of the late Edward R. Murrow.
“. . . My wartime CBS colleague, the late Edward R. Murrow, had talked at length with me about developing the Bormann saga as a solid and historically enlightening, valuable postwar story. . . .”
Ibid.; p. 18
5b. The program describes the Strasbourg meeting in detail.
“The Staff car had left Colmar at first light for Strasbourg, carrying SS Obergruppenfueherer Scheid, who held the rank of lieutenant general in the Waffen SS, as well as the title of Dr. Scheid, director of the industrial firm of Hermadorff & Schenburg Company. While the beauty of the rolling countryside was not lost on Dr. Scheid, his thoughts were on the meeting of important German businessmen to take place on his arrival at the Hotel Maison Rouge in Strasbourg. Reichsleiter Martin Bormann himself had ordered the conference, and although he would not physically be present he had confided to Dr. Scheid, who was to preside, ‘The steps to be taken as a result of this meeting will determine the postwar future of Germany.’ The Reishsleiter had added, ‘German industry must realize that the war cannot now be won, and must take steps to prepare for a postwar commercial campaign which will in time insure the economic resurgence of Germany.’ It was August 10, 1944. The Mercedes-Benz bearing SS Obergruppenfuerher Scheid moved slowly now through the narrow streets of Strasbourg. Dr. Scheid noticed that this was a most agreeable city, one to return to after the war.”
(Ibid.; pp. 23–24.)
6. The meeting was crafted by Bormann and presided over by SS lieutenant general Dr. Scheid.
(Ibid.; p. 23.)
7.
“The staff car drew up before the Hotel Maison Rouge on the Rue des France-Bourgeois. Dr. Scheid, briefcase in hand, entered the lobby and ascended in the elevator to the conference suite reserved for his meeting. Methodically he circled the room, greeting each of the twelve present, then took his place at the head of the conference table. Even the pads and pencils before each man had been checked; Waffen SS technicians had swept the entire room, inspecting for hidden microphones and miniature transmitters. As an additional precaution, all suites flanking the conference suite had been held unfilled, as had the floors above and below, out of bounds for the day. Lunch was to be served in the conference suite by trusted Waffen SS stewards. Those present, all thirteen of them, could be assured that the thorough precautions would safeguard them all, even the secretary who was to take the minutes, later to be typed with a copy sent by SS courier to Bormann.”
(Ibid.; p. 24.)
8.
“A transcript of that meeting is in my possession. It is a captured German document from the files of the U.S. Treasury Department, and states who was present and what was said, as the economy of the Third Reich was projected onto a postwar profit seeking track.”
(Ibid.; p.24.)
9.
“Present were Dr. Kaspar representing Krupp, Dr. Tolle representing Rochling, Dr. Sinceren representing Messerschmitt, Drs. Kopp, Vier, and Beerwanger representing Rheinmetall, Captain Haberkorn and Dr. Ruhe representing Bussing, Drs. Ellenmayer and Kardos representing Volkswagenwerk, engineers Drose, Yanchew, and Koppshem representing various factories in Posen, Poland (Drose, Yanchew, & Co., Brown-Boveri, Herkuleswerke, Buschwerke, and Stadtwerke); Dr. Meyer, an official of the German Naval Ministry in Paris; and Dr. Strossner of the Ministry of Armament, Paris.”
(Ibid.; p. 25.)
10. Scheid briefed the leaders of German industry on Bormann’s plan, and gave them contacts—many of them in New York.
“Dr. Scheid, papers from his briefcase arranged neatly on the table before him, stated that all industrial materiel in France was to be evacuated to Germany immediately. ‘The battle of France is lost to Germany,’ he admitted, quoting Reichsleiter Bormann as his authority, ‘and now the defense of the Siegfried Line (and Germany itself) is the main problem. . . . From now on, Germany industry must take steps in preparation for a postwar commercial campaign, with each industrial firm making new contacts and alliances with foreign firms. This must be done individually and without attracting any suspicion. However, the party and the Third Reich will stand behind every firm with permissive and financial support.’ He assured those present that the frightening law of 1933 known as Treason Against the Nation, which mandated the death penalty for violation of foreign exchange regulations or concealing of foreign currency, was now null and void, on direct order of Reichsleiter Bormann.”
(Ibid.; p. 25.)
11. One of the firms that he cited as an example of a company that had been particularly useful to Germany was the Hamburg-Amerika Line. As discussed in FTRs 273, 346, the Hamburg-Amerika Line was part of the Bush family’s business operations on behalf of the Third Reich.
“Dr. Scheid also affirmed, ‘The ground must now be laid on the financial level for borrowing considerable sums from foreign countries after the war.’ As an example of the kind of support that had been most useful to Germany in the past, Dr. Scheid cited the fact that ‘patents for stainless steel belonged to the Chemical Foundation, Inc. New York, and the Krupp Company of Germany, jointly, and that of the United States Steel Corporation, Carnegie, Illinois, American Steel & Wire, National Tube, etc., were thereby under an obligation to work with the Krupp concern.’ He also cited the Zeiss Company, the Leica Company, and the Hamburg-Amerika line as typical firms that had been especially effective in protecting German interests abroad. He gave New York addresses to the twelve men.”
(Idem.) Hamburg-Amerika Line’s operations in the U.S. were controlled by the grandfather and great grandfather of George W. Bush.
12. The group also discussed provisions to continue to fund the Nazi party in an underground fashion after the war.
“A smaller conference in the afternoon was presided over by Dr. Bosse of the German Armaments Ministry. It was attended only by representatives of Hecko, Krupp, and Rochling. Dr. Bosse restated Bormann’s belief that the war was all but lost, but that it would be continued by Germany until certain goals to insure the economic resurgence of Germany after the war had been achieved. He added that German industrialists must be prepared to finance the continuation of the Nazi Party, which would be forced to go underground, just as had the Maquis in France.”
(Ibid.; p.26.)
13.
“From this day, German industrial firms of all rank were to begin placing their funds—and, wherever possible, key manpower—abroad, especially in neutral countries. Dr. Bosse advised that ‘two main banks can be used for the export of funds for firms who have made no prior arrangements; the Basler Handelsbank and Schweizerische Kreditanstalt of Zurich.’ He also stated, ‘There are a number of agencies in Switzerland which for a five percent commission will buy property in Switzerland for German firms, using Swiss cloaks.’”
(Ibid.; p. 27.)
14.
“Dr. Bosse closed the meeting, observing that ‘after the defeat of Germany, the Nazi Party recognizes that certain of its best known leaders will be condemned as war criminals. However, in cooperation with the industrialists, it is arranging to place its less conspicuous but most important members with various German factories as technical experts or members of its research and designing offices.”
(Idem.)
15. Bormann set up 750 corporations in neutral countries, and these became repositories for the liquid wealth of the Third Reich. Overseas subsidiaries of key German corporations were also central to the realization of the Bormann assets.
“The movement of German assets into Switzerland had also gone well, Bormann noted from his reports. Flight capital investments had been accomplished principally through the establishment of subsidiaries of powerful German firms. Over half of the total German capital in Switzerland was used in setting up holding companies representing I.G. Farben, Merck, Siemens, Osram, Henkel, and others. A holding company may not trade in any form. It may only hold stock in other companies, but through this device the existing German firms, and the 750 new corporations established under the Bormann program, gave themselves absolute control over a postwar economic network of viable, prosperous companies that stretched from the Ruhr to the ‘neutrals’ of Europe and to the countries of South America; a control that continues today and is easily maintained through the bearer bonds or shares issued by these corporations to cloak for real ownership. Bearer shares require no registration of identity, for such shares are exactly what they mean; the bearer of the majority shares controls the company without needing a vestige of proof as to how he acquired them. Thus the Germans who participated as a silent force in Bormann’s postwar commercial campaign—which is sometimes referred to by aging nazis as ‘Operation Eagle’s Flight’ or ‘Aktion Adlerflug’-insured their command over the industrial and financial institutions that were to move the new Federal Republic of Germany back into the forefront of world economic leadership.”
(Ibid.; pp. 134–135.)
16.
“Seven hundred and fifty new corporations were established in the last months of the war under the direction of Reichsleiter Bormann, using the technique perfected by Hermann Schmitz [of I.G. Farben]. A national of each country was the nominal head of each corporate structure and the board was a mix of German administrators and bank officials, while the staffing at senior and middle management levels was comprised of German scientists and technicians. In the background were the shadowy owners of the corporation, those Germans who possessed the bearer bonds as proof of stock ownership. The establishment of such companies, usually launched in industries requiring high technical skills was welcomed in Spain and Argentina, to give two examples because those governments appreciated that German companies would generate jobs and implement a more favorable balance of trade. Country by country, a breakdown by U.S. treasury investigators of these new 750 German firms was as follows: Portugal, 58; Spain, 112; Sweden, 233; Switzerland, 214; Turkey, 35; Argentina, 98.”
(Ibid.; pp. 135–136)
17.
“In addition to overseeing his 750 new corporations, Martin Bormann was also kept apprised of I.G. Farben’s activities in neutral countries, as well as the intensified activities of other major firms that were utilizing the new Bormann policy of transferring Third Reich money to subsidiaries. Farben had eight subsidiaries in Argentina, three in Portugal, four in Sweden, six in Switzerland, and fourteen in Spain. A.E.G., the giant electrical equipment manufacturer had six subsidiaries in Argentina, three affiliates in Spain, and four in Sweden. In brief, every major German corporation with an international operation strengthened its branches, subsidiaries, and affiliates with an influx of new money and talent that included scientists and technicians arriving weekly ready to perform laboratory research in Spain and Buenos Aires.”
(Ibid.; p. 140.)
18. One of the factors that permitted the realization and perpetuation of the Bormann organization was the profound connection between the above-ground German corporate structure, the 750 flight capital corporate fronts established in neutral countries, and major corporate and political elements in Western nations.
(Read more about the connections between American corporations and their Axis counterparts.)
“Powerful friends of the Bormann organization in all Western countries, including those sprinkled in control points throughout the administration in Washington and in the financial and brokerage businesses of Wall Street, the City of London, and the Paris establishment, did not wish a coordinated drive to get at these external German assets. They had understandable reasons, if you overlook morality: the financial benefits for cooperation (collaboration had become an old-hat term with the war winding down) were very enticing, depending on one’s importance and ability to be of service to the organization and the 750 corporations they were secretly manipulating, to say nothing of the known multinationals such as I.G. Farben, Thyssen A.G., and Siemens; and, as a second reason, the philosophy of free enterprise and preservation of private property.”
(Ibid.;. 156.)
19. The vast international scope of the I.G. Farben firm and its various subsidiary operations was a principal element of the Bormann organization. I.G. Farben chief Hermann Schmitz discussed I.G.‘s involvement with the Bormann program.
“In testimony later given to Nuremberg investigators, Schmitz praised Bormann for the way he had directed the distribution of German assets around the world. His own Farben organization had, of course, contributed to the success of the operation. Every regional representative working for Hermann Schmitz was an exceptional businessman, or he would not have been with I.G. All had contributed sound advice in their areas of competence, the regions of the world where they represented Farben while keeping an eye on the subsidiaries of the parent concern and the 700 hidden corporations they controlled. They had provided assistance and continuing guidance in establishing the 750 new companies created on order of Bormann, who wanted more than hidden assets; Bormann wanted the money and patents and technicians put to work to create even greater assets that would bolster Germany in the postwar years. In their meeting in the chancellery, both men checked over the figures of sums disbursed, and they were accurate to the pfennig.”
(Ibid.; pp. 157–158.)
20. Bormann and Schmitz then discussed I.G.‘s prospects for the postwar period. The cozy relationship with powerful elements within the power elites of the Western allies was foreseen by Schmitz as boding well for the company’s future.
“The Reichsleiter asked Schmitz his views of the future. Schmitz replied, ‘The occupation armies will be understanding in the West, but certainly not in the East. I have instructed all Farben administrators and technicians to come to the West, where they can be of use in resuming our operations once the disturbances of 1945 come to a halt.’ Schmitz added that, while general bomb damage to the I.G. plants was about 25 percent of capacity, some were untouched. He mentioned speaking with Field Marshal Model, who was commanding the defenses of the Ruhr. ‘Model had planned to turn our Bayer-Leberkusen pharmaceutical factory into an artillery base, but he agreed to make it an open, undefended factory. Hopefully, we will get it back untouched.’ ‘What about your board of directors and the essential executives? If they are held by the occupation authorities, can I.G. continue?’ Bormann asked. ‘We can continue. We have an operational plan for such a contingency, which everyone understands. However, I don’t believe our board members will be detained too long. Nor will I. But we must go through a procedure of investigation before release, so I have been told by our N.W. 7 people who have excellent contacts in Washington.’”
(Ibid.; p. 158.)
Schmitz’s predictions were relatively accurate. Neither Schmitz nor any of the I.G. Farben executives were severely punished and the firm’s three successor firms carried on effectively in the postwar period. (See FTR 179.)
21. Even the postwar perpetuation of I.G.‘s poison gas-producing firms was prepared. (Degussa, now a subsidiary of Eon, was obviously part of this nexus.)
“Schmitz also told Bormann of his visit to Switzerland earlier in the month. ‘Germany will have a poor image problem this time. Much worse than after the First World War. It can all be placed on the doorsteps of Goering, Himmler, and Heydrich. Goering and Himmler thought up the Final Solution for the Jews, and Heydrich made it a fact.’ Bormann agreed, asking, ‘How does that affect I.G.?’ ‘We produced the poison gas on Himmler’s orders,’ Schmitz explained, ‘so I’ve been making some corporate name changes in Basel, which may help our overseas situation.’”
(Ibid.; p. 159.)
22. The Manning text highlights the pivotal role of the Bormann organization in German heavy industry and, in turn, the influence of the Hermann Schmitz trust in the Bormann organization.
“The Bormann organization continues to wield enormous economic influence. Wealth continues to flow into the treasuries of its corporate entitities in South America, the United States, and Europe. Vastly diversified, it is said to be the largest land-owner in South America, and through stockholdings, controls German heavy industry and the trust established by the late Hermann Schmitz, former president of I.G. Farben, who held as much stock in Standard Oil of New Jersey as did the Rockefellers.”
(Ibid.; p. 292.)
The relationship between the Bormann organization, Degussa and Eon is one to be carefully considered
23. Bormann made a point of maintaining investment in blue-chip American corporations.
“With such funds accumulating rapidly in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and Argentina, Bormann and his group, who were handling the fortunes of 750 new corporations, would use these corporations in neutral countries as cloaks for investing in American companies. Bormann always had a high regard for U.S. blue chip stocks as a stable investment consistently purchasing a vast number of shares from the European offices of such New York stock brokerage houses as Merrill, Lynch on behalf of the Reich chancellery and Hitler, until war became official between the United States and Germany and the buying stopped, for a time.”
(Ibid.; p. 138.)
24.
“In 1941, investments in U.S. corporations by German companies and assorted German individuals held voting ownership in 170; minority ownership was held in another 108 American companies. These businesses covered the following fields: manufacturing, foodstuffs, chemicals, electrical and automobile equipment, machinery and machine equipment, other metal products); petroleum production, refining and distribution; finance; trade; and miscellaneous.”
(Ibid.; pp. 138–139.)
25.
“American industry, of course, had a financial stake in German industry. In the same year, 1941, 171 U.S. corporations had major investments in German firms amounting to $420 million. A listing of these corporations is identical to the general categories under German ownership in the United States.”
(Ibid.; p. 139.)
26.
“When Bormann gave the order for his representatives to resume purchases of American corporate stocks, it was usually done through the neutral countries of Switzerland and Argentina. From foreign exchange funds on deposit in Swiss banks and in Deutsche Sudamerikanishe Bank, the Buenos Aires branch of Deutsche Bank, large demand deposits were placed in the principal money-center banks of New York City; National City (now Citibank), Chase (now Chase Manhattan N.A.), Manufacturers and Hanover (now manufacturers Hanover Trust), Morgan Guaranty, and Irving Trust. Such deposits are interest-free and the banks can invest this money as they wish, thus turning tidy profits for themselves. In return, they provide reasonable services such as the purchase of stocks and transfer or payment of money on demand by customers of Deutsche bank such as representatives of the Bormann business organizations and and Martin Bormann himself, who has demand accounts in three New York City banks. They continue to do so. The German investment in American corporations from these sources exceeded $5 billion and made the Bormann economic structure a web of power and influence. The two German-owned banks of Spain, Banco Aleman Transatlantico (now named Banco Comercial Transatlantico), and Banco Germanico de la America del Sur, S.A., a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank served to channel German money from Spain to South America, where further investments were made.”
(Ibid.; p. 139.)
27. Among the many countries that figured in an important way in the Bormann structure was Argentina.
“Argentina was the mecca for such money in the Western Hemisphere, and when Bormann gave the go-ahead in his overall flight capital program after the decisions at Strasbourg, over $6 billion of this money flowed into Buenos Aires for investment there and elsewhere in Latin America. The investments covered factories, hotels, resorts, cattle, banks, land, sugar and coffee plantations, metallurgy, insurance, electrical products, construction, and communications. It as much the same investment spectrum as established in Spain. West German investments today account for nearly 45 percent of all foreign investments in Spain.”
(Ibid.; pp. 139–140.)
28. French financial institutions were central to the Bormann plan.
“Before D-day four Paris banks, Worms et Cie., Banque de Paris et de Pays-Bas, Banque de l’Indochine (now with ‘et de Suez’ added to its name), and Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie (now Banque Nationale de Paris), were used by Bormann to siphon NSDAP and other German money in France to their bank branches in the colonies, where it was safeguarded and invested for its German ownership.”
(Ibid.; p. 140.)
29. As discussed in FTR 372, there were strong connections between French industrialists and their German counterparts, a structural relationship that contributed to and facilitated political cooperation during the Occupation.
“In the years before the war, the German businessmen, industrialists, and bankers had established close ties with their counterparts in France. After the blitzkrieg and invasion, the same Frenchmen in many cases went on working with their German peers. They didn’t have much choice, to be sure, and the occupation being instituted, very few in the high echelons of commerce and finance failed to collaborate. The Third Republic’s business elite was virtually unchanged after 1940 . . . They regarded the war and Hitler as an unfortunate diversion from their chief mission of preventing a communist revolution in France. Antibolshevism was a common denominator linking these Frenchmen to Germans, and it accounted for a volunteer French division on the Eastern Front. . .The upper-class men who had been superbly trained in finance and administration at one of the two grand corps schools were referred to as France’s permanent ‘wall of money,’ and as professionals they came into their own in 1940. They agreed to the establishment of German subsidiary firms in France and permitted a general buy-in to French companies.”
(Ibid.; 70–71.)
30. The German economic control of the French economy proceeded smoothly into the postwar period.
“Society’s natural survivors, French version, who had served the Third Reich as an extension of German industry, would continue to do so in the period of postwar trials, just as they had survived the war, occupation, and liberation. These were many of the French elite, the well-born, the propertied, the titled, the experts, industrialists, businessmen, bureaucrats, bankers. . . .Economic collaboration in France with the Germans had been so widespread (on all levels of society) that there had to be a realization that an entire nation could not be brought to trial. Only a few years before, there had been many a sincere and well-meaning Frenchman—as in Belgium, England, and throughout Europe — who believed National Socialism to be the wave of the future, indeed, the only hope for curing the many desperate social, political, and economic ills of the time. France, along with other occupied countries, did contribute volunteers for the fight against Russia. Then there were many other Frenchmen, the majority, who resignedly felt there was no way the Germans could be pushed back across the Rhine.”
(Ibid.; p. 30.)
31. Long after the war, the Bormann organization continued to wield effective control of the French economy, utilizing the corporate relationships developed before and during the occupation.
“The characteristic secrecy surrounding the actions of German industrialists and bankers during the final nine months of the war, when Bormann’s flight capital program held their complete attention, was also carried over into the postwar years, when they began pulling back the skeins of economic wealth and power that stretched out to neutral nations of the world and to formerly occupied lands. There was a suggestion of this in France. Flora Lewis, writing from Paris in the New York Times of August 28, 1972, told of her conversation with a French publisher: ‘It would not be possible to trace ownership of corporations and the power structure as in the United States. ‘They’ would not permit it. ‘They’ would find a way to hound and torture anyone who tried,’ commented the publisher. ‘They’ seem to be a fairly small group of people who know each other, but many are not at all known to the public. ‘They’ move in and out of government jobs, but public service apparently serves to win private promotion rather than the other way around. The Government ‘control’ that practically everyone mentions cannot be traced through stock holdings, regulatory agencies, public decisions. It seems to function through a maze of personal contacts and tacit understandings.’ The understandings arrived at in the power structure of France reach back to prewar days, were continued during the occupation, and have carried over to the present time. Lewis, in her report from Paris, commented further: ‘This hidden control of government and corporations has produced a general unease in Paris.’ Along with the unease, the fact that France has lingering and serious social and political ailments is a residue of World War II and of an economic occupation that was never really terminated with the withdrawal of German troops beyond the Rhine. It was this special economic relationship between German and French industrialists that made it possible for Friedrich Flick to arrange with the De-Wendel steel firm in France for purchase of his shares in his Ruhr coal combine for $45 million, which was to start him once more on the road back to wealth and power, after years in prison following his conviction at Nuremberg. West Germany’s economic power structure is fueled by a two-tier system: the corporations and individuals who publicly represent the products that are common household names around the world, and the secretive groups operating in the background as holding companies and who pull the threads of power in overseas corporations established during the Bormann tenure in the Third Reich. As explained to me, ‘These threads are like the strands of a spider’s web and no one knows where they lead — except the inner circle of the Bormann organization in South America.’"
(Ibid.; pp. 271–272.)
32. Bormann’s FBI file revealed that he had been banking under his own name in New York for some time.
“The file revealed that he had been banking under his own name from his office in Germany in Deutsche Bank of Buenos Aires since 1941; that he held one joint account with the Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, and on August 4, 5 and 14, 1967, had written checks on demand accounts in first National City Bank (Overseas Division) of New York, The Chase Manhattan Bank, and Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., all cleared through Deutsche Bank of Buenos Aires.”
(Ibid.; p. 205.)
33. The broadcast sets forth numerous aspects of the Bormann group’s operations and power. These include:
Gestapo chief Heinrich Muller’s role as security director for the Bormann group
The close and thorough surveillance that Muller maintained on Manning while he was writing the book Manning’s unsuccessful direct negotiations with the Bormann group in an effort to gain an interview with Bormann
German spy chief Reinhard Gehlen’s professional relationship with Muller
Muller’s working relationship with the CIA (this and above points discussed in FTR 283)
The Bormann group’s enormous influence in Israel (FTR 294)
The organization’s use of Jewish businessmen (FTR–294, 397.).
34. Manning relates his direct negotiations with the Bormann leadership group and its security director Heinrich Mueller, the former head of the Gestapo. In addition to attempting to secure a videotaped interview with Bormann, Manning was negotiating to secure documents from the organization itself.
“During years of research for this book, I have become aware of Heinrich Mueller and his security force, which provides protection for the leadership in Latin America and wherever else they may travel to Europe and to the United States to check on investments and profits. Through intermediaries, I have attempted unceasingly to penetrate to the central core of the organization in South America, but have been denied access. At the last meeting that I know about, it was voted: ‘Herr Manning’s writing would focus undue attention on our activities and his request must once again be denied.’ The elderly leaders, including Reichminister Bormann, who is now eighty, wanted me on the scene to write of their side of the story, above all his story, of one of the most amazing and successful financial and industrial cloaking actions in history, of which he is justifiably proud. I had sent word to Bormann that the true story, his firsthand account, should become a matter of historical record, and stated that I would be agreeable to writing it if I could tell his true story, warts and all.”
(Ibid.; p. 272.)
35.
“Back came the word: ‘You are a free world journalist, and can write as you think best. We, too, are interested only in truth.’ They agreed to my request to bring along a three-man camera crew from CBS News to film my conversations with Martin Bormann, and even approved my wish for at least a personal thumbprint of the former Reichsleiter and party minister, which would be positive proof of his identity. At the organization’s request, I sent the background, names, photos and credentials of the particular CBS cameramen: Lawrence Walter Pierce, Richard Henry Perez, and Oden Lester Kitzmiller, an award-winning camera crew (which got the exclusive film coverage of the attempted assassination of Governor George Wallace when he was running for president).”
(Ibid.; pp. 272–3.)
36. The younger members of the organization vetoed this effort.
“I am sorry to say that the younger leaders , the ones now in virtual command, voted ‘No.’ They did agree, however that 232 historical documents from World War II, which Bormann had had shipped out of Berlin in the waning days of the war, and which are stored in his archives in South America, could be sent to me anonymously, to be published. They said their lengthy investigation of me had produced confidence that I was an objective journalist, as well as a brave one, for their probing stretched back to World War II days, and up to the present.”
(Ibid.; p. 273.)
37.
“Heinrich Mueller, now seventy-nine years old, who also serves as keeper of these archives as well as chief of all security for the NSDAP, rejected this decision: when the courier reached the Buenos Aires international airport bearing these documents for me he was relieved of them by the Argentine secret police acting under an initiative from Mueller.”
(Idem.)
38.
“As Mueller had explained previously, he had nothing against me personally; I had been cleared of any ‘strange connections’ by his agents in New York City, whose surveillance efforts were supplemented by the old pros of the Gestapo, up from South America to assist in watching me. This continued intermittently for years, and efforts were stepped up in response to the intensity of my investigations. The statement I had originally made to their representatives in West Germany, that I was only a diligent journalist trying to dig out an important story, finally proved satisfactory to them. I observed that Mueller hadn’t lost his touch in the field of surveillance, judging by the quality, skill, and number of men and women who tracked me, at what must have been enormous cost, wherever I went in New York City, Washington, and overseas.”
(Idem.)
39. Mueller didn’t restrict his security activities on behalf of the Bormann group to surveillance.
“Israeli agents who move too closely to these centers of power are eliminated. One such termination was Fritz Bauer, formerly attorney general for the State of Hesse in Frankfurt, a survivor of Auschwitz and the man who tipped off the Israeli Mossad about the presence of Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, who was killed on orders of General Mueller. . . .
Mueller’s ruthlessness even today is what deters Artur Axmann from altering his testimony that he saw Bormann lying dead on the roadway the night of their escape from the Fuehrerbunker, May 1–2, 1945. . . .
To this day, Axmann, the only so-called living witness to the ‘death’ of Bormann in Berlin, knows his life is in jeopardy if he reverses himself. General Mueller is thorough and has a long memory, and for a Nazi such as Axmann to go against Mueller’s original directive would make him a traitor; retribution would surely follow.”
(Ibid.; pp. 289–90.)
41. Bormann’s business operations have included Jewish participants as a matter of strategic intent. In turn, this has given the Bormann organization considerable influence in Israel.
“Since the founding of Israel, the Federal Republic of Germany had paid out 85.3 billion marks, by the end of 1977, to survivors of the Holocaust. East Germany ignores any such liability. From South America, where payment must be made with subtlety, the Bormann organization has made a substantial contribution.
It has drawn many of the brightest Jewish businessmen into a participatory role in the development of many of its corporations, and many of these Jews share their prosperity most generously with Israel. If their proposals are sound, they are even provided with a specially dispensed venture capital fund.
I spoke with one Jewish businessman in Hartford, Connecticut. He had arrived there quite unknown several years before our conversation, but with Bormann money as his leverage.
Today he is more than a millionaire, a quiet leader in the community with a certain share of his profits earmarked, as always, for his venture capital benefactors. This has taken place in many other instances across America and demonstrates how Bormann’s people operate in the contemporary commercial world, in contrast to the fanciful nonsense with which Nazis are described in so much ‘literature.’
So much emphasis is placed on select Jewish participation in Bormann companies that when Adolf Eichmann was seized and taken to Tel Aviv to stand trial, it produced a shock wave in the Jewish and German communities of Buenos Aires. Jewish leaders informed the Israeli authorities in no uncertain terms that this must never happen again because a repetition would permanently rupture relations with the Germans of Latin America, as well as with the Bormann organization, and cut off the flow of Jewish money to Israel.
It never happened again, and the pursuit of Bormann quieted down at the request of these Jewish leaders. He is residing in an Argentine safe haven, protected by the most efficient German infrastructure in history as well as by all those whose prosperity depends on his well-being.
Personal invitation is the only way to reach him.”
42. The program relates an incident in which organized crime kingpin Meyer Lansky tried to blackmail the Bormann group, which resulted in his removal from Israel.
“A revealing insight into this international financial and industrial network was given me by a member of the Bormann organization residing in West Germany.
Meyer Lansky, he said, the financial advisor to the Las Vegas—Miami underworld sent a message to Bormann through my West German SS contact.
Lansky promised that if he received a piece of Bormann’s action he would keep the Israeli agents off Bormann’s back.
‘I have a very good relation with the Israeli secret police’ was his claim, although he was to be kicked out of Israel when his presence became too noted—and also at the urging of Bormann’s security chief in South America.
At the time Lansky was in the penthouse suite of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, in which he owned stock.
He had fled to Israel to evade a U.S. federal warrant for his arrest.
He sent his message to Bormann through his bag man in Switzerland, John Pullman, also wanted in the United States on a federal warrant.
Lansky told Pullman to make this offer ‘which he can’t refuse.’
The offer was forwarded to Buenos Aires, where it was greeted with laughter.
When the laughter died down, it was replaced with action.
Meyer was evicted from Israel and was told by Swiss authorities to stay out of their country, so he flew to South America. There he offered any president who would give him asylum a cool $1 million in cash.
He was turned down everywhere and had to continue his flight to Miami, where U.S. marshals, alerted, were waiting to take him into custody.”
(Ibid.; pp. 227–228.)
43.
“The Bormann organization has the ultimate in clout and substance, and no one can tamper with it. I have been told: ‘You cannot push these people. If you do it can be extremely risky.’ Knowing their heritage I take this statement at face value.”
(Ibid.; p. 228.)
44.
“A former CIA contract pilot, who once flew the run into Paraguay and Argentina to the Bormann ranch described the estate as remote, ‘worth your life unless you entered their air space with the right identification codes.”
(Ibid.; 292.)
45. While serving in his capacity as director of security for the Bormann organization—the NSDAP in exile and its economic infrastructure—Mueller worked closely with US intelligence. worked directly with U.S. intelligence, the CIA, in particular.
“The Bormann organization had many commercial and political links to the capitals of these three nations, and real clout was available should the chase become too hot. The CIA could have pulled aside the gray curtain that obscured Bormann—at any time. But the CIA and Mueller’s crack organization of former SS men found it to their mutual advantage to cooperate in many situations. There is no morality in the sense that most of us know it in the strange world of professional secrecy, and when it was to the advantage of each to work together they did so.”
(Ibid.; p.211.)
46. As might be surmised, Mueller’s operatives also worked with the organization of Reinhard Gehlen.
“Even General Gehlen, when he was chief of the Federal Republic’s intelligence service, sent his agents to confer with General Heinrich Mueller in South America.”
(Ibid.; p. 274.)
47. Bormann’s personal influence in Germany proper is exemplified in the following incident.
“This man, who legally succeeded Hitler and therefore is the leader of over several million NSDAP members in south America and Germany, demonstrated the ultimate in clout in 1971, when he summoned the president of the Federal Republic of Germany, then Walter Scheel, and the latter’s wife Mildred, to Bolivia, whence they quickly returned to Europe with a newly adopted one-year-old boy who bore the first name Simon-Martin. The child, now eleven years of age, is being reared and educated in one of Germany’s most influential families. The belief is, of course, that he is a son of Martin Bormann, who insisted that this child of his old age he brought up as an upper-class German in his fatherland and receive appropriate advantages befitting a son of the leading Nazi.”
(Ibid.; p. 291.)
48. The Bormann group maintains effective control over the German economy.
“Atop an organizational pyramid that dominates the industry of West Germany through banks, voting rights enjoyed by majority shareholders in significant cartels, and the professional input of a relatively young leadership group of lawyers, investment specialists, bankers, and industrialists, he is satisfied that he achieved his aim of helping the Fatherland back on its feet. To ensure continuity of purpose and direction, a close watch is maintained on the profit statements and management reports of corporations under its control elsewhere. This leadership group of twenty, which is in fact a board of directors, is chaired by Bormann, but power has shifted to the younger men who will carry on the initiative that grew from that historic meeting in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. Old Heinrich Mueller, chief of security for the NSDAP in South America, is the most feared of all, having the power of life and death over those deemed not to be acting in the best interests of the organization. Some still envision a Fourth Reich. . .
What will not pass is the economic influences of the Bormann organization, whose commercial directives are obeyed almost without question by the highest echelons of West German finance and industry. ‘All orders come from the shareholders in South America,’ I have been told by a spokesman for Martin Bormann.”
(Ibid.; pp. 284–5.)
49. The Bormann group’s enormous influence has led to an effective cover-up over the years.
“. . .were he to emerge, it would embarrass the governments that assisted in his escape, the industrial and financial leaders who benefited from his acumen and transferred their capital to neutral nations in the closing days of World War II, and the businessmen of four continents who profited from the 750 corporations he established throughout the world as depositories of money, patents, bearer bonds, and shares in blue chip industries of the United States and Europe. . .
When I penetrated the silence cloaking this story, after countless interviews and laborious research in German and American archives for revealing documents of World War II, I knew that the Bormann saga of flight capital and his escape to South America was really true. It had been covered up by an unparalleled manipulation of public opinion and the media. The closer I got to the truth, the more quiet attention I received from the forces surrounding and protecting Martin Bormann, and also from those who had a direct interest in halting my investigation. Over the period of years it took to research this book, I was the object of diligent observation by squads of Gestapo agents dispatched from South America by General ‘Gestapo’ Mulller, who directs all security matters for Martin Bormann, Nazi in exile, and his organization, the most remarkable business group anywhere in the secret world of today. Mueller’s interest in me, an American journalist, confirmed the truth of my many interviews and my ongoing investigation. . .
There are also those in international government and business who have attempted to stop my forward movement on this investigation. In Germany, France, England, and the United States, too many leaders in government and finance still adhere to Winston Churchill’s statement to his Cabinet in 1943 ‘In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies’ . . .
Oddly, I encountered less resistance from Martin Bormann and his aging peers than I did from the cover-up groups in West Germany, Paris, London, Washington, and Wall Street.”
(Ibid.; pp. 11–12.)
50. In response to investigations that revealed Bormann’s escape and postwar activities, the German government arranged for a DNA testing of the remains—supposedly of Bormann—that were found in Berlin in the 1970’s. The DNA tests were never independently verified and the remains that were supposed to be Bormann’s were disposed of in a secret location, precluding the possibility of future verification of the test.
The corpses placed in the ruins of Berlin were, in fact, concentration camp inmates whose dental work was meticulously altered under the supervision of Dr. Hugo Blaschke, Hitler and Bormann’s personal dentist. The inmates’ dental work was made identical to Bormann’s, right down to the wear and aging of the oral architecture.
The inmates were then killed, and their remains buried in the rubble of Berlin. These corpses were the remains found—and tested—by the German government to “verify” Bormann’s supposed death in World War II!
” . . . A deception plan for Bormann had been completed by Mueller in Berlin. Tops in police work and crafty beyond imagining, he provided for a matching skeleton and skull, complete with identical dental work, for future forensic experts to ponder over and to reach conclusions that suited his purpose. . . . When Heinrich Mueller visited Sachsenhausen he walked through the engraving, printing, and document areas looking for any inmates who might resemble Bormann.
In one, he noticed two individuals who did bear a resemblance in stature and facial structure to the Reichsleiter. He had them placed in separate confinement. Thereupon a special dental room was made ready for “treatment” of the two men. A party dentist was brought in to work over and over again on the mouth of each man, until his teeth, real and artificial, matched precisely the Reichsleiter’s. In April 1945, upon completion of these alterations, the two victimized men were brought to the Kurfuerstenstrasse building to be held until needed.
Dr. Blaschke had advised Mueller to use live inmates to insure a believable aging process for dentures and gums; hence the need for several months of preparation. Exact dental fidelity was to play a major part in the identification of Hitler’s body by the invading Russians. It was to be of significance in Frankfurt twenty-eight years later, when the West German government staged a press conference to declare that they had ‘found Bormann’s skeleton proving he had died in Berlin’s freight yards May 1–2, 1945.’ Dr. Hugo Blaschke was the dentist who had served both Hitler and Bormann. . . . In Bormann’s case, the problem was more complex, more challenging.
Yet under Mueller’s skillful guidance, two bodies were planted; their discovery was made possible when an SS man, acting on Mueller’s orders, leaked the information to a Stern magazine editor as part of a ploy to “prove” that Bormann had died in the Berlin freight yard.
The stand-ins for Bormann were two unfortunates from Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen, who had been killed gently in the Gestapo basement secret chambers with cyanide spray blown from a cigarette lighter. . . .
At Gestapo headquarters, the night of April 30, the bodies were taken by a special SS team to the freight yards near the Weidendamm Bridge and buried not too deep beneath rubble in two different areas. The Gestapo squad then made a hurried retreat from Berlin, joining their leader, SS Senior General Heinrich Mueller, in Flensburg
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