A superb 1998 documentary by Paul Elston for BBC’s Timewatch narrated by Arthur Kent, Banking with Hitler offers a timely reminder of the essential amorality of banks.
More than 370 Swiss banks opened their vaults to the Nazis during World War II, and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau was outraged, and launched an investigation that revealed the cooperation of many Wall Street and London banks as well.
Even more shocking was the role of a Swiss-based institution, the Bank of International Settlements [BIS], created by London and Berlin and headed by an American, was the critical funding mechanism for Hitler’s regime — with the cooperation between the banksters’ financial Axis and the Nazi-dominated war-making Axis continued with the full knowledge of the British and American governments.
BIS president Thomas McKittrick, whose ostensible loyalties lay with Washington, was in fact a close friend of Nazi financial wizards, and regularly partied them at the height of the war. The BIS laundered the Nazis’ wealth, looted from conquered nations and the seized assets of European Jews.
Bank of England head Montague Norman fiercely resisted any efforts to rein in the BIS because the bank was making tidy profits off the Nazi’s looted riches
The Norwegian government in exile demanded that the BIS be shut down, but the move was fiercely and successfully resisted by Britain at the famous Bretton Woods conference, despite Morgenthau’s opposition. But British economist John Maynard Keynes led the resistance to a shutdown, saying the bank would be needed to rebuild Europe after the war.
Another center of resistance was Chase bank, the ancestor of JP Morgan Chase, drawing the attention of Morgenthau’s investigators, who discovered the bank had cooperated closely with the Nazi regime through its Paris branch, which remained open throughout the war. Chase also cooperated with the Nazis in seizing the assets of Jewish clients on behalf of the Nazi occupation regime.
British banks also remained open in occupied Paris, cooperating with the Nazis.
Morgenthau’s investigators found evidence of pro-Nazi sympathizers in many of America’s biggest banks, but his investigations were shut down after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he left office in bitter disappointment. McKittrick, the BIS boss, went on to work for Chase, as did one of the leading Nazi bankers.
As for Morgenthau’s staff, many were targeted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee [HUAC], their lives, reputations, and careers destroyed.
The moral: Banks don’t have morals, and they’re quite willing to work with mass murderers as long as there’s a buck to be made.
eats shoots 'n leaves 