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gehlen
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project
paperclip
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Hitlers
Corporate Elite
(Video)
IG Farben (short for Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie
AG) ("syndicate of dyestuff corporations") (and also called
I.G. Farbenfabriken) was a German conglomerate of companies
formed in 1925 and even earlier during World War I. Farben is
German for "paints", "dyes", or "colors", and initially many
of these companies produced dyes, but soon began to embrace
more advanced chemistry. The founding of IG Farben was a
reaction to Germany's defeat in World War I. IG Farben held a
near total monopoly on chemical production, later during the
National Socialist (Nazi) regime, including manufacturing
Zyklon B poison for the gas chambers. Before the war the
dyestuff companies had a near monopoly in the world market
which they lost during the conflict. One solution for
regaining this position was a large merger.
IG
Farben consisted of the following major companies and several
smaller ones.
• AGFA (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation), Berlin
• Cassella, Frankfurt
• BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik), Ludwigshafen
• Bayer, Leverkusen
• Farbwerke Hoechst (now Sanofi-Aventis), Höchst
• Chemische Werke Hüls, Marl (founded in 1938)
• Chemische Fabrik Kalle, Biebrich
Collaboration with the Nazis
During
the planning of the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, IG
Farben cooperated closely with Nazi officials and directed
which chemical plants should be secured and delivered to IG
Farben.
In 1941, an investigation exposed a "marriage" between United
States-based Standard Oil Co. and I.G. Farben. It also
brought new evidence concerning complex price and marketing
agreements between duPont, a major investor in and producer
of leaded gasoline, U.S. Industrial Alcohol Co. and their
subsidiary, Cuba Distilling Co. The investigation was
eventually dropped, like dozens of others in many different
kinds of industries, due to the need to enlist industry
support in the war effort. However, the top directors of many
oil companies agreed to resign and oil industry stocks in
molasses companies were sold off as part of a compromise
worked out.
IG Farben built a factory for producing synthetic oil and
rubber (from coal) in Auschwitz, which was the beginning of
SS activity and camps in this location during the Holocaust.
At its peak in 1944, this factory made use of 83,000 forced
laborers. The pesticide Zyklon B, for which IG Farben held
the patent, was manufactured by Degesch (Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung), which IG Farben had
42.2 percent (in shares) of and which had IG managers in its
Managing Committee.
Of the 24 directors of IG Farben indicted in the so-called IG
Farben Trial (1947-1948) before a U.S. military tribunal at
the subsequent Nuremberg Trials, 13 were sentenced to prison
terms between 1½ and eight years.
Break-up and Liquidation
Due
to the severity of the war crimes committed by IG Farben
during World War II, the company was considered to be too
corrupt to be allowed to continue to exist, and the allies
considered confiscating all of its assets and putting it out
of business. Instead, in 1951, the company was split up into
the original constituent companies. The four largest quickly
bought the smaller ones, and today only Agfa, BASF, and Bayer
remain, while Hoechst merged with the French Rhône-Poulenc
Rorer to form Aventis, now based in Strasbourg, France.
After the Holocaust, I.G. Farben joined with Americans to
develop chemical warfare agents. Together they founded the
"Chemagrow Corporation" in Kansas City, Missouri. The
Chemagrow Corporation employed German and American
specialists for the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. Dr. Otto Bayer
was I.G. Farben's research director. He developed and tested
chemical warfare agents with Dr. Gerhard Schrader.
Even though the company was officially liquidated in 1952, it
continued to be traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as a
trust, holding a few real estate assets until it was finally
declared bankrupt on November 10, 2003 by its liquidators,
after contributing 500,000 DM (£ 160,000 or € 255,646)
towards a foundation for former captive laborers under the
Nazi regime and the remaining property, worth DM 21 million
(£ 6.7 million or € 10.7 million) going to a buyer. During
this lengthy period, the holding company had been continually
criticized for failing to pay any compensation to the former
laborers, which was the stated reason for its continued
existence after 1952. The company, in turn, blamed the
ongoing legal disputes with the former captive laborers as
being the reason it could not be legally dissolved and the
remaining assets distributed as reparations. Each year, the
company's annual meeting in Frankfurt was the site of
demonstrations by hundreds of protesters.
Holocaust Memorial controversy
In
2003 Degussa, a company closely associated with IG Farben
during the Nazi period, was involved in a major controversy
surrounding its involvement in the construction of the
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe ("Holocaust
Memorial") in Berlin. Degussa produced the anti-graffiti
substance Protectosil used to cover the stelae which are the
major element in the memorial. The dispute arose mainly
because Degussa had also owned 42.2 percent of the shares in
Degesch, at the time when that company was producing Zyklon
B. The board of trustees of the memorial ultimately decided
that, given the cost of eliminating Degussa's role in the
project at that relatively late stage, the use of Protectosil
ought to continue, despite protests from many Jewish groups.
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