By John Donovan

From: “New Images of Nazi Germany”

Extract from the section “Corporate Collaboration” commencing page 203 running onto page 204

The connection of the Royal Dutch Shell Group to Nazi Germany centered on Sir Henri Deterding…

Variously described as the “most powerful man in the world” and the “Napoleon of Oil,” he was also an early admirer of both Hitler and Mussolini…

Deterding himself offered a plan in 1935 to provide a year’s worth of oil credit to Nazi Germany, in principle a war reserve. read more

EXTRACT FROM A U.S. SENATE REPORT 1943

By John Donovan

A recently published book revealed the extent to which Shell played a key role in Hitler’s war effort. Unfortunately for Shell, new information about Shell’s Nazi history emerges on a regular basis.

The information below is from a hearing held in the United States Senate in 1943. It is available online as a result of a digitization project by Google.

The featured extract has the headline SHELL OIL INTERESTS OFFERED TO HELP GERMANY EVADE BLOCKADE. It is about a business deal between Shell and its German partner in many major ventures, I.G. Farben. The chemical giant supplied the Zyklon-B gas used to exterminate millions of innocent people in the Holocaust. Many I.G. Farben directors were found guilty of war crimes. read more

Another hammer blow for Shell. Evidence confirms that Shell fuelled the Nazi war machine

By John Donovan: 31 May 2021 (updated JULY 2021)

James Marriott is a writer and activist with three decades of knowledge of the oil sector. Terry Macalister is a freelance journalist and former energy editor of the Guardian. 

As the author of the Kindle book published in 2016 –  Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell – I welcome the fact that other parties have reached the same basic conclusions as I did after studying much of the same evidence.

Based on that evidence I lunched a petition several years ago demanding that Royal Dutch Shell should apologise for antisemitic conduct and Nazi support

Shell will find it more difficult to dismiss the independent findings in the new book, including from an award-winning journalist.

According to ‘Crude Britannia’, by James Marriott and Terry Macalister, at the outbreak of World War Two the Anglo-Dutch company “effectively divided into an Allied corporation and an Axis corporation”. The Nazi-supporting branch of Shell, called Rhenania-Ossag, “swung in behind the [German] government as the Nazi state began to invade other countries”.

Or as Shell’s official history states ‘Following Hilter’s annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, (Shell) Group managing directors sanctioned Rhenania-Ossag taking over Shell companies in those countries.’ The same process took place in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece after Germany took control of those states.

Shell’s German subsidiary, Rhenania-Ossag, fired all the Jewish members on its board in May and June 1933. The appointments to replace them included a member of the Nazi party. The official history states, “the far reaching changes to the Rhenania-Ossag board could not have taken place without the full consent of [Shell Central Offices… No questions of principle or moral judgements about the Hitler regime appear to have arisen.” Shell’s historians were not able to establish what happened next to these Jewish staff members.

Seven years later, after Germany invaded Holland, the Swastika flew outside Shell’s HQ in The Hague.

EXTRACTS END

I was originally tipped off about Shell’s concern over its past toxic history by Shell internal communications never meant for my eyes.

Shell had advance sight of my book and my website ShellNaziHistory.com. Despite aggressive threats, bluster and a global spying operation, Shell took no legal action. No multinational giant would want to draw attention to its past association with Hitler and the Nazis.

NEW BOOK: Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation

Product details

• ASIN: B095CND46T

• Publisher: Pluto Press; 1st edition (20 May 2021)

Some of the information about Shell’s collaboration with the Nazis covered on pages 19, 20, 21, 22 of the main book, and pages 352, 353 and 354 from the Notes section of the book: read more

Trustpilot Warning: Avoid Shell Ultrafast Broadband: What a Joke!

Shell Broadband customer review posted today on Trustpilot:

Avoid Shell Ultrafast

My Shell broadband service was installed in early December, I thought I’d treat myself to an upgrade while switching.

Unfortunately since the switch the connection is down every couple of hours, each day, from anywhere from a few minutes to many hours.

Shell’s support team, while very hard to get hold of, are most friendly when you reach then, but after three engineer appointments and seemingly no case tracking of the issue, they have still not been about to indicate when the issue might be resolved, not will they permit me to a more competent supplier. read more

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By John Donovan

Shell commissioned a group of eminent “independent” historians (above) mostly Dutch, to author a history of Royal Dutch Shell to mark the Group’s centenary in 2007.  The introduction in Volume 1 pledged independent research and “a proper and even-handed assessment of Deterding.” Something went amiss because the “history,” as published in regard to his dealings with Hitler, is simply untrue.

Shell internal communications obtained under the UK Data Protection Act revealed pre-publication jitters at Shell prior to the publication of the four-volume history of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. read more

Shell’s toxic Nazi history catching up with the energy giant

By John Donovan

Information and evidence about Shell’s financial support for Hitler’s Nazi regime (and Shell’s anti-Semitism directed at its own employees), remained buried for decades in library books and newspaper archives gathering more and more dust.

Unfortunately for Royal Dutch Shell, it’s reputation, brand value (and shareholders), fast-evolving Internet technology, including digitalisation of newspaper archives, has transformed access, thereby making that toxic information instantly available everywhere. And spread by social media.  read more

Sir Henri Deterding’s admiration and support for another fascist dictator, Mussolini

By John Donovan

I have already published an ebook and website focussed on Royal Dutch Shell leader Sir Henri Deterding and his admiration and support for the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, who he met a number of times on behalf of Shell.

Hitler was not the only fascist dictator admired and supported by Deterding.

In his autobiography “AN INTERNATIONAL OILMAN” (pages 13 and 14) Sir Henri made plain his high regard for the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini.

In Italy, not long ago, it fell to my lot to talk with Mussolini, a man who, regard him as you may, has shown a driving force almost unparalleled in running a country-though from such outward manifestations as are seen in the present-day world, I wouldn’t say that the running of a country was at all the same thing as the running of a business. Too often, the men who run countries have never run businesses, as the results of their government so painfully show. But that is by the way. read more

BRITISH PATHE NEWS film footage has come to light which shows the huge importance Hitler attached to his fundraising vehicle for the Nazi regime. Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding was by far the largest single donor, sending 7,000 railway wagons full of Dutch food produce. Despite criticism in the news media, specifically linking the money saved on food to Nazi rearmament, Deterding continued to donate Dutch food to Nazi Germany.

By John Donovan

In December 1936, there were global news reports about Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding’s massive food donations to Hitlers Winter Relief Charity fundraising project in Nazi Germany. Numerous examples can be found in an Index of Shell leadership financial support for the Nazis.

The scheme was run directly by the notorious Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, known by his detractors as the poison dwarf.

BRITISH PATHE NEWS film footage has come to light which shows the huge importance Hitler attached to his fundraising vehicle for the Nazi regime. Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding was by far the largest single donor, sending 7,000 railway wagons full of Dutch food produce. Despite criticism in the news media, specifically linking the money saved on food to Nazi rearmament, Deterding continued to finance Nazi Germany. read more

Screenshot dated 27 July 2019 from an “Image” search option for “Royal Dutch Shell” on one of the major search engines

By John Donovan

It was recently reported that Shell is the most valuable Dutch brand name and among the most valuable in the world, valued at €36.4bn.

The brand is on display at over 44,000 gasoline stations around the globe. 

A brand name is highly vulnerable to reputational damage if the company owning the brand has skeletons in its corporate cupboard. Royal Dutch Shell has more of them than any other multinational giant.  read more

Sir Henri Deterding: Hitlers Paymaster

By John Donovan

EXTRACT FROM PAGE 07/483 from volume 1 of a four-volume work published in 2007 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell” – authored by eminent historians associated with Utrecht University. 

From 1937 Deterding, now influenced by a personal secretary with outspoken Fascist sympathies, helped to finance the paper of a Fascist splinter group in the Netherlands, just as the Group sponsored a Russian anti-Soviet press service in London. Finally, if Deterding or the Group indeed supported the Nazis during their wilderness years with any substantial sums, then one would have expected the Reichskanzlei to have acknowledged the fact in the minute considering whether or not to grant him an audience with Hitler in March 1933. However, the document mentions nothing of the kind; Deterding was turned down without further ado. read more

By John Donovan

All the text below in italics is taken directly from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell Vol 1.”  A work authored by eminent historians hired by Shell who had access to Shell’s archives.

Although beholding to their rich client (Shell) they concede that the “resignations” of Jewish directors in frightening circumstances from Shell’s German subsidiary Rhenania-Ossag took place with the full approval of “Central Offices” i.e. Royal Dutch Shell Group HQ offices in “London and The Hague”. read more

Royal Dutch Shell founders meetings with Hitler, strong antiSemitic views and financial support for the Nazis

Featured extracts from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell Volume 1” – all printed in italics

(From page 07/478)

Confirmation of Sir Henri Deterding’s claim that he met Hitler

Nazism and the New Order in Germany were congenial to Deterding’s authoritarian being and his fervent anti-communism; he does not appear to have understood its political or indeed social ramifications. Deterding now began to take a greater interest in the Group’s German affairs, normally Kessler’s remit. This brought him into contact with the new regime’s leaders. He cautiously welcomed Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, but two months later he sought an audience with Hitler, presumably to present a proposal for sponsoring a series of radio lectures on the evils of communism, to celebrate the coming to power of such a vociferous anti-communist. He was rebuffed, but in November Deterding claimed to have met Hitler the other day. read more

The top lawyer at Shell has already disputed irrefutable evidence and threatened legal action against me, but it has all proven to be empty bluster. The last thing Shell wants is for its Nazi past to be aired in open court. 

By John Donovan

Toxic ramifications from Nazi business connections continue to make news headlines several decades after the end of WW2.

Two weeks ago we published a story about Shell arising from a New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 revealing that billionaire descendants of a family who control a company which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and a number of other famous brands are grappling with the exposure of an unspeakable secret – a Nazi history. See No atonement from Royal Dutch Shell for its Nazi history read more

Robert Finn, the Shell Director who was a vitally important functionary of the Nazi WW2 economy

Finn worked for Shell’s Nazi-infested German subsidiary Rhenania Ossag in the years before WW2. More significantly, during WW2, Finn directed the vitally important German lubricants supply. After WW2 Finn returned to Shell as a director of a Shell chemical company in Hamburg. Shell was apparently happy to reward him with a promotion. 

By John Donovan

A spotlight was shone on the Nazi past of the German Robert Finn after a Hamburg Sports Club Hall was to be named in his honour. Finn was a former chairman of the sports club.

Following a renovation of the hall in 2006, a major re-inauguration ceremony in honour of Finn was organised – with numerous prominent guests from sports and politics (who were informed about Finn’s role in the Nazi war economy) with his sons as guests of honour. 

There was also controversy about clubhouse design elements, including symbols of the Nazi regime, such as swastikas, to be on open public display. read more

Its employees — there are 180,000 around the world — have reported that customers accuse them of “working for Nazis.” There have been boycott threats…

By John Donovan

A New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 reveals that billionaire descendants of a family who control a company which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and a number of other famous brands are grappling with the exposure of an unspeakable secret – a Nazi history. 

Extracts:

Decades after World War II, Benckiser evolved into one of the largest consumer goods conglomerates on the planet. Known today as JAB Holding Company…

For decades, they say, they did not know about their father’s Nazism and the abuses that took place at the company they inherited: read more

By John Donovan

I became aware today of a letter (see below) which a director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre sent to Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden on 5 February 2015. The communication stemmed from my campaigning activities that ended with Allseas renaming the worlds largest ship. I will shortly be supplying the Simon Wiesenthal Centre with a trove of evidence about Shell’s Nazi history including its close partnership in Nazi Germany with IG Farben, the chemical giant which manufactured the gas used to exterminate several million Jewish people in the Holocaust. Dutch Directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group including Sir Henri Deterding helped finance Hitler and the Nazi Party.

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE – EUROPE

Tel. +33-147237637 – Fax: +33-147208401

E-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

“Annul Shell’s dealings with Allseas – a company which apparently celebrates Nazi crimes by glorifying a perpetrator”

“It is interesting to note on the Shell portals’ list of associated countries, the conspicuous absence of Israel”

Paris, 5 February 2015

In a letter to Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Ben van Beurdon, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted, “Shell has contracted from the Swiss-based offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction company, Allseas Group, their crane-ship Pieter Schelte, to service Brent oil platforms on the British continental shelf.” read more