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lukatoivanen's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
luisagerdsmeyer's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Genocide, Racism, and Racial slurs
ninjakiwi12's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Fun(ny) fact(s): Summer reading challenge Bingo with the Dayspring youth #16: a book that will scare me! Shoutout to my county's public library Ebook system for suggesting and providing me with this thought-provoking read.
Favorite quote/image: "A dictatorship is successful, not because everybody opposes it, but because powerful people support it." (Telford Taylor in his opening statement in the trial of Flick, Part IV, Chapter 18)
Honorable mention: "It's the intoxication of the pursuit of power, the intoxication of building a huge corporation, the obsession with self-affirmation that is at the root of all this, and it's the belief that in the value of one's own work, not only because work is something moral, but because building the corporation is the ultimate good, and because anything that resists building it out is bad." (Julius Herf, on requesting that Günther be held accountable, Part IV, Chapter 14)
Why: This is a brilliant, carefully researched account of several German industry dynasties who partnered with the Nazis for their own economic gain (and their subsequent covering up of their pasts, with very few exceptions) spanning from the 1910s to present day. Although the depths of human greed can be truly horrifying and blinding, I could not help but also be reminded of the industries that I too am complicit in sustaining with my purchases, which also do not truly value all humans as equal.
Favorite quote/image: "A dictatorship is successful, not because everybody opposes it, but because powerful people support it." (Telford Taylor in his opening statement in the trial of Flick, Part IV, Chapter 18)
Honorable mention: "It's the intoxication of the pursuit of power, the intoxication of building a huge corporation, the obsession with self-affirmation that is at the root of all this, and it's the belief that in the value of one's own work, not only because work is something moral, but because building the corporation is the ultimate good, and because anything that resists building it out is bad." (Julius Herf, on requesting that Günther be held accountable, Part IV, Chapter 14)
Why: This is a brilliant, carefully researched account of several German industry dynasties who partnered with the Nazis for their own economic gain (and their subsequent covering up of their pasts, with very few exceptions) spanning from the 1910s to present day. Although the depths of human greed can be truly horrifying and blinding, I could not help but also be reminded of the industries that I too am complicit in sustaining with my purchases, which also do not truly value all humans as equal.
komet2020's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties is a comprehensively researched, well-written book about some of the key German industrialists (e.g., Günther Quandt; Friedrich Flick; Wilhelm von Finck Sr.; Ferdinand Porsche, his son-in-law Anton Piëch, and Porsche's son 'Ferry'; and Rudolf-August Oetker) who greedily enriched themselves and were able to expand their economic power through their support of the Nazis during their reign in Germany (1933-1945).
This is a history in which German industrialists supported Hitler and profited from their association with his government through the "Aryanization" of Jewish-owned businesses which became available for these industrialists to acquire and build their individual industrial empires upon. By so doing, they helped make possible the economic recovery and growth of the national economy in the 1930s, and the development of the German war machine.
The book goes a long way to highlight, in considerable detail, the ways in which these industrialists shamelessly used and exploited forced and slave labor during World War II in both Germany and German-occupied Europe, and their later efforts in the immediate post-war era to downplay or whitewash their past associations with the Nazis. For a time, most of these industrialists (even those like Quandt, Flick, von Finck Sr., the two Porsches and Piëch, and Rudolf-August Oetker) put on trial at Nuremberg for war crimes - most of these men either served short stints in prison or were --- in the case of Quandt --- acquitted - were able over time, due to Cold War imperatives and pressures, to reacquire some of their businesses, and rebuild and expand their wealth and influence in Germany.
Frankly, it amazed me to learn about the current generation of billionaires in Germany who are the direct heirs and beneficiaries of the prewar generation of industrialists. Sadly, much of this current generation, when presented with the Nazi past of their forebears, either choose to ignore that past or minimize its lasting impact on Germany and the world at large. I urge anyone with interests in German and postwar economic history, to read this book.
This is a history in which German industrialists supported Hitler and profited from their association with his government through the "Aryanization" of Jewish-owned businesses which became available for these industrialists to acquire and build their individual industrial empires upon. By so doing, they helped make possible the economic recovery and growth of the national economy in the 1930s, and the development of the German war machine.
The book goes a long way to highlight, in considerable detail, the ways in which these industrialists shamelessly used and exploited forced and slave labor during World War II in both Germany and German-occupied Europe, and their later efforts in the immediate post-war era to downplay or whitewash their past associations with the Nazis. For a time, most of these industrialists (even those like Quandt, Flick, von Finck Sr., the two Porsches and Piëch, and Rudolf-August Oetker) put on trial at Nuremberg for war crimes - most of these men either served short stints in prison or were --- in the case of Quandt --- acquitted - were able over time, due to Cold War imperatives and pressures, to reacquire some of their businesses, and rebuild and expand their wealth and influence in Germany.
Frankly, it amazed me to learn about the current generation of billionaires in Germany who are the direct heirs and beneficiaries of the prewar generation of industrialists. Sadly, much of this current generation, when presented with the Nazi past of their forebears, either choose to ignore that past or minimize its lasting impact on Germany and the world at large. I urge anyone with interests in German and postwar economic history, to read this book.