BUSH & NAZIS

On March 2, [1933] Hitler was asked by a correspondent of the Daily Express whether the suspension of liberties was permanent. He answered in the negative saying that full rights would be restored as soon as the Communist danger was over. The reality was that the decree of February 28th established what would become the normal order of things under National Socialism – arrest on suspicion, imprisonment without trial, the horrors of the concentration camps. This condition would persist until the end of the Third Reich.

- Soren Swigart

“He knows that we are waging this war for a better peace, that we are fighting for the happiness of people who have so often been oppressed by their governments.”

“No power in the world will make us deny our duty, or forget even for a moment our historical task of maintaining the freedom of our people.”

— Joseph Goebbels, chief Nazi propagandist

ARTICLES

“Amerika Über Alles” — Our Nazi Nation PDF by Captain Eric H. May / October 3rd, 2007 America 2007 Is Germany 1930 Norman D. Livergood

The Nazi Connection between the EU and NAU PDF David Ben-Ariel July 28, 2007

Bush’s EO – Ruling By Executive Decree PDF From Joel Skousen Editor – World Affairs Brief 7-28-7

Bush signs draconian anti-terror order PDF Rediff News Bureau | July 23, 2007

Bush like Hitler, says first Muslim in Congress PDF By Toby Harnden in Washington 17/07/2007 [How disgusting....after all Hitler actually SERVED in combat and was never addicted to cocaine! -ed.]

NAZI ENABLING ACT PDF 24 March 1933 – [Looks a lot like the Patriot Act to me! -ed.]

Lessons Bush Learned from Hitler PDF July 07, 2007

The Bush Family Oligarchy Funding The Hitler Project PDF WatchPair.com 5-25-7

Instructor who doubts 9/11 compares Bush to Hitler PDF BY CARRIE ANTLFINGER Oct. 11, 2006

How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power PDF September 25, 2004

Rumsfeld and Bush are Right About Evoking Nazism – But It’s the Mirror That They Should be Looking At PDF Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 09/01/2006

Venezuela’s Chavez compares Israel to Hitler PDF 04 Aug 2006

With ‘Another Hitler’ At The Helm This Independence Day, Look Back At The First One For Clues As To Who Really Controls Bush PDF 1 Jul 2006

Calling Bush “Hitler” Is A No No In Colorado High School, As Patriot Act Violations Mount Across Country PDF By Greg Szymanski 4 Mar 2006

“Just As ‘Legal’ As Hitler was in 1933″ PDF - Alberto Gonzales is a lot like Franz Gurtner, another conservative nationalist lawyer and judge – who was appointed by Hitler to head the Reich Ministry of Justice, and who got along – very well – with the Nazis despite not being a Nazi himself.

Chavez says Bush worse than Hitler PDF Sat Feb 4, 2006 – “The imperialist, genocidal, fascist attitude of the U.S. president has no limits. I think Hitler would be like a suckling baby next to George W. Bush”

An American Hitler and his Gestapo PDF By DOUG THOMPSON Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue Jan 23, 2006

The Nazification of America PDF by Norman D. Livergood

Bush Family Funds the Third Reich Streaming Video – Hear how Prescott Bush, Dubya’s grandfather, tried to overthrow the government an install a facist nazi regime.

There is Such a Thing as “Too Late” PDF by Ray McGovern August 19, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Guilt
I am guilty,
But not in the way you think.
I should have earlier recognized my duty;
I should have more sharply called evil evil;
I reined in my judgment too long.
I did warn,
But not enough, and clear;
And today I know what I was guilty of.

…Albrecht Haushofer

Twenty Things We Now Know Four Years After 9/11 PDF By Bernard Weiner Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers August 30, 2005

How the Patriot Act Compares to Hitler’s Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) PDF

Uncommon Sense Freedom in Wonderland By Michael Hasty Online Journal Columnist – Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia and Bush’s invasion of Iraq—both employing the rationale of “freedom”—can be seen to have had identical goals: overtly, the “protection” of their respective citizenries; and covertly, the expansion of national wealth and power, and the geopolitical expression of national “will.”

Secret Patriot Act II to give Hitler’s Powers to Bush Infowars.com December 8, 2004 Alex wrote this back in 2003 and it won second place from Project Censored. We’re glad that this story is still circulating — it is as important and timely as ever. Now, the National ID Card and Patriot Act II have passed the house and is in the Senate.

From Hitler to Bush – Hitler reached power in clean elections, but then found that the Constitution of the Weimar Republic placed limits which his omnipotent desires refused to accept. He then plotted the burning of the Reichstag and in a single night was anointed the elector of war or peace.

Nazis in the Attic, part 1 of a 6 part series By Randy Davis

Achtung, Nazi!–One Year Later by Douglas Herman – The imperial war eagle symbolized ancient Rome, Nazi Germany and now–conveniently–the US.

Bush the Most Hated Man in the History of the World? He is a Planetary Pariah of Bibilical Proportions By Rob Kall OpEdNews.Com

GOEBBELS’ PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA - By exploiting mob emotions and by employing all modern methods of propaganda Goebbels helped Hitler into power.

BUSH VS. HITLER, PART II 01/19/2004

ACTION ALERT: When Are Nazi Comparisons Deplorable? For Fox News, only when Republicans are the target January 16, 2004

The Bush Hitler Thing t r u t h o u t | Reader Submission Friday 09 January 2004 – Just as Hitler used American tactics to plan and execute his reign, it looks as if Karl Rove is reading Hitler’s playbook to plan world domination – and that is the stated intent of both. From the Reichstag fire to the landing at Nuremberg to the motto of “Gott Mit Uns” to the unprovoked invasion and occupation of Iraq to the insistence that peace was the ultimate goal, the line is unbroken and unwavering.

Bush vs. Hitler (Part I) 01/03/2004 by http://www.Pravda.ru – In fact, several disturbing analogies exist between George W. Bush and history’s most infamous fascist, Adolph Hitler: Both men assumed power in defiance of the will of the majority; both men used “great lies” to pursue their warmongering agendas; both men preyed upon humanity’s basest instincts to disseminate those “great lies”; both men were appeased by the British government, Hitler through Neville Chamberlain and Bush through Tony Blair; both men were willing to use national tragedies to justify the destruction of civil liberties, Hitler through the burning of the Reichstag and Bush through the September 11th terrorist attacks; both men were/are suspected of either participating in, or ignoring warnings about the imminence of, these tragedies in order to enhance their political stature and power; both men demonstrated no compunction about exploiting a culture of death for political self-aggrandizement, Hitler through his well-publicized genocide campaigns, and Bush who, while governor of Texas, routinely denied DNA tests to death row inmates, even though such tests could prevent wrongful executions; both men were willing to appeal to racism, Hitler through his quest for a “master race,” and Bush through his condemnation of affirmative action policies, which primarily benefit racial minorities.

That Pesky Bush-Hitler Thing By Marc Ash Tuesday 06 January 2004

NAZI GERMANY’S WAR ON TERRORISM - Most Americans remember his Office of Fatherland Security, known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and Schutzstaffel, simply by its most famous agency’s initials: the SS.

Hitler in Paris, Bush in Baghdad: Comparisons by Eric Mueller – Hitler could visit occupied Paris and see the sights. Bush had to sneak in and out of US-occupied Baghdad and dared not stay more than two or three hours, or venture outside the armed airport — not even guarded and accompanied by the most powerfully equipped army on earth.

BUSH-NAZI LINK CONFIRMED Documents in National Archives Prove George W. Bush’s Grandfather Traded with Nazis – Even After Pearl Harbor by John Buchanan

Nazis in the Attic, part 1 By Randy Davis – Seldes reports that a $400,000 a year deal was struck between Hearst and Hitler, and signed by Doctor Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. “Hearst,” continues Seldes, “completely changed the editorial policy of his nineteen daily newspapers the same month he got the money.”

THE RISE OF THE FOURTH REICH – As I mentioned above, Hitler was TIME Magazine’s Man Of The Year in 1938. Stalin was TIME Magazine’s Man Of The Year for 1939 and 1942. Both of these men, and many others also celibrated by the media, were unimaginable monsters. The lesson from these facts is that it isn’t easy to spot a genocidal tyrant when you live with one, especially one whom the press supports and promotes.

America, the Fourth Reich By Ian Gurney – Americans are the new Nazis.

Propaganda: Did Goebbells Write The Bush Administrations speeches?

Heir to the Holocaust by Toby Rogers – According to classified documents from Dutch intelligence and US government archives, President George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush made considerable profits off Auschwitz slave labor. In fact, President Bush himself is an heir to these profits from the holocaust which were placed in a blind trust in 1980 by his father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush.

Newsweek Poland: The Bush Family and Nazis – Prescott Bush was the head of United Banking Corp. which financed the Nazis, the Fritza Thyssena firm – “Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp.”. Consolidated Silesian used slave labor from Auschwitz.

Standing On The Dead By Marc Ash – In October of 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Act, the U.S. government halted operations at New York’s Union Banking Corporation. A bank official was charged with “Running Nazi front groups in the United States.”
His name: Prescott Bush.

27 Similarities between Hitler and President Bush by Edward Jayne Dissident Voice March 29, 2003

Welcome to the Fourth Reich! Manic Monday – President George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a NAZI SYMPATHIZER. He personally financed the building of over 40 concentration camps including Auschwitz.

Bush family funded Adolf Hitler 13.05.2003 – In this way, UBC received money from the Netherlands and Brown Brothers Harriman sent it back. And who was on the executive of both of these companies? Prescott Bush himself, the Nazis’ first money launderer.

NAZI GERMANY’S WAR ON TERRORISM – Most Americans remember his Office of Fatherland Security, known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and Schutzstaffel, simply by its most famous agency’s initials: the SS.

Rumsfeld Wants ‘Nazi-Like Emergency Powers’ – LaRouche Rumsfeld’s ‘Notverordnung’ By Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. LaRoucheIn2004.com 5-14-3

Former UN inspector Scott Ritter tells the BERLINER ZEITUNG: There´s no difference between the invasion of Iraq an the invasion of Poland by Adolf Hitler in 1939. Hitler too spoke of self defence. It’s the same lie. 130 Americans died for this lie. There are no WMD in Iraq any more. The UN Inspectors must have the courage to say openly US did not tell the truth. [Article is in German]

Achtung! Are We the New Nazis? Soldiers, God and Empire by Douglas Herman – Is it curious or ironic how Blitzkrieg resembles Shock and Awe?

When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History by Thom Hartmann – In a speech responding to critics of the invasion, Hitler said, “Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say; even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier [into Austria] there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators.”

Lest We Forget By Laurie Manis Apr 9, 2003 – “He knows that we are waging this war for a better peace, that we are fighting for the happiness of people who have so often been oppressed by their governments.”

War, Hitler and Cheney by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. March 25, 2003 – However, like the Nazi SS enforcers, lackeys Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton, Wurmser, Feith, and so on, are merely expendable hoodlums adorned with political motley. To understand them, you must look to those who created them and put them into their present positions. You must look to the London-backed Hjalmar Schachts and von Papens of the modern U.S.A., including the likes of the Conrad Blacks, the Rupert Murdochs, George Shultz, and the Shultz-allied forces behind the Halliburton firms’ government and other connections.

Is Baghdad Burning? By Marc Ash.. t r u t h o u t | Opinion Sunday 23 March 2003

Stop Ashcroft’s “Heinrich Himmler II” Bill — While You Still Can!!!! by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. – The new law gives sweeping new powers to the Justice Department and FBI, the same kinds of powers which Carl Schmitt’s Notverordnung doctrine delivered to Adolf Hitler on February 28, 1933. After that, the members of the Congress will never vote against any bill which Ashcroft demands.

The connection is not accidental. Attorney-General Ashcroft was indoctrinated in this by his Chicago University professor Leo Strauss, who owed his own career to that same Carl Schmitt. Ashcroft, like Vice-President Dick Cheney, uses exact same, Leo Strauss-copied arguments of Carl Schmitt, the same arguments which transformed Hitler into a dictator on February 28, 1933.

Article showing Skull and Bones members, E. R. Harriman, and Prescott S. Bush(The President’s Grandfather.) tied to Hitler’s funding and Banking.

THE RISE OF THE FOURTH REICH

GEORGE W. BUSH, WARLORD PDF Bush gives himself the right to kill any American he wants without a trial with a new executive order (February 1934: the Upper House of Parliament was dissolved – with Bush making laws like this, we won’t be needing Congress much longer)

PARALLELS by George Santayana

George W. Bush is Becoming More Like Hitler Everyday

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“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the TRUTH becomes the greatest ENEMY OF THE STATE.”

“Tell a Lie That is Big Enough, and Repeat it Often Enough, and the Whole World Will Believe It. “

— Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels – Hitler’s propaganda minister

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It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. –Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering

Why of course the people don’t want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don’t want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

- Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering

VIDEO: Bush and Hitler – Their Scams Compared

Source: http://www.nogw.com <- much thanks

Nazi financing by the Bush family

Nazi financing by the Bush family



Der Befehl zum Holocaust kam von JAHWE

http://www.archive.org/details/DerBefehlZumHolocaustKamVonJahwe

240707_bbc_prescott_coup.mp3

DER UNGESCHRIEBENE BEFEHL

Von Longerich, Peter

Hitler hat die Ermordung der Juden Europas autorisiert und gesteuert. Doch eine schriftliche Anordnung gab es nicht. Der Holocaust bestand aus einer jahrelangen Serie von Massakern. Krieg und Genozid bildeten eine Einheit (an Deutschen...)

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-19864687.html

Roosevelt in 1938 was in great trouble, unemployment in 1938 was as high as in 1932, when he was elected on promises of doing much better than Hoover.

Hitler in 1936 had nearly abolished German unemployment, so ideas of following the German example did exist. Kennedy warned his rich friends that they had the choice of paying a little more tax or losing all their wealth in a revolution.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/240707fascistcoup.htm

BBC: Bush's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America New investigation sheds light on clique of powerbrokers, including Prescott Bush, who sought to overthrow U.S. government and implement Hitlerian policies

Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet

http://www.prisonplanet.com/index.html

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.

In 1933, Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush the current President's grandfather, who asked him to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

According to the BBC, the plotters intended to impose a fascist takeover and "Adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document.shtml

The conspirators were operating under the umbrella of a front group called the American Liberty League, which included many families that are still household names today, including Heinz, Colgate, Birds Eye and General Motors.

Butler played along with the clique to determine who was involved but later blew the whistle and identified the ringleaders in testimony given to the House Committee on un-American Activities.

However, the Committee refused to even question any of the individuals named by Butler and his testimony was omitted from the record, leading to charges that they were involved in covering the matter up, and the majority of the media blackballed the story.

http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/53-index.html

General Smedley Butler, author of the famous quote "war is a racket", exposed the fascist plotters but was subsequently demonized and shunned by the government and the media.

In 1936, William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in which he stated,

• "A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime.... A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations, told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies. Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there. Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."

The proven record of Prescott Bush's involvement in financing the Nazi war machine dovetails with the fact that he was part of a criminal cabal that actively sought to impose a fascist coup in America.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html

Prescott did not succeed but many would argue that two generations down the line the mission has all but been accomplished.

In his documentary film Martial Law, Alex Jones interviews John Buchanan, who was instrumental in uncovering the documents tying Prescott Bush to the financing of the Third Reich. Watch a clip above. The subject is also covered in Alex's upcoming film, End Game, which includes rare video of Smedley Butler's testimony.

http://prisonplanet.tv/articles/december2004/021204martiallaw.htm

Click here to listen to the BBC Radio 4 investigation.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/audio/240707_bbc_prescott_coup.mp3

So far, all the steps that Bush has taken are identical to how Hitler misled Germany. Both Bush and Hitler have served the agenda of the World’s Trans-Atlantic Elite ruling Banking Dynasties which reduces freedoms, increases debt and gradually moves us into a feudal/slave/serf system.

Retired Indian High Court Judge says: Bush is the Greatest Terrorist ("when victims refuse to be Bush's victims, they are called terrorists")

http://youtube.com/watch?v=afFoiV6WPi0

Below is a video which takes nine minutes to watch and which took the author 25 years to research. It is about the Bush family history and their intent for this country and the world.

How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.

While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.

Tantalising

Bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow Thyssen to move assets around the world.

Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler's efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen's international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush's links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen's American assets were seized in 1942.

Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush's involvement. All three are readily available, thanks to the efficient US archive system and a helpful and dedicated staff at both the Library of Congress in Washington and the National Archives at the University of Maryland.

The first set of files, the Harriman papers in the Library of Congress, show that Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with Thyssen.

The second set of papers, which are in the National Archives, are contained in vesting order number 248 which records the seizure of the company assets. What these files show is that on October 20 1942 the alien property custodian seized the assets of the UBC, of which Prescott Bush was a director. Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. By November, the Silesian-American Company, another of Prescott Bush's ventures, had also been seized.

The third set of documents, also at the National Archives, are contained in the files on IG Farben, who was prosecuted for war crimes.

A report issued by the Office of Alien Property Custodian in 1942 stated of the companies that "since 1939, these (steel and mining) properties have been in possession of and have been operated by the German government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country's war effort".

Prescott Bush, a 6ft 4in charmer with a rich singing voice, was the founder of the Bush political dynasty and was once considered a potential presidential candidate himself. Like his son, George, and grandson, George W, he went to Yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and influential Skull and Bones student society. He was an artillery captain in the first world war and married Dorothy Walker, the daughter of George Herbert Walker, in 1921.

In 1924, his father-in-law, a well-known St Louis investment banker, helped set him up in business in New York with Averill Harriman, the wealthy son of railroad magnate E H Harriman in New York, who had gone into banking.

One of the first jobs Walker gave Bush was to manage UBC. Bush was a founding member of the bank and the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in UBC worth $125.

The bank was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens, Germany's most powerful industrial family.

August Thyssen, the founder of the dynasty had been a major contributor to Germany's first world war effort and in the 1920s, he and his sons Fritz and Heinrich established a network of overseas banks and companies so their assets and money could be whisked offshore if threatened again.

By the time Fritz Thyssen inherited the business empire in 1926, Germany's economic recovery was faltering. After hearing Adolf Hitler speak, Thyssen became mesmerised by the young firebrand. He joined the Nazi party in December 1931 and admits backing Hitler in his autobiography, I Paid Hitler, when the National Socialists were still a radical fringe party. He stepped in several times to bail out the struggling party: in 1928 Thyssen had bought the Barlow Palace on Briennerstrasse, in Munich, which Hitler converted into the Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi party. The money came from another Thyssen overseas institution, the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvarrt in Rotterdam.

By the late 1930s, Brown Brothers Harriman, which claimed to be the world's largest private investment bank, and UBC had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany, both feeding and financing Hitler's build-up to war.

Between 1931 and 1933 UBC bought more than $8m worth of gold, of which $3m was shipped abroad. According to documents seen by the Guardian, after UBC was set up it transferred $2m to BBH accounts and between 1924 and 1940 the assets of UBC hovered around $3m, dropping to $1m only on a few occasions.

In 1941, Thyssen fled Germany after falling out with Hitler but he was captured in France and detained for the remainder of the war.

There was nothing illegal in doing business with the Thyssens throughout the 1930s and many of America's best-known business names invested heavily in the German economic recovery. However, everything changed after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Even then it could be argued that BBH was within its rights continuing business relations with the Thyssens until the end of 1941 as the US was still technically neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The trouble started on July 30 1942 when the New York Herald-Tribune ran an article entitled "Hitler's Angel Has $3m in US Bank". UBC's huge gold purchases had raised suspicions that the bank was in fact a "secret nest egg" hidden in New York for Thyssen and other Nazi bigwigs. The Alien Property Commission (APC) launched an investigation.

There is no dispute over the fact that the US government seized a string of assets controlled by BBH - including UBC and SAC - in the autumn of 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy act. What is in dispute is if Harriman, Walker and Bush did more than own these companies on paper.

Erwin May, a treasury attache and officer for the department of investigation in the APC, was assigned to look into UBC's business. The first fact to emerge was that Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush and the other directors didn't actually own their shares in UBC but merely held them on behalf of Bank voor Handel. Strangely, no one seemed to know who owned the Rotterdam-based bank, including UBC's president.

May wrote in his report of August 16 1941: "Union Banking Corporation, incorporated August 4 1924, is wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. My investigation has produced no evidence as to the ownership of the Dutch bank. Mr Cornelis [sic] Lievense, president of UBC, claims no knowledge as to the ownership of the Bank voor Handel but believes it possible that Baron Heinrich Thyssen, brother of Fritz Thyssen, may own a substantial interest."

May cleared the bank of holding a golden nest egg for the Nazi leaders but went on to describe a network of companies spreading out from UBC across Europe, America and Canada, and how money from voor Handel travelled to these companies through UBC.

By September May had traced the origins of the non-American board members and found that Dutchman HJ Kouwenhoven - who met with Harriman in 1924 to set up UBC - had several other jobs: in addition to being the managing director of voor Handel he was also the director of the August Thyssen bank in Berlin and a director of Fritz Thyssen's Union Steel Works, the holding company that controlled Thyssen's steel and coal mine empire in Germany.

Within a few weeks, Homer Jones, the chief of the APC investigation and research division sent a memo to the executive committee of APC recommending the US government vest UBC and its assets. Jones named the directors of the bank in the memo, including Prescott Bush's name, and wrote: "Said stock is held by the above named individuals, however, solely as nominees for the Bank voor Handel, Rotterdam, Holland, which is owned by one or more of the Thyssen family, nationals of Germany and Hungary. The 4,000 shares hereinbefore set out are therefore beneficially owned and help for the interests of enemy nationals, and are vestible by the APC," according to the memo from the National Archives seen by the Guardian.

Red-handed

Jones recommended that the assets be liquidated for the benefit of the government, but instead UBC was maintained intact and eventually returned to the American shareholders after the war. Some claim that Bush sold his share in UBC after the war for $1.5m - a huge amount of money at the time - but there is no documentary evidence to support this claim. No further action was ever taken nor was the investigation continued, despite the fact UBC was caught red-handed operating a American shell company for the Thyssen family eight months after America had entered the war and that this was the bank that had partly financed Hitler's rise to power.

The most tantalising part of the story remains shrouded in mystery: the connection, if any, between Prescott Bush, Thyssen, Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC) and Auschwitz.

Thyssen's partner in United Steel Works, which had coal mines and steel plants across the region, was Friedrich Flick, another steel magnate who also owned part of IG Farben, the powerful German chemical company.

Flick's plants in Poland made heavy use of slave labour from the concentration camps in Poland. According to a New York Times article published in March 18 1934 Flick owned two-thirds of CSSC while "American interests" held the rest.

The US National Archive documents show that BBH's involvement with CSSC was more than simply holding the shares in the mid-1930s. Bush's friend and fellow "bonesman" Knight Woolley, another partner at BBH, wrote to Averill Harriman in January 1933 warning of problems with CSSC after the Poles started their drive to nationalise the plant. "The Consolidated Silesian Steel Company situation has become increasingly complicated, and I have accordingly brought in Sullivan and Cromwell, in order to be sure that our interests are protected," wrote Knight. "After studying the situation Foster Dulles is insisting that their man in Berlin get into the picture and obtain the information which the directors here should have. You will recall that Foster is a director and he is particularly anxious to be certain that there is no liability attaching to the American directors."

But the ownership of the CSSC between 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and 1942 when the US government vested UBC and SAC is not clear.

"SAC held coal mines and definitely owned CSSC between 1934 and 1935, but when SAC was vested there was no trace of CSSC. All concrete evidence of its ownership disappears after 1935 and there are only a few traces in 1938 and 1939," says Eva Schweitzer, the journalist and author whose book, America and the Holocaust, is published next month.

Silesia was quickly made part of the German Reich after the invasion, but while Polish factories were seized by the Nazis, those belonging to the still neutral Americans (and some other nationals) were treated more carefully as Hitler was still hoping to persuade the US to at least sit out the war as a neutral country. Schweitzer says American interests were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Nazis bought some out, but not others.

The two Holocaust survivors suing the US government and the Bush family for a total of $40bn in compensation claim both materially benefited from Auschwitz slave labour during the second world war.

Kurt Julius Goldstein, 87, and Peter Gingold, 85, began a class action in America in 2001, but the case was thrown out by Judge Rosemary Collier on the grounds that the government cannot be held liable under the principle of "state sovereignty".

Jan Lissmann, one of the lawyers for the survivors, said: "President Bush withdrew President Bill Clinton's signature from the treaty [that founded the court] not only to protect Americans, but also to protect himself and his family."

Lissmann argues that genocide-related cases are covered by international law, which does hold governments accountable for their actions. He claims the ruling was invalid as no hearing took place.

In their claims, Mr Goldstein and Mr Gingold, honorary chairman of the League of Anti-fascists, suggest the Americans were aware of what was happening at Auschwitz and should have bombed the camp.

The lawyers also filed a motion in The Hague asking for an opinion on whether state sovereignty is a valid reason for refusing to hear their case. A ruling is expected within a month.

The petition to The Hague states: "From April 1944 on, the American Air Force could have destroyed the camp with air raids, as well as the railway bridges and railway lines from Hungary to Auschwitz. The murder of about 400,000 Hungarian Holocaust victims could have been prevented."

The case is built around a January 22 1944 executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt calling on the government to take all measures to rescue the European Jews. The lawyers claim the order was ignored because of pressure brought by a group of big American companies, including BBH, where Prescott Bush was a director.

Lissmann said: "If we have a positive ruling from the court it will cause [president] Bush huge problems and make him personally liable to pay compensation."

The US government and the Bush family deny all the claims against them.

In addition to Eva Schweitzer's book, two other books are about to be published that raise the subject of Prescott Bush's business history. The author of the second book, to be published next year, John Loftus, is a former US attorney who prosecuted Nazi war criminals in the 70s. Now living in St Petersburg, Florida and earning his living as a security commentator for Fox News and ABC radio, Loftus is working on a novel which uses some of the material he has uncovered on Bush. Loftus stressed that what Prescott Bush was involved in was just what many other American and British businessmen were doing at the time.

"You can't blame Bush for what his grandfather did any more than you can blame Jack Kennedy for what his father did - bought Nazi stocks - but what is important is the cover-up, how it could have gone on so successfully for half a century, and does that have implications for us today?" he said.

"This was the mechanism by which Hitler was funded to come to power, this was the mechanism by which the Third Reich's defence industry was re-armed, this was the mechanism by which Nazi profits were repatriated back to the American owners, this was the mechanism by which investigations into the financial laundering of the Third Reich were blunted," said Loftus, who is vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg.

"The Union Banking Corporation was a holding company for the Nazis, for Fritz Thyssen," said Loftus. "At various times, the Bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a Dutch bank and it wasn't until the Nazis took over Holland that they realised that now the Nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the Bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. Both the American treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in Europe completely bely that, it's absolute horseshit. They always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were."

"There is no one left alive who could be prosecuted but they did get away with it," said Loftus. "As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averill Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany."

Loftus said Prescott Bush must have been aware of what was happening in Germany at the time. "My take on him was that he was a not terribly successful in-law who did what Herbert Walker told him to. Walker and Harriman were the two evil geniuses, they didn't care about the Nazis any more than they cared about their investments with the Bolsheviks."

What is also at issue is how much money Bush made from his involvement. His supporters suggest that he had one token share. Loftus disputes this, citing sources in "the banking and intelligence communities" and suggesting that the Bush family, through George Herbert Walker and Prescott, got $1.5m out of the involvement. There is, however, no paper trail to this sum.

The third person going into print on the subject is John Buchanan, 54, a Miami-based magazine journalist who started examining the files while working on a screenplay. Last year, Buchanan published his findings in the venerable but small-circulation New Hampshire Gazette under the headline "Documents in National Archives Prove George Bush's Grandfather Traded With the Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor". He expands on this in his book to be published next month - Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media and the Religious Right.

In the article, Buchanan, who has worked mainly in the trade and music press with a spell as a muckraking reporter in Miami, claimed that "the essential facts have appeared on the internet and in relatively obscure books but were dismissed by the media and Bush family as undocumented diatribes".

Buchanan suffers from hypermania, a form of manic depression, and when he found himself rebuffed in his initial efforts to interest the media, he responded with a series of threats against the journalists and media outlets that had spurned him. The threats, contained in e-mails, suggested that he would expose the journalists as "traitors to the truth".

Unsurprisingly, he soon had difficulty getting his calls returned. Most seriously, he faced aggravated stalking charges in Miami, in connection with a man with whom he had fallen out over the best way to publicise his findings. The charges were dropped last month.

Biography

Buchanan said he regretted his behaviour had damaged his credibility but his main aim was to secure publicity for the story. Both Loftus and Schweitzer say Buchanan has come up with previously undisclosed documentation.

The Bush family have largely responded with no comment to any reference to Prescott Bush. Brown Brothers Harriman also declined to comment.

The Bush family recently approved a flattering biography of Prescott Bush entitled Duty, Honour, Country by Mickey Herskowitz. The publishers, Rutledge Hill Press, promised the book would "deal honestly with Prescott Bush's alleged business relationships with Nazi industrialists and other accusations".

In fact, the allegations are dealt with in less than two pages. The book refers to the Herald-Tribune story by saying that "a person of less established ethics would have panicked ... Bush and his partners at Brown Brothers Harriman informed the government regulators that the account, opened in the late 1930s, was 'an unpaid courtesy for a client' ... Prescott Bush acted quickly and openly on behalf of the firm, served well by a reputation that had never been compromised. He made available all records and all documents. Viewed six decades later in the era of serial corporate scandals and shattered careers, he received what can be viewed as the ultimate clean bill."

The Prescott Bush story has been condemned by both conservatives and some liberals as having nothing to do with the current president. It has also been suggested that Prescott Bush had little to do with Averill Harriman and that the two men opposed each other politically.

However, documents from the Harriman papers include a flattering wartime profile of Harriman in the New York Journal American and next to it in the files is a letter to the financial editor of that paper from Prescott Bush congratulating the paper for running the profile. He added that Harriman's "performance and his whole attitude has been a source of inspiration and pride to his partners and his friends".

The Anti-Defamation League in the US is supportive of Prescott Bush and the Bush family. In a statement last year they said that "rumours about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated ... Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathiser."

However, one of the country's oldest Jewish publications, the Jewish Advocate, has aired the controversy in detail.

More than 60 years after Prescott Bush came briefly under scrutiny at the time of a faraway war, his grandson is facing a different kind of scrutiny but one underpinned by the same perception that, for some people, war can be a profitable business.

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar