The
viewpoint in the article below shows why the AP
suddenly took up this theme - on behalf of the
Bush campaign in order to downplay it in anticipation
of the election in 2004 so it could not come up
then. Thyssen, according to the "logic"
of this interpretation, was not against Jews and
later had a falling out with the Nazis, so therefore
Prescott Bush spending ten years helping finance
Nazism via Thyssen's Nazi-controlled front companies
on Wall Street was not anti-Semitic, and therefore
Prescott Bush was not a Nazi.
- To
further the a-historic logic of this view, if
being put in prison by the Nazis like Thyssen
was "proof" you weren't really one,
then thousands of top Nazis enthusiasts in the
SA who Hitler had imprisoned and killed for
his own political reasons in the early 1930's
were all really good guys too. I guess that
makes those who personally imported all those
Nazis to America after WWII, who were the lawyers
for IG Farben such as William Casey, Kissenger,
the Dulles brothers etc. were really good guys
as well. It's just those who like me dare to
bring up the Bush-Nazi connection who are despicable
bad guys.
-
- Of
course, this interpretation completely ignores
that the Bush family were very big supporters
of eugenics (including Prescott, his partner
Harriman and Pres. Bush I), were well-known
to be anti-Semitic and that Hitler's hatred
for and intention to kill the Jews was well-known
long before he ever came to power. It also ignores
that in 1930's America had a huge and very public
Nazi movement, which hardly fits into the picture
of America's wealthiest corporate bosses being
ignorant of what they were supporting. To say
you actively supported Hitler for a decade but
didn't know he intended to kill millions of
Jews, Poles, Russians, Gypsies is exactly the
defense the Nazis used at Nuremberg. Does anybody
really think Prescott Bush, Rockefeller, Ford
etc. were clueless as to what Hitler was up
to during the time they were actively funding
and ideologically supporting him and his IG
Farben concentration camp-slave labor factories?
-
- As
to the issue of the number of shares in Union
Bank, yes, Prescott had only one share according
to the 11/7/42 Congressional Record, but there
were only seven shareholders total. It's not
like he was one of thousands of shareholders.
See the Federal Register page here: http://www.mbpolitics.com/bush2000/Vesting.htm
-
- Blaming
GW Bush for Prescott's action would indeed be
unfair if that was all there is to it. In reality,
the entire three generation Bush political dynasty
has countless connections to Nazis, fascism,
eugenics, corporate crime, the CIA bringing
thousands of former SS officials to the US,
the pharmaceutical companies formerly known
as IG Farben etc. Their family fortune - which
is the basis for every Bush's political position
today - all came directly from supporting the
Nazis.
-
- http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/story.asp?ID=8054
-
- Bush
'Nazi' smear unworthy of critics Joe Conason
- The New York Observer
-
- 10.22.03
- Liberal invective against George W. Bush has
not yet descended to the depths plumbed by conservatives
in their crusade against the Clintons, but that
isn't because nobody's trying. Mr. Bush's most
zealous opponents apparently believe that his
faults, and those of his cronies and his administration,
will be insufficient to unseat him next year.
-
- That
may be why some Bush critics have been circulating
a story about the financial connections between
his paternal grandfather, Prescott Bush Sr.,
and a Nazi industrial magnate named Fritz Thyssen.
-
- The
sinister cooperation between prominent American
businessmen and their counterparts in Hitler's
Germany is an important episode whose details
are still being revealed by historians. It instructs
us about the terrible crimes that can be committed
in the pursuit of profit by men (and they were
all men) who regard themselves as a superior
race and class. It implicates such famous names
as Ford, Standard Oil, General Motors and Dupont.
In the case of Prescott Bush Sr., this sorry
history shows that even a man who later displayed
decent instincts could have been guilty of awful
judgment and worse.
-
- According
to archival and declassified material recently
published, the founder of the Bush political
dynasty had much to answer for during his earlier
career on Wall Street. Picking up on an investigative
story in the New Hampshire Gazette, last week
the Associated Press reported on Prescott Sr.'s
role in the Union Banking Corp., which served
as a front for Thyssen's conglomerate.
-
- Quite
reasonably, the U.S. government suspected Union
Banking of aiding the Nazis through Thyssen,
who had helped to finance Hitler's rise and
whose coal and steel holdings were integral
to the German war machine. That suspicion led
federal officials to seize Union Banking's assets
in October 1942 under the Trading With the Enemy
Act. While Prescott Sr. held only a single share
of Union Banking stock, he also served as one
of seven corporate directors whose apparent
purpose was to help Thyssen conceal the bank's
real ownership.
-
- What
the A.P. story notes -- unlike many of the Internet
stories circulating about the "Bush-Nazi
connection" -- is that, by 1938, Fritz
Thyssen had fallen out with the Nazi regime
he had helped bring to power, evidently "over
their persecution of Catholics and Jews."
After fleeing to neutral Switzerland, Thyssen
was arrested by the Nazis. At the moment when
his U.S. assets were seized, Thyssen was in
a Nazi prison, where he remained until the end
of the war.
-
- Those
complicating facts don't absolve Thyssen or
his American associates. The involvement of
Prescott Sr. and other members of the American
business aristocracy with Nazi-era industry
was shameful, and in some instances illegal
-- and they knew it.
-
- Like
so many Americans who made deals with fascist
interests or lent political support to them
during the 30's, those businessmen got off rather
easily after the war. Most of them, including
Bush, were permitted to keep the money they
had made with the Germans.
-
- They're
all dead now, however. Prescott Sr. died more
than 30 years ago.
-
- Before
he went to his final reward, the Bush patriarch
was elected from Connecticut to the U.S. Senate,
where he served from 1952 until he retired 10
years later. He was a liberal Eisenhower Republican
who distinguished himself as an opponent of
McCarthyism and an advocate of public housing.
-
- Henry
Ford was a Nazi collaborator. Joseph P. Kennedy
Sr. was a Nazi sympathizer. Unless additional
information emerges to indict him, Prescott
Bush Sr. was neither. To misuse such terms for
political advantage against his grandson is
to trivialize very grave offenses.
-
- Whatever
the President's grandfather did or may have
done, how does that reflect on George W. Bush?
In 1942, he hadn't been born yet. If he is nevertheless
accountable for Prescott Sr.'s actions, fairness
requires that a similar standard be applied
to other descendants of politicians and businessmen
whose attitude toward Nazism was, at best, ambivalent.
Should anyone named Kennedy, Harriman, Dupont
or Fish be arraigned for the offenses of their
dead ancestors? Should everyone boycott Ford
Motors?
-
- The
obvious answer is no. In America, the sins of
the fathers are not held against the children,
nor should they be. Although the Bushes have
too often lowered themselves into the gutter
for political gain, that doesn't give license
to libels against them.
-
- It
is ironic that the President would be arraigned
on a bum rap at a moment when his poll numbers
are declining, his advisers admit he is vulnerable,
and several books excoriating him have appeared
on the best-seller lists.
-
- There
are many unflattering terms that can and should
be used to describe George W. Bush. He is, among
other things, a truly bad President. But neither
his offenses, nor the Republican Party's politics
of personal destruction, can justify using such
tactics against him. Imputing Nazi sympathies
to the President or his family ought to be beneath
his adversaries.
-
- COPYRIGHT
(c) 2003 THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
-
- For
the page from the Federal Register of November
7th 1942 showing the Bush family assets seized
by the US Congress for being Nazi fronts see:
http://www.mbpolitics.com/bush2000/Vesting.htm
I recently had the National Archive photocopy
and mail me this exact page in order to conclusively
verify it. It's real and they sent it to me
for free. Here's their website: http://www.archives.gov/
-
- For
an authoritative and very detailed report on
the Bush-Nazi connection by former US Dept.
of Justice Nazi War Crimes prosecutor and President
of the Florida Holocaust Museum, John Loftus,
see: http://www.john-loftus.com/
-
- http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/
Jewish Advocate 7/18/2001 (article begins on
pg 1)
-
- Robert
Lederman: NYC Street Crusader Takes on Giuliani,
Bush's Nazi Past
-
- By
Susie Davidson Advocate Correspondent
-
- Don't
get on Robert Lederman's bad side. Just ask
Rudy Giuliani.
-
- Artist,
First Amendment activist and Greenwich Village
Gazette (and other mags) columnist Lederman
has waged an eight-year, one-man campaign, to
the tune of hundreds of essays, 41 arrests,
hundreds of paintings, postcards and well-maintained
websites, all aimed at the erstwhile Big Apple
mayor. His art often appears at demonstrations
against issues like the Abner Louima and Amadou
Diallo incidents, West Nile pesticide spraying
("Orthodox Jews Gassed Again!" he
accuses, as the poison hits religious areas
on Friday evenings) and Guiliani's homeless
policies. His work has appeared in People, New
York Magazine, the Times, New York Post Daily
News and Newsday; he's been featured on 20/20
and CNN.
-
- His
titles include: "Racist Rudy," "KKK-iani,"
"The Godmother," "Jailiani,"
"Enemy of Art," "Fooliani,"
"Ghouliani," and "Mussoliniani."
-
- Why
Giuliani?
-
- Lederman,
50,'s first beef with the mayor occurred in
1994, when street artists arrested for selling
art without licenses formed A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists'
Response to Illegal State Tactics), and in a
case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, ultimately
won a lawsuit against the mayor (one of many
Lederman legal challenges to Hizzoner).
-
- He
had personal experience; in the '80's, occasionally
homeless, he sold artwork instead of panhandling.
-
- Following
this victory, Lederman's arrest profile widened:
unlawful vendoring, unauthorized posting, disorderly
conduct, inciting to riot, resisting arrest,
carrying a tape recorder and obstruction of
governmental administration. Every case was
dismissed with no fines.
-
- Lederman
welcomes the media exposure for his causes and
his artwork, which are, incidentally, not limited
to New York, or to secular themes.
-
- Lederman
contributed "A Jewish Perspective on GW
Bush" to the recently released 100 Days:
An Anthology (ed. Andrea Brady, Barque Press).
It's a scathing, fact-filled and documented
expose of the Nazi shadows looming behind the
Bush family and their cohorts.
-
- "For
a Jewish person," he begins, "learning
that the President's family fortune and political
connections began with financing Hitler (in
the Standard Oil/IG Farben concerns) is a serious
matter."
-
- There
are no Jewish members of Bush's cabinet, he
notes, while Ari Fleischer's role adds "ethnic
credibility in the event questions arise regarding
the President's Hitler connection." Lederman
accuses Bush of appointing, and embracing, a
few token Blacks and minorities. "In Nazi
Germany," he analogizes, "there were
Jewish leaders, the Judenrate, who similarly
advised their followers not to resist Adolf
Hitler. Elevating a few members of a targeted
group is an effective way to disarm your victims."
-
- Lederman
names prominent American Nazi collaborators.
After the war? "The US government,"
he charges, "brought thousands of Nazis
to America, provided them with false identities
and established them in the newly formed CIA,
in universities, in the media, in medical and
psychological research institutions and in the
US military."
-
- Allen
Dulles, GHW Bush associate and fellow Nazi financier,
became the CIA's first director. His brother,
John Foster Dulles, major shareholder and lawyer
for Standard Oil/IG Farben, became U.S. Secretary
of State. William Casey, Reagan's CIA director
who "helped the Dulles' bring Nazis to
the U.S.", "created the Manhattan
Institute - the think tank that invented GW
Bush's political agenda and advises him on a
daily basis.
-
- "It
was the first Bush administration," Lederman
writes, "which gave Saddam Hussein the
chemical and biological weapons we've spent
the past decade trying to locate in Iraq. It
was the anti-Semitic, anti-Christian Arab oil
partners of the Bush family that our soldiers
risked their lives to protect in Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. The corrupt
dynasties that oppressively rule these Arab
nations were among Hitler's closest allies in
WWII."
-
- W?
The Christian far right, John Ashcroft, Bob
Jones U., the inauguration exclusion of non-Christians,
the fact that abortion, globally opposed by
Bush in an initial act, was strictly prohibited
in Nazi Germany but forced upon Jewish women
- all are exposed and denounced.
-
- "All
I'd ask of President Bush," he closes,
"is something very simple for him to do.
Mr. President, please make a public statement
- as many of the corporations associated with
you have already done - acknowledging your family's
past relationship with Nazi Germany, and then,
apologize for it - as the Pope recently did.
-
- "Unlike
your father, former President Bush, who said
it was time to forgive Nazi Germany's war criminals,
you have made seemingly sincere speeches about
the Holocaust while fundraising at synagogues
and Jewish community centers.
-
- "Now
it's time for you to complete the 'healing process'
you are always referring to and publicly repent
for your family's part in bringing the Holocaust
about."
-
- Will
Lederman's message reach Bush?
-
- Ask
Mayor Giuliani.
-
- Copyright
2001 Susan J. Davidson This article appeared
in the July 18, 2001 issue of the Jewish Advocate
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