The Case for Bush Family Nazi Holocaust Reparations
Over 50 years after American troops liberated the few starving survivors of the Nazi death camps, Holocaust victims are finally beginning to receive reparations from those responsible. It has taken this long because of the massive web of lies, denials, and destruction of documents. Building a solid case against those responsible for the murder of millions has been an extraordinarily difficult task. Many of those responsible for the Holocaust have used the wealth they stole while in power to fight all efforts to achieve justice. Among those who profited from the Holocaust - and have successfully avoided justice - one wealthy and powerful family stands out. This family stands out for two reasons. First, it has used its ill-gotten wealth to rise to the pinnacle of power. Second, it has gained so much power that practically all-public awareness of its dark Nazi past has been erased.
The family in question is named Bush.
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Prescott Bush, as a director of the Union Banking Corporation, was one of the American's who helped finance the rise of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany. After the United States entered the War, all shares of Union Bank were seized by the US Government under the Trading with the Enemy Act on October 20, 1942, as mandated under Vesting Order No. 248 by the Alien Property Custodian Leo T. Crowley. As Carla Binion reported in a 12/21/00 Online Journal Article:
In [the Christopher] Simpson book, 'The Splendid Blonde Beast,' the author wrote about George H. W. Bush's father, Prescott, and his maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker. Both Bert Walker and Prescott Bush were powerful financial supporters of Adolf Hitler. Walker was president of Union Banking Corporation, a firm that traded with Germany and helped German industrialists consolidate Hitler's political power. Simpson says Union Banking became a Nazi money-laundering machine. Walker helped take over North American operations of Hamburg-Amerika Line, a shipping line and cover for I. G. Farben's Nazi espionage unit in the U. S. Hamburg-Amerika smuggled in German agents, and brought in money for bribing American politicians to support Hitler. A 1934 congressional investigation showed Hamburg-Amerika subsidized Nazi propaganda efforts in the U. S. George H. W. Bush's father, Prescott, was a board member of Union Banking and a senior partner in a Union Banking affiliate -- the investment firm Brown Brothers, Harriman. The U. S. government investigated both Bert Walker and Prescott Bush, and under the Trading with the Enemy Act seized all shares of Union Banking, including shares held by Prescott Bush. The government held that 'huge sections of Prescott Bush's empire had been operated on behalf of Nazi Germany and had greatly assisted the German war effort.'
It is important to note that at that time the United States had been at war for 10 months. Our troops were just a few weeks away from fighting the Germans. On November 8, the US and the Allies would launch Operation Torch in North Africa.
However -- Prescott did not lose his Nazi-financed fortune. In 1951 Prescott Bush cashed in his stake in Union Bank for $1.5 million (approximately $10 million in today's dollars). He used his wealth to buy power, as the United States Senator from Connecticut. After he died, Prescott passed on his wealth to his sons. George Herbert Walker Bush became a Congressman, CIA Director and ultimately President. His eldest son, George W. Bush, became a Texas Governor and now President. His younger son, Jeb Bush, became a Florida Governor. Thanks to the wealth and power acquired by Prescott Bush, and carefully nurtured by his sons and grandsons, the Bush family is now extremely wealthy. In particular, George H. W. Bush has amassed significant wealth since leaving the White House, through his involvement in numerous profitable companies, most notably The Carlyle Group.
Amazingly, the Bush family has never been held to account for its role in financing the Nazis.
The Bush family's involvement with other Nazi profiteers has continued through the generations. Recently, George W. Bush appointed William Farish III as Ambassador to the Court of St. James. As Toby Rogers writes, the Bush family and the Farishes have a long-standing relationship.
In 1980, when George H.W. Bush was elected vice president, he placed his father's family inherence in a blind trust. The trust was managed by his old friend and quail hunting partner, William 'Stamps' Farish III. Bush's choice of Farish to manage the family wealth is quite revealing in that it demonstrates that the former president might know exactly where some of his inheritance originated. Farish's grandfather, William Farish [Sr.], on March 25th, 1942, pleaded 'no contest' to conspiring with Nazi Germany while president of Standard Oil in New Jersey. He was described by Senator Harry Truman in public of approaching 'treason' for profiting off the Nazi war machine. Standard Oil, invested millions in IG Farben, who opened a gasoline factory within Auschwitz in 1940. The billions 'Stamps' inherited had more blood on it than Bush, so the paper trail of UBC stock would be safe during his 12 years in presidential politics." [For more about William Farish Sr. and his business alliance with Nazi Germany, see Charles Higham's 'Trading With the Enemy', Barnes and Noble, 1983].
Occasionally, ugly reminders of the Bush family connections to the Nazis have surfaced. During George H. W. Bush's 1988 Presidential campaign, news reports broke about the involvement of several Nazi collaborators in the campaign. As Carla Binion writes:
Journalist Russ Bellant ("Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party") shows that Laszlo Pasztor, a convicted Nazi war collaborator, built the Republican Émigré network. Pasztor, who served as adviser to Republican Paul Weyrich, belonged to the Hungarian Arrow Cross, a group that helped liquidate Hungary's Jews. Pasztor was founding chairman of the Republican Heritage Groups Council. Two months before the November 1988 presidential election, a small newspaper, Washington Jewish Week, disclosed that a coalition for the Bush campaign included a number of outspoken Nazis and anti-Semites. The article prompted six leaders of Bush's coalition to resign [along with Pasztor]." |
