Chapter 5: Shell support for Nazis continued after Deterding retirement
The first news reports of the pending resignation of Sir Henri Deterding were published in October 1936.92 93 The close relationship between Royal Dutch Shell and the Nazis did not end with his retirement as leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group on 31 December 1936, or even his death. From December 1936, Deterding made widely reported multi-million dollar food donations to Nazi Germany. Shell was well aware of his activities and allowed him to remain as a director. This is unsurprising bearing in mind that Shell also continued its partnership with the Nazis after his death. He was a non executive director of several companies within the Group from 1 January 1937 until 4 February 1939,94 the day he died.95 The following is an extract from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell”: Volume 1. Immediately after referring to the funeral of Sir Henri on page 485, it says: “However, as we have seen above the Group continued to do business with Germany, drawing lube oil supplies, ordering tankers, expanding the Rhenania-Ossag installations, and participating in the Politz works.”96 Rhenania-Ossag97 (Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke AG), was the operating company of Royal Dutch Shell in Germany. During 1937 and 1938, the lube oil production facility of the Royal Dutch Shell German subsidiary – Rhenania-Ossag – was expanded and modernized.98 Anglo-Saxon, also part of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, had a total of seven large tankers built at German shipyards between 1935 and 1939, the largest number ordered outside the UK and the Netherlands during those years.99 In August 1936, the Nazis announced a Four Year Plan to make Germany independent of foreign gasoline imports. Initially Royal Dutch Shell Group managers refused to allow Rhenania-Ossag to participate in the project, but by February 1937, just weeks after the retirement of Sir Henri as chief executive, the Group reversed the decision.100 Royal Dutch Shell invested RM 27.5 million in the related “Politz” project involving partners, Standard Oil of New Jersey and IG Farben. Shell attempted to conceal its involvement. Extract: “Because the Group wanted at all costs to avoid its commitment to a synthetic gasoline plant becoming public knowledge, two banks fronted as shareholders in Hydrierwerke Politz.” 101 The Politz project, which involved making aircraft gasoline, turned into what was described as “a devil’s pact” with soaring costs and construction delays. The Nazi government demanded increased investment. Royal Dutch Shell Group initially refused to contribute. In February 1939, the Group received an ultimatum from the Nazis: if Rhenania-Ossag did not take its full share in the increased costs, the government would take this as an infringement of the company’s duty to act in the interests of the German State, and put the company into administration. Once again Royal Dutch Shell Group managers capitulated and gave Rhenania-Ossag permission to increase its financial commitment to the Politz project, which came on stream in 1940.102 In 1938, after the retirement of Deterding as chief executive, Royal Dutch Shell joined a consortium called Catalalytic Research Associates (C.R.A.). The Nazi controlled chemical company IG Farben, was a member of the consortium.103
Shell had entered into partnership with one of the most notorious corporate actors of the Nazi era, described in the 2008 book “Hell’s Cartel” as a “war monster”.104 IG Farben used slave labor, including concentration-camp prisoners, and became deeply implicated in the wider crimes of the Nazi war machine.105 One American newspaper article published a year after the death of Sir Henri alleged that Royal Dutch Shell financed fascist death squads collectively known as the Romanian Iron Guard “and helped to link it with Nazi interests in Berlin.” The Iron Guard carried out high-level political assassinations. The article featured below was published on 11 December 1940 by an American newspaper, “The Evening Independent,” located in Clearwater, Florida. It was displayed on page 18 – top far right column.106 GAMBLERS– The conflict between two vast oil empires–Standard and Dutch Shell–lies behind the internal turmoil that recently culminated in Rumanian riots, shootings and jailings–and an infiltration of Nazis into the harassed country in the Balkans. Oleaginous history simply repeated itself. The Royal Dutch Shell Oil company long headed by Henry Deterding and owned 50-50 by Dutch and British capital, is taking heavy punishment. Losses of extremely valuable oil properties in Russia transformed Deterding into a bitter anti-Bolshevik, and he labored for years to make Rumania a Fascist stronghold. His successor J. E. F. de Kok107–who in turn passed on last month–financed the Rumanian “Iron Guard,” and helped to link it with Nazi interests in Berlin. Both groups played with Rumanian politicos and intriguers who looked after Shell’s health. They opposed King Carol, who had lined up with the French. Standard Oil likewise cast its lot with Paris, and stands to suffer unless it falls in with the Dutch Shell party line. It is probable that neither Deterding nor De Kok contemplated or desired the political and international mess that the long-range scheming precipitated.
Both Shell and Standard will undoubtedly lose out in the end–as did the German and Italian industrials barons who financed and fostered their totalitarian masters, Hitler and Il Duce. The article fits the broader pattern of evidence suggesting that Royal Dutch Shell Group support for the Nazis continued long after the retirement of Deterding as leader of the oil giant in December 1936 and even after his death in February 1939.
Notes
92. Link to royaldutchshellplc.com webpage containing a Daily Express article published 26 October 1936 under the headline “Sir Henri Deterding, Oil King, To Resign” Source 1 ↩
93. Link to royaldutchshellplc.com webpage containing an article published by The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday 27 October 19936 under the headline: “Deterding to Resign As Royal Dutch Shell Head” ↩
94. Source: Lists of Royal Dutch Shell Executives/Directors pages 93 to 98: “A History of Royal Dutch Shell” Appendices. Figures and Explanations, Collective Bibliography, and Index (Volume 4) ↩
95. Link to shellnews.net webpage containing Obituary published by The Times newspaper on 6 February 1939: “Sir Henri Deterding Obituary” ↩
96. Extract from page 485 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume1” ↩
97. Name mentioned repeatedly in “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume1” ↩
98. Information from page 465 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume1” ↩
99. Information from page 467 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume 1” ↩
100. Information from page 473 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume 1” ↩
101. Information from page 473 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume 1” ↩
102. Information from page 474 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell: Volume 1” ↩
103. From page 17, Fluid Catalytic Cracking: Science and Technology: John S. Magee (Author, Editor) Maurice M., Jr. Mitchell (Editor) (Amazon Page). ↩
104. Information from the back cover of “Hell’s Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine” by Diarmuid Jeffreys published in 2008 by Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company, LLC. ↩
105. Information from the Wikipedia article: “The Holocaust“. ↩
106. Link to royaldutchshellplc.com article: “Evidence that Royal Dutch Shell nanced fascist death squads” Source 1 ↩
107. Link to royaldutchshellplc.com webpage containing a 1938 photograph of J.E.F. de Kok. ↩