Hitler Comes to Power
Back in Hamburg, Max Warburg was even less impressed than his American relations with Weizmann's efforts. Regarding himself as a German patriot, he felt that Germany's Jews should stay put, even though World War I had crippled his business and the ascension of the National Socialist party was driving away many of his clients. As the secular head of German Jewry (he once referred to himself as the "god" of the Jews) much of his social status would be lost if the Jews emigrated.
Even the Warburgs were not entirely immune from the infectious enthusiasm of Hitler's movement. In 1930 Siegmund Warburg told his cousin Karl that, the anti-Semitism aside, he saw some redeeming qualities in the National Socialist cause. "The Nazis are doubtless in part dreadfully primitive in human and political terms," he wrote in a letter. "On the other hand, one finds among a large part of them valuable, typically German strengths, which are indeed incredible in a political connection, but show strong feeling for social and national duties ..."
When Hitler came to power in January 1933, Max Warburg was Germany's most prominent Jewish banker. He headed the most important private banking firm, and was a member of the "general council" of the nation's central bank. In March 1933 he approved Hitler's decision to name Dr. Hjalmar Schacht as president of the Reichsbank. The document naming Schacht to this post is signed by Chancellor Hitler and President von Hindenburg as well as the eight members of the Reichsbank "general council," including the Jews Mendelssohn, Wassermann and Warburg.
Schacht's skill during the 1920s in curing runaway inflation and getting the German economy back on an even keel earned him world renown as a financial wizard. A conservative, old-school banker, he never joined the National Socialist party. (Tried by the Nuremberg Tribunal as a "major war criminal," he was acquitted.)
At a meeting in July 1934, Hitler asked Schacht if he would also head up the German Economics Ministry. "Before I take office I should like to know how you wish me to deal with the Jewish question?," Schacht asked. "In economic matters, the Jews can carry on exactly as they have done up to now," replied Hitler. And so it was -- at least for a few years.
In 1936, for example (three years after Hitler took power), the M. M. Warburg bank in Hamburg was still profitable. Among other lucrative connections, it was still disbursing interest payments to bondholders for the giant Friedrich Krupp company of Essen. As Siegmund Warburg wrote in July 1936: "M. M. W. and Co. are still remarkably untouched by the Nazi situation and the business is doing well." Even in 1938, notes Chernow, the Warburg bank was turning a profit.
Max Warburg opposed the international Jewish boycott of German goods, particularly because his bank derived most of its income from international trade. Regrettably, Chernow fails to name the Jews behind this anti-German campaign, nor does he mention that the infamous 1933 Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses was a limited, one-day response to the sustained worldwide Jewish boycott against Germany.
M.M. Warburg and Co. played an important role in facilitating the "Haavara" or "transfer" agreement. Through this remarkable arrangement, concluded in 1933 between Hitler's government and the Zionist leadership, property of Jews emigrating to Palestine was used to purchase German-made goods, which were shipped to Palestine and sold there. Money from the sale of these goods went to the migrating Jews. About ten percent of German Jewry emigrated through the "Haavara" deal, which benefited Jewish emigrants, helped overcome the anti-German boycott, and immensely strengthened the Zionist community in Palestine. Moreover, it enriched Max Warburg's bank, which served as conduit for three-fourths of "Haavara" funds. [See "Zionism and the Third Reich" in the July-August 1993 Journal.]
Until 1938, Max Warburg benefited from his cordial personal relationship with Dr. Schacht. But as Schacht's influence with Hitler waned, so did Warburg's position in German business. As German corporations were "Aryanized," Warburg was forced to substitute a trusted non-Jewish company employee for himself on the hundred or so corporate boards on which he held a seat.
When the Warburg bank itself was Aryanized in May 1938, an era that began in 1798 came to an end. The firm was turned over to a non-Jewish employee, Rudolf Brinckmann, and Max Warburg left his Hamburg office for the last time. (A short while later he left Germany forever, dying in 1946 in the United States.) The firm's traditional name lingered until 1941, when it was changed to Brinckmann, Wirtz and Co.
[source : Powerful Jewish Dynasty Profiled, The Journal of Historical Review, September/October 1995 (Vol. 15, No. 5), page 33-37., http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v15/v15n5p33_Weir.html]
And from George Bush : The Unauthorized Biography, Chapter 2, The Hitler Project:
Max Warburg replied on March 27, 1933, assuring his American sponsors that the Hitler government was good for Germany: “ For the last few years business was considerably better than we had anticipated, but a reaction is making itself felt for some months. We are actually suffering also under the very active propaganda against Germany, caused by some unpleasant circumstances. These occurrences were the natural consequence of the very excited election campaign, but were extraordinarily exaggerated in the foreign press. The Government is firmly resolved to maintain public peace and order in Germany, and I feel perfectly convinced in this respect that there is no cause for any alarm whatsoever. ”
This seal of approval for Hitler, coming from a famous Jew, was just what Harriman and Bush required, for they anticipated rather serious “ alarm ” inside the U.S.A. against their Nazi operations.
On March 29, 1933, two days after Max’s letter to Harriman, Max’s son, Erich Warburg, sent a cable to his cousin Frederick M. Warburg, a director of the Harriman railroad system. He asked Frederick to “ use all your influence ” to stop all anti-Nazi activity in America, including “ atrocity news and unfriendly propaganda in foreign press, mass meetings, etc. ” Frederick cabled back to Erich: “ No responsible groups here [are] urging [a] boycott [of] German goods[,] merely excited individuals. ” Two days after that, On March 31, 1933, the American-Jewish Committee, controlled by the Warburgs, and the B’nai B’rith, heavily influenced by the Sulzbergers (New York Times), issued a formal, official joint statement of the two organizations, counseling “ that no American boycott against Germany be encouraged, ” and advising “ that no further mass meetings be held or similar forms of agitation be employed. ”@s3@s1
The American Jewish Committee and the B’nai B’rith (mother of the “ Anti-Defamation League ”) continued with this hardline, no-attack-on-Hitler stance all through the 1930s, blunting the fight mounted by many Jews and other anti-fascists.
So far from being persecuted, the Warburgs protected, collaborated with and made a lot of money out of the Nazis.
And not only that, as directors of IG Farben they would have known about the financing of Hitler and the Nazis by IG Farben.
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