"German business quickly aligned itself with the Nazis and sealed a demonic pact with Heinrich Himmler and the SS.
As the most powerful company in the Third Reich, I.G. Farben kept the German war machine rolling, enjoying huge profits in return.
"From chemicals to explosives, I.G. Farben supplied the Nazis with a vast variety of products.
As an incentive to build factories at Auschwitz, I.G. Farben received tax exemptions and the promise of an almost unending supply of slave labor.
To seal the deal, the SS agreed to provide I.G. Farben with some 10,000 prisoners as construction workers.
From I.G. Farben, the SS gained lucrative contracts that allowed Himmler and his cronies to pursue their own financial goals.
"By mid-1944 I.G. Farben was Auschwitz's largest employer, with 11,000 slave laborers.
Some worked in nearby mines, which supplied the coal for production of synthetic fuel and synthetic rubber.
Others were directly engaged in the production of synthetic rubber, known as Buna, at the satellite camp Monowitz.
The company was also willing to supply the Nazis' death machine:
Through DEGESCH, a company it partially controlled, I.G. Farben provided Zyklon B for the Auschwitz gas chambers."
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My wife’s grandfather was the Transport Commander for the Attu landing and helped plan the assault.
24 company directors were indicted and 13 convicted. All were released early and nearly all resumed senior positions in German industry.
After the War, I.G. Farben was declared a war criminal. The Soviets seized all its assets in the East. In the West, the Allies broke it up into the component parts that had merged together in 1925. The four that survived into the post-War era were Bayer, AGFA, BASF and Hoescht, which disappeared in a 1999 merger. The company still technically exists as a legal entity, which was intended to allow it to pay reparations to slave laborers, but it has paid next to nothing.
In 1941 unsavory ties were exposed to American industry, notably Standard Oil and Dupont, but nothing came of it as attention shifted to mobilizing American industry for the War.