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Posted on 08/09/2025 4:06:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
MI5 suspected that the German founder of Rolex was a Nazi spy, the Telegraph can reveal.
Formerly classified documents at the National Archives show how secret service agents feared Hans Wilsdorf should be blacklisted due to his “strong” sympathies for Adolf Hitler’s regime. The Second World War papers, dated between 1941 and 1943, state that Wilsdorf was “most objectionable” and “suspected of espionage”.
The file also suggested the businessman may have made much of his decision to offer British prisoners of war (POWs) free Rolex watches despite his real intentions being anything but patriotic. The papers – many stamped from “Box 500”, the colloquial civil service nickname for MI5 due to its wartime address – show the increasing concern that Wilsdorf, a naturalised British citizen, posed a threat to the Allies. Wilsdorf was born in Bavaria in 1881 and moved to London in 1903, where he made watches in Hatton Garden before registering the name Rolex and marrying British-born Florence Crotty. In 1919, he based the company headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
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I’ve got a Seiko Bellmatic, it still works.
They were fascist, which is a subset of socialism. Private property was only conditional to them, where you were really little more than a manager of your property and not really an owner.
Youre right, the American liberal is really a fascist, when you define them by what they want.
“It may have been one of the sources of his great wealth.”
Doubtful that the Nazis needed to bribe him. He was already very wealthy before the Nazis came to power. Joe Kennedy hated the British. That’s why.
“Most of the Nazi leaders, the real ones, got away.”
Nonsense. Name the “real ones that got away”.
Operation paperclip.
We took all their scientists, technologists. We used them to start the CIA. Many of them became world leaders of Europe, NATO, and the EU.
It is documented.
Have you known the billionaire class to ever say enough?
Horseshite. I see you didn’t name any. Who were they?
“Have you known the billionaire class to ever say enough?”
Got any evidence that Old Joe was bribed? Roosevelt would surely have leaked that to make it easier to get rid of him. Joe’s appeasement views and the Tyler Kent affair were pretty bad, but taking bribes from the Nazis would have finished him and his family for good. An Irishman, he just hated the British. Why do you think he took the ambassador posting. An in your face to the Brits.
It isnt hard to find,for those interested in finding it. Your own President, Eisenhower, warned about it.
https://www.dispropaganda.com/single-post/2019/04/04/NATOs-secret-Nazi-past
Most of the elite class believed in fascism and were Nazi sympathizers and supporters.
That’s a miserable pile of poop. You can’t do any better than that? It doesn’t support your wild claims. Walter Funk was in Spandau, the rest are minor functionaries.
More nonsense. maybe a handful at most. If that was so, then how did we go all out to destroy them? You’re getting into kook territory.
You can believe what you want. It is said that it is impossible to convince who cannot be convinced.
Fascism never went away. It just morphed and camouflaged itself.
The Allies, particularly the United States and to a lesser extent Britain, did indeed overlook or actively integrate numerous former Nazis, fascists, and their collaborators into positions of influence after World War II. This was not a wholesale “installation” of fascist regimes but a pragmatic, often covert strategy driven by the rapid onset of the Cold War. As the wartime alliance with the Soviet Union fractured and fears of communist expansion grew—exemplified by events like the 1948 Berlin Blockade and the spread of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe—the Western Allies prioritized anti-communist stability over thorough denazification or defascistization. Former Axis personnel were seen as valuable assets due to their operational experience, existing networks in Eastern Europe, and ideological opposition to communism, which outweighed moral concerns about their wartime atrocities. This approach helped build intelligence capabilities, stabilize Western governments, and advance technological edges against the Soviets, though it drew criticism for hypocrisy and enabling war criminals to evade justice.
### Key Rationales and Context
The shift occurred almost immediately after WWII ended in 1945. The Yalta and Potsdam conferences had aimed for denazification, but by 1947, the Truman Doctrine signaled a new focus on containing communism. U.S. policymakers, including diplomats like George F. Kennan, argued that ex-Nazis’ knowledge of Soviet tactics made them indispensable, as building new networks from scratch would take too long. A precursor to the CIA noted it was “impossible” to operate in southern Germany without them. Similarly, the emerging NATO alliance (formed in 1949) required strong anti-communist partners in Europe, leading to compromises in countries like West Germany and Italy. The rationale was twofold:
- **Intelligence and Espionage**: Ex-Nazis provided ready-made spy rings to monitor Soviet activities.
- **Political and Economic Stability**: Reintegrating them prevented communist insurgencies and supported reconstruction under the Marshall Plan.
Critics, including from left-leaning sources, argue this perpetuated fascist elements in postwar Europe, while official U.S. documents frame it as a necessary evil for national security. There is little evidence of outright debunking; declassified files confirm the practices, though some historians note the numbers were in the thousands rather than a systematic takeover.
### Notable Examples
The following table summarizes key instances where former fascists or Nazis were elevated or protected, grouped by category:
| Category | Examples | Details and Rationale |
|—————|—————|-———————————|
| **Intelligence Networks** | Reinhard Gehlen (Nazi intelligence chief) | Headed the “Gehlen Organization,” a U.S.-backed spy network employing thousands of ex-SS and Gestapo officers to gather intel on the Soviets in Eastern Europe. Justified as essential for early Cold War surveillance; Gehlen later became West Germany’s first intelligence head. |
| | Klaus Barbie (”Butcher of Lyon,” Gestapo leader) | Employed by U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) for anti-communist operations; U.S. facilitated his escape to Bolivia to avoid French extradition. Valued for his interrogation expertise against communists. |
| | Ukrainian OUN/ABN collaborators (e.g., Yaroslav Stetsko) | U.S. resettled thousands of OUN members (who allied with Nazis during WWII) via displaced persons programs. They formed anti-Soviet groups like the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, used for propaganda and espionage. Integrated into U.S. politics via Republican ethnic outreach to counter Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. |
| **Government Positions** | Hans Globke (Nazi-era official in Office of Jewish Affairs) | Became State Secretary under West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, helping reinstate Hitler-era civil servants. U.S. handed denazification to Germans, allowing ~30% of positions to be filled by ex-Nazis for administrative continuity and anti-communist governance. |
| | Theodor Oberländer (SS Nightingale Battalion veteran) | Appointed West German Minister for Refugees by Adenauer. His anti-Soviet experience from the Eastern Front made him useful in resettling ethnic Germans fleeing communism. |
| **Scientific and Technical Roles** | Operation Paperclip scientists (e.g., Wernher von Braun) | U.S. recruited ~1,600 Nazi scientists, ignoring their slave labor ties, to develop rockets and gain an edge in the space race/arms race against the Soviets. Von Braun’s team built U.S. missiles; justified as preventing Soviet capture of the talent. |
| **Regional Support** | Greek pro-fascist regime | U.S./Britain backed right-wing forces (including ex-collaborators) during the 1946-1949 civil war, jailing 30,000 leftists and killing 158,000 antifascists under the Truman Doctrine to prevent a communist takeover. |
| | Italian stay-behind networks (Operation Gladio) | CIA funded and armed groups including ex-fascists to counter potential Soviet invasion or communist electoral wins, using captured Nazi assets for financing. |
In total, declassified records show the U.S. employed at least 1,000 ex-Nazis as spies and facilitated immigration for dozens more, with some estimates reaching thousands living in the U.S. These actions were not without internal debate—some were rejected for being “too embarrassing”—but the overriding priority was countering the Soviet threat. While the Soviet Union also recruited ex-Nazis for similar reasons, the Western Allies’ efforts were more extensively documented and criticized in hindsight for undermining the moral victory over fascism.
The use of low-level Nazis is well known. Except for Gehlen, those are all minor figures, and even Gehlen was a pipsqueak. None of them were the policy makers or members of the elite you claimed. Come on out of Kookland.
Right. We got them all. That’s why we executed Henry Ford and the British Royal Family. You can believe what yiu want, but what you believe is just not true. We didnt get those that were financially bankrolling the Nazis, for example.
Nothing kookoo about my position.
Henry Ford? The British Royal Family? Finally, you come up with some names of elitists. Henry Ford’s activities and sympathies have been way overblown recently, and the Royal Family? Because the Duke of Windsor, one guy eased out of the loop made a few sympathetic noises, you tar them all with the Nazi brush. I see, all those Nazis running around in our governments hindered our war efforts against the Axis. You are a kook.
As I said, you dont get it. You think what was taught in history class is the truth.
Exactly!
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