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.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I find, after doing some research that antalked about difference between fascism and communism is that communism was wanting to remove the old order for one its own, with the communists being the new aristocracy. Whereas fascism was the aristocracy trying to preserve the old order for their benefit. It is why most of the elites were drawn to fascism, but not communism. This is despite that fascism and communism were mostly the same.
I haven’t worn a watch in about 20 years for a few reasons.
I could see one of those.
“Interesting Factoid....Rolex is a NON=PROFIT company.”
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What a crock.
Oh hell, I own two Rolex watches so does that make me a double Nazi? I am white and have blue eyes and have German ancestors. I like to eat black bread and bratwurst. My mother’s family came from Bavaria. I know a few German phrases. I own 2 Volkswagens. One is named Hansel and the other is Gretel.
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LOL
Joe Kennedy had great wealth when Hitler was still a private in the German army. He didn’t get his money from anything to do with the Nazis. He stole it all legitimately on Wall Street. He was a real SOB, but he was not a Nazi.
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I thought he got money running moonshine during Prohibition.
where you were really little more than a manager of your property
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That’s what the American property tax system does, not much different than communism
Everything is a continuum between individualism and statism.
It’s OWNED by a non-profit.
No. He was a multi millionaire before prohibition ever started. He was not a bootlegger. Didn’t have any part in it. But as prohibition was about to end, he negotiated a deal where he became the sole distributor for Scotch whiskey in the United States. There after when booze was legal again, he got a cut of every bottle of Scotch whiskey sold in the US.
Like I said before, he was a SOB, but he wasn’t a bootlegger or a NAZI.
Yeah, there was another kook here who claimed the British royal family was behind the assassination of President Mckinley. I can’t recall his handle. You’re out there with him.
Im not out there, but I think you want the world to be a tidy and explainable package.
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