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Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine
The remarkable rise and shameful fall of one of the twentieth century’s greatest conglomerates At its peak in the 1930s, the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben was one of the most powerful corporations in the world. To this day, companies formerly part of the Farben cartel—the aspirin-maker Bayer, the graphics supplier Agfa, the plastics giant BASF—continue to play key roles in the global market. IG Farben itself, however, is remembered mostly for its infamous connections to the Nazi Party and its complicity in the atrocities of the Holocaust. After the war, Farben’s leaders were tried for crimes that included mass murder and exploitation of slave labor. In Hell’s Cartel , Diarmuid Jeffreys presents the first comprehensive account of IG Farben’s rise and fall, tracing the enterprise from its nineteenth-century origins, when the discovery of synthetic dyes gave rise to a vibrant new industry, through the upheavals of the Great War era, and on to the company’s fateful role in World War II. Drawing on extensive research and original interviews, Hell’s Cartel sheds new light on the codependence of industry and the Third Reich, and offers a timely warning against the dangerous merger of politics and the pursuit of profit.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
June 3, 2017
This book outlines the growth of the I.G. Farben cartel, which until the end of World War I, consisted of several different pharmaceutical chemical companies in the Rhine-Ruhr district of Germany. In the 1920’s they merged with the intent of simplifying and streamlining their sales, manufacturing, and marketing processes to become more effective.
It should also be noted that one of the I.G. Farben companies was responsible for the utilization of poison gas in World War I, a harbinger of worse to come.
Page 74 (my book)
But the overall significance of both the synthetic nitrate program and the development of poison gas weapons lay in the fact that they brought the German chemical industry right into a mutually dependent relationship with the state...increasingly supported by government loans and contracts...habits acquired under such stressful and demanding circumstances wouldn’t easily be broken in the difficult times ahead. The German chemical industry was beginning to swim in very dangerous waters.
I.G. Farben became very prosperous during the 1920’s and 1930’s with lucrative markets in Europe, and North and South America. They needed money and grants to test, and then manufacture synthetic fuel and rubber. Until the Nazis came to power this was always on-hold. The Hitler regime saw two advantages; having synthetic fuel and rubber would make Germany much less dependent on outside sources for these key military resources. Also synthetic fuel would make it much easier for Germany to camouflage the extent of her military build-up during the 1930’s. So this, tragically, became a win-win situation; I.G. Farben got extensive monetary grants � and the German-Nazi regime accelerated its� preparations for waging aggressive war. I.G. Farben hardly thought about its deepening connections to a dictatorship that was racist, anti-democratic, and increasingly aggressive.
Page 165-166 (Hermann Goring speaking at a meeting of German industrialists, including those of I.G. Farben on February 20, 1933)
“The sacrifices asked for will be easier for industry to bear if it is realized that the election of March 4, will surely be the last one for the next ten years, probably even for the next hundred years.�
Page 211 Adolf Hitler/1936
“The minister of economics has only to set the tasks of the national economy; private industry has to fulfill them. But if private industry considers itself unable to do this, then the National Socialist state will know by itself how to resolve the problem.�
One can only ask what were the managers and leaders of the large industrial corporations thinking of when they heard these words. They were certainly not thinking along the lines of a future German liberal and humanitarian democracy.
When war began in 1939, I.G. Farben moved aggressively into Poland ruthlessly acquiring land and former companies. They also started to build a massive synthetic rubber plant near Auschwitz. For this they used slave labour � and I would think the word “slave� in this case to be generous � at least with some forms of slavery there is an attempt to keep the captives alive or reasonably healthy. In this case, I.G. Farben “selected� non-productive labourers who were too weak from beatings and malnutrition for the gas chambers. In addition I.G. Farben contributed actively to the Holocaust by supplying Zyklon B for these gas chambers. Anybody working there knew what was going on � and they all commuted back-and forth to their main plants in Western Germany.
For all this the owners of I.G. Farben were let off far too easily. The author outlines the trial where, perhaps, under different circumstances, the sentencing would have been far more severe. For one thing the political leaders had already been convicted the previous year � with many receiving the death sentence. The trial of these industrialists was seen by some (certainly not the prosecution) as being unnecessary. And the Cold War was ramping up, and Germany was now becoming a useful ally against the Soviet Union.
This is a grievous account of how large companies and its personnel slides, from being inconsiderate, to actively participating in human carnage and extreme racist genocide. There was little acknowledgement by them of their many, many crimes against humanity.
It should also be noted that one of the I.G. Farben companies was responsible for the utilization of poison gas in World War I, a harbinger of worse to come.
Page 74 (my book)
But the overall significance of both the synthetic nitrate program and the development of poison gas weapons lay in the fact that they brought the German chemical industry right into a mutually dependent relationship with the state...increasingly supported by government loans and contracts...habits acquired under such stressful and demanding circumstances wouldn’t easily be broken in the difficult times ahead. The German chemical industry was beginning to swim in very dangerous waters.
I.G. Farben became very prosperous during the 1920’s and 1930’s with lucrative markets in Europe, and North and South America. They needed money and grants to test, and then manufacture synthetic fuel and rubber. Until the Nazis came to power this was always on-hold. The Hitler regime saw two advantages; having synthetic fuel and rubber would make Germany much less dependent on outside sources for these key military resources. Also synthetic fuel would make it much easier for Germany to camouflage the extent of her military build-up during the 1930’s. So this, tragically, became a win-win situation; I.G. Farben got extensive monetary grants � and the German-Nazi regime accelerated its� preparations for waging aggressive war. I.G. Farben hardly thought about its deepening connections to a dictatorship that was racist, anti-democratic, and increasingly aggressive.
Page 165-166 (Hermann Goring speaking at a meeting of German industrialists, including those of I.G. Farben on February 20, 1933)
“The sacrifices asked for will be easier for industry to bear if it is realized that the election of March 4, will surely be the last one for the next ten years, probably even for the next hundred years.�
Page 211 Adolf Hitler/1936
“The minister of economics has only to set the tasks of the national economy; private industry has to fulfill them. But if private industry considers itself unable to do this, then the National Socialist state will know by itself how to resolve the problem.�
One can only ask what were the managers and leaders of the large industrial corporations thinking of when they heard these words. They were certainly not thinking along the lines of a future German liberal and humanitarian democracy.
When war began in 1939, I.G. Farben moved aggressively into Poland ruthlessly acquiring land and former companies. They also started to build a massive synthetic rubber plant near Auschwitz. For this they used slave labour � and I would think the word “slave� in this case to be generous � at least with some forms of slavery there is an attempt to keep the captives alive or reasonably healthy. In this case, I.G. Farben “selected� non-productive labourers who were too weak from beatings and malnutrition for the gas chambers. In addition I.G. Farben contributed actively to the Holocaust by supplying Zyklon B for these gas chambers. Anybody working there knew what was going on � and they all commuted back-and forth to their main plants in Western Germany.
For all this the owners of I.G. Farben were let off far too easily. The author outlines the trial where, perhaps, under different circumstances, the sentencing would have been far more severe. For one thing the political leaders had already been convicted the previous year � with many receiving the death sentence. The trial of these industrialists was seen by some (certainly not the prosecution) as being unnecessary. And the Cold War was ramping up, and Germany was now becoming a useful ally against the Soviet Union.
This is a grievous account of how large companies and its personnel slides, from being inconsiderate, to actively participating in human carnage and extreme racist genocide. There was little acknowledgement by them of their many, many crimes against humanity.
April 6, 2017
Who was really responsible for Hitler and World War II?
In 1965, just twenty years after the collapse of the Nazi regime, I visited Auschwitz. Even though that was nearly half a century ago, my memory of that shattering experience remains vivid: the mountains of human hair, eyeglasses, and gold dental fillings; the photographs of skeletal prisoners staring glassy-eyed from bunk beds crowded together in darkness; the route from the trains to the barracks to the ovens followed by more than one million European Jews from 1941 to 1944.
Those disturbing images kept coming back to me as I made my way through the pages of Hell’s Cartel, Diarmuid Jeffreys� compelling story of the role of Germany’s largest industrial concern in the rise of the Nazis and the conduct of World War II. Few readers under the age of 60 are familiar with the name IG Farben, but for most of the 1920s and 1930s, the company ranked fourth in the world, just behind General Motors, U. S. Steel, and Standard Oil of New Jersey. However, IG Farben was more than another enormous business � it was, in fact, a cartel, or association of separate huge firms for much of its existence � and, more than any other company, it personified German science and Germany’s rise while it dominated much of the German economy between the two World Wars. (The name IG Farben is an abbreviation for a string of German terms meaning “community of interest of dye-making corporations.�)
Hell’s Cartel opens in Nuremberg in 1947, where 23 of the highest-ranking Nazi political and military leaders of the Third Reich had been tried, and most found guilty, in a lengthy war crimes trial that ended the preceding year. Now, in one of a series of subsequent military tribunals, 24 of the directors of IG Farben were going on trial, too. With the scene set against the devastation of urban Germany, Jeffreys then launches into the history of IG Farben, beginning in the 1880s with the first attempts in Germany to challenge English control of the chemical dye industry; the emergence of several large companies famous in their own right (Bayer, BASF, Hoechst, Agfa) as the German industry overtook its competitors and leapt to the lead in dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals; and the two-decade quest of Carl Duisberg (“the world’s greatest industrialist�) to convince the leaders of competing firms to combine with his own company, Bayer, in an all-German chemical cartel. When Duisberg finally won the day in 1925 and the IG Farben was born, the foundation was laid for one of the darkest chapters in the history of business.
In Jeffreys� view, the fatal moment came in 1933, shortly after Hitler came to power, when the IG’s chief executive, Carl Bosch, entered into a huge government contract to produce high-octane synthetic fuel for Hermann Goering’s illegal air force. “The agreement Bosch had signed,� Jeffreys writes, “was far more than the fulfillment of his long-held ambitions [to commercialize synthetic fuel]. It was also a pivotal moment in a sequence of events that would lead inexorably to the blitzkrieg, to Stalingrad, and to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.� Although the IG manufactured thousands of products through its extensive web of companies and subsidiaries � ultimately, throughout the lands Hitler annexed from 1936 to 1943 � its military significance lay chiefly in its production of synthetic fuel, synthetic rubber, and explosives. However, for many observers, the cartel’s most notable product was the Zyklon-B gas used to exterminate millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others judged undesirable and unfit in the deranged mind of Adolf Hitler and those who followed his lead.
Jeffreys� judgment about the preeminent role of IG Farben is unequivocal. ”Had the IG’s managers found the courage to oppose doing business with the Nazis in the late 1930s, or had they been even marginally less compliant, Hitler would have struggled to get his war machine moving.� Going even further, the author quotes one of the company’s top executives, Georg von Schnitzler, who concluded after the war had ended that the firm gave “‘decisive aid for Hitler’s foreign policy which led to war and the ruination of Germany . . . I must conclude that IG is largely responsible for the policies of Hitler.’�
It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic example than IG Farben of business unmoored from any moral purpose � not just supplying the products that literally fueled the Nazi war machine and sponsoring the gruesome research of Dr. Josef Mengele (the notorious “Angel of Death�), but going so far as to build its own concentration camp for Jewish slave laborers at Auschwitz. [Note: "Auschwitz" connoted a network of more than forty camp facilities, including the Birkenau extermination camp and the IG's installation near the synthetic rubber plant it was building near the Polish border town of Auschwitz.]
In the final pages of Hell’s Cartel, Jeffreys returns to the 1947 IG Farben trial in Nuremberg, detailing the testimony and attitudes of the two dozen defendants, introducing the American lawyers and judges, and relating the court’s verdict on each of the defendants. I won’t summarize here the outcome of the trial. Suffice it to say that the final chapters of this book make the whole story well worth reading.
Diarmuid Jeffreys is a British journalist and television documentary producer. In an earlier book, Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug, he researched some of the early history of Bayer and other German pharmaceutical companies that figure in central roles in Hell’s Cartel.
In 1965, just twenty years after the collapse of the Nazi regime, I visited Auschwitz. Even though that was nearly half a century ago, my memory of that shattering experience remains vivid: the mountains of human hair, eyeglasses, and gold dental fillings; the photographs of skeletal prisoners staring glassy-eyed from bunk beds crowded together in darkness; the route from the trains to the barracks to the ovens followed by more than one million European Jews from 1941 to 1944.
Those disturbing images kept coming back to me as I made my way through the pages of Hell’s Cartel, Diarmuid Jeffreys� compelling story of the role of Germany’s largest industrial concern in the rise of the Nazis and the conduct of World War II. Few readers under the age of 60 are familiar with the name IG Farben, but for most of the 1920s and 1930s, the company ranked fourth in the world, just behind General Motors, U. S. Steel, and Standard Oil of New Jersey. However, IG Farben was more than another enormous business � it was, in fact, a cartel, or association of separate huge firms for much of its existence � and, more than any other company, it personified German science and Germany’s rise while it dominated much of the German economy between the two World Wars. (The name IG Farben is an abbreviation for a string of German terms meaning “community of interest of dye-making corporations.�)
Hell’s Cartel opens in Nuremberg in 1947, where 23 of the highest-ranking Nazi political and military leaders of the Third Reich had been tried, and most found guilty, in a lengthy war crimes trial that ended the preceding year. Now, in one of a series of subsequent military tribunals, 24 of the directors of IG Farben were going on trial, too. With the scene set against the devastation of urban Germany, Jeffreys then launches into the history of IG Farben, beginning in the 1880s with the first attempts in Germany to challenge English control of the chemical dye industry; the emergence of several large companies famous in their own right (Bayer, BASF, Hoechst, Agfa) as the German industry overtook its competitors and leapt to the lead in dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals; and the two-decade quest of Carl Duisberg (“the world’s greatest industrialist�) to convince the leaders of competing firms to combine with his own company, Bayer, in an all-German chemical cartel. When Duisberg finally won the day in 1925 and the IG Farben was born, the foundation was laid for one of the darkest chapters in the history of business.
In Jeffreys� view, the fatal moment came in 1933, shortly after Hitler came to power, when the IG’s chief executive, Carl Bosch, entered into a huge government contract to produce high-octane synthetic fuel for Hermann Goering’s illegal air force. “The agreement Bosch had signed,� Jeffreys writes, “was far more than the fulfillment of his long-held ambitions [to commercialize synthetic fuel]. It was also a pivotal moment in a sequence of events that would lead inexorably to the blitzkrieg, to Stalingrad, and to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.� Although the IG manufactured thousands of products through its extensive web of companies and subsidiaries � ultimately, throughout the lands Hitler annexed from 1936 to 1943 � its military significance lay chiefly in its production of synthetic fuel, synthetic rubber, and explosives. However, for many observers, the cartel’s most notable product was the Zyklon-B gas used to exterminate millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others judged undesirable and unfit in the deranged mind of Adolf Hitler and those who followed his lead.
Jeffreys� judgment about the preeminent role of IG Farben is unequivocal. ”Had the IG’s managers found the courage to oppose doing business with the Nazis in the late 1930s, or had they been even marginally less compliant, Hitler would have struggled to get his war machine moving.� Going even further, the author quotes one of the company’s top executives, Georg von Schnitzler, who concluded after the war had ended that the firm gave “‘decisive aid for Hitler’s foreign policy which led to war and the ruination of Germany . . . I must conclude that IG is largely responsible for the policies of Hitler.’�
It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic example than IG Farben of business unmoored from any moral purpose � not just supplying the products that literally fueled the Nazi war machine and sponsoring the gruesome research of Dr. Josef Mengele (the notorious “Angel of Death�), but going so far as to build its own concentration camp for Jewish slave laborers at Auschwitz. [Note: "Auschwitz" connoted a network of more than forty camp facilities, including the Birkenau extermination camp and the IG's installation near the synthetic rubber plant it was building near the Polish border town of Auschwitz.]
In the final pages of Hell’s Cartel, Jeffreys returns to the 1947 IG Farben trial in Nuremberg, detailing the testimony and attitudes of the two dozen defendants, introducing the American lawyers and judges, and relating the court’s verdict on each of the defendants. I won’t summarize here the outcome of the trial. Suffice it to say that the final chapters of this book make the whole story well worth reading.
Diarmuid Jeffreys is a British journalist and television documentary producer. In an earlier book, Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug, he researched some of the early history of Bayer and other German pharmaceutical companies that figure in central roles in Hell’s Cartel.
March 9, 2016
IG Farben: Manufacturing Death
IG Farben didn’t start out as a Nazi death factory, which is what it’s known for to this day. In fact, up to the mid 1930’s its chief executives were not particularly anti-Semitic. Formed in 1925, IG Farben started out as a chemical company that manufactured dye. It was so successful, that by the 1930’s it became the largest chemical company in the world and the fourth largest company in general. One of its leaders, Carl Bosch, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931 for the development of chemical high-pressure methods. In Hell’s Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 2008), Diarmuid Jeffreys describes the progression—or, more fittingly, regression--of IG Farben from Germany’s leading chemical company to a death factory during the Holocaust.
Jeffreys records of the most telling moments of this transition: the episode when the company’s leader, Carl Bosch, who valued the scientific work of many of his Jewish colleagues and employees, paid a visit to Hitler himself in the attempt to change his anti-Semitic outlook by considering its impact on science. Needless to say, Hitler not only didn’t budge, but also refused to communicate with Bosch henceforth:
“Then Bosch, as delicately as he could, raised the “Jewish question.� Perhaps the Fuhrer didn’t realize the potentially damaging consequences of his policies, he suggested. If more and more Jewish scientists were forced abroad, German physics and chemistry could be set back a hundred years. To his alarm, Hitler erupted in fury. Obviously the businessman knew nothing of politics, he snarled. If necessary, Germany would ‘work one hundred years without physics and chemistry�. Bosch tried to continue but Hitler rang for an aide and told him icily, ‘The Geheimrat wishes to leave.’� (178)
When the company’s senior executives, who didn’t see much scientific or economic value in anti-Semitism--Carl Bosch and Carl Duisberg—retired, they were replaced by a new crop of leaders who toed the party line. The company started to follow a more “pragmatic� approach, catering to the gruesome needs of the Nazi regime.
By 1941, IG Farben became directly involved in the death machine at Auschwitz. It built a rubber factory called Monowitz, or Auschwitz III, monitored by IG Farben managers and run through the exploitation of slave labor. There prisoners were worked to death, in identical conditions to the rest of the concentration camp: fed the same insufficient and horrible food; guarded by the same brutal SS prisoners, lacking in health care, and subject to the same reprisals and torture as the rest of the prisoners of the Auschwitz complex. Most prisoners could only survive two to three months working in such harsh conditions. When they were no longer fit to work, they were sent to the gas chamber.
After the war, following the precedent set by the Nuremberg Trial, some of the leaders of IG Farben were indicted before a U.S. Tribunal led by General Telford Taylor. In 1947 and 1948, twenty-four defendants faced similar charges to those leveled a few years earlier against the Nazi war criminals:
1. Planning and waging a war of aggression against other countries
2. War crimes and crimes against humanity through destroying occupied territories
3. War crimes against humanity through the enslavement, deportation, rape, torture and murder of civilians.
4. Membership in the SS, a criminal organization
5. Conspiring to commit the crimes outlined above
In the end, as General Taylor would remark with great disappointment after the trial, justice was not served. Only thirteen of the company’s senior executives received prison terms (one to eight years). (See Hell’s Cartel, 400) The rest of those indicted were released, and many became successful executives in other companies. After the war, IG Farben was fractured, but not annihilated. The Soviet Union took over part of it, while the Western part of the company continued to thrive, eventually becoming affiliated with Standard Oil. Because of its close affiliation with the Holocaust, the remnants of the company faced continual protests. Although IG Farben executives announced in 2001 that the company would dissolve by 2003, it continues to exist today, still in the process of liquidation. IG Farben thus remains a living testimony to the fact that business and science, if placed in the wrong hands, can be easily used for the most corrupt and amoral purposes.
Claudia Moscovici, Holocaust Memory
IG Farben didn’t start out as a Nazi death factory, which is what it’s known for to this day. In fact, up to the mid 1930’s its chief executives were not particularly anti-Semitic. Formed in 1925, IG Farben started out as a chemical company that manufactured dye. It was so successful, that by the 1930’s it became the largest chemical company in the world and the fourth largest company in general. One of its leaders, Carl Bosch, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931 for the development of chemical high-pressure methods. In Hell’s Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 2008), Diarmuid Jeffreys describes the progression—or, more fittingly, regression--of IG Farben from Germany’s leading chemical company to a death factory during the Holocaust.
Jeffreys records of the most telling moments of this transition: the episode when the company’s leader, Carl Bosch, who valued the scientific work of many of his Jewish colleagues and employees, paid a visit to Hitler himself in the attempt to change his anti-Semitic outlook by considering its impact on science. Needless to say, Hitler not only didn’t budge, but also refused to communicate with Bosch henceforth:
“Then Bosch, as delicately as he could, raised the “Jewish question.� Perhaps the Fuhrer didn’t realize the potentially damaging consequences of his policies, he suggested. If more and more Jewish scientists were forced abroad, German physics and chemistry could be set back a hundred years. To his alarm, Hitler erupted in fury. Obviously the businessman knew nothing of politics, he snarled. If necessary, Germany would ‘work one hundred years without physics and chemistry�. Bosch tried to continue but Hitler rang for an aide and told him icily, ‘The Geheimrat wishes to leave.’� (178)
When the company’s senior executives, who didn’t see much scientific or economic value in anti-Semitism--Carl Bosch and Carl Duisberg—retired, they were replaced by a new crop of leaders who toed the party line. The company started to follow a more “pragmatic� approach, catering to the gruesome needs of the Nazi regime.
By 1941, IG Farben became directly involved in the death machine at Auschwitz. It built a rubber factory called Monowitz, or Auschwitz III, monitored by IG Farben managers and run through the exploitation of slave labor. There prisoners were worked to death, in identical conditions to the rest of the concentration camp: fed the same insufficient and horrible food; guarded by the same brutal SS prisoners, lacking in health care, and subject to the same reprisals and torture as the rest of the prisoners of the Auschwitz complex. Most prisoners could only survive two to three months working in such harsh conditions. When they were no longer fit to work, they were sent to the gas chamber.
After the war, following the precedent set by the Nuremberg Trial, some of the leaders of IG Farben were indicted before a U.S. Tribunal led by General Telford Taylor. In 1947 and 1948, twenty-four defendants faced similar charges to those leveled a few years earlier against the Nazi war criminals:
1. Planning and waging a war of aggression against other countries
2. War crimes and crimes against humanity through destroying occupied territories
3. War crimes against humanity through the enslavement, deportation, rape, torture and murder of civilians.
4. Membership in the SS, a criminal organization
5. Conspiring to commit the crimes outlined above
In the end, as General Taylor would remark with great disappointment after the trial, justice was not served. Only thirteen of the company’s senior executives received prison terms (one to eight years). (See Hell’s Cartel, 400) The rest of those indicted were released, and many became successful executives in other companies. After the war, IG Farben was fractured, but not annihilated. The Soviet Union took over part of it, while the Western part of the company continued to thrive, eventually becoming affiliated with Standard Oil. Because of its close affiliation with the Holocaust, the remnants of the company faced continual protests. Although IG Farben executives announced in 2001 that the company would dissolve by 2003, it continues to exist today, still in the process of liquidation. IG Farben thus remains a living testimony to the fact that business and science, if placed in the wrong hands, can be easily used for the most corrupt and amoral purposes.
Claudia Moscovici, Holocaust Memory
December 19, 2018
I am very curious about the infamous IG Farben. And I would like to gather any information on the subject. Well, not really any. This is one example. A fairy tale. A fantasy talk about the weather and the characters of people Jeffreys never met. It might look true for those who believe in spirits and ouija boards.
May 10, 2020
3.75 stars for me. This lesser known story of a corporate Nazi stooge is at times a fascinating read. But a good chunk of the book is a detour into the obscure details of how this corporate behemoth came to be; its early founders, mergers and acquisitions, patent strategy, etc. Parts of that tale are interesting, especially Farben’s efforts to protect itself in anticipation of global war by combinations with foreign companies. But there are often too many names, too much chemistry, too many org charts. It must be a challenge to write the history of such a giant web of entities, so maybe there’s no better way to do it, but it did put a drag on the story. It remains compelling nonetheless. The result - that the American judges, and later the German business community, let these executives off the hook is a all too familiar story that continues today. White collar crime, even if it’s slavery, mass murder and plunder, gets off with a slap on the wrist.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2016
Fascinating story of the rise of one of the largest corporations in the world and how they supported the German war effort. After the war 24 leaders of the company were put on trial for their support of the Nazi regime and use of slave labor. The book opens with the trial and closes with the trial but the bulk of the book is focused on the story of IG Farben (the company). I want to read more about the trial and one of the lead JAGs wrote a book about it. I'll have to find it. :)
Sadly the Air Force JAG school does not have anything on the trials after the war. :(
Sadly the Air Force JAG school does not have anything on the trials after the war. :(
September 22, 2022
very informative
How sad that men could mistreat and murder other humans in such a way and get away with it. The legal system is the system of injustice.
How sad that men could mistreat and murder other humans in such a way and get away with it. The legal system is the system of injustice.
August 5, 2023
I Continue To Hate Nazis
As exhaustive as it is authoritative. Completely demolishes the denials and claims of innocence of IG Farben's dark cast of piggish administors
As exhaustive as it is authoritative. Completely demolishes the denials and claims of innocence of IG Farben's dark cast of piggish administors
June 12, 2022
Hell's Cartel is written by a journalist, not a historian. Because of this it is written as a very readable narrative but it has no analysis of the events described. The chapters are written with cliffhangers and a big climax at the end (spoiler) with the IG Farben industrialists going free after WW2 with little to no consequence.
That being said it was a good general overview of the German chemical conglomerate. Jeffreys lays out clearly how instrumental Farben was to the creation and day-to-day working of Auschwitz. I didn't know that Farben built the concentration camp Monowitz themselves to store more slave labourers for the construction of their Buna Werke plant.
Jeffreys also emphasises how the German Army had no chance to continue fighting if it wasn't for the products provided by IG Farben.
It is a solid, quick read on an important component of the Nazi state. There was no analysis on why German industry was so entwined with the state beyond the obvious of industrialists seeking profit. The book also wasn't paranoid enough for my liking, a few times Jeffreys mentions how close the British and American industrialists were with IG Farben during the war, how Allen Dulles was in contact with top Farben board members, how Allied intelligence knew where the major Farben plants were but they remained miraculously intact through the war. He mentions these things but does not investigate any further, which could have been very interesting.
That being said it was a good general overview of the German chemical conglomerate. Jeffreys lays out clearly how instrumental Farben was to the creation and day-to-day working of Auschwitz. I didn't know that Farben built the concentration camp Monowitz themselves to store more slave labourers for the construction of their Buna Werke plant.
Jeffreys also emphasises how the German Army had no chance to continue fighting if it wasn't for the products provided by IG Farben.
It is a solid, quick read on an important component of the Nazi state. There was no analysis on why German industry was so entwined with the state beyond the obvious of industrialists seeking profit. The book also wasn't paranoid enough for my liking, a few times Jeffreys mentions how close the British and American industrialists were with IG Farben during the war, how Allen Dulles was in contact with top Farben board members, how Allied intelligence knew where the major Farben plants were but they remained miraculously intact through the war. He mentions these things but does not investigate any further, which could have been very interesting.
February 28, 2019
Diarmuid Jeffreys entrega uma obra prima sobre a trajetória do grupo químico IG Farben, explicando: o início da indústria química europeia no final do séc. XIX, com as criações de corantes têxteis e drogas farmacêuticas; a fusão das empresas e formação do grupo; produção de materiais militares na Primeira Guerra Mundial; associação com o Nazismo; a gigantesca produção militar durante a Segunda Guerra; a construção do complexo de Auschwitz; os julgamentos em Nuremberg (dos envolvidos com a IG Farben); a dissolução do grupo e as empresas atuais que são suas “herdeiras�. Além disso, é descrita a criação da aspirina, heroína e do importantíssimo processo da síntese industrial da amônia, que foi um marco histórico na produção alimentícia e militar.
Em termos de curiosidade pessoal, foi interessante ver: como o gás surgiu como arma de guerra (do ponto de vista científico/industrial); a razão de terem ocorrido batalhas navais entre alemães e britânicos na costa do Chile na Primeira Guerra; o cenário que proporcionou a tantos alemães ganharem o Prêmio Nobel; todo o desenvolvimento e produção dos combustíveis (e borracha) sintéticos alemães na Segunda Guerra, e o motivo de não terem sido utilizados posteriormente.
Texto muito bem escrito, fluido, com conteúdo imenso e interessante, prendendo a atenção do leitor do início ao fim. Recomendadíssimo.
Em termos de curiosidade pessoal, foi interessante ver: como o gás surgiu como arma de guerra (do ponto de vista científico/industrial); a razão de terem ocorrido batalhas navais entre alemães e britânicos na costa do Chile na Primeira Guerra; o cenário que proporcionou a tantos alemães ganharem o Prêmio Nobel; todo o desenvolvimento e produção dos combustíveis (e borracha) sintéticos alemães na Segunda Guerra, e o motivo de não terem sido utilizados posteriormente.
Texto muito bem escrito, fluido, com conteúdo imenso e interessante, prendendo a atenção do leitor do início ao fim. Recomendadíssimo.
March 9, 2023
Fascinating, detailed, enlightening, chilling history of IG Farben. Jeffreys writes what must be the definitive history of this benighted company. He necessarily intertwines Germany’s history since the nation’s history and company’s history are so much part of each other.
Seemingly appropriate business decisions at the time, one after the other, ultimately turned IG Farben into an enabler of Hitler’s evil: an expeller of Jews, an employer of slave labor, a producer of the synthetic oil and rubber Hitler’s army needed. This should serve as a warning to any collaboration between industry and government. As if any would listen when profits are in the offing.
Most disheartening is the post-war result: most IG Farben leaders were given light punishment, if any, and the companies that made up IG Farben - Bayer, BASF, Hoescht - all went on to become very successful giants in their respective fields.
Seemingly appropriate business decisions at the time, one after the other, ultimately turned IG Farben into an enabler of Hitler’s evil: an expeller of Jews, an employer of slave labor, a producer of the synthetic oil and rubber Hitler’s army needed. This should serve as a warning to any collaboration between industry and government. As if any would listen when profits are in the offing.
Most disheartening is the post-war result: most IG Farben leaders were given light punishment, if any, and the companies that made up IG Farben - Bayer, BASF, Hoescht - all went on to become very successful giants in their respective fields.
August 21, 2019
Quick impressions: A history about the rise and fall of IG Farben, a corporate cartel that was instrumental to Hitler and the Third Reich, specially for the death camps. Book's narrative is framed by the trial of the IG Farben executives. Rest of the book is the story of the company from its rise to its fall, or rather it breaking up and its parts allowed to live on and keep doing business (but that is another story). Some interesting parts, some were very dry. Definitely an academic volume.
Full review on my blog later.
Full review on my blog later.
February 1, 2024
Not a pleasant read, but enlightening none the less. A great case study of how intertwined the development of a fascist state and a functioning capitalist economy are; capital and a genocidal racial program go hand in hand. I think the author makes some unnecessary narrative choices for the purpose of readability, and does not fully comprehend just how instrumental the US was in building up West Germany and re-establishing the old fascist order; otherwise, I thought this was a good overview on the history of IG Farben.
November 29, 2024
IG Farben was a German pharmaceutical and chemical conglomerate that was split up in the post-war years. Bayer was part of this company, before emerging as a standalone company, despite their wartime activities. This book outlines the history of IG Farben, the companies under their control during World War II, and all of the atrocities that they participated in. Medical experimentation was one aspect of IG Farben horror, but they were also the architects of Zyklon B. I read this book for my final capstone project, and it was very informative and useful for that project.
April 9, 2024
Hovering somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. Great outline of the crucial role the chemical industry and more specifically the Interessengemeinschaft Farben had in the rise and sustain of the Nazi war machine. Straightforward, but enough details to satiate your hunger. At times it seems to skip over juicy details which could have been explored a bit more. The links between Dulles, the American industry and their German counterparts feel "underdeveloped". Overall a fascinating, yet depressive read.
December 30, 2020
A well researched delve into IG Farben's complicity in the holocaust. My advice would be to know what you're getting into when you start it: the focus on detailed lists of names and background on the chemical industry can be a little dry. But this is definitely an excellent resource if you're interested in the topic.
April 4, 2021
An amazing narrative that was destined to get a 5* rating from me.
Combining my interest in the chemical industry, 20th century history and the memory of a haunting visit to Auschwitz - this was a winner.
Combining my interest in the chemical industry, 20th century history and the memory of a haunting visit to Auschwitz - this was a winner.
May 8, 2023
Breathtaking view of corporate corruption
Reads like a thriller. IG Farben was essentially Hitler's henchmen. Amazing historical look at the far reaching impact of government and industry teaming up for evil and profit.
Reads like a thriller. IG Farben was essentially Hitler's henchmen. Amazing historical look at the far reaching impact of government and industry teaming up for evil and profit.
January 1, 2018
Quite an interesting description of the birth of IG (Interessen Gemeinshaft - a community of interests) Farben which grew to be a dominant European chemical manufacturer. The time period they cover (1865 - just after the WWII) had an astounding number of motivated and brilliant scientists, primarily in Germany.
The author begins the book with the growth and development of a few major companies: Bayer, BASF, and Hoescht among others. Each of these companies had a motivated leader - Carl Duisberg with Bayer, Carl Bosch with BASF, and eventually many more with the creation of IG Farben post-WWI. These companies had a great sense of national pride and did not want to be second tear to any other company in the world. This allowed Germany to be a major force/initiator in both World Wars which led to their development of chemical weapons (sarin, tabun, Zyklon B, etc.).
The bulk of the book, as described by the title, describes IG Farben's birth and involvement in empowering Hitler's war machine. Slowly but surely, senior executives in IG Farben were either fiercely patriotic and readily joined the Nazi party and assisted their military growth or felt compelled, in fear of imprisonment or derailment of their career, to satisfy the Nazi party's strong "requests." This eventually devolved in senior leaders taking the initiative and being active in the usage of slave labor - prisoners in concentration camps or POWs - as replacement workers for German men who had enlisted in the military.
As the Germans were defeated in 1945, many senior IG Farben leaders tried to flee Germany or find refuge in rural homes to escape their pending prosecution. Many officers in the SS or Nazi Party tried to flee or committed suicide. Rudolf Hoss, the kommandant for Auschwitz where 2.5 million prisoners died, concealed his identity by becoming a gardener. Currently one of his grandsons, Rainer Hoss, is the only member of his family to publicly denounce what his grandfather did in the war.
Perhaps second-most startling of all, next to the Holocaust, was the lenient sentences IG Farben leaders received in comparison to Nazi Party leaders or members. Otto Ambros, who was tasked with constructing the Buna-Werke for the production of Buna (a rubber replacement), was sentenced to just 8 years in prison and ultimately served half of that. This was the infamous plant which was located near Auschwitz/Birkenau in which he must have been aware of the inhuman treatment of the prisoners.
Many former IG Farben leaders such as Carl Krauch, Fritz ter Meer, and George Scheider among others, upon release from prison, joined boards of large companies or reassumed executive positions in the new companies re-forming from the remains of IG Farben. None of the major companies BASF, Bayer, and Hoescht (now Sanofi-Aventis) has publicly apologized for the predecessor's involvement in the war but have been involved in funding the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future which issued payments to former slave laborers still alive today to end the onslaught of class action lawsuits.
The author begins the book with the growth and development of a few major companies: Bayer, BASF, and Hoescht among others. Each of these companies had a motivated leader - Carl Duisberg with Bayer, Carl Bosch with BASF, and eventually many more with the creation of IG Farben post-WWI. These companies had a great sense of national pride and did not want to be second tear to any other company in the world. This allowed Germany to be a major force/initiator in both World Wars which led to their development of chemical weapons (sarin, tabun, Zyklon B, etc.).
The bulk of the book, as described by the title, describes IG Farben's birth and involvement in empowering Hitler's war machine. Slowly but surely, senior executives in IG Farben were either fiercely patriotic and readily joined the Nazi party and assisted their military growth or felt compelled, in fear of imprisonment or derailment of their career, to satisfy the Nazi party's strong "requests." This eventually devolved in senior leaders taking the initiative and being active in the usage of slave labor - prisoners in concentration camps or POWs - as replacement workers for German men who had enlisted in the military.
As the Germans were defeated in 1945, many senior IG Farben leaders tried to flee Germany or find refuge in rural homes to escape their pending prosecution. Many officers in the SS or Nazi Party tried to flee or committed suicide. Rudolf Hoss, the kommandant for Auschwitz where 2.5 million prisoners died, concealed his identity by becoming a gardener. Currently one of his grandsons, Rainer Hoss, is the only member of his family to publicly denounce what his grandfather did in the war.
Perhaps second-most startling of all, next to the Holocaust, was the lenient sentences IG Farben leaders received in comparison to Nazi Party leaders or members. Otto Ambros, who was tasked with constructing the Buna-Werke for the production of Buna (a rubber replacement), was sentenced to just 8 years in prison and ultimately served half of that. This was the infamous plant which was located near Auschwitz/Birkenau in which he must have been aware of the inhuman treatment of the prisoners.
Many former IG Farben leaders such as Carl Krauch, Fritz ter Meer, and George Scheider among others, upon release from prison, joined boards of large companies or reassumed executive positions in the new companies re-forming from the remains of IG Farben. None of the major companies BASF, Bayer, and Hoescht (now Sanofi-Aventis) has publicly apologized for the predecessor's involvement in the war but have been involved in funding the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future which issued payments to former slave laborers still alive today to end the onslaught of class action lawsuits.
November 5, 2013
Fascinating subject - this book is all about IG Farben - a cartel of German chemical companies that was a solid backer of the Holocaust.
It traces them all the way from their roots in the 18th century, where the new discovery of synthetic dyes kicked off an "arms race" - first with ways to make new dye colours, and over time a whole range of other new chemicals - Asprin, Heroin, Nitrogen-based fertilisers, synthetic rubber and synthetic fuels.
It's fascinating to read about the complex growth of these companies - not just in Germany but also worldwide. A mix of complex patent deals, and careful hiding of discoveries, let to some huge and wealthy companies; and eventually let to the formation of cartels of companies working together to maximise profits, ultimately with the largest German cartel, IG Farben, forming in the lead up to World War 2, and becoming instrumental in supplying the Nazi war effort with fuel and rubber.
The faustian progression of these people is compelling - from keen scientists and businessmen trying to find new exciting discoveries (and make new and exciting profits), through the first World War where they first got involved in using prisoners of war as slave labour, and producing chemical weapons for the army, and ultimately leading to direct involvement in running Auschwitz and working thousands of people to death in their factories; as well as providing chemical weapons such as Sarin, and the poison Zyklon B which was used widely in the gas chambers to kill vast numbers of people.
And it's not just the German companies - plenty of businesses in other countries were happy to keep trading with the Germans right up to the declaration of war, in the interests of getting some of that money and some of those patented techniques. The pursuit of profit, without any consideration of ethics, is the real villain of this story.
The only problem with the book is too much detail - the author tends to go into precise detail where it isn't necessarily needed. When you have a list of 15 business leaders involved in a deal, it's not really necessary to name all of them in one sentence! The facts are important to the tale, but a bit more effort to editing down to essentials would have made a more readable book.
However, I'd still strongly recommend this book. It is still essential that we learn from the Holocaust - not just that obviously evil people like the Nazi leaders can exist, but that also normal seeming businesspeople and scientists can also be lured step-by-step into madness and murder. And without the backing of these businesses, the Nazis would have been far less successful.
It traces them all the way from their roots in the 18th century, where the new discovery of synthetic dyes kicked off an "arms race" - first with ways to make new dye colours, and over time a whole range of other new chemicals - Asprin, Heroin, Nitrogen-based fertilisers, synthetic rubber and synthetic fuels.
It's fascinating to read about the complex growth of these companies - not just in Germany but also worldwide. A mix of complex patent deals, and careful hiding of discoveries, let to some huge and wealthy companies; and eventually let to the formation of cartels of companies working together to maximise profits, ultimately with the largest German cartel, IG Farben, forming in the lead up to World War 2, and becoming instrumental in supplying the Nazi war effort with fuel and rubber.
The faustian progression of these people is compelling - from keen scientists and businessmen trying to find new exciting discoveries (and make new and exciting profits), through the first World War where they first got involved in using prisoners of war as slave labour, and producing chemical weapons for the army, and ultimately leading to direct involvement in running Auschwitz and working thousands of people to death in their factories; as well as providing chemical weapons such as Sarin, and the poison Zyklon B which was used widely in the gas chambers to kill vast numbers of people.
And it's not just the German companies - plenty of businesses in other countries were happy to keep trading with the Germans right up to the declaration of war, in the interests of getting some of that money and some of those patented techniques. The pursuit of profit, without any consideration of ethics, is the real villain of this story.
The only problem with the book is too much detail - the author tends to go into precise detail where it isn't necessarily needed. When you have a list of 15 business leaders involved in a deal, it's not really necessary to name all of them in one sentence! The facts are important to the tale, but a bit more effort to editing down to essentials would have made a more readable book.
However, I'd still strongly recommend this book. It is still essential that we learn from the Holocaust - not just that obviously evil people like the Nazi leaders can exist, but that also normal seeming businesspeople and scientists can also be lured step-by-step into madness and murder. And without the backing of these businesses, the Nazis would have been far less successful.
August 12, 2012
This is an excellent book about a part of WWII and the rise of the Nazi Party that many people are not familiar with. I was not aware of what IG FARBEN was before reading this book, and it is incredible to me that a group of people that contributed so much to the atrocities in WWII, are unknown to most of the world. Jeffreys follows the history and rise of various Chemical companies and shows how through war and politics, they become intertwined with Hitler and his plans. It is well written and easy to read, turning some aspects that they could have easily been dry and boring into an intriguing read. Although these events are past, the book is still relevant as we can learn much as we watch business and politics merge, and create horrendous outcomes.
December 16, 2012
Although most people have heard of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the story of the associated factories that employed the available slave labor from these camps has been less documented. This excellent book describes the origins of the IG Farben cartel of pharmaceutical companies that emerged in Germany in the early 20 th century and made its fortunes partly by benefiting from war. The story of the individuals who collaborated with the Nazi leadership to promote success in WW2 is disturbing not just for the horrors promoted for the workers at the Buna and other factories but also for the lack of accountability and punishment these men suffered as a result of their actions. This is a truly important book.
April 15, 2013
A little dry at times, occasionally lapsing in focus or pace, but overall an interesting and valuable piece, both for its specific focus on Germany's rise to dominance of synthetic chemistry, and for a relatively objective depiction of the ease with which entrenched economic interests and partisan political ones may become entwined. Not for readers who want to see sticks poked at particular people, or "big business" per se harangued, or even just to get lost in intracompany intrigue (I'd have liked a little more of that, myself), but a good illustration of the benefits and perils of industrial concentration, particularly in an actively protectionist climate. Makes the case for the cartel and its management's culpability (personal and corporate) very well.
January 9, 2009
As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I read this book with profound interest. Jeffreys does a superb job of tracing the history of the companies that would become I.G. Farben and explaining how that corporate coloussus became so intwined with the Nazi war machine and the perpetuation of Hitler's "Final Solution."
I would have given the book at least one more star had Jeffreys had devoted more space than he did to the prosecution and trial of the I.G. Farben executives. But, an emtire book could be devoted to that subject alone.
I would have given the book at least one more star had Jeffreys had devoted more space than he did to the prosecution and trial of the I.G. Farben executives. But, an emtire book could be devoted to that subject alone.
January 10, 2011
Great book with a different angle about Hitler's Germany (both pre, during and post WWII). Veers into the mundane in some spots, but is a great overall history read. Jeffreys is at his best when linking German chemical giant IGFarben with the Holocaust. Warning: the first few chapters are more of a drab lesson in the German chemical and dyestuffs industry, complete with chemistry equations.
January 4, 2016
This book is not only incredibly well planned and thought out, it is truly very informative on the rise of the German chemical industry and how, gradually, it became tangled with the most brutal dictaroship - Nazi regime, until the two were nearly inseparable. I would recommend this book to anyone - whether you're a history buff, economist, science geek, or simply love reading.
January 17, 2009
Great book... lot of information. I can't imagine a more thorough book on the history of I.G. Farben and the companies that were part of it. Clearly a lot of research went into this book, but beyond research, it is clear that Jeffreys KNOWS this story very well.
December 9, 2013
Very interesting historical narrative of how a set of independent German Dy Makers eventually came to form one giant conglomerate that would be the industrial backbone of the Nazi Regime's War efforts in WW2.
January 14, 2016
Very interesting to read how IG Farben became so big in the Chemical industry. Also interesting to read what the role of IG was during the second world war.
As a BSC in Chemistry who is interested in everything about the second world war this was the perfect book for me!
As a BSC in Chemistry who is interested in everything about the second world war this was the perfect book for me!
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August 19, 2008@ Weber.
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