
Nazi Billionaires
The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties
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Narrated by:
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Michael David Axtell
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By:
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David de Jong
About this listen
A groundbreaking investigation of how the Nazis helped German tycoons make billions from the horrors of the Third Reich and World War II – and how the world allowed them to get away with it.
In 1946, Günther Quandt – patriarch of Germany’s most iconic industrial empire, a dynasty that today controls BMW – was arrested for suspected Nazi collaboration. Quandt claimed that he had been forced to join the party by his arch-rival, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and the courts acquitted him. But Quandt lied. And his heirs, and those of other Nazi billionaires, have only grown wealthier in the generations since, while their reckoning with this dark past remains incomplete at best. Many of them continue to control swaths of the world economy, owning iconic brands whose products blanket the globe. The brutal legacy of the dynasties that dominated Daimler-Benz, cofounded Allianz and still control Porsche, Volkswagen and BMW has remained hidden in plain sight – until now.
In this landmark work, investigative journalist David de Jong reveals the true story of how Germany’s wealthiest business dynasties amassed untold money and power by abetting the atrocities of the Third Reich. Using a wealth of untapped sources, de Jong shows how these tycoons seized Jewish businesses, procured slave labourers and ramped up weapons production to equip Hitler’s army as Europe burnt around them. Most shocking of all, de Jong exposes how the wider world’s political expediency enabled these billionaires to get away with their crimes, covering up a bloodstain that defiles the German and global economy to this day.
©2022 David de Jong (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersCritic reviews
‘It is impossible to fault de Jong’s fierce indignation in his book. He must be right to urge that the descendants of Hitler’s tycoons should admit their ancestors’ criminality’
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
‘Fascinating … de Jong tells the story with the brisk clarity of the good financial journalist he is and lets the fact speak for themselves. It leaves you awestruck at the power of greed’
Daily Telegraph
‘The author cleverly weaves his astonishing facts and figures into human stories … Its fascinating detail and engaging style make Nazi Billionaires a forceful book, revealing to a wide audience a vital aspect of Germany’s ongoing discussion with itself’
Spectator
‘Lucid, and damning, Nazi Billionaires unearths decades of family secrets and exposes the tainted origins of several of the world's most significant dynastic fortunes. As adept in the archive as he is on the page, de Jong draws on a vast wealth of historical evidence to tell an absorbing – and infuriating – tale of complicity, coverup, and denial, and to unearth the sordid war crimes behind some of today's most vaunted consumer brands’
Patrick Radden Keefe, bestselling author of Empire of Pain
‘Eloquent, thorough, and profound, David de Jong’s brilliant debut illuminates a dark chapter of the past while also shining a stark and uncanny light onto our present, and, perhaps, our near future – showing how an insidious mix of capitalism and fascism can destroy democracy and countless lives. An absolute must-read’
Norman Ohler, bestselling author of Blitzed
‘As riveting as it is disturbing. At times, it felt like reading the anti-Schindler's List: instead of secretly helping the Jews, Germany's most powerful tycoons brutally exploited their suffering for personal profit’
Bradley Hope, bestselling co-author of Billion Dollar Whale
Whenever I hear of current threats from rising right wing politicians, as from this author, I need to remind myself that the mainstream media currently only obsesses with this and ignores the far more pervasive, anti liberal, antisemitism and homophobia from ultra left wing ideologies. These are hardly ever criticised by politicians, Trades Unions, academic institutions etc etc. Certainly antisemitism is very much on the rise in Europe, from all sectors, including large parts of the newly arrived, mainly young male, refugees. The author fails to mention this, as if it doesn’t exist.
Hope springs eternal, but closed ears and eyes don’t help one bit….
Well researched, but from my point of view, politically flawed.
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Well researched history of big company empires
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I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this period of world history who wants to understand the intricacies of the events that unfolded.
Overall, it is exceptionally well-researched and narrated.
Thank you!
Fascinating book …
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Excellent
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Eye opening
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A Must Read
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Thought provoking .!
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Informative
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Review
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the narrator was very good
definitely worth a listen
vert well researched
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