Who Killed Henry?: The book title arises from the fact that in 1937, Shell Director for Europe Henry van der Waerden was found dead in mysterious circumstances after receiving a threat from members of the Nazi movement. This was after he had failed to respond favourably to intense pressure from Deterding and the Nazis to do their bidding.

By John Donovan

I was recently contacted by Henry van Buuren, the grandson of Henry van der Waerden, an engineer who held a high-level position at Shell under Sir Henri Deterding.

Sir Henri rightly had considerable regard for his integrity, experience and expertise.

Hence his appointment as Shell Director for Europe.

Henry van der Waerden had built a number of Shell refineries from scratch.

A remarkable book called “Who Killed Henry”, authored by Henry van Buuren was published in 2015.

It contains correspondence Sir Henri had with Henry van der Waerden and a transcript of a telephone conversation between the two Shell executives.

The book confirms the close relationship between Sir Henry Deterding and Herman Goering, and also Sir Henri’s dedication and fervent support for Nazi Germany.

The book title arises from the fact that in 1937, Shell Director for Europe Henry van der Waerden was found dead in mysterious circumstances after receiving a threat from members of the Nazi movement.

This was after he had failed to respond favourably to intense pressure from Deterding and the Nazis to do their bidding.

The pressure came not just from Deterding directly but from a mysterious friend of Deterding who supplied Henry van der Waerden with a copy of “Mein Kampf” – Hitler’s notorious autobiographical work in which he set out his warped political ideology and plans that would eventually destroy Germany.

Deterding and Goering were determined that Henry van der Waerden agree to return to his leadership role at the Astra Romana plant in Romania to ensure maximum supply of product to fuel the fast-growing German military forces. This was during the years immediately before WW2 when vast preparations were underway.

Henry van der Waerden was also introduced personally to the Nazi management of I.G. Farben, the German chemical giant that was in partnership with Shell in a number of ventures relevant to German military plans. I.G. Farben was later responsible for the manufacture of the Zyklon B gas used to exterminate millions of innocent adults and children during the Holocaust. A number of its directors were convicted of war crimes.

The more Henry van der Waerden found out about the Nazi party, the less he liked the prospect of caving into the huge pressure. But his increasingly autocratic boss, Sir Henri Deterding had made it clear that he would not take NO for an answer.

Deterding was up to his neck in all kind of Machiavellian plots and International intrigue driven by his growing megalomania and involvement in extreme politics. His highly controversial machinations on the global stage including alleged involvement in counterfeit currency had not escaped coverage by the news media.

Matters surrounding the events that had transpired so long ago became clearer in 1989 with the publication of information by an expert historical journalist Wim Wennekes. The information triggered the recall of distant memories by a daughter of Henry van der Waerden. This revived long existing family concern about what had happened.

The mystery eventually led to the grandson writing his book “Who Killed Henry”, which poses the question, was the sudden death of Henry van der Waerden suicide arising from the intense pressure or was it outright murder?

In either case, it seems reasonable to conclude that Deterding and/or the Nazis were responsible for the death of Henry van der Waerden. At that time, Sir Henri was still a director of multiple companies within the Royal Dutch Shell Group and still its largest shareholder, with a controlling stake in the Group.

Astonishingly, Henry van der Waerden and his wife had survived an assassination attempt by Communists many years earlier while he was head of Shell’s Astra Romana refinery. Both had been shot several times and had not been expected to survive.

This time he was not so lucky.

The threat on the life of Henry van der Waerden set out in the extremely menacing letter he had received from the Nazi movement seems to have been carried out. The same letter also contained threats against his wife and children. At least with his untimely death, they were now safe. The full text of the letter can be seen in the book.

Deterding had definitely switched to the dark side, in bed with two of the evilest men in history. Adolf Hitler and Herman Goering, who each sent personal tributes to his funeral just prior to the outbreak of WW2. He was a great friend of both.

Extracts from the book

A biographical adventure showing how two prominent Shell oil men were swept off their feet by the opposing forces Communism and National Socialism. 

His name was Henry van der Waerden. This is the true story of that man and how his life came to an unexpected abrupt end. 

Extracts end

The book reads like a thriller and shows how oil played a decisive role in the 2nd World War and how it still plays an important role notwithstanding the actual attempts for an “energy change” to combat “Global Warming”  

(This revealing book by Henry van Buuren is for sale on Amazon.com in the English language under the title “Who killed Henry?”)

CLICK THIS LINK TO PURCHASE THE BOOK ON Amazon.com

CLICK THIS LINK TO PURCHASE THE BOOK ON Amazon.co.uk

By John Donovan

I became aware today of a letter (see below) which a director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre sent to Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden on 5 February 2015. The communication stemmed from my campaigning activities that ended with Allseas renaming the worlds largest ship. I will shortly be supplying the Simon Wiesenthal Centre with a trove of evidence about Shell’s Nazi history including its close partnership in Nazi Germany with IG Farben, the chemical giant which manufactured the gas used to exterminate several million Jewish people in the Holocaust. Dutch Directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group including Sir Henri Deterding helped finance Hitler and the Nazi Party.

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE – EUROPE

Tel. +33-147237637 – Fax: +33-147208401

E-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

“Annul Shell’s dealings with Allseas – a company which apparently celebrates Nazi crimes by glorifying a perpetrator”

“It is interesting to note on the Shell portals’ list of associated countries, the conspicuous absence of Israel”

Paris, 5 February 2015

In a letter to Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Ben van Beurdon, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted, “Shell has contracted from the Swiss-based offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction company, Allseas Group, their crane-ship Pieter Schelte, to service Brent oil platforms on the British continental shelf.”

Samuels expressed indignation that “this vessel, described as “the largest ship in the world,” is named for the father of Allseas’ owner, who was a convicted Nazi war criminal.”

The letter explained, “Peter Schelte was jailed after the war for commandeering some 4,000 Dutch citizens for forced labour on the Eastern Front. As a Dutch Waffen SS officer, he reportedly stated, ‘the German race is a model. The Jewish race by comparison is parasitic. Therefore the Jewish question must be resolved in every Aryan country’.”

Samuels pointed out that “the International Transport Workers Federation has demanded that Allseas rename the ship,” adding, “Our Centre feels that the offence to the memory of Dutch victims of Nazi crimes and British casualties in liberating Europe from Hitler’s tyranny demands more of Royal Dutch Shell.”

The Centre urged, “In the spirit of the 70th anniversary of these events, we urge Shell to annul its dealings with Allseas – a company which, apparently, celebrates Nazi crimes by glorifying one of the perpetrators”, continuing, “we are sure that Shell will wish to publicly disassociate itself from this travesty”.

“On a related matter, it is interesting to note, on the Shell portals’ list of countries with which it is associated, the conspicuous absence of the State of Israel,” concluded Samuels.

For further information please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels 00 33 6 09770158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

Photo: The Pieter-Schelte entering the Port of Rotterdam. Inset: Pieter-Schelte Heerema in SS uniform

SOURCE

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Its employees — there are 180,000 around the world — have reported that customers accuse them of “working for Nazis.” There have been boycott threats…

By John Donovan

A New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 reveals that billionaire descendants of a family who control a company which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and a number of other famous brands are grappling with the exposure of an unspeakable secret – a Nazi history. 

Extracts:

Decades after World War II, Benckiser evolved into one of the largest consumer goods conglomerates on the planet. Known today as JAB Holding Company…

For decades, they say, they did not know about their father’s Nazism and the abuses that took place at the company they inherited:

A two-volume company history glossed over the Nazi era in a handful of pages.

Only now, 74 years after World War II, are the family and the company grappling with their dark and complicated history.

JAB’s portfolio of sunny coffee-and-doughnut brands in the United States made the revelations a global news story.

Its employees — there are 180,000 around the world — have reported that customers accuse them of “working for Nazis.” There have been boycott threats; this month, The Boston Globe published a scathing article with the headline: “I found out Nazi money is behind my favorite coffee. Should I keep drinking it?”

The New York Times article says the story is also “a tale of modern-day corporate atonement” and lists the steps taken in this regard.

Although the eminent historian authors of the most recent four-volume history of Royal Dutch Shell did not gloss over Shell’s Nazi past, they did spin their account heavily in favour of their paying client – Shell. The oil giant was actually much more deeply involved and financially supportive of the Nazi than Benckiser.

I am not aware of any atonement by Royal Dutch Shell for its Nazi past which included antisemitism against its own employees that cost many of them their lives.

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER HENRI DETERDING FUNERAL IN BERLIN

NEW YORK TIMES REPORT OF ONE OF THE MEETINGS ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER SIR HENRI DETERDING HAD WITH ADOLF HITLER. FOUR DAYS AS AN HONOURED GUEST.

Robert Finn, the Shell Director who was a vitally important functionary of the Nazi WW2 economy

Finn worked for Shell’s Nazi-infested German subsidiary Rhenania Ossag in the years before WW2. More significantly, during WW2, Finn directed the vitally important German lubricants supply. After WW2 Finn returned to Shell as a director of a Shell chemical company in Hamburg. Shell was apparently happy to reward him with a promotion. 

By John Donovan

A spotlight was shone on the Nazi past of the German Robert Finn after a Hamburg Sports Club Hall was to be named in his honour. Finn was a former chairman of the sports club.

Following a renovation of the hall in 2006, a major re-inauguration ceremony in honour of Finn was organised – with numerous prominent guests from sports and politics (who were informed about Finn’s role in the Nazi war economy) with his sons as guests of honour. 

There was also controversy about clubhouse design elements, including symbols of the Nazi regime, such as swastikas, to be on open public display.

Opponents of the proposal commissioned a historian to investigate Finn’s Nazi history. The historian G Jacob found a considerable amount of evidence. It confirmed that Finn worked for Shell’s Nazi-infested German subsidiary Rhenania Ossag in the years before WW2. More significantly, during WW2, Finn directed the vitally important German lubricants supply. After WW2 Finn returned to Shell as a director of a Shell chemical company in Hamburg. Shell was apparently happy to reward him with a promotion. 

The renaming of the hall was cancelled in 2007 as a result of the revelations.

Some translated extracts in italics from evidence uncovered:

1. In 1929, Finn joined Deutsche Shell AG.
2. During World War II he headed the German lubricating oil supply.
3. Later he became director of Shell Chemie in Hamburg.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROBERT FINN AS HEAD OF NAZI GERMANY LUBRICATING OIL SUPPLY

No truck and tank could drive without lubricating oil and other lubricant products, no submarine could dive and no dive bomber could fly. Not even a machine gun can be put on automatic fire without lubricating oil. Lubricating oil was, along with ammunition and gasoline, practically the most important item on the supply lists of the Wehrmacht. Around 100,000 armoured vehicles, 1200 submarines and perhaps 100,000 aircraft, countless bucket cars, swimming-pool vehicles, trucks, passenger cars, motorcycles, cannons, etc., had to be “supplied” if the war of aggression and annihilation was to flourish.

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL SUBSIDIARY RHENANIA OSSAG: RAMPANT ANTISEMITISM

Royal Dutch Shell has been waiting for an opportunity to take over Ossag. Shell finally succeeded in 1925. Rhenania AG took advantage of the capital weakness of Ossag and bought the traditional operation for 8.8 million RM. Both companies merged to form “Rhenania-Ossag Mineralölwerke AG“. Only eight years later, in the spring of 1933, even before the Nazis explicitly demanded it, all of the Jewish partners and employees were dismissed from the Rhenania Ossag. First of all, the founders of Ossag, Leopold Stern and Jacques Sonneborn, had to resign from their supervisory boards! This “Aryanization” of the leadership was pursued by the Rhenania-Ossag director Walter Kruspig, the former syndic of the oil works Stern-Sonneborn, who came to Rhenania with his Jewish chiefs in 1925 and then became a member of the NSDAP in the 1930s [to Kruspig’s death on a business trip see below]. The Jewish supervisory board members Richard Stern, Karl Friedrich Kunreuther and Ludwig Hogrewe were also dismissed. Not only members of the Supervisory Board were dismissed, but also Jewish employees and workers. 

In the Shell publications of the 1950s, the Jewish background of the Ossag was concealed as well as the NSDAP membership of the Wehrwirtschaftsführer Kruspig.

The dismissal of all Jewish superiors and co-workers was a sensational event at that time.

Otto Stern, then director of lubricants and superiors, was dismissed as a Jew by Robert Finn. It was no coincidence that after Finn’s role as Shell lubricating oil director he became “head of the German lubricating oil supply” (ETV).

Shell and the Nazis before and after 1933

The Shell corporation was then headed by the fanatical anti-communist and dedicated Nazi supporter Sir Henry Deterding (1866-1939). The Dutch industrialist was the founder and principal shareholder of the Shell Group. After the Russian revolution of October, the Shell group, which owned 60% of the Caucasian oil reserves, was expropriated there. Deterding then unleashed a huge campaign against the purchase of “stolen oil”. In 1926 and 1927 conferences were held in London under his aegis, at which the plans of the industrialist Arnold Rechberg and General Max Hoffmann to conduct an anti-Soviet campaign were discussed. In 1937 he donated 10 million Dutch guilders to Adolf Hitler. Deterding was buried in Dobbin-Linstow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in February 1939, where he lived with his German wife. At that time, the entire Nazi leadership found itself at his grave. Walter Kruspig, who joined Ossag 1925 and from 1927 was personnel manager of Rhenania Ossag and since 1930 general director, at the beginning of 1933 an NSDAP member, can be seen in the photos of the funeral with an extended arm in a Hitler salute arm.

The right-wing orientation of Shell management had an impact on corporate policy towards the Nazis in the first months of 1933. With the consent of the Dutch headquarters, efforts were made to stand by as being loyal to the regime. 

Shell’s ties with the Third Reich, however, were not limited to the use of forced labor. It was also a founding partner in German Gasoline (25%), the national German petroleum company crafted to give the Empire a greater degree of control over domestic gasoline production – for both military and civilian purposes. 

Shell in addition to the Nazi regime to bring German Gasoline Into fruition, but also sharing control of the company with IG Farben Industrie – the infamous producer of Zyklon B poison gas. Shell and IG Farben supplied synthetic rubber, lubricating oil and synthetic gasoline.

The photographs are from Shell staff meetings in 1935 at the Shell oil factory in Hamburg Curio-Haus, in halls decked with swastika flags. They were contained in a Rhenania-Ossag magazine published in 1043. 

Works meeting of the Shell lubricating oil factory in the Curio house in Hamburg, 1935. Since 1929 in a leading position: Robert Finn.

Translation of the text:

On Monday, the 8^th of April at 5:30 pm, the affiliates of the Central, ZN Hamburg, Wgr and GTL NPH, who are composed of those in the local DAF branch Rhenania-Ossag, met at the Curiohaus in Hamburg for a joint works meeting. The event was very well-attended, however, some of our workmates from Wgr and GTL NPH were not able to be present at this time due to work commitments such as alternating shifts and late shifts.

The representative District Leader of Hamburg and State Councillor Pg. Harry Henningsen spoke to our affiliates about the forthcoming secret council vote. He spoke very impressively, in his traditional manner, and earned a great round of applause. The event was enriched by spirited [illegible] music played by the marching band of the Hamburger SA Site 45.

Works meeting of the Shell lubricating oil factory in the Curio house in Hamburg, 1935. Since 1929 in a leading position: Robert Finn.

The photograph shows military uniforms worn by several hundred marching employees of the Shell German subsidiary, Rhenania-Ossag on May 1st, 1938 (the accompanying sign reads: “Rhenania Ossag operating cell”).

The historical material was researched for us by the historian G. Jacob

In the 1930s, Germany had a great need to become self-sufficient and one of their biggest imports was fuel. The large chemical company IG Fabre had a solution to the problem: by using large amounts of coal they could produce synthetic fuel.

The synthetic fuel plant Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG was founded by IG Farben, Rhenania-Ossag, and Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft in 1937. Synthetic fuels were vitally important to every aspect of the Nazi war machine including fuelling tanks, aircraft, battleships, submarines etc. The consortium built a mega factory that would eventually produce 15% of Germany’s total consumption of synthetic fuel.

NSDAP: The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party, was a far-right political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of National Socialism. Its precursor, the German Workers’ Party, existed from 1919 to 1920.

For more information visit ShellNaziHistory.com

The top lawyer at Shell has already disputed irrefutable evidence and threatened legal action against me, but it has all proven to be empty bluster. The last thing Shell wants is for its Nazi past to be aired in open court. 

By John Donovan

Toxic ramifications from Nazi business connections continue to make news headlines several decades after the end of WW2.

Two weeks ago we published a story about Shell arising from a New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 revealing that billionaire descendants of a family who control a company which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and a number of other famous brands are grappling with the exposure of an unspeakable secret – a Nazi history. See No atonement from Royal Dutch Shell for its Nazi history

Today, the Guardian newspaper has published a related article:

Dutch railway to pay out €50m over role in Holocaust

Extracts

The Dutch railway has accepted a recommendation that it pay up to €50m (£45m) to relatives of thousands of people it transported to Nazi death camps during the second world war. Roger van Boxtel, the chief executive of the state-owned Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), said it was time for the company to make a gesture to those “directly involved” as he reiterated an apology first made in 2005. In 2014, the French railways operator SNCF agreed to pay £40m in compensation for its role in moving approximately 76,000 Jews to Nazi camps during the Holocaust.

Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding sent vast amounts of financial aid to the Nazis – on one occasion 7,000 railway wagons full of food, which allowed money to be diverted to Hitler’s rearmament programme. 

Senior Shell managers were involved in Nazi military planning. One of them, Robert Finn, was head of vitally important oil supplies for fuelling the entire Nazi war machine before returning as a director of Shell Chemical Company in Germany after the war ended in disaster for the Third Riech. 

As far as I know, Shell has never apologised or paid any compensation despite evidence in Shell’s own historical archive that some Shell employees lost their lives because of Shell anti-semitism. Evidence that Deterding and Shell engaged in antisemitism can be found on shellnazihistory.com

The top lawyer at Shell has already disputed irrefutable evidence and threatened legal action against me, but it has all proven to be empty bluster. The last thing Shell wants is for its Nazi past to be aired in open court. 

Royal Dutch Shell founders meetings with Hitler, strong antiSemitic views and financial support for the Nazis

Featured extracts from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell Volume 1” – all printed in italics

(From page 07/478)

Confirmation of Sir Henri Deterding’s claim that he met Hitler

Nazism and the New Order in Germany were congenial to Deterding’s authoritarian being and his fervent anti-communism; he does not appear to have understood its political or indeed social ramifications. Deterding now began to take a greater interest in the Group’s German affairs, normally Kessler’s remit. This brought him into contact with the new regime’s leaders. He cautiously welcomed Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, but two months later he sought an audience with Hitler, presumably to present a proposal for sponsoring a series of radio lectures on the evils of communism, to celebrate the coming to power of such a vociferous anti-communist. He was rebuffed, but in November Deterding claimed to have met Hitler the other day.

What we do know for certain (because of a Reuters news story published in the USA and Canada) is that Sir Henry Deterding met with Hitler again in October 1934 in a four-day summit.  See New York Times article “REICH OIL MONOPOLY SOUGHT BY DETERDING”

Deterding vented strongly anti-Semitic remarks

(From page 07/481)

His anti-Semitism was not of the racial type, seeking to discriminate against Jews on the basis of spurious shared ethnic characteristics. It was rather an extension of his anti-communism and rooted in his conviction that Jews were instrumental in building world communism. This counterfeit penny appears to have dropped in the spring of 1933, ostensibly as a result of hearing a radio lecture on the subject. The particularity of his anti-Semitism explains why Deterding could remain on friendly personal terms with Jews in his acquaintance, including various Group directors, while venting strongly anti-Semitic remarks in his correspondence, and presumably also in conversation).

Printed below is a letter to Henri Deterding from Rothchilds Bank replying to the shocking content of recent letters they had received from Royal Dutch. In particular, the “tone and content” of a letter they had received from a senior Royal Dutch director (Fritz de Kok) that had actually been a tirade personally penned by Deterding.

Translated letter dated 19 September 1933 (Image from page 07/479)

Dear Mr. Deterding,

We regret to have to inconvenience you for a rather unpleasant incident that has just occurred between us at the Royal Dutch, and whose reading of the correspondence we have exchanged with your Head Office will inform you, because we are convinced that In this case you have not been consulted.

We are here today. to speak to you with all honesty, as we have always done.

We therefore do not hesitate to tell you that the form and substance of the letters which have been addressed to us have been most shocking to us, and that especially the tone and content of the letter of the 14th instant are as inappropriate as they are improper.

You will undoubtedly share our views on this subject and believe that we are convinced that this regrettable initiative does not come from you, dear Mr Deterding, with whom we have always maintained the relations not only the best but also the most cordial.

Please accept, I beg you, the expression of our most sincere sentiments.

(Extract from page 07/480

Deterding’s conclusion was that it better ‘not to correspond with people whose only moral consists in money’.

Deterding’s financial support for the Nazis

The extract below confirms in a cack-handed fashion that Sir Henri did give what Shell’s historians describe as contributions to the Nazis when he was in “his dotage”.

What they neglected to point out is that until death, Sir Henri remained as a director/chair of multiple companies within the Royal Dutch Shell Group with a controlling interest in the entire group.

From page 07/485)

Deterding’s financial support for the Nazis appears to have begun during his retirement in Mecklenburg, where he developed close ties with the local party organization and contributed to its charities. For all their praise of Deterding as a friend of the true Germany, none of the obituaries in the Nazi press mentions contributions other than those in his dotage, so the rumours about prior support were probably no more than that. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: shellnazihistory.com

By John Donovan

All the text below in italics is taken directly from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell Vol 1.”  A work authored by eminent historians hired by Shell who had access to Shell’s archives.

Although beholding to their rich client (Shell) they concede that the “resignations” of Jewish directors in frightening circumstances from Shell’s German subsidiary Rhenania-Ossag took place with the full approval of “Central Offices” i.e. Royal Dutch Shell Group HQ offices in “London and The Hague”.

Shell attempted at the time to downplay the seriousness of the ghastly violence against Jews, asking Group directors to place denials in English and Dutch newspapers.

In an antisemitic letter from RDS Group Director Fritz De Kok addressed to Wilhem Rudloff the Chairman of Rhenania-Ossag, De Kok wrote off the attacks as ‘false reports of German atrocities against Jews’. He drew attention as an example, to the denial Royal Dutch Shell had arranged to be published in the Dutch Telegraph newspaper.  

The extracts end with a reference to the “horrendous threat hanging over the Jewish employees in the Group’s care. We do not know the Group’s treatment of the staff members concerned, nor their fates.” 

Sadly, they almost certainly suffered the same horrendous fate as millions of other Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis and their evil accomplices, such as Shell’s Nazi-run partner IG Farben. 

EXTRACTS BEGIN

The first months of the Hitler government were characterized by great social turmoil. Brownshirt bands acting as auxiliary police roamed the streets, terrorizing their political opponents. The Reichstag fire in February 1933 was blamed on arson by Communists and taken as an opportunity to ban the Communist party and arrest its members and sympathisers.

Outbreaks of violence against Jews and Jewish businesses also became widespread, culminating in an organized, national boycott of Jewish businesses on 1 April 1933. A week later the German government enacted a law barring Jews from holding civil service and university appointments, which was followed by similar regulations concerning the professions.

Rhenania-Ossag was also confronted with scattered actions. In February, a bomb was thrown at a service station in Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad), but it failed to explode. On 31 March, Nazi mobs besieged three service stations in the Westphalia region, claimed the keys with the intention of closing them as belonging to a Jewish company.

And on 3 April the Nazi representatives of Rhenania-Ossag’s works council presented the management with demands for the immediate dismissal of all Jewish directors. Two Jewish directors of the Colas asphalt works near Dresden had already resigned after similar pressure there, and the Jewish lube oil sales manager in Berlin had taken immediate leave, shocked by what was happening.

The events convinced the Rhenania-Ossag managers that the company needed to be aligned with the New Order in Germany, and quickly. Though they had earlier attempted to downplay the seriousness of the violence against Jews, asking Group directors to have denials placed in English and Dutch newspapers, such actions had clearly unsettled them, as evident from the relief with which chairman Rudeloff greeted the well-organized boycott as a sign that the government could control the Nazi mob’s violent antl-Semltlsm. In his view, the banning of Jews from the civil service and the professions would surely be followed by similar regulations for private business; the government had already barred Jews from membership of the semi-public branch organizations representing business interests at government level.

Accordingly, Rudeloff proposed to transfer a number of Jewish employees to other Group companies since he expected that this legislation would seriously limit their ability to work in the business.

During May and June, Rhenania-Ossag’s Aufsichtsrat (board of directors) was thoroughly overhauled as well. The Jewish members resigned, among them the Stern-Sonneborn founders Jacques Sonneborn and Leo Stern. In at least one case, the resignation does not appear to have happened voluntarily. The appointments to replace them included a member of the Nazi party NSDAP, the second one on the board because Kruspig was already a member. Rudeloff postponed the appointment of a third because he wanted to wait and see how the situation would develop.

Rhenania-Ossag also put pressure on two Dutch members to make way for Germans, but this did not happen until 1935. In retrospect the remodelling of the senior management to suit the New Order would appear to have happened with undue haste, long before the introduction of formal legislation, but Rhenania-Ossag did no more than follow the trend in German business. At about the same time, companies as diverse as Deutsche Bank and Unilever took identical action.

The far-reaching changes to the Rhenania-Ossag board could not have taken place without the full consent of Central Offices. The record is incomplete and we have found no documents from which the attitude taken by London and The Hague might be construed. Nor have we found any indications that Rhenania-Ossag took them under the influence of fanatical Nazis.

Moving managers and employees to other jobs was probably seen as a cosmetic exercise of the kind occasionally required to placate particular regimes, and no more. No questions of principle or moral judgements about the Hitler regime appear to have arisen and it bears pointing out that, whereas correspondence shows Group managers quick to identify and condemn Bolshevism, they appear not to have had the same sensitivity to Fascism or Nazism. This blind spot, quite a common affliction in the 1930S, may have impaired their vision when it came to perceiving the intentions of the unfolding Third Reich and the horrendous threat hanging over the Jewish employees in the Group’s care. We do not know the Group’s treatment of the staff members concerned, nor their fates. 

Sir Henri Deterding: Hitlers Paymaster

By John Donovan

EXTRACT FROM PAGE 07/483 from volume 1 of a four-volume work published in 2007 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell” – authored by eminent historians associated with Utrecht University. 

From 1937 Deterding, now influenced by a personal secretary with outspoken Fascist sympathies, helped to finance the paper of a Fascist splinter group in the Netherlands, just as the Group sponsored a Russian anti-Soviet press service in London. Finally, if Deterding or the Group indeed supported the Nazis during their wilderness years with any substantial sums, then one would have expected the Reichskanzlei to have acknowledged the fact in the minute considering whether or not to grant him an audience with Hitler in March 1933. However, the document mentions nothing of the kind; Deterding was turned down without further ado.

In fact, there was further ado. Although not mentioned by Shell’s paid historians, Deterding was later honoured with an audience with Hitler; a four-day meeting at Hitlers Mountain top retreat as reported by Reuters in The New York Times and other newspapers. Deterding represented the Royal Dutch Shell Group. Hitler subsequently publicly saluted him as being a great friend of Nazi Germany.

MORE EXTRACTS

From September 1935, the German Foreign Office seconded one of its staff to Deterding as a personal assistant for political matters. Deterding also met Goering, whose Karinhall estate was not far from his own, and went shooting with him. To facilitate proper entertaining, he exchanged his retreat for another and much grander one, obtaining tax advantages by threatening the authorities with the withdrawal of capital.

Deterding clearly liked the New Order represented by the Nazis. He considered the notorious Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, when Hitler had a large number of his suspected party opponents brutally murdered, as a necessary step, confessing that it had increased his respect and veneration for the Nazi leader, if such were possible.

EXTRACTS END

The financial relationship between Deterding and Hitler was parodied in two Dutch cartoons published in the 1930s. Deterding’s name is visible on his cartoon image on enlarged copies of each cartoon below – A and B.

A

Cartoon with the caption: “VAN DER LUBBE’S MEDEPLIGHTIGEN (VAN DER LUBBE’S ACCOMPLICES):

Deterding, Hitler and Johannes Bell – were all depicted as being accomplices in the Reichstag fire. This conclusion is arrived at from the above information in red text authored by Shell’s historians and on a translation of the text at the foot of the cartoon.

Their connection with the fire, via a joint agent of Deterding/Hitler,  George Bell, is indicated on page 313 of the biography of Sir Henri by Glyn Roberts. According to information on page 316, the Manchester Guardian reported that Georg Bell had actually helped to carry the inflammable material that set the Reichstag ablaze. Credible evidence on page 317 links the fire, Hitler, Dr. Bell and Deterding.

In the cartoon depiction above, Deterding is shown handing over a bag full of money (1000 000 00) of unspecified currency, to an unidentifiable uniformed Nazi.

B

Cartoon with the caption: TEGEN OORLOG EN FASCISME (AGAINST WAR AND FASCISM – Mobilize for the first of August):

Adolf Hitler is depicted astride a Swastika, with Deterding shown below, sitting on top of what may be a Soviet soldier wearing a gas mask. Deterding is holding aloft what appears to be a money list with various sums ticked off.

The cartoon implies that Hitler and Deterding were in league together against the Soviets.

The cartoon relating to Marinus van der Lubbe made it plain that Deterding was a Nazi paymaster. The cartoon (right) showing him in an apparent tag-team partnership with Hitler against the Soviets followed the same theme.

Deterding’s name is visible on his cartoon image on an enlarged copy 

There is no evidence that Sir Henri, the then Director-General of Royal Dutch Shell, took issue with the content, which would have been grossly defamatory if untrue.

Deterding’s personal secretary from 1937 onwards had outspoken fascist sympathies. See page 483 RDSH V1. A previous secretary working for Deterding, Dr. F.C. (Frederik Carel) Gerretson, another Dutchman, was also a fascist. He acted as Shell’s historian and became a Professor of Constitutional History at the University of Utrecht. Sir Henry described himself as a fascist. See item 173 on page 535 of RDSH V1 notes.

Screenshot dated 27 July 2019 from an “Image” search option for “Royal Dutch Shell” on one of the major search engines

By John Donovan

It was recently reported that Shell is the most valuable Dutch brand name and among the most valuable in the world, valued at €36.4bn.

The brand is on display at over 44,000 gasoline stations around the globe. 

A brand name is highly vulnerable to reputational damage if the company owning the brand has skeletons in its corporate cupboard. Royal Dutch Shell has more of them than any other multinational giant. 

I am systematically spreading an array of shocking information via the internet about toxic events in Shell’s long history.

Shell is powerless to stop what I am doing as all of the information is accurate and true. 

Search “Royal Dutch Shell” on the major search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Google etc selecting the “Image” option.

You will be able to see for yourself the growing number of Shell history related images my activities have generated and which are now instantly available to anyone, anywhere.   

Example of one such image of a webpage banner:

By John Donovan

For as long as I can remember stories have been circulating along the lines that an engineering genius devised a fuelless engine and made the mistake of disclosing his invention to a ruthless oil company oil, which promptly killed the idea. 

It is possible that there is some substance to this mythology.

Shell subsidiary Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (Dutch for Batavian Oil Company), is the oil company allegedly involved, along with Sir Henri Deterding and a senior Shell  Director, Hendrik Colijn. He served as CEO for the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij and later became CEO of Royal Dutch Shell.

Deterding and Colijn are mentioned in the related book The Wardenier Mystery.

In the 1930’s Dutchman, Johannes Wardenier claimed to have invented a miracle engine that ran almost without fuel. 

He disclosed his idea to a Dutch multinational electrical giant who, at the time, was working on a motor project. That multinational, the alleged key player in conjunction with Shell, Deterding and Hendrik Colijn, allegedly became involved in a conspiracy over the astonishing invention that could potentially change the world. Clearly, a huge threat to the entire oil industry which would have had a devastating impact on the price of oil.

Johannes Wardenier was subsequently said to be held hostage as a patient in the psychiatric ward of the Groningen hospital. When released to return home a week later, his prototype engine had been stolen. He dies suddenly at the age of 47.

There are articles, books, poems, a recent sold-out play, and even an exhibition about this Dutchman and his mysterious story.

Was he a genius or a fantasist?

Printed below is an English translation of a related article published 10 May 2019 by the Dutch FT, Financieele Dagblad.

The Elon Musk from Steenwijkerwold

In 1934 the unemployed Johannes Wardenier presented a “fuelless engine”. The twenties became front-page news, plans for a factory with 13,000 workers were ready. But that engine? It remained a mystery. After two books, there is now also a theatre piece and an exhibition about Wardenier.

Carel Grol: 10 MAY 2019

Johannes Wardenier with his “fuel-free engine”. Photo: Spaarnestad

The Van Harenstraat is steeped in provincial tranquillity this Wednesday afternoon in May. Wolvega’s commercial artery is a street with red vowels. A colossal Scapino. A white goods store with an FC Barcelona poster from at least two seasons ago. A Hema, clothing stores and a supermarket. Little vacancy, but also few shopping people.

Once, 85 years ago, Wolvega, a farming town in the south of Friesland, experienced a burst of hope: a sudden adrenaline rush in a stationary existence. Then suddenly the future looked different. Wolvega was to become the Eindhoven of the Northern Netherlands. “Edisontown!” Shouted the steam train conductors at Wolvega station. A factory of 13,000 people would come here. Almost as much as Wolvega has in 2019 inhabitants.

At least that was the view that John – ‘Jo’ sketched for friends – Wardenier. And with him alderman Willem Muurling.

“He can’t learn, he can think”

The story of the engine without fuel starts in the spring of 1934. Jo Wardenier is the youngest of ten children, born in a neighbourhood in what is now called Steenwijkerwold, the last few meters of Overijssel. “My son cannot learn,” said his father Jan. “But he can think twice as much.” And he could do everything with his hands.

Jo had worked in a rusk factory and when he was not yet eighteen a wrapping machine was built for the rusk rolls. He would later declare that the machine was sold to NV Leeuwarder Papierfabriek – something that the director of that factory denied.

Wardenier was unemployed at the beginning of 1934, but, he hopes, not for long. He has a conversation with Willem Muurling, the young alderman for Public Works and Social Affairs. The subject is the invention that Wardenier claims to have made: an engine that runs almost without fuel.

Wolvega craves a windfall. It is a crisis. A quarter of the Dutchmen are unemployed. Muurling is receptive to the Wardenier story. Mayor Eugen Nicolaas Walle Maas of Weststellingwerf, which includes Wolvega, is also convinced.

Press conference

And so the town buzzes with excitement when a press conference is held on November 1, 1934. Eight journalists are present. That evening, the Nieuwsblad voor Friesland headlines: “Great future for Wolvega.” The Leeuwarder Courant quotes Wardenier a day later: “I have made an invention that will cause a major change in motor skills.”

The core of the invention: an engine on hot air. With only 25 guilders in fuel, the engine can run all year round, says Wardenier.

There is already a blueprint for a factory. Construction, estimated at 13 million guilders, can start within a few months. Land prices are rising. Building sites are being asked for sale. Wolvega is in ecstasy. Poem appears in newspapers. Reportedly, even the oil price fell.

Wardenier, then 22, gets a private secretary for the incoming mail. Marechaussee is at his door. Nobody has seen the engine, but you never know: this invention is going to change the world. Wardenier even gets a gun license. In the meantime he wears tailored suits, smokes cigars and – in 1934 quite special – he drives a car.

A week later everything is over again.

Psychiatric department

Sunday, November 8, 1934, Wardenier is summoned by mayor Maas. He has become suspicious: he has still not seen the miracle engine.

What exactly happened at the town hall that day has never become completely clear. The Leeuwarder Courant writes a day later that the inventor and the mayor have ‘conferred’ almost the entire evening. In the end, a doctor from Wolvega was summoned “who considered transferring Johannes Wardenier to the psychiatric ward of the Groningen hospital,” the newspaper said.

That is how Wardenier ends up in the clinic. After a week he is ‘released’. But when he arrived home, his wonder engine is gone. At least that’s what Wardenier says. He claims that two “high gentlemen” picked him up. His parents, simple people, were, he says, impressed by the duo that just appeared at the farm.

Wardeniers statement: Philips has taken the engine. Because Philips is also working on a hot air motor in those days.

Another theory that comes into vogue: Mayor Maas, the day before Wardenier was brought to Groningen, consulted in Zwolle with, among others, Prime Minister Hendrik Colijn. Is Colijn not a former Shell director? With shares in the company? And isn’t the Wardenier engine a threat to the entire oil industry?

Wardenier says that too: the engine just had to disappear.

He is building a new one. In March 1935 he demonstrated the fuel-free engine in Utrecht. It will be a failure. At a second demonstration, in Wolvega, the attendees only see the metal box that the engine must protect. In November 1935, Wardenier steals two cars. He is arrested and sentenced to one year in jail. After the war he gets tuberculosis, recovers and works – again – on a hot air engine.

But nobody will ever see the thing running.

Biography and theatre play

Wednesday, May 8, 2019. In the empty foyer of theatre De Meenthe van Steenwijk is the retired Henk Ymker, former journalist and publisher. In 1974 he wrote a story about Wardenier. In his decades as a reporter, Ymker produced thousands of articles. “But I’ve never had so many responses to that story about Wardenier.”

When it turned out that there was no motorcycle, residents of Wolvega took to the streets. Photo: Spaarnestad

That eventually became a biography of Wardenier in 1984. A second version was recently published about the man, about his ‘fuel-free engine’ and about the role that Philips would have played. The farmer’s son and inventor is, certainly in this part of the Netherlands, a kind of myth. Next week a play about him will be staged in De Meenthe. Ymker: “609 people fit in here. The piece is sold out four consecutive nights. ”

Ymker was born in 1946. As a kid he sometimes saw Wardenier walking through Steenwijk. And yes, everyone knew who he was. “He was always talked about on birthdays.”

For the second version of his book, he spoke to a handful of people who knew Wardenier. A former neighbour, now in her nineties, remembers how Wardenier would appear on the radio in the November week in question in 1934. Spectacle, for that time. Everyone had gathered around the radio to listen to what Jo from Steenwijkerwold would say.

In the end he said nothing. Because at the time, everything that came on the radio had to be submitted to a committee. And Wardenier refused.

Checks

The first version of Ymker’s book was entitled The Wardenier case. The second version is, just like the play, The Mystery Wardenier. Because there are very many ‘loose ends’, says Ymker.

For example, Wardenier would never have worked again after his motorcycle adventures but would have always lived well. According to eyewitnesses, he regularly collected checks at the post office in the post-war years. Payments from Philips? As a lump sum payment?

It is invalidated by an Amsterdam tax inspector who speaks in a radio report from 1986. In the late 1950s he filed a declaration for Wardenier. He didn’t get any money from Philips. Wardenier, the tax inspector says, lived off the trade in newspapers and scrap metals.

Lourens Oldersma also speaks in that radio broadcast from 1986. He was an archivist at the time and thought the history of Wardenier “just a beautiful story.” Together with his brother Folkert, teacher and copywriter, he set out for research thirty years ago. Maybe for a book, or for a television program.

As archivist, Oldersma had access to the archives of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD). Jo Wardenier claimed to have been in the resistance. In the pre-internet period, Lourens searched the standard work of Lou de Jong: The Kingdom of the Netherlands in World War II. The name Wardenier is not mentioned there.

The NIOD turned out to have information about Wardenier. Contrary to what he claimed, he was not a resistance hero at all. On the contrary: Wardenier had entered German service under a pseudonym and had fought twice on the Eastern Front.

Fantastic

“It’s clear: he has fantasized everything together,” says Lourens Oldersma, more than thirty years later, by telephone from Leeuwarden. “It’s a nice story of a simple boy who claimed to have discovered something spectacular.”

At that time the Oldersma brothers were still in the Leeuwarder Courant, but it never came to a book or a television program. Because the Wardenier case had just appeared, and another book about this inventor or charlatan would be a bit too much.

According to Oldersma, Ymker’s work is mainly about the many rumours. “There are still people who believe that big capital is behind it. They think that it is a conspiracy and that the engine has therefore become nothing. ”

Another loose point: nowhere in the archives is where Jo Wardenier is buried. On July 27, 1960, at the age of 47, he died of kidney poisoning in a hospital in Meppel, childless and fairly unexpected. But his grave is not in any archive.

Eventually Ymker managed to trace the son of the sexton of the Dutch Reformed Church in Steenwijkerwold. Bertus van Drogen is now almost eighty. When he was twenty he dug the grave for Jo Wardenier, on a lawn opposite a morgue. It is not marked. There is no zerk, no administration. Only the oral tradition that shows Wardenier’s final resting place.

“Philips did buy a patent”

Ymker’s latest discovery is also an oral testimony. Philips has always denied having anything to do with Wardenier, let alone having bought something from him. But recently Ymker was with a former project leader from Philips, which he tracked down. George Neelen, 88, seriously ill and confined to bed, told Ymker that Philips did buy a patent from Wardenier in 1957. It related to a so-called cold gas cooling machine.

“Philips thought it would be possible to use the Wardenier idea again,” Neelen told Ymker, who was sitting by his bedside. “But that never happened.”

Is Wardenier a genius or a fantasist? Ymker has tried to illuminate all sides, he says in the theater foyer. Of course a lot will be made up. It’s a long time ago. Fact and fiction merge. But if he has to choose? Ymker shrugs. He does not know.

But he knows: it is a beautiful story.

The mystery Wardenier is performed from Wednesday 15 May to Saturday 18 May in theater De Meenthe in Steenwijk. Possibly the piece will be performed again this fall. In the multifunctional building Hoogthij in Steenwijkerwold there is an exhibition about the life of Jo Wardenier from 16 May to 1 July.

TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT ON BOXES AND PHOTOS

Jo had worked in a rusk factory and when he was not yet eighteen a wrapping machine for the rusk rolls was built

“I have made an invention that will cause a major change in motor skills” • Jo Wardenier

Weapon

Wardenier, then 22, received a private secretary for the incoming mail and an arms license. It was a great invention: you never knew who would approach it.

After a week

Wardenier released from the clinic. When he arrived home, his wonder engine is gone.

“The engine just had to disappear” • Jo Wardenier

Henk Ymker.foto: city and region

“He has fantasized everything together” • Archivist Lourens Oldersma. In the eighties, he did a study of Jo Wardenier with his brother Folkert

July 27, 1960
Jo Wardenier died at the age of 47 in a hospital in Meppel from kidney poisoning.

SOURCE

TRANSLATED EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK THE WARDENIER MYSTERY.

Johannes Wardenier

Recorded in a “madhouse”.

Born in Overijssel on 1912 and died in 1960. He was of simple descent and farmer’s son. In Wolvega (Friesland) there were plans to build a factory for its fuel-poor engine. Johannes Wardenier was taken to a “madhouse” in Groningen and when he came home to his parents his invention was taken. By who? High lords of the Philips and the Batavian Petroleum Company are concerned …..

In the war years he was bought loose from Philips (Frits Philips)

Philips bought the idea of ​​the fuelless (fuel poor) engine from Johannes Wardenier from Steenwijkerwold in 1957 to keep it out of the market. This is claimed by an 88-year-old former employee of Philips, chief engineer George Neelen, against journalist and writer Henk Ymker from Steenwijk. Ymker spoke to the seriously ill former employee last (05-2019)

Personally as a fan of Johannes I do not believe John would never be able to pay for a Patent / Patent in 1934. A patent will also come in 1934 or thereafter. That special from …. national engineers.

The benefits for the existence of the Johannes Wardenier genius and the fuel-free engine are piling up, says Henk Ymker. However, the Philips company continues to deny. Johannes Wardenier did not live he was freed by Philips from a camp in good welfare. He would check periodically.

The invention was world news in 1934 and a solution for the high unemployment rate in the region at the time, but ended in a drama and mystery. The engine disappeared, accepted the drawings and other evidence. The testimony now that the engine is indeed a patent has been purchased from Philips.

Wardenier became world famous in one fell swoop (Photo: from the book Het Mysterie Wardenier)

Steenwijker Ymker released an experienced updated version of his book The Mystery Wardenier, fantastic genius or a brilliant fantasist? He wrote that book about the inventor from Steenwijkerwold in the 1980s, but the ‘drama of the engine’ and the new stories that unleashed decades of deciding led Ymker to publish a new book.

Proof?

Ymker spoke to the seriously ill former employee of Philips last Thursday by chance. A man from Norg knows the former employee of Philips well and brought them into contact with each other. The former employee, engineer George Neelen, was a project manager at Philips and worked on the development of the Stirling engine. The engine of Johannes Wardenier from Steenwijkerwold would have been one of the sources of inspiration.

The same Meelen wrote in a magazine that I read myself (1967) that since 1935 the Stirling type has been complicated by Philips. Perhaps Johannes Wardenier’s idea was a beautiful gift from “heaven” …

ON 07-11-1934 Arrived under pressure from Hendrik Colijn and Detering (Shell) that the Wardenier killing had to be nipped in the bud. Wardenier was declared “crazy” and is being held hostage for days among government guards in Groningen.

BRITISH PATHE NEWS film footage has come to light which shows the huge importance Hitler attached to his fundraising vehicle for the Nazi regime. Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding was by far the largest single donor, sending 7,000 railway wagons full of Dutch food produce. Despite criticism in the news media, specifically linking the money saved on food to Nazi rearmament, Deterding continued to donate Dutch food to Nazi Germany.

By John Donovan

In December 1936, there were global news reports about Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding’s massive food donations to Hitlers Winter Relief Charity fundraising project in Nazi Germany. Numerous examples can be found in an Index of Shell leadership financial support for the Nazis.

The scheme was run directly by the notorious Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, known by his detractors as the poison dwarf.

BRITISH PATHE NEWS film footage has come to light which shows the huge importance Hitler attached to his fundraising vehicle for the Nazi regime. Royal Dutch Shell founder Sir Henri Deterding was by far the largest single donor, sending 7,000 railway wagons full of Dutch food produce. Despite criticism in the news media, specifically linking the money saved on food to Nazi rearmament, Deterding continued to finance Nazi Germany.

The film is of a spectacular Nazi rally with a massive mesmerised audience of perhaps a million Germans addressed by Hitler under a giant sign: Winterhilfswerk 1936-37. As can be seen from a screenshot below, Dr Goebbels, along with Deterding’s personal friend Reichsmarschall Göring, were also present.

All of Deterding’s financial support for Hitler and the Nazi party took place while he was a director of multiple companies within the Royal Dutch Shell Group and retained a measure of control via preference shares. This included the period after he had retired as Director-General.

According to Shell’s records, Deterding donated 10 million guilders in surplus Dutch food to the annual Nazi-run Winterhilfswerk (Winter Relief) organization in Germany. See page 483 from A History of Royal Dutch Shell  Volume 1.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and  Reichsmarschall Göring were also present at the Winterhilfswerk rally addressed by Hitler.

The above screenshot and the following two give some idea of the mega-size of the spectacular Winterhilfswerk rally. More than a million Germans attended one such rally.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and  Reichsmarschall Göring

(Screenshot immediately above from a second related British Pathe news report)

The text under a brief second Britsh Pathe news film reads: “GERMANY’S SCHEME FOR WINTER RELIEF- Dr Goebbels directs operations in Berlin on Collection Day.”  The narration during the film says that Dr. Goebbels had the huge task of organising the Winter Help scheme. Believe I also spotted Reichsmarschall Göring.

The two screenshots displayed above are from the TV series The World At War. Goebbels, Göring and the Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess were all shown in the first episode A New Germany (1933–1939) holding Winter Help collection tins.

Sir Henri Deterding’s admiration and support for another fascist dictator, Mussolini

By John Donovan

I have already published an ebook and website focussed on Royal Dutch Shell leader Sir Henri Deterding and his admiration and support for the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, who he met a number of times on behalf of Shell.

Hitler was not the only fascist dictator admired and supported by Deterding.

In his autobiography “AN INTERNATIONAL OILMAN” (pages 13 and 14) Sir Henri made plain his high regard for the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini.

In Italy, not long ago, it fell to my lot to talk with Mussolini, a man who, regard him as you may, has shown a driving force almost unparalleled in running a country-though from such outward manifestations as are seen in the present-day world, I wouldn’t say that the running of a country was at all the same thing as the running of a business. Too often, the men who run countries have never run businesses, as the results of their government so painfully show. But that is by the way.

My talk with Mussolini proved that there were several points on which we saw eye to eye. We both agreed that the coping-stone of Education is a sense of discipline and respect for prestige, lacking which no youth can be considered to have been properly educated at all. Speaking as the father of a family, myself, I told the Duce of my conviction that the right and only way to bring up young people is to teach them the difference between seeing and observing. A child should be taught not merely to see a thing but to realise the nature of the thing he has seen, and if he doesn’t understand it, to ask himself, and seek to know, just why that thing should be. On subjects of this kind, Mussolini showed that he had thought deeply. To people unacquainted with the Italian character his manner in public may seem at times to be a trifle theatrical, but what chiefly interested me at our meeting was that he seemed so direct. One felt that, if faced with a difficulty, he would get out his sledge-hammer and strike straight at its root. Shortly after this meeting with Mussolini, I had the privilege of an audience with Pope Pius XI. 

The Glyn Roberts biography of Sir Henri – “THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD” – also contains references to his regard for Benito Mussolini (and the fascist Spanish dictator, General Franco).

Some extracts:

In Italy he was active;  he met Mussolini, and he did not spend all his time discussing educational theories and the need for inculcating a sense of respect in the young. (From page 293)

Thus we see Sir Henri Deterding, who publicizes himself systematically as the plain-spoken, direct business man, “just an oil man trying to get along,” definitely putting his political prejudices above the possibilities of greater immediate profits by backing Mussolini and Hitler. (From page 365)

Well, Sir Henri has the greatest admiration for the first and floweriest of the Fascist dictators, Benito Mussolini of Italy. (From page 399)

Mussolini has shown driving power, and Sir Henri sees eye to eye with him on many things. (From page 400)

It was no accident that Sir Henri admired Mussolini… (From page 428)

The sympathies of Sir Henri Deterding were of course with General Franco, the Fascist disciplinarian who believed in all the things that he too believed in. (From page 380)

Sir Henri is not merely a Fascist, he is the cause of Fascism in others, the paymaster. (From page 428)

The biography also contains countless references to Deterding’s admiration and support for Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Use browser to enlarge image

By John Donovan

Shell commissioned a group of eminent “independent” historians (above) mostly Dutch, to author a history of Royal Dutch Shell to mark the Group’s centenary in 2007.  The introduction in Volume 1 pledged independent research and “a proper and even-handed assessment of Deterding.” Something went amiss because the “history,” as published in regard to his dealings with Hitler, is simply untrue.

Shell internal communications obtained under the UK Data Protection Act revealed pre-publication jitters at Shell prior to the publication of the four-volume history of the Royal Dutch Shell Group.

The concern was about the prospect of me scrutinizing the content. 

Another hammer blow for Shell. Evidence confirms that Shell fuelled the Nazi war machine

Shell will find it more difficult to dismiss the independent findings in the new book, including from an award-winning journalist.

According to ‘Crude Britannia’, by James Marriott and Terry Macalister, at the outbreak of World War Two the Anglo-Dutch company “effectively divided into an Allied corporation and an Axis corporation”. The Nazi-supporting branch of Shell, called Rhenania-Ossag, “swung in behind the [German] government as the Nazi state began to invade other countries”.

Or as Shell’s official history states ‘Following Hilter’s annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, (Shell) Group managing directors sanctioned Rhenania-Ossag taking over Shell companies in those countries.’ The same process took place in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece after Germany took control of those states.

Shell’s German subsidiary, Rhenania-Ossag, fired all the Jewish members on its board in May and June 1933. The appointments to replace them included a member of the Nazi party. The official history states, “the far reaching changes to the Rhenania-Ossag board could not have taken place without the full consent of [Shell Central Offices… No questions of principle or moral judgements about the Hitler regime appear to have arisen.” Shell’s historians were not able to establish what happened next to these Jewish staff members.

Seven years later, after Germany invaded Holland, the Swastika flew outside Shell’s HQ in The Hague.

EXTRACTS END

I was originally tipped off about Shell’s concern over its past toxic history by Shell internal communications never meant for my eyes.

Shell had advance sight of my book and my website ShellNaziHistory.com. Despite aggressive threats, bluster and a global spying operation, Shell took no legal action. No multinational giant would want to draw attention to its past association with Hitler and the Nazis.

NEW BOOK: Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation

By John Donovan

From: “New Images of Nazi Germany”

Extract from the section “Corporate Collaboration” commencing page 203 running onto page 204

The connection of the Royal Dutch Shell Group to Nazi Germany centered on Sir Henri Deterding…

Variously described as the “most powerful man in the world” and the “Napoleon of Oil,” he was also an early admirer of both Hitler and Mussolini…

Deterding himself offered a plan in 1935 to provide a year’s worth of oil credit to Nazi Germany, in principle a war reserve.

When he died six months prior to the outbreak of World War II, Hitler and Goring sent lavish wreaths to his funeral…

… and then tried but failed to gain control over the Royal Dutch Shell Group…

ABOVE TEXT ALL SOURCED FROM “New Images of Nazi Germany: A Photographic Collection by Paul Garson” (2012-10-01). A Photographic Collection concerns the role of the camera as it relates to imagery and ideology in the Third Reich. Published in October 2012 by McFarland & Publishers. Page 204 displays a photograph of Nazi soldiers looking at a Shell Travel Service map, possibly seeking the best route to invade Poland.

ISBN 10: 0786469668  ISBN 13: 9780786469666

Publisher: McFarland & Co, 2012

The book Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell removed from sale in Germany

Amazon will no longer be offering the book “Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell” for sale in German.

The book authored by John Donovan was first published by Amazon in 2016.

Its cover image is said to contain content that is in violation of Amazon content guidelines for Germany and may infringe German law.

The book remains on sale via other Amazon websites around the world including the UK

The Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc threatened legal proceedings prior to the book’s publication in February 2016, but the threat turned out to be bluster. Shell took no action.

The book provides evidence from the UK National Archives that the Nazis tried to seize control of Shell after the death of Shell’s Nazi leader, Sir Henri Deterding.

Information from the Amazon page:

The achievements of the Dutch founder of the mighty Royal Dutch Shell Group, Sir Henri Deterding described in a biography as “The Most Powerful Man In The World” deserved that accolade. He was rewarded with a knighthood after helping the British in WW1.

In later years, Sir Henri became an ardent Nazi. He financially backed the Third Reich and met directly with Hitler.

Evidence signed by Hitler confirmed Deterding’s financial support for the Nazis. The funds to support the Nazis were generated on Shell petrol forecourts around the world.
At the time, Shell publicly boasted about the importance of its financial contribution to the German economy, in which it was a significant player via a subsidiary company controlled by Dutch Directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. The subsidiary became involved in Nazi military planning.

Before the outbreak of WW2 directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group collaborated in the annexation and occupation of sovereign countries by the Nazis – Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Several Dutch directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group also engaged in anti-Semitic policies against Shell employees and were guilty of collaboration and appeasement.

Deterding died just before the outbreak of WW2. He was honoured with a Nazi ceremonial funeral near Berlin attended by Royal Dutch Shell Group directors mingling with Nazi military officers. Hundreds of mourners took part in the funeral procession. A glowing tribute on behalf of the German nation was inscribed on a wreath sent by Hitler.

Fears that the Nazis intended to exploit the death of Sir Henri, just before the start of WW2, to seize control of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, were well founded. The UK National Archives has kindly given permission for related documents and correspondence to be featured within this book.

As a major financial contributor to Nazi Germany in pre-WW2 years, the Royal Dutch Shell Group under Dutch leadership arguably had indirect responsibility for the death toll in the subsequent war, in which over 50 million people perished.

Comprehensive, independent information and evidence, accessible via several hundred links, confirm the veracity of the stated facts.

A version of the book can be seen on the website “ShellNaziHistory.com“

John Donovan was a founding director of the promotional games company Don Marketing. In the 1980s and 1990s, Don devised a host of promotional games for Royal Dutch Shell around the world, including the award-winning game, “Make Money”.  He owns and operates several Shell-focused websites including royaldutchshellplc.com, shellplc.website and shellnazihistory.com

1984 Shell Make Money Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Mastermind Promotional Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Make Merry Harrods Linked Promotional Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Shell Bruce’s Lucky Deal Promotional Game Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

UK VERSION

IRISH VERSION

Shell Star Trek Promotion Created And Supplied By Don Marketing

Don Marketing supplied Shell Make Money games in several countries including Singapore. Promotional games inventor John Donovan is seen here with Shell Singapore posters in December 2020.

…this operation spews out a delightful cocktail of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere, including lovely chemicals like benzene, toluene, and naphthalene. Who wouldn’t want to breathe in those toxic fumes?

Posted by John Donovan 26 May 2023

Shell, the generous and environmentally conscious oil giant, finally faces some consequences after months of residents tirelessly raising concerns.

Pennsylvania has finally taken action and “cracked” down on the Shell plant, which has been causing havoc with its operations. In an act of goodwill, Shell has agreed to pay a measly $10 million to Pennsylvania for exceeding emissions limits during the plant’s troublesome launch. How thoughtful of them!

The plant, aptly named the “ethane cracker,” is an industrial monstrosity spanning 384 acres. It merrily heats up ethane, a fracking byproduct, and “cracks” it under high pressure to produce polyethylene pellets—just what the world needs, more plastic!

Of course, this operation spews out a delightful cocktail of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere, including lovely chemicals like benzene, toluene, and naphthalene. Who wouldn’t want to breathe in those toxic fumes?

But fear not, because Shell had a brilliant solution: they simply burned off the excess gases, creating a picturesque sky filled with flames. Who doesn’t love the sight of flames in the sky? It really adds a special touch to the neighbourhood.

It’s heartwarming to see the Department of Environmental Protection taking such swift action, especially after NBC News and environmental advocacy groups had to put pressure on them. Better late than never, right? And let’s not forget the multiple malfunctions at the plant, which Shell has diligently reported to DEP. Their transparency is truly commendable.

Shell’s commitment to the environment is truly awe-inspiring. They have graciously agreed to restart operations immediately, even though they anticipate being in violation of emissions limits for months to come. It’s so touching to see a company that values profit over the health and well-being of communities.

But don’t worry, folks. Shell has assured us that they are learning from their mistakes and are dedicated to being a responsible neighbor. Just ask the residents who have had the privilege of experiencing headaches and burning eyes when passing by the plant. Such memorable experiences!

Let’s not forget that Shell has a track record of environmental mishaps. They’ve had spills of industrial waste along their pipelines and have even been fined for it. But hey, accidents happen, right? It’s all part of the charm of having a petrochemical plant in your backyard.

Of course, Shell’s plant is part of the grand plan to bring economic prosperity to the region. Who cares about the health and well-being of residents when you can have multinational companies and tax breaks? The decision-makers in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are true visionaries, sacrificing clean air and water for a handful of jobs. It’s a small price to pay!

So, let’s all thank Shell for being such a considerate and responsible corporation. Their commitment to polluting the air, endangering communities, and paying fines is truly an inspiration. We should all strive to be as conscientious as Shell in our daily lives. After all, who needs clean air and water when you can have plastic pellets and flames in the sky?

Shell management has a track record of putting profits first, before any other consideration, including the health and safety even of its own employees. In other words, money before ethics. This is after all the company that financially supported Hitler and the Nazis. The founder of Royal Dutch Shell – Sir Henri Deterding – was himself a fanatical Nazi. Google “Shell Nazi History”.

Shell is invited to point out for correction any factual inaccuracies and supply closing comments for publication as part of this article on an unedited basis. 

By John Donovan: 19 October 2023

In yet another thrilling episode of corporate battles, Clariant has boldly rejected Shell’s claim for damages.

Clariant, the Swiss chemicals company, has made it perfectly clear that they reject Shell’s claim. Shell had the nerve to bring a claim against Clariant and three other companies in the district court of Amsterdam, alleging damages of up to a billion euros.

Clariant, however, swiftly fired back with an impeccable argument: “Shell was not a supplier of ethylene to Clariant, and Clariant has substantiated economic evidence that the conduct of the parties did not produce any effect on the market.” Bravo, Clariant, for showing such outstanding resolve in the face of these allegations!

But, of course, Shell had a response of its own, insisting that Clariant was indeed one of several companies supplying ethylene to the companies involved or their affiliates. As a supplier of ethylene to the European market, Shell has graciously decided to initiate litigation proceedings against these alleged rogue companies. After all, who doesn’t love a good legal battle over price manipulation?

And let’s not forget Clariant’s past alleged escapades. They were among the lucky trio fined a mere EUR260 million by the European Commission in July 2020 for what the EU body quaintly called “cartel activities” related to ethylene purchases. Clariant had to cough up a mere EUR155.8 million, chump change for a company of their stature.

It is also salient to note that Shell has immense expertise as a participant in repeated illegal cartel activity stretching back almost a century. The notorious Nazi Germany chemical company IG Farben was one of Shell’s cartel partners in a number of ventures. (Shell’s founder Sir Henri Deterding was himself a diehard Nazi).

Having sued Shell many times, I warn Clariant to be on its guard when engaged in litigation with Shell, which has a long relationship with former MI6 agents well-versed in the dark arts. I have myself been a repeated target of spying operations by Shell, one of the more recent as reported by Reuters. 

As always, Shell is invited to point out any factual inaccuracies, though I am  certain they’re too busy preparing for their next legal battle to bother.

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