The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben

by Joseph Borkin

Some damage to cover

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Crime, Germany

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Joseph Borkin was an American economic lawyer and author known for his work on antitrust law and international cartels. Born in New York City, he studied economics at New York University and law at National University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Early in his career, he worked for the U.S. Congress and the Senate investigating corruption in the munitions industry. In 1938, he joined the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division under Thurman Arnold. In 1943, he co-authored the bestselling pamphlet Germany’s Master Plan, a patriotic critique of German and international cartels. This publication, released before similar works by Corwin D. Edwards and Wendell Berge, became a major statement of the Roosevelt-progressive antitrust campaign. Until 1946, Borkin served as chief economist at the Antitrust Division and led investigations into IG Farben’s global operations. After leaving public service, he practiced law and lectured on business ethics at Catholic University of America. In 1978, he published The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben. He also wrote on literature, Freud, and Indonesian language.

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is so hard to read this excellent book about such disgusting behavior ... even when found guilty of slavery and murder, the IG Farben executives got at most 8 years in prison.

... here's one example ... the IG Farben executives were so "unsettled" they had to establish their own concentration camp

Sickness, malnutrition, the work tempo, and sadistic S.S. guards and Capos also took their toll. It was an unsettling sight for I.G. officials to witness work details carrying their dead back and forth so that all inmates could be accounted for at roll call when the work day began and when it ended. It was a strange way to run a business.... I.G. Auschwitz was approaching a financial and technical crisis. With the investment of almost a billion Reichsmarks in jeopardy, the I.G. managing board of directors decided on a drastic solution. It made a further and dramatic descent into the Nazi hell. In July 1942, just after Hitler had begun his second year of troubles in the Soviet Union, the I.G. managing board voted to solve its Auschwitz labor problems by establishing its own concentration camp

...Monowitz was completed in the summer of 1942. Although it belonged to I.G., Monowitz had all the equipment of the typical Nazi concentration camp--watchtowers with searchlights, warning sirens, poised machine guns, armed guards, and trained police dogs. The entire camp was encircled with electrically charged barbed wire. There was a "standing cell" in which the victim could neither stand upright, kneel, nor lie down. 36 There was also a gallows, often with a body or two hanging from it as a grim example to the rest of the inmates. Across the arched entrance was the Auschwitz motto, "Freedom through Work."

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the common complaints about this book is that it's a dull read, I can see what people mean, but for me that wasnt an issue. Joseph Borkin's job during and immediately after World War 2 was the investigation and prosecution of the cartels dominated by IG Farben, bringing to trial at Nuremberg those German industrialists who made nazi war crimes possible. So this book is the densely packed eye witness account of an expert legal investigator, for that reason its an invaluable work, and that's why I give it five stars.

Its detailed and covers the history and formation of German industrial cartels before the nazis came to power to the end of the war and the war crimes tribunals.

I really recommend it as a reliable and in depth history of the mechanisms that fused nazism and capitalism to create the industrialised slaughter of the Holocaust.

[Nick Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly boring (though meticulously researched), at times reading like an SEC disclosure. The saving grace, and cause for the second star, is the explanation of Spee's misadventures from Valparaíso, Mas Afuera, to the Cape Horn and Picton Island: in a bold thesis I've seen advanced nowhere else, Borkin makes a convincing case that the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Nürnberg and Leipzig were lost in an attempt to secure nitrate supplies around Tocapila and other Chilean centers for of the batshit industry. You see, the Haber process had not yet succeeded in sucking ammonia from the air in a fury of entropy generation; the Rear Admiral had packed his ships full of a precious cargo of nitrate-rich guano (although he manages somehow to miss mentioning the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific, which was all about Bolivia literally getting up in Chile's (bat)shit, and Peru also wanting to get in on that...well you see how this goes).

I can't imagine many worse deaths en masse (Agincourt, 1415 would be up there) than drowning in the freezing south atlantic at twilight, all around you burning a surreal scum of shipoil, intestines blown apart by British grapeshot fired from two miles beyond your range and the hull-full of slowroasting bat shit and the few thousand finest of the Kaiserliche Marine, and every time you open your mouth to sing Der Rosenkavalier you get a rich cocktail of flaming-batcrap, salt water and ex-Volk. In your last gurgling flail, you see a blinkenlight in the distance...could it be das reskueboot even now? Decoding the Morse:

"THIS IS CAP'N BARRY FRIENDLY STOP. OF THE HMS PWNAGE STOP. GOODBYE PICCADILLY FAREWELL LEICESTER SQUARE IT'S A LONG LONG WAY..."

to where? but you'll never know, because with a final squirt and bubble you add your own effluvia to the conflagration, the fire-and-water-and-shit storm, and your body finds its final anoxic lebensraum among giant tube worms and lithoautotrophic piezophiles, and here there are no sausages to be had, not at any price.

[Davy Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. As a valve guy in Houston this meant alot to me.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A crisp, concise history of the IG Farben industrial collection, from its creation at the beginning of the century, through the atrocities of WW2, and into its political rehabilitation in the Cold War. It's packed with details and I found it fascinating to read.

[D. Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book that truly blew my mind. Unfathomable corporate greed and suspension of all the characteristics that make us human.

[Salela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to know what some U.S. vested corporate interests were really up to during WWII? Read this well research and highly detailed book.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author Joseph Borkin presented a detailed expose' of I.G. Farben's importance to German war capabilities in World Wars I and II. Among I.G.'s contribution in W.W.I, chlorine gas. By World War II, Farben's leaders, in pursuit of profit, became an essential partner in the Nazi war effort. The use of slave labor culminated in Auschwitz IV, I.G.'s concentration camp at Monowitz. I.G. also systematically planned for and benefited from Nazi conquests in Europe, assuming corporate control of desirable industries...and hiding control just in case Germany were to later lose the war. Pre-war contracts I.G. formed with Standard Oil allowed I.G.to obtain know-how for production of tetraethel lead. Standard also gave I.G. patent rights and know-how for the synthetic rubber, Butyl, but I.G., under German government directive, managed to avoid fulfilling its agreement to provide Standard Oil with Buna rubber technology. Final resolution of the secret war time collaboration between I.G. and Standard Oil didn't take place until 1967, when the U.S. finally agreed to the sale of General Analine and Film,G.A. F. after years of litigation by the U.S. Department of Justice's Alien Property Custodian.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one the most informative book I have ever read concerning the business side of the holocaust. Germany would never have got as far as it did without the support of major corporations such as I.G. Farben, yet we never seem to hear about the guilt or the fate of these companies. If you want to learn more about the role of war profiteers in the holocaust, this is a great place to start. It is not an easy read, very lengthy and boring in the presentation of the facts. But, this does not take away from the fact that there is much to be learned in this book that to my knowledge, is lacking in most publications concerning this era in history.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent historical record of the Prussian/German manufacturing industries and their transition into the war machinery for WWI and WWII. An unbelievable story of corporate malevolence, it is an interesting read but slowly becomes tiresome, especially when recounting the legal battles in postwar America/Europe to reclaim responsibility for German corporations outside the Reich. I personally loved reading the first third of the book, as it explained the rise of IG Farbin and the brilliant minds responsible for their technological breakthroughs in the field of dyestuffs and high pressure manufacturing.

[Colin Grieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title, or rather sub-title of this book, "The startling account of the unholy alliance of Adolf Hitler and Germany's great chemical combine" is misleading in that it is really a history of I.G. Farben from the beginning of the German chemical industry to the time it was written in the 1970s. The chapters dealing with I.G.'s role in the Nazi regime and World War Two make up a little less than half of the book. As I had chosen to read this as a follow up to a more comprehensive history of the Holocaust, the other half was of little interest, though it would be to students of corporate influence in pre-and post-war governments.

[Natasha Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought about the guilt of companies in WWII until I read this book. It dives into the world of those who created the gases used in WWII and how those companies were guilty of war crimes for creating those weapons. I found it very fascinating and added a new perspective on my understanding of WWII.

[Ricky Callahan Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dense, but also very thorough. Took me longer than anticipated to complete this book, however the time invested in reading netted some very interesting and useful information. If anyone has a passing interest in IG Farben and/or their roll in WWII, I'd highly recommend this book.

[Edward Janes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply troubling. In a few words, there was a lot of crime (see Chapter 6, "Slave Labor and Mass Murder", et al) but in reality no punishment.

Chapter 10, "Corporate Camouflage" is deeply revealing. Also page 203 regarding Standard Oil due to its involvement in protecting Farben assets noted as an "enemy national" by circuit court judge Charles Clark.

[Mads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessant bog om en af de væsentlige faktorer, der gjorde Hitler i stand til at føre krig så lang tid, som han faktisk gjorde det: Det gigantiske industrikonglomerat I.G. Farben - virksomheden der udover syntetisk benzin og syntetisk gummi bl.a. også producerede den Zyklon B, der blev anvendt i kz-lejrenes gaskamre.

Det er en helt igennem skræmmende beretning om kynisme indenfor erhverslivet. Historien er hinsides alt, hvad man kan forestille sig - og det samme gælder forsøgene på at dække over det hele efter krigen.

Den eneste grund til, jeg ikke kan give bogen mere end 3 stjerner er, at jeg synes balancen i den er skæv. Der bruges rigtig meget plads på at beskrive perioden efter krigen, som med fordel kunne have været anvendt til at skrive om, hvad der skete under selve krigen. Guderne skal vide, der er nok at 'go i krig' med.

[Tayylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the book is interesting but becomes a little too dry by the end. While the legal battles in the later chapters are certainly relevant to I.G. Farben's history, it didn't strike me as the most pressing material to give such attention to, nor did it seem to conclude the book in any sort of satisfactory way. The more personal, human element of I. G. Farben's later years may have been far more engaging and morally enlightening; however, this is still a very well-researched book.

[Maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this in 2008 and reread it a few years later. It astounded me in my first reading, with its well-researched story of the industrial ethos of profit and applied sciences that drove the machinery of horrible hellish mass murder made all the more incredible because so many in industry and in government justified their actions. This book has stayed with me strongly for more than a decade now. I highly recommend it as a companion read to The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Both are about scientists solving interesting problems with more of a focus on their social and financial positions, with no absence of pressure from the nations who employed or deployed them, than on their sponsors' intended uses for their work deliverables.