Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power, 1919-1933

by James Pool

Called "one of the most useful and illuminating studies of Nazism" by The New Yorker , this highly acclaimed work of history unravels the secret financial web which Hitler spun across Europe and around the globe to bankroll his dream of world domination

Genres: History, Germany, World War II, Conspiracy Theories, Politics

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[David Soucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first books that opened my mind up to the blatant propaganda that revolves around WW2, the reasons it ultimately was fought for what organizations participated in funding it, and promoting the conflict

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up James Pool's book to finish after reading Éric Vuillard's novella, The Order of the Day. Who Financed Hitler is an exhaustive account of the support Hitler and the Nazi's received from German business men and other international reactionary figures (e.g. Edward VIII, the Governor of the Bank of England and Henry Ford). Pool's research is comprehensive and damning. Pool is particularly forensic in detailing the culpability of the leading representatives of the German ruling class in the success of the Nazis after the economic crash of 1929. Their fear of the rise of the German Communist Party (KPD), lead them to gamble on Hitler using his SA stormtroopers as a counter-balance. Hitler was willing to use both bribery and blackmail to manipulate these respectable backers. The Nazis were on the verge of bankruptcy in 1932 - without their financial backing, they could not have got to power.

Pool does not explain the tragic passivity of Hitler's opponents on the left. For this analysis, there is really none better that Leon Trotsky's The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany, written contemporaneously to the events themselves. The failure of the German SPD (labour party) and KPD leaderships to join in a united struggle (or united front) against Hitler, would lead to them being united in Dachau and other concentration camps. Tens of thousands of communists and socialists would be brutally tortured and killed, among Hitler's earliest victims. Pool does partially appreciate the conservative inertia of the SPD leaders, who saw themselves as an essential part of the political establishment - with a vested interest in the Weimar state. Compromise was their sole modus operandi.

However, Pool has no apparent understanding of the dynamic of the KPD. The KPD was no longer an independent party capable of strategic decision-making by the 1930s. It was a wholly owned franchise of Moscow - run by Stalin's appointees. Their insane perspective of "red fascism" - which equated the SPD with the Nazis, doomed them as an effective political force. Their leader, Ernst Thälmann, would be executed in Buchenwald concentration camp in August 1944, on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. Stalin never seriously attempted to get him released - even as part of his Non-Aggression Pact with the Nazis in 1939. Instead, Stalin handed over German communist and anti-nazi refugees who had sought sanctuary in the USSR to the Gestapo - as a show of his good faith with Hitler.

This story is beyond James Pool's remit but it is equally important to understand the suicidal apathy of the leadership of the German labour movement as the culpability of the German ruling class. As The Order of the Day shows many of Hitler's wealthy business supporters would prosper during WWII. IG Farben even had a plant inside Auschwitz-Birkenau. They would move on to sponsor other political projects after the war. Their "miscalculation" over Hitler put behind them. The enormous heritage of the German labour movement was destroyed - like Atlantis. To understand how all this happened, James Pool's book is very useful. I will definitely be looking for volume two. But Leon Trotsky's writings of the period remain essential to understanding the entirety of the catastrophe - as it unfolded.

[Stuart Houghton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and extensively researched, Who Financed Hitler reveals the seeds of Hitler's convictions and how hard he worked to establish the Nazi party as a force in Germany from 1919. There were many years of struggle and sacrifice only a fanatic would be willing to make. It also describes the social conditions, economic hardship and political turmoil Germans suffered in the Great Depression and why so many people supported either the Communists or the Nazis during these desperate years. Why people supported Hitler financially, and who they were, are discussed throughout the book. It all makes sense against the background of WW1 defeat, the constrictions of the Versailles Treaty, worsening economic conditions and the very real and rising threat of a communist revolution. The Nazis were well organised, focused, disciplined and had competent people in key positions of management, propaganda, finance - and Hitler provided leadership at crucial moments that mattered. It all did not rest on Hitler, but equally it could not have happened without him.

[Douglas Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hitler's rise to power is usually explained by honing in on the major events, the Treaty of Versailles, German anti-semitism and the Great Depression. While these were indeed important triggers, starting a political party from scratch, particularly in such a time during the Weimar Republic, was an extremely ambitious endeavor, particularly when you don't have money.

During the early days of the Nazi party, there were several instances when it could've gone belly up, in 1923 during the failed Putsch, in the late 20s as the economy was picking up, and even during the 1930s as they vied against a growing communist revolution. Pool does a good job of identifying which businesspeople and who among the aristocracy reached into their pockets to stave off communists by seeing Hitler as a lightning rod that could move the general masses, as every other politician was seen as incompetent for the working class.

Nazism, even from a purely economic standpoint, was never a sustainable ideology. It needed backers in order to sustain itself, both before and after it took power. It's primary raison d'etre was to crush communism, and so funding the Nazis was not even purely a local affair, as Pool mentions all the international backers of Hitler, such as British royalty, Henry Ford and many others around the world who merely wanted to see the collapse of communism not only in Germany, but where it was gaining power, the Soviet Union.

Much of this is lost in the narrative of WW2, and reading this book gives a more clear picture of what motivated it to begin with.

[Joel Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just a history of who financed Hitler, but a really great look at what was happening during the war and how those events were successful or unsuccessful, often based on the economy (not enough fuel for tanks, not enough money to make ammunition, etc...). Fascinating!

[Jonathan Doyel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening.

[Jacob Woocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

unfortunately relevant

[David I. · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Pool correctly assessed the myth of the jewish bankers financing Hitler as a complete fabrication.