Slave Labor at Royal/Dutch Shell Group

mayo | crime and justice | opinion/analysis

Wednesday October 11, 2006 13:24

by Historian

Slave Labor at Royal/Dutch Shell Group

Approximately 1,385 forced laborers worked at oil refineries and petrochemical plants owned and operated by the Royal/Dutch Shell Group during the Second World War. These workers, largely civilians from Eastern Europe and the Low Countries of Western Europe, were compelled to work on the grounds of Shell's German and Austrian subsidiaries, Rhenania GmbH and Shell Austria AG, respectively. At these locations, the forced laborers toiled long hours under the watchful (and often brutal) guard of Hitler's S.S. men. Deported from their home countries by force, these workers were housed in filthy barracks, and were denied freedom of movement and proper nutrition. For their work, which was contracted from the S.S., the laborers received no pay from Shell or the German Government.

Shell's ties with the Third Reich, however, were not limited to the use of forced labor. It was also a founding partner in Deutsche Gasoline (25%), the national German petroleum company explicitly crafted to give the Reich greater control over domestic gasoline production - for both military and civilian purposes. Shell additionally held the dubious distinction not only of having collaborated with the Nazi Regime to bring Deutsche Gasoline into fruition, but also of sharing control over the company with I.G. Farben Industrie - the infamous producer of Zyklon B poison gas.

Despite its enormous wealth - as quantified by annual sales in excess of $93 billion - Shell has failed to compensate any of the men and women who worked on its grounds between 1943 and 1945.

save preference

Comments (3 of 3)

A little historical digging

by Seán Ryan

Mon Oct 16, 2006 18:23

Here's a link that agrees with the premise of this article: http://www.cmht.com/cases_shell.php

Here's another one that shows how Shell cooperated with the Nazi regime before WWII: "Before the war, the chemical, plastic, oil and rubber monopolists of America aided their German counterparts and divided the world up between them. That was shown in a recent government anti-trust inquiry in America. Gunter Reiman, in his Patents for Hitler, disclosing that Sir Henri Deterding of Royal Dutch Shell [oil company] was one of the earliest financial backers of the Nazis, gives his reasons that “he was interested in discovering those forces which would eliminate once and for all the dangers of social or colonial revolutions”." http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/otherdox/n...r.htm

This page prints allegations that Shell helped finance Hitler's rise to power: "It was reported (by Roberts) that in 1931 Georg Bell, Deterding's agent, attended meetings of Ukrainian Patriots in Paris "as joint delegate of Hitler and Deterding."8 Roberts also reports:
Deterding [Shell head honcho] was accused, as Edgar Ansell Mowrer testifies in his Germany Puts the Clock Back, of putting up a large sum of money for the Nazis on the understanding that success would give him a more favored position in the German oil market. On other occasions, figures as high as £55,000,000 were mentioned."
http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street...7.htm

Anyone want to buy an old book? It's in German but it looks quite interesting: "SHELL FÜHRER FÜR FLIEGER - SHELL GUIDEBOOK FOR FLIERS" http://usmbooks.com/flieger_fuhrer.html

A long history of abuse