Customer Reviews

Who financed Hitler: The secret funding of Hitler's rise to power, 1919-1933

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pool is able to give us a compelling report about who really financed the Nazi-party and why Hitler had friends in high places, and that despite the fact that many first hand historical documents disappeared.
First, there was the fear for communism (Fritz Thyssen, Henri Deterding of Royal Dutch, Norman Montagu of the Bank of England ...). These people supported Hitler's party to win the working class and the ruined lower middle class away from communism.
Secondly, his anti-semitism (Henry Ford). Third, his racist/nationalist stance (the secret Thule society: a group of lawyers, judges, professors, policemen, aristocrats, scientists and businessmen). Fourth, friendly régimes (Mussolini).
And last but not least, the donations of his party members and his daily newspaper (a milk cow).
Pool gives us a penetrating picture of the political/economical situation in Germany after the First World War: the unbearable Versailles Treaty, the poverty, the unemployment, the hopeless division of the political parties and the plotting of von Papen and his backers, who supported Hitler when his party was losing support, for fear that his followers would jump over to the communists. Von Papen thought that after the elections, he would easily get rid of Hitler, a terrible mistake.
Pool convinced me of the ease with which money can subvert the democratic process.
One of the more controversial statements in this book is the reason of the abdication of King Edward VIII of England: not because of Mrs. Simpson, but because of his pro-Nazi attitude. This statement needed more underpinning.

I've read both of Pool books, and I've found them both very insightful on the American, England and German "money" interest in the Nazi's rise to power. Without their backing, Germany would have fallen into a communist state in the early 1930s. Certainly, the high-powered money interest of Europe preferred the Nazi Party to the communist. This is why the "money" interest supported the Nazi party. Understanding this truth is key in understanding the Nazis rise to power.

We all know what Hitler's views were, but we haven't until Pool research, addressed what powerful forces were instrumental in his rise to power. As a history major, Pool represents what the craft of history is all about. A high recommended reading for anyone.

As a novice reader in this area I found the book tremendously helpful in setting the context for Hitler's inexorable rise to power and illuminating the financial machinations that made it possible. His political adversaries badly underestimated him and the Allies sowed the seeds of WW2 as far back as the punitive Versailles treaty. He was an opportunist par excellence and obviously capable of great evil but Mr. Pool does an admirable job of presenting the everyday, human side of Hitler and the Nazi movement. After all, despite the carnage he wrought he was a man born like the rest of us. Many others, including representatives of countries who eventually ended up sacrificing the flower of their youth to contain his destructive actions, aided and abetted the formation of a totalitarian state. Mr.Pool's greatest achievement is making the book read like a rather exciting novel. It is not at all dry as the title might suggest. You feel a certain sense of tension and anticipation as they struggle towards their utterly contemptuous goals. The great tragedy is that the average Nazi Party member, and the other politicians who tried to use the Hitler bandwagon for their own more moderate aims, thought they were doing a good thing for Germany. Sadly they could not control the beast they unleashed. I look forward to reading the sequel "Hitler's Secret Partners 1933-45".

In accordance with the title, this book tells pretty much all that is now known about "Who Financed Hitler." Most of us are familiar with the rich women who mothered and gave money to Hitler. We've long suspected that at some point Henry Ford financed a portion of Hitler's anti-Semitic fight. Thyssen has long admitted (and repented) having given large sums to Hitler, and of getting other industrialists to do the same. But not many of us were aware that Mussolini gave early financial contributions to his German side-kick. Nor did we realize that a British banker contributed funds to the Nazi party. And how many of us perceived that Hitler also got contributions from people in France, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Finland, and Czecho-Slovakia, as well as other countries? However, as fascinating as all this is, the strength of Mr. Pool's book lies in his ability to take complex situations and condense them into thorough, accurate, and understandable reading. Although I have read more than 150 books on Hitler, I found Pool's reporting to have clarified several points on which I was still fuzzy. If you can read only one book about Hitler's early political years, this would be a good choice. If you've read many books on those early years, you will still want to add this one to your repertoire.

After reading both of Mr. Pool's books on this subject, I felt that these books should be required reading for every World War II veteran - possibly all veterans. And now I would expand that recommendation to all who have ever fought in any war and to those who may be forced to do so in the future.
Reading such books will help to get through a lot of the "who harr" and hoopla of what most everybody "thinks" war is all about. "Where's the Money and Follow the Money" are always good questions - and invariably eye-opening.
Conclusions:
Fear of Communism or anti-Communism was the chief motivational concept behind the rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler. From the man in the street to the captains of industry and the nobles and aristocrats the hatred, fear, and spirit of anti-Communism was common.
Patriotism and nationalism were the second strongest motivational characteristics of Hitler contributors inside Germany.
Industrialists, aristocrats, white Russian refugees and wealthy advocates of the capitalist system all around the world found cause in Hitler's anti-Communism.
The secret Thule Society is for me a new discovery. I had never before read of this group.
The Aryan and the anti-Jewish attitudes seem to be a whole other study. This book would suggest to me that anti-Communism was a bigger motivation for the monetary support of Nazism or Hitlerism.

Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - author of:

Mein Kampf - An Analysis of Book One

Who Financed Hitler is well written and interesting to read. It brings out many facts not normally found in books about Hitler and Nazism. For instance, it explains that the Reichstag fire led to the passing of the Enabling Act which made Hitler a dictator.

Hitler blamed the fire on a plot by communists and had all 100 communist members of the Reichstag arrested. While they were in jail he had the Enabling Act passed by the Reichstag, which met elsewhere because of the damage to the Reichstag building. Without the 100 communist members present, Hitler had enough votes to get the Enabling Act passed.

Most texts on Nazism mention the Reichstag fire, and either leave it at that or just mention that the communist members of the Reichstag were arrested. They do not point out that with the communist members in jail, Hitler had enough votes to have the Enabling Act passed.

The book brings out many other facts about Hitler and Nazism that I have not seen elsewhere. The author, James Pool, is to be congratulated for doing much original research on the Nazi era.

James Pool has effectively laid the Rothschild/Zionist/Jewish funding of Hitler to rest in this fine volume. While the book contains too much Hitler-bashing rhetoric, Pool nevertheless does a terrific job laying out the finer details of who funded Hitler and when. This volume is a must have for anyone who studies Nazism or the Third Reich. You are clueless without it.

James Pool is very detailed and knowledgeable regarding the rise of Hitler and National Socialism after World War I. Pool shows that it took Hitler a long time to win industrialists and the wealthy to his cause. His knowledge on the subject shows he did a lot of research and uses many cross references. Once you start reading, you can't put it down.

This book is only the first in a two-part series and half the story. After reading this book, you really need to purchase Hitler and his Secret Partners (Contributions, Loot and Rewards, 1933-1945) so you can get the whole picture.

this book changed a students whole outlook on hitler that he had done a term paper on and after reading the book asked his professor could he rewrite the paper.i'm not sure if he was allowed or not but the book was a big hit.

This great work concentrates solely on the most important aspect of the Third Reich: who and what were responsible for the success of its leader. History is replete with accounts of bought and sold politicians and the inevitable tragedies that result from the merging of corrupt politicians with political power. Hitler's story is simply the most ominous, tragic, and pure evil of them all - the Mother of corrupt politician sagas, if you will, and is accurately recounted here in well-documented detail. The book thoroughly describes and documents the various moneyed interests, both individual, such as Henry Ford (the subject of entire chapter, including a stunning photo of Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from the Nazis), and organizations and groups, such as virtually the entire German coal and steel industry, who bought Hitler and raised the Nazi Party from failure and obscurity into the nemesis it became. Hitler returned the favor by fronting for their interests, such as by suppressing (and ultimately removing) those within the Nazi Party who believed in such socialist agendas as nationalizing industry, and by advocating for rule by business hegemons, just as their modern-day counterparts, the neoconservatives, do today: "The capitalists have worked their way to the top through their capacity, and on the basis of this selection, which again only proves their higher race, they have a right to lead." - The book quoting Hitler from Nazi leader Otto Strasser's book "Hitler and I" (1940).
The book is a chilling warning of what happens when democracy is subverted by oligarchs.