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The Union Banking Corporation (UBC) was a banking corporation in the US whose assets were seized by the United States government during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act and Executive Order No. 9095. According to an Oct. 5, 1942, report from the USA's federal Office of Alien Property Custodian, Union Banking was owned by Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaardt N.V., a Dutch bank. The memo from August 18, 1941 states "My investigation produced no evidence as to the ownership of this Dutch bank."[1] The Dutch bank was alleged to be affiliated with United Steel Works,[relevant? – discuss] a German company. Fritz Thyssen and his brother, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, had the Dutch bank and the steel firm as part of their business and financial empire according to the US. government agency. Fritz Thyssen resigned from the Council of State after November 9th 1938 Kristallnacht, was arrested in 1940, and spent the remainder of the war in a sanatorium and in concentration camps. The APC documents say "Whether any or all part of the funds held by Union Banking Corporation, or companies associated with it, belong to Fritz Thyssen could not be established in this investigation." [2][3][4][5][6][7] The assets were held by the government for the duration of the war, then returned afterward; UBC dissolved in the 1950s.
[edit] Prescott Bush allegations
After the declassification of government documents in 2002, Internet rumors spread by conspiracy theorists such as John Buchanan alleged that the seizure of the bank proved that George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a supporter of the Nazis. In 2003, the Anti-Defamation League responded, saying:
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Rumors about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated. Despite some early financial dealings between Prescott Bush and a Nazi industrialist named Fritz Thyssen (who was arrested by the Nazi regime in 1938 and imprisoned during the war), Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathizer.[8] |
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[edit] Founding
The UBC was founded on August 4, 1924, with offices at 39 Broadway in New York City. The founding officers of the bank included Cornelis Lievense as President, J. P. Ripley as Secretary and Treasurer, and the following incorporators:[9]
- E. Roland Harriman (Harriman & Company)
- Samuel F. Pryor (Harriman & Company)
- Joseph P. Ripley (Harriman & Company)
- James D. Sawyer (Harriman & Company)
- Garrard Glenn
- William B. Walsh
- DeWitt C. Jones, Jr.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://hnn.us/resources/Bush%20Documents0008.jpg
- ^ http://hnn.us/resources/Bush%20Documents0014.jpg
- ^ "Documents: Bush's Grandfather Directed Bank Tied to Man Who Funded Hitler". FoxNews.com. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100474,00.html.
- ^ "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar.
- ^ "Records of the Office of the Alien Property Custodian". U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. http://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-records/rg-131-alien-property/rg-131-records-02.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
- ^ "Vesting Order Number 248". Federal Register (7 F.R. 5205). http://www.mbpolitics.com/Bush2000/VestingDetail.htm.
- ^ "Hitler's Angel has 3 millions in N.Y. Bank". Washington Post possible copyright violation. http://www.fleshingoutskullandbones.com/P.Bush-Union_Banking/grafx/thyssen.pdf.
- ^ http://www.adl.org/Internet_Rumors/prescott.htm
- ^ http://hnn.us/resources/Bush%20Documents0015.jpg
