Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler (22 page)

This is a synopsis of "Sidney Warburg's" suppressed book on the financial origins of national socialism in Germany. Some of the information in the book is now common knowledge — although only part was generally known in the early 1930s. It is extraordinary to note that the unknown author had access to information that only surfaced many years later — for example, the identity of the von Heydt bank as a Hitler financial conduit. Why was the book taken off the bookstands and suppressed? The stated reason for withdrawal was that "Sidney Warburg" did not exist, that the book was a forgery, and that the Warburg family claimed it contained anti-Semitic and libelous statements.

The information in the book was resurrected after World War II and published in other books in an anti-Semitic context which does not exist in the original 1933 book. Two of these post-war books were Rene Sonderegger's
Spanischer Sommer
and Werner Zimmerman's
Liebet Eure Feinde.

Most importantly James P. Warburg of New York signed an affidavit in 1949, which was published as an appendix in von Papen's
Memoirs.
This Warburg affidavit emphatically denied the authenticity of the "Sidney Warburg" book and claimed it was a hoax, Unfortunately, James P. Warburg focuses on the 1947 Sonderegger anti-Semitic book
Spanischer Sommer,
not the original suppressed "Sidney Warburg" book published in 1933

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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

— where the only anti-Semitism stems from Hitler's alleged statements.

In other words, the Warburg affidavit raised far more questions than it resolved. We should therefore look at Warburg's 1949 affidavit denying the authenticity of
Financial Sources of
National Socialism.

James Paul Warburg's Affidavit

In 1953 Nazi Franz von Papen published his
Memoirs.
8
This was the same Franz von Papen who had been active in the United States on behalf of German espionage in World War I. In his
Memoirs,
Franz von Papen discusses the question of financing Hitler and places the blame squarely on industrialist Fritz Thyssen and banker Kurt von Sehroder. Papen denies that he (Papen) financed Hitler, and indeed no credible evidence has been forthcoming to link von Papen with Hitler's funds (although Zimmerman in
Liebert Eure Feinde
accuses Papen of donating 14 million marks). In this context von Papen mentions "Sidney Warburg's"
The Financial Sources of National Socialism,
together with the two more recent post-World War II books by Werner Zimmerman and Rene Sonderegger (alias Severin

Reinhardt).9
Papen adds that:

James P. Warburg is able to refute the whole falsification in his affidavit ....

For my own part I am most grateful to Mr. Warburg for disposing once and for
all of this malicious libel. It is almost impossible to refute accusations of this
sort by simple negation, and his authoritative denial has enabled me to give
body to my own protestations.
10

There are two sections to Appendix II of Papen's book. First is a statement by James P.

Warburg; second is the affidavit, dated July 15, 1949.

The opening paragraph of the statement records that in 1933 the Dutch publishing house of Holkema and Warendorf published
De Geldbronnen van Het Nationaal-Socialisme. Drie
Gesprekken Met Hitler,
and adds that,

This book was allegedly written by "Sidney Warburg." A partner in the
Amsterdam firm of Warburg & Co. informed James P. Warburg of the book
and Holkema and Warendorf were informed that no such person as "Sidney
Warburg" existed. They thereupon withdrew the book from circulation.

James Warburg then makes two sequential and seemingly contradictory statements:

...
the book contained a mass of libelous material against various members of
my family and against a number of prominent banking houses and individuals
in New York· I have never to this day seen a copy of the book. Apparently only
a handful of copies escaped the publisher's withdrawal.

Now on the one hand Warburg claims he has never seen a copy of the "Sidney Warburg"

book, and on the other hand says it is
"libelous"
and proceeds to construct a detailed affidavit on a sentence by sentence basis to refute the information supposedly in a book he claims not to have seen! It is very difficult to accept the validity of Warburg's claim he has http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_10.htm (7 of 14) [8/4/2001 9:44:19 PM]

CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

"never to this day seen a copy of the book." Or if indeed he had not, then the affidavit is worthless.

James Warburg adds that the "Sidney Warburg" book is "obvious anti-Semitism," and the thrust of Warburg's statement is that the
"Sidney
Warburg" story is pure anti-Semitic propaganda. In fact (and Warburg would have discovered this fact if he had read the book), the
only
anti-Semitic statements in the 1933 book are those attributed to Adolf Hitler, whose anti-Semitic feelings are hardly any great discovery. Apart from Hitler's ravings there is nothing in the original "Sidney Warburg" book remotely connected with anti-Semitism, unless we classify Rockefeller, Glean, Carter, McBean,
etc.
as Jewish.
In fact, it is notable
that not a single Jewish banker is named in the book — except for the mythical "Sidney
Warburg" who is a courier, not one of the alleged money givers.
Yet we know from an authentic source (Ambassador Dodd) that the Jewish banker Eberhard von Oppenheim did indeed give 200,000 marks to Hitler,
11
and it is unlikely "Sidney Warburg" would have missed this observation if he was deliberately purveying false anti-Semitic propaganda.

The first page of James Warburg's statement concerns the 1933 book. After the first page lames Warburg introduces Rene Sonderegger and another book written in 1947. Careful analysis of Warburg's statement and affidavit point up that his denials and assertions essentially refer to Sonderegger and
not
to Sidney Warburg. Now Sonderegger was anti-Semitic and probably was part of a neo-Nazi movement after World War II, but this claim of anti-Semitism cannot be laid to the 1933 book — and that is the crux of the question at issue. In brief, James Paul Warburg starts out by claiming to discuss a book he has never seen but knows to be libelous and anti-Semitic, then without warning shifts the accusation to another book which was certainly anti-Semitic but was published a decade later. Thus, the Warburg affidavit so thoroughly confuses the two books that the reader is

lead to condemn the mythical" Sidney Warburg" along with Sonderegger.12
Let us look at some of J.P. Warburg's statements:

James P. Warburg's Sworn

Author's Comments on James P.

Affidavit New York City, July

Warburg Affidavit

15, 1949

1. Concerning the wholly false and Note that the affidavit concerns malicious allegations made by

Rene Sonderegger,
not
the book

Rene Sonderegger of Zurich,

published by J.G. Shoup in 1933.

Switzerland,
et al.,
as set forth in

the foregoing part of this

statement, I, James Paul Warburg,

of Greenwich, Connecticut,

U.S.A., depose as follows:

2. No such person as

We can assume that the name

"Sidney Warburg" existed in New "Sidney Warburg" is a pseudonym, York City in 1933, nor

or used falsely.

elsewhere, as far as I know,

then or at any other time.

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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

3. I never gave any manuscript,

The affidavit confines itself to

diary, notes, cables, or any other

grant of materials "for translation

documents to any person for

and publication in Holland."

translation and publication in

Holland, and, specifically, I never

gave any such documents to the

alleged J.G. Shoup of Antwerp. To

the best of my knowledge and

recollection I never at any time

met any such person.

4. The telephone conversation

Reported by Sonderegger, not

between Roger Baldwin and

"Sidney Warburg."

myself, reported by Sonderegger,

never took place at all and is pure

invention.

5. I did not go to Germany at the

But Warburg
did
go to Germany in

request of the President of the

1929 and 1930 for the

Guaranty Trust Company in 1929, International Acceptance Bank, or at any other time.

Inc.

6. I did go to Germany on business Note that Warburg, by his own for my own bank, The

statement, told his banking

International Acceptance Bank

associates that Hitler would come

Inc., of New York, in both 1929

to power. This claim was made
in

and 1930. On neither of these

1930 — and
the Warburgs

occasions did I have anything to

continued as
directors
with I.G.

do with investigating the possible Farben and other pro-Nazi firms.

prevention of a Communist

revolution in Germany by the

promotion of a Nazi counter-

revolution. As a matter of recorded

fact, my opinion at the time was

that there was relatively little

danger of a Communist revolution

in Germany and a considerable

danger of a Nazi seizure of power,

I am in a position to prove that, on

my return from Germany after the

Reichstag elections of 1930, I

warned my associates that Hitler

would very likely come to power

in Germany and that the result

would be either a Nazi- dominated

Europe or a second world war —

perhaps both. This can be

corroborated as well as the fact

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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

that, as a consequence of my

warning, my bank proceeded to

reduce its German commitments as

rapidly as possible.

7. I had no discussions anywhere, There is no evidence to contradict at any time, with Hitler, with any

this statement. So far as can be

Nazi officials, or with anyone else traced Warburgs were not about providing funds for the Nazi connected with these banking Party. Specifically, I had no

firms except that the Italian

dealing of this sort with

correspondent of Warburg's Bank

Mendelssohn & Co., or the

of Manhattan was
"Banca

Rotterdamsche Bankvereiniging or Commerciale Italiana" — which is the Banca Italiana. (The latter is

close to "Banca Italiana."

probably meant to read Banca

d'Italia, with which I likewise had

no such dealings.)

8. In February 1933 (see pages 191 There is no evidence to contradict and 192 of
Spanischer Sommer)

these statements. "Sidney

when I am alleged to have brought Warburg" provides no supporting Hitler the last installment of

evidence for his claims.

American funds and to have been

received by Goering and Goebbels

as well as by Hitler himself, I can

prove that I was not in Germany at

all. I never set foot in Germany

after the Nazis had come to power

in January 1933. In January and

February I was in New York and

Washington, working both with

See
Wall Street and FDR,
(New

my bank and with President-elect

York: Arlington House Publishers,

Roosevelt
on the then-acute

1975), for details of FDR's

banking crisis. After Mr.

German associations.

Roosevelt's inauguration, on

March 3, 1933, I was working with

him continuously helping to

prepare the agenda for the World

Economic Conference, to which I

was sent as Financial Adviser in

early June. This is a matter of

public record.

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CHAPTER TEN: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"

9. The foregoing statements should

No. James P. Warburg states he

suffice to demonstrate that the

has never seen the original "Sidney

whole "Sidney Warburg" myth and Warburg" book published in the subsequent spurious

Holland in 1933. Therefore his

identification of myself with the

affidavit only applies to the

non-existent" Sidney" are

Sonderegger book which
is

fabrications of malicious falsehood inaccurate. Sidney Warburg may without the slightest foundation in well be a myth, but the association truth.

of Max Warburg and Paul

Warburg with I.G. Farben and

Hitler is
not
a myth.

Does James Warburg intend to mislead?

It is true that" Sidney Warburg" may well have been an invention, in the sense that"

Sidney Warburg" never existed. We
assume
the name is a fake; but
someone
wrote the
book. Zimmerman and Sonderegger may or may not have committed libel to the
Warburg name, but unfortunately when we examine James P. Warburg's affidavit as
published in von Papen's
Memoirs
we are left as much in the dark as ever. There are
three important and unanswered questions: (1) why would James P. Warburg claim as
a forgery a book he has not read; (2) why does Warburg's affidavit avoid the key
question and divert discussion away from "Sidney Warburg" to the anti-Semitic
Sonderegger book published in 1947; and (3) why would James P. Warburg be so
insensitive to Jewish suffering in World War II to publish his affidavit in the
Memoirs