union banking corporation
besides the union bank corporation, mr. lievense is president of the holland american corporation, the domestic fuel corporation, and the seamless steel equipment corporation .
the union banking corporation, 39 broadway, new york, has received authority to change its principal place of business to 120 broadway .
union banking was seized by the government in october 1942 under the trading with the enemy act .
union bank is a registered trademark and brand name of mufg union bank, n. a .
all of these occupy offices with the union bank corporation at 39 broadway. others in the group at that address are the kemari trading corporation, the riberena fuel and chartering corporation, kauffmann & co. and religious publications inc .
mr. lievense admitted that the assets of the domestic fuel corporation, the holland american trading corporation and the seamless steel equipment corporation had all been frozen along with those of the union banking corporation by the treasury department. he said the business of the whole group, aside, from the bank, hardly approached $ 1, 000, 000 annually .
union banking was seized by the government in october 1942 under the trading with the enemy act (search) .
reference is made to your letter of january 14 and to conversations which you and certain of your partners have since had with me relative to the status of the union banking corporation .
he insisted, however, that religious publications, inc. , although occupying offices with the union banking corporation and the others, was not a thyssen venture but was purely his personal affair .
herr thyssens adventure in the american business world dates back to august, 1924, when without flourishes or ruffles the union banking corporation was incorporated with a capital stock of $ 400, 000, the money coming from the bank voor handel en scheepvaart, of rotterdam. it was licensed under the new york state banking laws as an investment corporation .
the real story continued to be suppressed. no reportage that the corporation was taken over by the us government under the trading with the enemy act in the fall of 1942, nor that the address to where union banking corporation was moved was the office of the alien property custodian .
nor was it skull and bones that specifically instructed members to aid adolf hitler, though hitlers financier stowed $ 3 million in the union banking corporation, a bank that counted among its seven directors prescott bush .
the union banking corporation does no commercial business, and its only depositor is the bank voor handel en scheepvaart. its activities are limited to occasional payments and a few purchases and sales of securities. all shares of the union banking corporation are registered in the name of e. r. harriman, who is chairman of the board, except the qualifying shares held by directors. as the company is dutchowned, its banking accounts were frozen under the presidential proclamation of may 10, 1940 .
brown brothers harriman & co. have never had any financial interest in the union banking corporation or any of its subsidiaries, and have never profited in any way from its activities. the association of some of its partners with the thyssen corporation, it points, out, was entirely a matter of courtesy .
government circles assert that the assets of the union banking corporation and its subsidiaries were frozen because capital and control came from netherlands institution called the, bank voor handel en scheepvaart (bank for trade, and shipping) in rotterdam one of the thyssen string of banking houses on the continent. it was subject to the freezing order, however, as a dutch corporation and not as a germanowned property .
during recent months this department has been obliged to give unusual attention to certain of the banking organizations in this country which have been affected by the freezing orders. this, however has not been true in the case of the union banking corporation because of the confidence which the department has in the directors of this institution
– unionbancal corporation, and its primary banking subsidiary, union bank, n. a. , announced several changes to the composition of its board of directors. effective today, four new members have joined the board of unionbancal corporation and union bank, n. a. as outside directors: michael d. fraizer, ann f. jaedicke, henry r. keizer and toby s. myerson .
mufg union bank, n. a. all rights reserved. member fdic .
when a new world war began the brown brothers harriman partners sensed possible embarrassment through association with a corporation stemming from german interests and considered withdrawal from the union banking corporations board. in a consultation with william r. white, state superintendent of banks, on the subject mr. white requested them to remain on the board to assure efficient administration of the corporations affairs by trustworthy and responsible persons during the emergency. they agreed to comply with mr. whites request .
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a dutch producer daniæl de witt, from dutch national television interviewed sutton, chaitkin, tarpley and others in 1996, for a documentary on skull & bones that included confirmation from dutch officials concerning the union banking corporation and its activities in financing hitler through a dutch bank, the bank voor handel en scheepvart (bank for trade and shipping). from the documentary: original documents of the amsterdam based international institute of social history (instituut voor sociale geschiedenis) clearly show the connection between the bhs, the august thyssen bank from fritz thyssen and harrimans union banking corporation. 
the union banking corporation was capitalized at $ 400, 000 (most of the stock held by roland harriman) and acted as a repository for thyssens funds earned in the united states. tarpley and chaitkin have written that government investigators reported the union banking corporation has since its inception [ 1924 ] handled funds chiefly supplied to it through the dutch bank for thyssen interests for american investment.  averell harriman had been in berlin in 1922 establishing a berlin branch of w. a. harriman & co. under george walkers presidency at which time he became acquainted with fritz thyssen. 
…harriman and helped establish the union banking corporation (ubc), both of which were enmeshed with the financial interests of german industrialist fritz thyssen, who helped fund the rise of the nazi party. despite the release of documents in the early 21st century that confirmed that ubc’s holdings were vested by…
the second change was quite substantial, the post only ran the first twelve paragraphs of over fifty in the original, cutting out and cutting off any mention of
the private bank banking house of brown brothers harriman
and
prescott s. bush and... are directors of the union banking corporation
from the
news
proffered in the nation' s capital that day .
the following four directors affiliated with mufg will complete the board of directors for mufg union bank, n. a. and mufg americas holdings corporation: takashi morimura, masashi oka, katsumi hatao, and hironori kamezawa. mr. morimura is deputy president of btmu and chief executive of btmu’s global business unit. mr. oka is president and chief executive officer of unionbancal corporation and union bank, as well as chief executive officer for the americas of btmu. effective july 1, mr. oka will serve as executive chairman of mufg americas holdings corporation and mufg union bank, n. a .
the bush political family seems to have taken those words to heart, one example being the story of prescotts involvement with the union banking corporation and the financing of hitler and fascism. why there has been such a deliberate and hard cover - up of this affair is in no doubt due to its sensitive nature .
on july 1, 2014, when the bank of tokyo - mitsubishi ufj, ltd. (btmu), a subsidiary of mitsubishi ufj financial group, inc. , integrates btmu’s u. s. branch banking operations with union bank, n. a. , the new legal name of the bank will be mufg union bank, n. a. and the legal name of the holding company will be mufg americas holdings corporation. as of july 1, messrs. fraizer and keizer and ms. jaedicke will serve as board members of mufg union bank, n. a. and mufg americas holdings corporation; mr. myerson will only serve on the board of mufg union bank, n. a .
in the american colony of thyssen enterprises perhaps the most interesting is, the union banking corporation, 39 broadway, nominal guardian of the $ 3, 000, 000 cache, all in united states currency a sort of nest egg for herr thyssen or perhaps for some of his highplaced nazi friends when the present troublous days are over .
no charges were brought against union banking' s american directors. the federal government was too busy trying to fight the war, said donald goldstein, a professor of public and international affairs at the university of pittsburgh .
prescott bush was one of seven directors of union banking corp. , a new york investment bank owned by a bank controlled by the thyssen family, according to recently declassified national archives documents reviewed by the associated press .
two of mr. lievenses associates, on the board of the union banking corporation, , j. g. groeninger and n. j. kouwenhoven, are among herr thyssens chief managerial assistants in the conduct of many of his european projects. kouwenhoven is an old school friend of mr. lievense and is managing director of the bank voor handel en scheepvaart. he is also managing director of the holland american investment corporation and is on the board of the thyssenowned vlaardingen harborworks .
reports of bush' s involvement with the seized bank have been circulating on the internet for years and have been reported by some mainstream media. the newly declassified documents provide additional details about the union banking - thyssen connection .
reports of prescott bush’s involvement with the seized bank have been circulating on the internet for years and have been reported by some mainstream news media. the newly declassified documents provide additional details about the union banking - thyssen connection .
effective today, the following members of the board of directors of unionbancal corporation and union bank will retire: aida m. alvarez, takeo hoshi, ph. d. , nicholas b. binkley, l. dale crandall and murray h. dashe. effective july 1, katsunori nagayasu, chairman of btmu, will retire as a board member of unionbancal corporation .
there was no coverage of the herald - tribune articles information on the thyssen / union banking corporation connection in the national news weeklies, the new york times, the wall street journal or even the new york daily worker. the afternoon daily, hearst - owned j ournal - americans article was basically a condensed re - hash of the earlier herald tribune articles .
in addition to known lieutenants of the thyssen interests in europe, there appeared and continue to appear on the board of directors of this corporation the names of several partners of the private banking house of brown brothers harriman & co. , 59 wall street .
in the history of the class of 1917 yale college, volume v twenty - fifth record printed in 1942, prescott proudly proclaims his directorship of the union banking corporation, listing it third behind cbs and the dresser manufacturing company and ahead of six other substantial companies. he had been on the banks board since 1934, his father - in - law was a founder and had been the banks president. it really wasnt a bank per sä, but acted has a holding company for thyssen, the german steel trust and its related components in their dealings with american industrial and financial markets. it allowed the thyssen interests to raise money, sell and buy goods in america and then use union banking corporation as their reciprocal bank to transfer monies back and forth .
a headline that landed on the front page of the new york herald tribune in july of that year read: hitlers angel has 3 million in u. s. bank.  the reference was to the union banking corporation. prescott may have been upset or alarmed by the disclosure he was one of its seven directors. a person of less established ethics would have been panicked .
among other thyssen interests in new york are half a dozen corporations engaged in the shipping, export and import trades, centering chiefly about coal and steel industries and operating under the wing of the union banking corporation. these organizations did a thriving business in rolling up dollars for herr thyssen in years past, but have been brought virtually to a standstill during the last year by the war .
prescott bush (search) was one of seven directors of union banking corp. (search), a new york investment bank owned by a bank controlled by the thyssen family, according to recently declassified national archives documents reviewed by the associated press .
prescott bush retired from the senate in 1962, returning to his work at brown brothers harriman. he passed away in october of 1972. antony sutton didnt write his book about the order of skull & bones and the union banking corporations involvement with financing hitler until 1984. the story and prescotts defense didnt appear till april 2001, just before his bonesman grandsons selection to serve as the president of the united states .
the dominating personality in the administration of the thyssen domain in the united states is the shy and little known cornelis lievense, a colorful little hollander who arrived in this country by way of montreal in may, 1926, two years after the union banking corporation was set up mr. lievense is a naturalized american citizen having received his final citizen papers on jan. 29, 1932, at mineola, l. i .
as you are aware, my partners, e. r. harriman, ray morris, prescott s. bush and our manager, h. d. pennington, are directors of the union banking corporation, a state institution under your supervision. this corporation is located, at 39 broadway, and it is in effect a new york office, or agency, of the bank voor handel en scheepvaart, in rotterdam. because of possible uncertainty as to whether the bank voor handel en scheepvaart might be held to be a dutch institution, or whether it is, in fact, a german institution under a dutch name, my partners have been giving serious consideration to withdrawing from the board. should the united states enter the war, they feel they might be under some embarrassment because of their connection with the bank, even though we have no financial interest in the union banking corporation, nor do we participate in its earnings. they act as directors merely as a matter of business courtesy .
prescott definitely understood this and it seems as though he and brown brothers harriman were trying to keep the scandal in the dark before some newshound broke the soon to be squashed news because in the july 31, 1941, new york herald - tribune it says that seven months before, in january of 1941, brown brothers harriman partner and bonesman, knight wooley had written to the ny state banking board superintendent that  [ s ] hould the united states enter the war, they [ the union banking corporation american directors ] felt they might be under some embarrassment, . 
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in 1992, webster tarpley and anton chaitkin authored george bush: the unauthorized biography (some chapters are presented in this book), which took the investigations further. they found in u. s. government archives the vesting order seizing the union banking corporation and documented other harriman / bush controlled interests that were doing business with the nazis. their book was published by executive intelligence review, a lyndon laurouche organization, and again the reports were ignored .
continuing their board service with unionbancal corporation and union bank are four long - time outside directors: christine n. garvey, mohan s. gyani, barbara l. rambo and dean a. yoost. all four will continue their term when the legal name of the bank and holding company change on july 1, 2014 .
fritz thyssen (search) was an early financial supporter of hitler, whose nazi party thyssen believed was preferable to communism. the documents do not show any evidence bush directly aided that effort. his position with union banking never was a political issue for bush, who was elected to the senate from connecticut in 1952 .
mr. hatao is deputy ceo for the americas and chief executive, headquarters for the americas of btmu. effective july 1, mr. hatao will serve as chief executive officer of mufg americas holdings corporation and mufg union bank, n. a. as well as chief executive officer for the americas of btmu. mr. kamezawa is deputy chief executive, headquarters for the americas of btmu and will serve as deputy ceo for the americas of btmu effective july 1. he was previously general manager of global markets planning division for btmu. mr. kamezawa will also begin his term on the board of mufg americas holdings corporation and mufg union bank on july 1, 2014 .
the 4, 000 union banking shares owned by the dutch bank were registered in the names of the seven u. s. directors, according a document signed by homer jones, chief of the division of investigation and research of the office of alien property custodian, a world war ii - era agency that no longer exists .
may wrote in his report of august 16 1941 :
union banking corporation, incorporated august 4 1924, is wholly owned by the bank voor handel en scheepvaart n. v of rotterdam, the netherlands. my investigation has produced no evidence as to the ownership of the dutch bank. mr cornelis [ sic ] lievense, president of ubc, claims no knowledge as to the ownership of the bank voor handel but believes it possible that baron heinrich thyssen, brother of fritz thyssen, may own a substantial interest .
union bank & trust, located in virginia and beyond, offers a wide range of financial solutions including checking accounts, savings accounts, business loans and more. explore our offerings online including financial planning, investment services and retirement planning from union wealth management. bank online or visit one of our conveniently located branches or atms today .
this took place, of course, at a time when the present world tangle could hardly have been foreseen and when such courtesies were part of the normal routine of international banking relations .
the specific allegations about the union banking corporation first surfaced in antony suttons 1975 book, wall street and the rise of hitler. sutton at that time did not know about the order of skull & bones. after becoming aware of the order in 1983 he expanded his writings on the subject in how the order creates war and revolution in 1984, which was later published, with antonys three other booklets on the order of skull & bones, together as americas secret establishment in 1986. the charges were articulated again in 1988 in suttons the two faces of george bush .
while there is no suggestion that prescott bush was sympathetic to the nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, brown brothers harriman (bbh), acted as a us base for the german industrialist, fritz thyssen, who helped finance hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. the guardian has seen evidence that shows bush was the director of the new york - based union banking corporation (ubc) that represented thyssen' s us interests and he continued to work for the bank after america entered the war .
fritz thyssen was an early financial supporter of hitler, whose national socialist german workers’ party (nazi) mr. thyssen believed was preferable to communism. the documents do not show any evidence that mr. bush directly aided that effort. his position with union banking never was a political issue for prescott bush, who was elected to the senate from connecticut in 1952 .
headquartered in san francisco, unionbancal corporation is a financial holding company with assets of $ 107. 2 billion at march 31, 2014. its primary subsidiary, union bank, n. a. , provides an array of financial services to individuals, small businesses, middle - market companies, and major corporations. the bank operated 422 branches in california, washington, oregon, texas, illinois, new york and georgia, as well as two international offices, as of march 31, 2014. unionbancal corporation is a wholly - owned subsidiary of the bank of tokyo - mitsubishi ufj, ltd. , which is a subsidiary of mitsubishi ufj financial group, inc. union bank is a proud member of the mitsubishi ufj financial group (mufg, nyse: mtu), one of the world’s largest financial organizations. in july 2013, american banker magazine and the reputation institute ranked union bank # 1 for reputation among its customers. visit
in view, of these uncertainties, together with the censorship affecting communications to and from rotterdam, i realize that the union banking corporation might be placed in an embarrassing position if all the directors were to resign at this time. i feel sure however that you will understand the position of my associates, and i would greatly appreciate, a frank expression from you as to the action which you feel that they should take should you believe that the interests of the banking department would be best served by their continuing as directors until the situation abroad has been somewhat clarified, i know that they will be glad to be guided by, your judgment and i shall greatly appreciate your reaction to this situation and your opinion as to what action, if any, should be taken by my associates .
the union banking corporation was a holding company for the nazis, for fritz thyssen ,
said loftus .
at various times, the bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a dutch bank and it wasn' t until the nazis took over holland that they realised that now the nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. both the american treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in europe completely bely that, it' s absolute horseshit. they always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were .
he admitted also that the domestic fuel corporation, which had been bringing cargoes of, coal from the thyssen mining interests in europe to canada and other western hemisphere points, had been blacklisted by the canadian trade commission in the fall of 1940 .
union banking was owned by a dutch bank, bank voor handel en scheepvaardt n. v. , which was
closely affiliated
with the german conglomerate united steel works, according to an oct. 5, 1942, report from the federal office of alien property custodian. the dutch bank and the steel firm were part of the business and financial empire of thyssen and his brother, heinrich thyssen - bornemisza, the report said .
union banking was owned by a dutch bank, bank voor handel en scheepvaardt n. v. , which was “closely affiliated” with the german conglomerate united steel works, according to an oct. 5, 1942, report from the federal office of alien property custodian. the dutch bank and the steel firm were part of the business and financial empire of mr. thyssen and his brother, heinrich thyssen - bornemisza, the report said .
the union banking corporation maintains accounts with the chase national bank, the national city bank, the guaranty trust company, and ourselves. at present its account with us is the only one which is active, and the drawings are limited to the payment of salaries and usual office expenses. to further control its operations, we have arranged that either ray morris or h. d. pennington must sign checks jointly with the president of the company, mr. c. lievense, or with the, assistant treasurer, mr. w kauffmann, and that one of our gentleman from our organization must be present when access is desired to the companys safe deposit box at the chase bank. -
hitlers angel has 3 million in us bank,  read the headline above a story reporting that adolf hitlers financier had stowed the fortune in union banking corp. , possibly to be held for nazi bigwigs.  bush knew all about the new york bank: he was one of its seven directors. if the nazi tie became known, it would be a potential embarrassment,  bush and his partners at brown brothers harriman worried, explaining to government regulators that their position was merely an unpaid courtesy for a client. the situation grew more serious when the government seized unions assets under the trading with the enemy act, the sort of action that could have ruined bushs political dreams .
hitlers angel has 3 million in us bank ,
read the headline above a story reporting that adolf hitlers financier had stowed the fortune in union banking corp. , possibly to be held for
nazi bigwigs .
bush knew all about the new york bank: he was one of its seven directors. if the nazi tie became known, it would be a potential
embarrassment ,
bush and his partners at brown brothers harriman worried, explaining to government regulators that their position was merely an unpaid courtesy for a client. the situation grew more serious when the government seized unions assets under the trading with the enemy act, the sort of action that could have ruined bushs political dreams .
in the 1941 articles it was reported that union baking corporations three million in funds had been frozen in may of 1940 and that the three million dollars, came from organizations [ that ] did a thriving business rolling - up dollars.  there were four and a half billion dollars in foreign assets frozen by the us government since adolf hitlers armies began overrunning europe in us banks. dutch, belgian, norwegian and french assets were frozen in 1940 after the nazis occupied those countries. german assets were frozen june 14, 1941 .
the second set of papers, which are in the national archives, are contained in vesting order number 248 which records the seizure of the company assets. what these files show is that on october 20 1942 the alien property custodian seized the assets of the ubc, of which prescott bush was a director. having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the holland - american trading corporation and the seamless steel equipment corporation. by november, the silesian - american company, another of prescott bush' s ventures, had also been seized .
in 1924, his father - in - law, a well - known st louis investment banker, helped set him up in business in new york with averill harriman, the wealthy son of railroad magnate e h harriman in new york, who had gone into banking .
the thyssen bank in rotterdam which nominally owned the new york corporation was bombed out of existence by the invading nazis in may, 1940. no one in new york professes to know what has happened to the officers of the rotterdam institution. not a word of instruction or advice has come from abroad .
in order that you may understand clearly the reasons for our doubts, i should like to give you the background of our connection with the union banking corporation. our partner w. a. harriman was in europe in 1925, and at that time he became acquainted with mr. fritz thyssen, the german industrialist. to the best of my knowledge, mr. thyssen formed the bank voor handel en scheepvaart and presumably controlled that institution. - at one of his meetings with mr. harriman, he told him he was forming a bank in new york to look after his interests in the united states and he asked mr. harriman to serve on the board. mr. harriman agreed that certain of his associates would serve in this capacity, and as a result various members of the harriman organizations and now of brown brothers harriman & co. , have been on the board ever since .
while the department would, not feel free to object if your partners, mr. harriman, mr. bush, and your firms manager, mr. pennington, should desire to resign as directors of the corporation, nevertheless the department would be gratified if these gentlemen could find it possible to remain on the board during this period of uncertainty .
as it turned out, his involvement wasnt pursued by the press or political opponents during his senate campaigns a decade later. but the episode may well have been one of the catalysts for a dramatic change in his life. just as the union banking story broke, bush volunteered to be chairman of united service organizations, putting himself on the national stage for the first time. he traveled the country raising millions of dollars to help boost the morale of us troops during world war ii, enhancing his stature in a way that helped him get elected us senator. a son and grandson would become presidents .
the thyssen / union banking article was continued on page 22 in the financial news section, with three almost full columns plus another full column ancillary story on thyssen. the articles are reproduced in full in the following pages. michael kranish, the boston globe reporter, when we contacted in august 2003 to tell him that the articles were actually published in 1941 said, well, i wrote that so long ago, i cant remember now why? if it is 41? why it says 42. it is a mystery to me. i do not know what the situation is. but it definitely was there, that is all i can say. the copy that i have, you know, someone put the date in it? maybe that was wrong. i certainly would have tried carefully to put the right date.  mike then wanted to know my purpose for looking in to this. i tell him i am a researcher and writer looking into prescott bush and union banking. his then last words on the subject were, i have looked very thoroughly and i did not find the evidence that the conspiracy theorist allege, so? if the date is different i just dont know why that is. 
we believe people have a right to expect more from the companies they do business with – and they can expect more from union bank & trust, a bank whose virginia roots go back to 1902. by offering fair financial solutions and honest advice, we create opportunities for families and business owners .
both groeninger and kouwenhoven are directors of the local holland american trading corporation. groeninger is also on the board of the bank voor handel en scheepvaart and is a director of the vulcan rhine shipping co. , another unit in thyssens industrial kingdom. kouwenhoven visited the united states about four or five years ago, mr. lievense said, but groeninger appears never to have been here .
mr. lievense speaks in soft, low tones and merely smiled broadly when questioned about his association with herr thyssen. his name appears as a director of the thyssen holland american investment corporation, at rotterdam. he is a member of the board of the august thyssen bank, aktiengesellschaft, at berlin, and, he is also a director of the handelscompagnie ruilvkeer, a thyssen bartering company at amsterdam .
what is also at issue is how much money bush made from his involvement. his supporters suggest that he had one token share. loftus disputes this, citing sources in
the banking and intelligence communities
and suggesting that the bush family, through george herbert walker and prescott, got $ 1. 5m out of the involvement. there is, however, no paper trail to this sum .
bush and his partners at brown brothers harriman informed the government regulators that the account, opened in the late 1930s, was an unpaid courtesy for a client. the situation,  wrote kranish, grew more serious when the government seized unions assets under the trading with the enemy act, the sort of action that could have ruined bushs political dreams. 
pacing the floor of his office on the twentyfifth floor of 39 broadway, he said, all i know is that i am here and that the united states government is exercising strict supervision of all activities of the bank and these corporation. i cannot tell you whom i am working. you may be sure there is really little to do. all these corporations in their best years have done less than $ 1, 000, 000 annually. 
he is a member of the advisory board of the harvard law school program on corporate governance and a member of the board of directors of japan society inc. mr. myerson is recognized as one of the leading corporate / m & a lawyers in the united states by legal 500 and by chambers usa and was chosen by his peers for the best lawyers in america in banking, corporate law and mergers and acquisitions law .
bush and his partners at brown brothers harriman informed the government regulators that the account, opened in the late 1930s, was an unpaid courtesy for a client. the situation,  wrote kranish, grew more serious when the government seized unions assets under the trading with the enemy act, the sort of action that could have ruined bushs political dreams.  the phrase was an ominous one .
by september may had traced the origins of the non - american board members and found that dutchman hj kouwenhoven - who met with harriman in 1924 to set up ubc - had several other jobs: in addition to being the managing director of voor handel he was also the director of the august thyssen bank in berlin and a director of fritz thyssen' s union steel works, the holding company that controlled thyssen' s steel and coal mine empire in germany .
groeninger is managing director of the thyssenowned halcyon line, with headquarters at rotterdam. it was this corporation which refused to transfer its headquarters and assets outside holland when the netherlands government warned all industrialists to take their properties to dutch colonies at the time of the nazi invasion. just before the arrival of the german forces at rotterdam, the british and dutch navies seized eleven of the thirteen ships of the line and incorporated them in the british shipping pool. it is understood that three of these ships have since been destroyed. only two ships of the line fell into the nazis, hands .
well, we have found proof that the article did indeed appear in july of 1941. first we found on alex jones urltoken website an article from the july 31, 1941, zanesville signal in ohio. the thyssen / union banking news story was in an ins (international news service) wire report, which says that it was disclosed today in a news story in the new york journal american. we then found, at ancestry. com, an ap wire report in the sheboygan press, a wisconsin newspaper of august 1, 1941 which stated: the herald - tribune said thursday [ july, 31, 1941 ], that fritz thyssen, german industrialist credited with helping finance adolf hitlers rise to power, has $ 3, 000, 000 in american cash salted away in the bank vaults of downtown new york.  armed with the correct date, we were then able to find both the new york herald - tribune and new york journal american stories. the articles are presented in full later in this chapter .
senator bush served on the banking committee, many times as a contact person for world bank and federal reserve officials, who sometimes looked for more casual places to do business than the senate committee rooms. in his second term protecting his states interests prescott also served as a member of the armed service committee. for years connecticut had received more per capita of the defense dollar than any other state earning itself the sobriquet, the arsenal of democracy.  that the military - industrial complex began in connecticut in the 1800s is relevant but another tale .
– ms. jaedicke is the former deputy comptroller for compliance policy with the office of the comptroller of the currency, where she spent 33 years in a number of senior roles, including national bank examiner, director for multinational banking and deputy comptroller for supervision operations. ms. jaedicke also served as chair or member of the following regulatory committees: occ committee on consumer issues; ffiec task force for consumer compliance; occ enforcement committee and the occ bank secrecy act / anti - money laundering committee. after her government service, she joined promontory financial group as managing director .
... as the general manager, he acted on behalf of the harrimans and invested their money in the third reich. i remember when the corporate media finally acknowledged the existence of this story a year or so ago, and it immediately got played down because prescott was a
minority shareholder
in union bank. but as the general manager, grandpa bush was paid to make those investments for the harrimans, though they obviously weren' t complaining. silesian - american, incidentally, was connected to a german steel company which used concentration camp labor. halliburton would have been proud .
president bush' s grandfather was a director of a bank seized by the federal government because of its ties to a german industrialist who helped bankroll adolf hitler' s rise to power, government documents show .
e. roland harriman, the bank chairman and brother of former new york gov. w. averell harriman (search), held 3, 991 shares. bush had one share .
both harrimans and bush were partners in the new york investment firm of brown brothers, harriman and co. , which handled the financial transactions of the bank as well as other financial dealings with several other companies linked to bank voor handel that were confiscated by the u. s. government during world war ii .
we did not have the resources to do these things ,
goldstein said .
fritz thyssen broke with the nazis in 1938 over their persecution of catholics and jews, and fled to switzerland. he later was arrested and spent 1941 to 1945 in a nazi prison. his brother lived in switzerland from 1932 to 1947 but continued to operate businesses in germany .
the new documents were first reported by freelance writer john buchanan in the new hampshire gazette .
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rumours of a link between the us first family and the nazi war machine have circulated for decades. now the guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the trading with the enemy act are still being felt by today' s president
george bush' s grandfather, the late us senator prescott bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of nazi germany .
the guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the us national archives that a firm of which prescott bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of nazism .
his business dealings, which continued until his company' s assets were seized in 1942 under the trading with the enemy act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in germany against the bush family by two former slave labourers at auschwitz and to a hum of pre - election controversy .
the evidence has also prompted one former us nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator' s action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy .
the debate over prescott bush' s behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. there has been a steady internet chatter about the
bush / nazi
connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. but the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after america had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very german businesses that financed hitler' s rise to power. it has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty .
remarkably, little of bush' s dealings with germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. but now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two holocaust survivors against the bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make prescott bush' s business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, george w, as he seeks re - election .
bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow thyssen to move assets around the world .
three sets of archives spell out prescott bush' s involvement. all three are readily available, thanks to the efficient us archive system and a helpful and dedicated staff at both the library of congress in washington and the national archives at the university of maryland .
the first set of files, the harriman papers in the library of congress, show that prescott bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with thyssen .
the third set of documents, also at the national archives, are contained in the files on ig farben, who was prosecuted for war crimes .
a report issued by the office of alien property custodian in 1942 stated of the companies that
since 1939, these (steel and mining) properties have been in possession of and have been operated by the german government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country' s war effort
.
prescott bush, a 6ft 4in charmer with a rich singing voice, was the founder of the bush political dynasty and was once considered a potential presidential candidate himself. like his son, george, and grandson, george w, he went to yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and influential skull and bones student society. he was an artillery captain in the first world war and married dorothy walker, the daughter of george herbert walker, in 1921 .
one of the first jobs walker gave bush was to manage ubc. bush was a founding member of the bank and the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in ubc worth $ 125 .
the bank was set up by harriman and bush' s father - in - law to provide a us bank for the thyssens, germany' s most powerful industrial family .
august thyssen, the founder of the dynasty had been a major contributor to germany' s first world war effort and in the 1920s, he and his sons fritz and heinrich established a network of overseas banks and companies so their assets and money could be whisked offshore if threatened again .
by the time fritz thyssen inherited the business empire in 1926, germany' s economic recovery was faltering. after hearing adolf hitler speak, thyssen became mesmerised by the young firebrand. he joined the nazi party in december 1931 and admits backing hitler in his autobiography, i paid hitler, when the national socialists were still a radical fringe party. he stepped in several times to bail out the struggling party: in 1928 thyssen had bought the barlow palace on briennerstrasse, in munich, which hitler converted into the brown house, the headquarters of the nazi party. the money came from another thyssen overseas institution, the bank voor handel en scheepvarrt in rotterdam .
by the late 1930s, brown brothers harriman, which claimed to be the world' s largest private investment bank, and ubc had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and us treasury bonds to germany, both feeding and financing hitler' s build - up to war .
between 1931 and 1933 ubc bought more than $ 8m worth of gold, of which $ 3m was shipped abroad. according to documents seen by the guardian, after ubc was set up it transferred $ 2m to bbh accounts and between 1924 and 1940 the assets of ubc hovered around $ 3m, dropping to $ 1m only on a few occasions .
in 1941, thyssen fled germany after falling out with hitler but he was captured in france and detained for the remainder of the war .
there was nothing illegal in doing business with the thyssens throughout the 1930s and many of america' s best - known business names invested heavily in the german economic recovery. however, everything changed after germany invaded poland in 1939. even then it could be argued that bbh was within its rights continuing business relations with the thyssens until the end of 1941 as the us was still technically neutral until the attack on pearl harbor. the trouble started on july 30 1942 when the new york herald - tribune ran an article entitled
hitler' s angel has $ 3m in us bank
. ubc' s huge gold purchases had raised suspicions that the bank was in fact a
secret nest egg
hidden in new york for thyssen and other nazi bigwigs. the alien property commission (apc) launched an investigation.
the union banking corporation ( ubc ) was a banking corporation in the us whose assets were seized by the united states government on october 20 , 1942 during world war ii under the u.s. trading with the enemy act and executive order no. 9095 . 
the union banking corporation (ubc) was a banking corporation in the us whose assets were seized by the united states government on october 20, 1942 during world war ii under the u.s. trading with the enemy act and executive order no. 9095.
the union banking corporation (ubc) was a banking corporation in the us whose assets were seized by the united states government on october 20, 1942 during world war ii under the u.s. trading with the enemy act and executive order no. 9095.