DISCLAIMER
This is not a Shell website. You Can Be Sure Shell does not endorse or approve of this site, or its content. Royal Dutch Shell Plc threatened to take legal action in the event of publication. All bluster and bluff thus far. There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations. It is a non-commercial entirely free to use website drawing attention to Shell’s toxic Nazi history. The Shell logo image with the white text used on this website, as per the above example, is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous. It can be found on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Link to Shell’s own website: shell.com
NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades-long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse-drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honoured associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four-day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honoured personal guest would be rewarded with a private four-day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labour and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labour and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell’s Nazi connections can be found in extracts from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell” Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding (photograph above and oil painting below), the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group – known as “The Most Powerful Man in the World” – who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party on behalf of his beloved company, Shell.
The caption says: “Oil painting of Sir Henri Deterding, controversial leader of Royal Dutch Shell”.OVER 500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR SHELL WEBSITES
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
Category Archives: Shell
CHAPTER 16: Shell historians attempt to distance Deterding from Hitler
Shell’s historians downplayed the relationship between Hitler and Deterding. As far they are concerned, the two never met. They said that a request by Sir Henri for a meeting with Hitler in March 1933 was rebuffed and disregarded Deterding’s claim that he met with Hitler in November 1933. Not only were there meetings. Deterding “was revered and ultimately mourned by Hitler.”
Shell’s historians portrayed the relationship between Deterding and Hitler as standoffish on the part of Hitler, with all of Deterding’s attempts to meet with him being rebuffed. See pages 481 to 485 of RDSH V1.
CHAPTER 17: Why does it still matter?
The general public, drivers, investors, relatives of victims of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes against humanity, are entitled on moral grounds, to be aware of this dark chapter in the history of Royal Dutch Shell. People can then decide on an informed basis if they wish to hold shares in the company, or purchase Shell products.
The purpose of this book is to present the unvarnished history of a very dark chapter in Shell’s past, rather than the spun version paid for by the oil giant. I have also drawn attention to other unethical episodes in the history of Royal Dutch Shell.
CHAPTER 18: Time for a rare public apology from Shell?
Members of Nigeria’s Ogoni community protest against Shell in New York. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
Shell does not appear to be big on making apologies. Google “Shell apology” and the search results relate to hoax Shell apologies for human rights abuses in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. Shell has recently apologized for causing Dutch earthquakes, but not for the evil conduct of its past directors in relation to the financing and appeasement of the Nazis, which cost some Shell employees their lives.
CHAPTER 19: INDEX OF KEY DATES
Index of key dates:
Henri Deterding served as chairman of the combined Royal Dutch/Shell oil company between 1900 and 1936.
In or around 1931, Deterding bought a hunting estate in rural Mecklenburg, Germany. See page 477 RDSH V1.
The Reichstag fire, a pivotal event in the rise of Hitler, took place in January 1933.
On 30 January 1933 (page 465 RDSH V1) Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor of Germany.
Deterding welcomed Hitler’s appointment and by November 1933, Deterding said that he had met Hitler. See page 477 RDSH V1.
CHAPTER 20: Shell cloak and dagger activities
Titled Shell directors, the late Sir Peter Holmes, and Sir William Purves were also directors, major shareholders and the ultimate spymasters in a private spy firm, Hakluyt & Company, founded by former senior MI6 officers. Shell used Hakluyt to engage in cloak and dagger operations against its perceived enemies, including Greenpeace, as exposed in a Sunday Times article (above and below).
The main content of Chapter 20, which relates to Shell’s use of corporate espionage against its perceived enemies, is not included in this online version of John Donovan’s EBook: Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell. Shell’s espionage targets have included Greenpeace, The Body Shop, and John Donovan. He has been the subject of admitted uncover activity and a global spying operation as revealed by Shell internal documents.
CHAPTER 21: Wikipedia: The sanitization of Shell’s history
Despite the fact that Sir Henri Deterding was a founder and legendary leader of Royal Dutch Shell for almost four decades, at the date of checking on 19 January 2016, there was not a single reference to him in the Wikipedia article – “Royal Dutch Shell”. It was once included. Here is the proof. The article should cover Shell’s entire history, not a sanitized version with no mention of Sir Henri or the Nazis.
Like the previous one, this chapter is not directly related to Shell’s Nazis history.
Chapter 22: Author’s unique connection with Shell
John Donovan, the author of “Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell
As the Chairman of an International sales promotion agency and more recently as an individual, I have a relationship with Royal Dutch Shell stretching back over 35 years. It has been the subject of media coverage in newspapers, magazines and TV news and documentary features. It took a wrong turn when Shell misappropriated ideas I had disclosed to the company in strictest confidence.
In the Ed Vulliamy article about my campaign to rename a $3 billion new ship hired by Shell, reference was made to a Shell related website I co-founded with my late father a decade ago:
CHAPTER 23: Index of Shell leadership financial support for the Nazis
Dutch cartoons provide evidence of a perception in pre-WW2 years that Sir Henri Deterding was a major financier of Hitler’s Nazi regime. Identified by name in both cartoons, Deterding is depicted handing over a bag of money to the Nazis containing a large sum – 1000 000 00 – in unspecified currency: see enlargements 1 and 2. Overwhelming evidence confirms that the perception was well founded.
Extracts from relevant news reports and books, many authored before WW2, are listed in date order, providing compelling evidence of what transpired all those years ago.
Selection of related webpage header images from our sister websites, also operated by John Donovan
Selection of related webpage header images from our sister websites, also operated by John Donovan
Header images on royaldutchshellgroup.com
Evidence confirms that Shell fuelled the Nazi war machine
Another hammer blow for Shell. Evidence confirms that Shell fuelled the Nazi war machine
By John Donovan: 31 May 2021 (updated JULY 2021)
A new book by James Marriott and Terry Macalister reveals the extent to which the oil company Royal Dutch Shell played a key role in Hitler’s war effort.James Marriott is a writer and activist with three decades of knowledge of the oil sector. Terry Macalister is a freelance journalist and former energy editor of the Guardian.
As the author of the Kindle book published in 2016 – Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell – I welcome the fact that other parties have reached the same basic conclusions as I did after studying much of the same evidence.
Based on that evidence I lunched a petition several years ago demanding that Royal Dutch Shell should apologise for antisemitic conduct and Nazi support
Shell will find it more difficult to dismiss the independent findings in the new book, including from an award-winning journalist.
The following extracts are from a related article by opendemocracy.net headlined: Calls for Shell to apologise for ‘fuelling Nazi war machine’ EXTRACTS FROM THE RELATED ARTICLE BY Adam RamsayAccording to ‘Crude Britannia’, by James Marriott and Terry Macalister, at the outbreak of World War Two the Anglo-Dutch company “effectively divided into an Allied corporation and an Axis corporation”. The Nazi-supporting branch of Shell, called Rhenania-Ossag, “swung in behind the [German] government as the Nazi state began to invade other countries”.
Or as Shell’s official history states ‘Following Hilter’s annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, (Shell) Group managing directors sanctioned Rhenania-Ossag taking over Shell companies in those countries.’ The same process took place in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece after Germany took control of those states.
Shell’s German subsidiary, Rhenania-Ossag, fired all the Jewish members on its board in May and June 1933. The appointments to replace them included a member of the Nazi party. The official history states, “the far reaching changes to the Rhenania-Ossag board could not have taken place without the full consent of [Shell Central Offices… No questions of principle or moral judgements about the Hitler regime appear to have arisen.” Shell’s historians were not able to establish what happened next to these Jewish staff members.
Seven years later, after Germany invaded Holland, the Swastika flew outside Shell’s HQ in The Hague.
EXTRACTS END
I was originally tipped off about Shell’s concern over its past toxic history by Shell internal communications never meant for my eyes.
Shell had advance sight of my book and my website ShellNaziHistory.com. Despite aggressive threats, bluster and a global spying operation, Shell took no legal action. No multinational giant would want to draw attention to its past association with Hitler and the Nazis.
NEW BOOK: Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation
Product details
-
ASIN: B095CND46T
-
Publisher: Pluto Press; 1st edition (20 May 2021)
Some of the information about Shell’s collaboration with the Nazis covered on pages 19, 20, 21, 22 of the main book, and pages 352, 353 and 354 from the Notes section of the book: