Another hammer blow for Shell. Evidence confirms that Shell fuelled the Nazi war machine

By John Donovan: 31 May 2021 (updated JULY 2021)

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.

According 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: read more

ACCESS TO MORE INFORMATION THAN ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE PLANET ABOUT THE ROYAL DUTCH SHELL RESERVES SCANDAL / FRAUD

By John Donovan

Royal Dutch Shell Group Chairman Sir Philip Watts, was forced to resign as a result of the fraudulent over-statement of claimed hydrocarbon reserves.

Sir Philip subsequently became a very rich vicar, after a payoff package from Shell worth nearly $20 million to buy his silence.

Link to a John Donovan file containing extensive news coverage.

RELATED COURT DOCS

FOR THE FIRST TIME MOST OF THE INFORMATION WE HAVE ON THIS SUBJECT IS PUBLISHED ON A SINGLE WEBPAGE read more

Article from page 13 of the Nigerian newspaper “Dateline” published 4 Jan 1996.  Sourced from the archive evidence files of Esther Kiobel (right), one of the Ogoni 9 widows currently suing Shell in the Dutch courts. Her late husband Dr. Barinem Kiobel, can be seen in the same photo. Esther has been seeking justice from Shell for over two decades for its alleged complicity in his murder. 

Shell ‘Paid Nigerian Military’

By GEOFFREY LEAN

“Ruthless military operations” were proposed specifically to help Shell establish stability in its oil business in Nigeria, a confidential memorandum obtained by the Independent on Sunday reveals. It recommends”wasting vocal individuals.”

The internal state security memorandum which is marked “restricted” 12 times, says that regular financial “inputs” from oil companies have been discussed. A British environmentalist said yesterday that the author of the document had told him that his men had been paid by Shell to protect installations. read more

G&E also directed litigation against Royal Dutch Shell which led to a $400 million investor settlement in 2007, the largest securities fraud settlement in Europe at the time.

NEWS PROVIDED BY: Grant & Eisenhofer P.A: Oct 21, 2019, 12:00 ET

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — A second wave of lawsuits has been filed by an international coalition of institutional investors in the ongoing financial fraud case against Danske Bank A/S.

The new investor suits were brought by leading U.S. shareholder law firms Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.

G&E also directed litigation against Royal Dutch Shell which led to a $400 million investor settlement in 2007, the largest securities fraud settlement in Europe at the time. read more

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The photograph shows Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)

Sir Henri Deterding’s admiration and support for another fascist dictator, Mussolini

By John Donovan

I have already published an ebook and website focussed on Royal Dutch Shell leader Sir Henri Deterding and his admiration and support for the Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, who he met a number of times on behalf of Shell.

Hitler was not the only fascist dictator admired and supported by Deterding.

In his autobiography “AN INTERNATIONAL OILMAN” (pages 13 and 14) Sir Henri made plain his high regard for the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini.

In Italy, not long ago, it fell to my lot to talk with Mussolini, a man who, regard him as you may, has shown a driving force almost unparalleled in running a country-though from such outward manifestations as are seen in the present-day world, I wouldn’t say that the running of a country was at all the same thing as the running of a business. Too often, the men who run countries have never run businesses, as the results of their government so painfully show. But that is by the way. read more

By John Donovan

For as long as I can remember stories have been circulating along the lines that an engineering genius devised a fuelless engine and made the mistake of disclosing his invention to a ruthless oil company oil, which promptly killed the idea. 

It is possible that there is some substance to this mythology.

Shell subsidiary Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij (Dutch for Batavian Oil Company), is the oil company allegedly involved, along with Sir Henri Deterding and a senior Shell  Director, Hendrik Colijn. He served as CEO for the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij and later became CEO of Royal Dutch Shell. read more

Sir Henri Deterding: Hitlers Paymaster

By John Donovan

EXTRACT FROM PAGE 07/483 from volume 1 of a four-volume work published in 2007 “A History of Royal Dutch Shell” – authored by eminent historians associated with Utrecht University. 

From 1937 Deterding, now influenced by a personal secretary with outspoken Fascist sympathies, helped to finance the paper of a Fascist splinter group in the Netherlands, just as the Group sponsored a Russian anti-Soviet press service in London. Finally, if Deterding or the Group indeed supported the Nazis during their wilderness years with any substantial sums, then one would have expected the Reichskanzlei to have acknowledged the fact in the minute considering whether or not to grant him an audience with Hitler in March 1933. However, the document mentions nothing of the kind; Deterding was turned down without further ado. read more

Royal Dutch Shell founders meetings with Hitler, strong antiSemitic views and financial support for the Nazis

Featured extracts from “A History of Royal Dutch Shell Volume 1” – all printed in italics

(From page 07/478)

Confirmation of Sir Henri Deterding’s claim that he met Hitler

Nazism and the New Order in Germany were congenial to Deterding’s authoritarian being and his fervent anti-communism; he does not appear to have understood its political or indeed social ramifications. Deterding now began to take a greater interest in the Group’s German affairs, normally Kessler’s remit. This brought him into contact with the new regime’s leaders. He cautiously welcomed Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933, but two months later he sought an audience with Hitler, presumably to present a proposal for sponsoring a series of radio lectures on the evils of communism, to celebrate the coming to power of such a vociferous anti-communist. He was rebuffed, but in November Deterding claimed to have met Hitler the other day. read more

This article is an English translation of a revealing article by Dutch journalist Sam Gerrits published on the website FOLLOW THE MONEY. It is about the sleazy repercussions of the earthquakes blighting NAM’s operation of the Groningen Gas Field. NAM (The Dutch Petroleum Company) is a Shell/Exxon joint venture company.

This story starts in 1959, almost sixty years ago. Jan de Quay of the Catholic People’s Party (KVP) ruled the country. The first DAF cars came from the factory in Eindhoven, the first Barbie dolls from the molds of Mattel in California. Alaska and Hawaii joined as 49th and 50th with America. And in Slochteren gas was found in the beetroot fieldof farmer Boon. That soon turned out to be the largest gas field in Europe.

Thanks to it’s large population density, the Netherlands was the perfect place to build a natural gas network. The Texan Exxon engineer Douglass Murray Stewart calculated for the then Minister of Economic Affairs Jan de Pous that the state, by selling gas directly to households, and not power plants, could earn three times as much. The state would receive the lion’s share of the profits; Stewart’s plan was heard. read more

Sir Henri Deterding was Director General of the Royal Dutch Shell Group when his initial massive donation of food to Nazi Germany was announced in a Reuter’s Wireless report dated 20 December 1936. 

The donated food on that occasion filled 7,000 railway wagons.

Despite criticism in the news media, specifically linking the money saved on food to Nazi rearmament, Deterding continued to donate Dutch food for Nazi Germany, where he now lived after marrying his secretary, a young German woman. Like him, an ardent Nazi.  read more

The NAM, for example, had the reputation of being an exemplary company that neatly arranged its affairs for its citizens. That picture is different now. Allegations that the risks of gas extraction from small fields are not so, are no longer believed.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. NAM is the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions to deal with damaged residences.

Gas is now a dirty word outside of Groningen

Bas Knoop

The earthquake trauma of the Groningers now also causes unrest among citizens living near smaller gas fields. From Steenwijkerland to Waalwijk: more and more places are brewing resistance. Together with local authorities, citizens make gas extraction the subject of a political and legal battle with The Hague. read more

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. 

Shell is investing $ 200 million in The Hague campus

The headquarters of Shell in The Hague. Photo: Peter Hilz / HH

Bert van Dijk: 10 Sept 2018

Oil and gas multinational Shell RDSA € 27.20-0.44% will invest more than $ 200 million in a new Shell campus in The Hague in the coming years. It concerns the renovation and expansion of the current monumental headquarters of the company on the Carel van Bylandtlaan. The company also expects to create hundreds of new jobs in the New Energies division in the coming years, the global headquarters of which will be on the new campus. Shell announced this today.

The New Energies branch focuses, among other things, on forms of energy that emit less CO2, such as solar and wind energy and biofuels. The division investigates new commercial models that the company can apply in the global energy transition. read more

By John Donovan

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has refused to reconsider its extraordinary decision barring a Nigerian activist widow Esther Kiobel, from obtaining Royal Dutch Shell discovery documents from a U.S. case, held by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, for litigation she is pursuing against the oil and gas giant in the Dutch courts.

Her husband, Dr. Barinem Kiobel, was one of the “Ogoni 9,” executed by the then Nigerian military regime on false charges. Esther Kiobel holds Shell complicit in his hanging. read more

On 10 November 1995, nine men from Ogoniland, a small area within Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region, were hanged by the military authorities, after a blatantly unfair trial. Their bodies were then dumped in unmarked graves. One of them was the outspoken and acclaimed writer Kenule (Ken) Saro-Wiwa… The other men executed that day were Dr Barinem Kiobel, a former government official, and seven members and supporters of MOSOP… 

Extracts from pages 17, 18 & 19 of an Amnesty International document headed: “A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s”

EXTRACT BEGINS

On 10 November 1995, nine men from Ogoniland, a small area within Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region, were hanged by the military authorities, after a blatantly unfair trial. Their bodies were then dumped in unmarked graves. One of them was the outspoken and acclaimed writer Kenule (Ken) Saro-Wiwa, who had gained worldwide recognition for his leadership of a campaigning organization, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). This had drawn attention to the ecological devastation caused by decades of oil production, and the lack of economic development, in Nigeria’s oil-producing areas. The other men executed that day were Dr Barinem Kiobel, a former government official, and seven members and supporters of MOSOP: Saturday Dobee, Paul Levula, Nordu Eawo, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gbokoo, John Kpuinen and Baribor Bera. read more

…at all times, Shell’s directors based in The Hague and London were fully aware of what was happening in Nigeria and what the staff of Shell Nigeria were up to. The evidence also makes clear that staff in London and The Hague were not passive recipients of this information. A clear directing role is evident.

Extract from page 12 of an Amnesty International document headed: “A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE?SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s”

Under Executive Summary.

BEGINS

COMPLICITY IN THE MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE AND EXECUTION OF THE OGONI NINE

The culmination of the Nigerian military government’s campaign to crush the MOSOP protests was the execution of the Ogoni Nine on 10 November, 1995. Shell knowingly provided encouragement and motivation to the military authorities to stop the MOSOP protests, even after the authorities repeatedly committed human rights violations in Ogoniland and specifically targeted Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP. By raising Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP as a problem, Shell was reckless, and significantly exacerbated the risk to Saro-Wiwa and those linked to MOSOP. Shell knew full well that the government regularly violated the rights of those linked to MOSOP and had targeted Saro-Wiwa. Following the arrests and during the blatantly unfair trial, the nature of the danger was clear. However, even after the men were jailed, being subjected to torture or other ill-treated and facing the likelihood of execution, Shell continued to discuss ways to deal with the “Ogoni problem” with the government, and did not express any concern over the fate of the prisoners. Such conduct cannot be seen as other than endorsement and encouragement of the military government’s actions. read more