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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
David Smith in Washington

‘People should be more aware’: the business dynasties who benefited from Nazis

Adolf Hitler admires a model of the Volkswagen car. He is with the designer Ferdinand Porsche and various Nazi officials.
Adolf Hitler admires a model of the Volkswagen car. He is with the designer Ferdinand Porsche, left, and various Nazi officials. Photograph: Heinrich Hoffmann/Getty Images

Colonial and Confederate statues toppled. Looted objects returned by contrite museums. Tainted family names such as Sackler expunged from buildings. A worldwide reckoning with the past crimes of great powers is under way. But is there a glaring omission?

A new book, Nazi Billionaires, investigates how Germany’s richest business dynasties made fortunes by aiding and abetting Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. It also examines how, eight decades later, they still escape close scrutiny and a nation that has done so much to confront its catastrophic past still suffers a very particular blind spot.

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