The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben
New York: The Free Press, 1978. First Printing. Hardcover. xi, [3], 250 pages. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Small tears and chips to DJ edges. DJ has some soiling and staining. Inscribed and dated by the author to Martin Feinstein (perhaps the Martin Feinstein, who helped the Kennedy Center in Washington and its resident opera company grow and fill a large, empty niche in the capital's cultural life as executive director of one, then general manager of the other? From 1938 o 1946, Mr. Borkin was the chief of the patent and cartel section of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justices and was responsible for the wartime investigation and prosecution of the I.G.-dominated cartels. He was also the chairman of the Federal Bar Association Committee on standards of Judicial Behavior. Derived from a Kirkus review: Joseph Borkin's case study in the history of the complex relationship between business and politics takes as its subject the chemical combine, I. G. Farben, a giant which has demonstrated an uncanny ability to survive the demise of those political regimes with which it was intimately associated. I. G. Farben was able to offer its services to the German Empire in World War I and to Hitler in World War II, always in return for large government contracts and handsome profits. The combine developed and manufactured poison gas, but a combination of luck and shrewd business dealings left it unscathed at Versailles and in a position to support Hitler in return for his interest in I. G. Farben's development of a synthetic fuel. Borkin focuses on the evolving relationship with the Nazis. Citing evidence from the Nuremberg trials, Borkin describes the construction of a giant chemical plant near Auschwitz which was staffed by slave labor. Borkin's point is that by providing the resources that made Hitler's schemes possible, and through its use of slave labor, I. G. Farben shared the responsibility and the guilt and should have been condemned at Nuremberg. In fact, only light sentences were meted out to Farben executives. Condition: Very good / Good.
Keywords: Holocaust, WWII, Germany, I. G. Farben, Carl Bosch, Hermann Goering, Carl Krauch, Interhandel, Hermann Schmitz, Schnitzler, Slave Labor, Fritz Ter Meer, Synthetic Fuels, Poison Gas, Chemical Weapons, Nuremberg, Standard Oil, Aniline, Chemical Industr
[Book #75318]
Price: $100.00