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When East Met East: Dutch East Indies Planters and the Ukraine Project (1942–1944)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2020
Abstract
Historians divide over the question of how far “classic” European colonial experience in overseas empires provided the model for the Nazi empire in eastern Europe. Missing from arguments on either side of the debate have been the colonialists themselves. The Ukraine Project to enlist Dutch plantation companies for occupied Ukraine shows what happened when efforts were made to transfer traditional colonial expertise into the Nazi East. From the perspective of the project's proponents, there was indeed continuity between the two imperialisms. However, the company at the center of the project, the Deli Maatschappij, the ruling and tone-setting firm on Sumatra, saw no connection with its East Indies history and spurned all efforts to take it into Ukraine. Thus the Ukraine Project, despite its short-lived and failed history, complicates arguments from both perspectives and offers a trans-imperial history of a different sort than we are accustomed to encountering.
Die Meinungen von Historiker*innen zur Frage, inwieweit “klassische” Europäische Kolonialerfahrungen in überseeischen Reichen ein Modell für das Nationalsozialistische Reich in Osteuropa bildeten, gehen auseinander – und in den Argumenten auf beiden Seiten der Debatte fehlen meist die Kolonialisten selbst. Im sogenannten Ukraineprojekt, bei dem niederländische Plantagengesellschaften für die besetzte Ukraine angeworben werden sollten, zeigte sich, wohin der Versuch, traditionelle Kolonialkompetenz in den von den Nationalsozialisten kontrollierten Osten zu übertragen, führte. Aus der Sicht der Befürworter bestand tatsächlich eine Kontinuität zwischen den beiden Imperialismen – doch die Gesellschaft im Herzen des Projekts, die auf Sumatra tonangebende Deli Maatschappij, sah keine Verbindung zu ihrer Ostindischen Vergangenheit und wies sämtliche Versuche, sie in die Ukraine zu locken, zurück. Trotz seiner kurzen und erfolglosen Geschichte verkompliziert das Ukraineprojekt also die Argumente auf beiden Seiten der gegenständlichen Frage und bietet eine ungewohnte Form transimperialer Geschichte.
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Copyright © Central European History Society of the American Historical Association, 2020
Footnotes
I would like to thank Shelly Baranowski, who read an earlier version of this article, and Peter Hayes for his bibliographical assistance.
References
1 “The Ukraine Project” was the official name of the scheme.
2 Berlin-Lichterfelde, Bundesarchiv (BArch), Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (R 55)/30379.
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14 Few on either side of the question name individuals (or more than one or two) who began in the old empire and turned up in the new one. Karsten Linne's 2001 article, which enumerated a list of German colonial firms active in the Nazi East, is absent from nearly all the footnotes: Linne, Karsten, “Deutsche Afrikafirmen im ‘Osteinsatz,’” Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts 16, no. 1 (2001): 49–90Google Scholar. Lower, Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine, 28, does refer to Togo Company involvement in Ukraine, and Conrad, German Colonialism, 166–67, writes of “many private companies” active in the Nazi East, but neither elaborates. Van Laak, Über alles in der Welt, 135–38, comes somewhat closer when he discusses the celebration of German Africa old hands in the 1930s. But nor does he follow them into the conquered East. See also Sandler, Willeke, Empire in the Heimat: Colonialism and Public Culture in the Third Reich (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018)CrossRefGoogle Scholar on the efforts, generally frustrated, of an old-line colonial lobby to find relevance within Nazi Germany.
15 P. Bokarev, “Tobacco Production in Russia: The Transition to Communism,” in Tobacco in Russian History and Culture: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, ed. Matthew P. Romaniello and Tricia Starks, trans. Tricia Starks (New York: Routledge, 2009), 148–53.
16 BArch, Reichsfinanzministerium (R 2)/31679, letter from Dr. Höll to Herr Staatssekretär, July 9, 1942; BArch, Reichsministerium für die besetzten ostgebiete (R 6)/701, Dr. Stoltz, “Niederschrift über die Monopoltagung vom 2. bis 4. Februar 1943 bei der Finanzabteilung des Reichsministers für die besetzten Ost-gebiete,” February 2–4, 1943.
17 Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel, Hitler's Brudervolk: The Dutch and the Colonization of Occupied Eastern Europe, 1939–1945 (New York: Routledge, 2015), 47–63, 69–76, 87–98, 103, 140; Louis de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de tweede wereldoorlog, vol. 6, Part 1 (‘S-Gravenhage: Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, 1975), 430–45; Barnouw, David, Rost van Tonningen. Fout tot het bittere eind (Zutphen: Walburg, 1994), 107–16, 147Google Scholar; Dietrich Eichholtz, “Wirtschaftskollaboration und ‘Ostgesellschaften’ in NS-besetzten Ländern (1941–1944),” in Patient Geschichte, ed. Karsten Linne and Thomas Wohlleben (Frankfurt: Zweitausendeins, 1993), 207–29; NAH, CABR, 105429, depositions of Jan Jacob van Leeuwen Boomkamp, August 6, 1946. Exceptions were van Leeuwen Boomkamp and his father, Pieter, and Frits Kock van Leeuwen, who was the nephew of Rost van Tonningen. All had ties to the NSB, yet they too eventually dropped out.
18 NAH, CABR, 110330/Jarl; ibid., deposition of Walter Müller, March 10, 1947; NAH, Deli Mij/440, “Notulen der Vergadering van de Werkgroep Tabak,” June 22, 1943; NAH, Deli Mij/66, “Privé-Dagboek van een Reis naar en door de Ukraine van 23 Augustus tot en met 17 September 1942” (Privé-Dagboek), September–October 1942, 18, 20; BArch, letter from von Harder to Malletke (R 6/447), October 17, 1942.
19 Formally, the full plantation territory of northeast Sumatra encompassed more than Deli and was often abbreviated as SOK or Sumatra East Coast. But the name “Deli” became synonymous with the region as a whole.
20 E. (Emil) Enthoven, N. V. Deli-Maatschappij: Gedenkschrift bij gelegenheid van het zestigjarig bestaan aansluitende bij het gedenkboek van 1 November 1919 (Amsterdam: Deli-Maatschappij, 1929), 11, 18–19; N. V. Deli Maatschappij, Gedenkschrift aangeboden aan den Heer Herbert Cremer, directeur N.V. Deli-Maatschappij (Amsterdam: J. H. Debussy, 1941), 30–33, 161–76; N.V. Deli Maatschappij, Hoe zij ontstond en groeide (Medan: 1931), 5–6, 25–26; T. (Tijs) Volker, Van oerbosch tot cultuurgebied. Een schets van de beteekenis van de tabak, de andere cultures en de industrie ter oostkust van Sumatra (Medan: De Deli Planters Vereeniging, 1928), 21, 41–43; Stoler, Ann Laura, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870–1979 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), 16–20Google Scholar.
21 NAH, Michiels-Arnold Cultuur-en Handelsmaatschappij te Amsterdam 1887–1957 2.20.02.02/73, letter from Koolemans Beijnen, July 12–15, 1949.
22 Volker, Van oerbosch tot cultuurgebied, esp. 7, 21, 61; Maatschappij, Hoe zij ontstond en groeide, esp. 3, 25–26; Enthoven, N.V. Deli-Maatschappij, 8 (quoted); Maatschappij, Gedenkschrift aangeboden aan den Heer Herbert Cremer, directeur N.V. Deli-Maatschappij; Deli-Batavia Maatschappij, Deli-Batavia Maatschappij 1875–1925 (Amsterdam: 1925), 5–6.
23 Volker, Van oerbosch tot cultuurgebied, 11–21; Maatschappij, Deli-Batavia Maatschappij 1875–1925, 15; Breman, Jan, Koelies, planters en koloniale politiek: Het arbeidsregime op de grootlandbouwondernemingen aan Sumatra's oostkust in het begin van de twintigste eeuw (Dordrecht: Fortis, 1987), 142, 172Google Scholar.
24 Maatschappij, Gedenkschrift aangeboden aan den Heer Herbert Cremer, directeur N.V. Deli-Maatschappij, 168–69.
25 Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870–1979; Breman, Koelies, planters en koloniale politiek. Breman explicitly ties labor abuses to the frontier character of the Sumatran east coast: 10, 142.
26 Miller, Michael B., Europe and the Maritime World: A Twentieth-Century History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
27 NAH, (Deli Mij)/64, letter to Arthur Seyss-Inquart, October 16, 1940.
28 Munich, Institut für Zeitgeschichte (IfZ), Bestand ED 385 (Hans-Joachim Fahrenholtz)/Band 7.
29 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, C. P. M. Schas report, August 1943, 3; ibid., Spruytenburg report, May 25, 1943, 11; ibid., August 10, 1943, “Overzicht;” ibid., R. Wamelink report, August 11, 1943. There were also others, such as Hauptanbauleiter Hossinger of the state tobacco monopoly, an Austrian who had spent years growing tobacco in Brazil. Schas had been an “Inspecteur” with the Deli Mij. This was a position above estate managers in the firm.
30 van Laak, Über alles in der Welt, 112.
31 Ibid., 143; Linne, Deutschland jenseits des Äquators?, 30–33. The formal name of the Deko-Gruppe was Gruppe Deutscher Kolonialwirtschaftlicher Unternehmen. On Weigelt, see also James, Harold, The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 111–13Google Scholar. Weigelt was by 1937 a Nazi.
32 Salcher made this claim in a 1946 deposition to Dutch authorities. But much of what Salcher claimed by 1945 was questionable, and I have seen no corroborating documents. NAH, CABR, 07513, January 11, 1946.
33 Linne, “Deutsche Afrikafirmen im ‘Osteinsatz.’” See 88–90 on the Deko-Gruppe's role here.
34 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Gransberg and Raadsheer, “Rapport Inzake Bezoek H. H. Gransberg en Raadsheer aan de Oekraine 23 Augustus t/m 17 September 1942,” October 1, 1942 (Rapport Inzake); ibid., Privé-Dagboek.
35 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, October 1, 1942, 10; ibid./Jarl, “Bericht über das jahr 1943.”
36 Dieter Petzina, Autarkiepolitik im Dritten Reich. Der nationalsozialistische Vierjahresplan (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1968), 142–43. I have not come across any direct document that explains how Salcher attained Göring's ear, let alone his support. According to a report produced by the Deli Mij after the war, Salcher had drawn up his plans during his recuperation from wounds suffered in North Africa and sold them to Göring via his sister, Göring's dentist. NAH, (Deli Mij)/63, Rapport.
37 BArch, Reichskreditgesellschaft (R 8136)/908. This file includes late 1930s reports from the Amsterdam bank, Pierson & Co., and an undated report from H. Albert de Bary Co., which was associated with Deutsche Bank.
38 IfZ, Bestand ED 385/Band 2, 210–11, 222–23, 236–37, 245–46, 317–24; NAH, CABR, 110330/Jarl, deposition of Walter Müller, March 10, 1947; deposition of Hans Joachim Fahrenholtz, February 14, 1947; deposition of Friedrich Jarl, March 8, 1947; deposition of Freidrich Jarl, November 28, 1946. Fahrenholtz, in his deposition, said that Jarl “werd door ons als raadsman hooggeacht.” See also IfZ, Bestand ED 385/Band 7, where at the opening of her diary, Gertrud Fahrenholtz suggests that Salcher too considered German control over the tropical Dutch companies a bargaining chip with the Japanese following the war.
39 NAH, CABR, 110330/Jarl, November 28, 1946; NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, May 25, 1943, 3. The Deli-Batavia Rubber Company was a subsidiary of the Deli-Batavia Maatschappij. Jarl was Verwalter for both of them.
40 NAH, CABR, 110330/Jarl, May 21, 22, 1947, and June 5, 1947.
41 NAH, (Deli Mij)/266, “Notulen van de Bestuursvergadering van het Tabaksbureau,” January 27, 1944; NAH, CABR, 110330/Jarl, June 5, 1947.
42 Hein A. M. Klemann and Sergei Kudryashov, Occupied Economies: An Economic History of Nazi-occupied Europe, 1939–1945 (London: Berg, 2012), 82–83; Hein A. M. Klemann, “Occupation and Industry: The Industrial Development in the Netherlands, 1940–1945,” in Working for the New Order: European Business Under German Domination, 1939–1945, ed. Joachim Lund (Copenhagen: University Press of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen Business School Press, 2006), 63; Gerard Aalders, Nazi Looting: The Plunder of Dutch Jewry during the Second World War, trans. Arnold Pomerans with Erica Pomerans (Oxford: Berg, 2004), 114–18. I am including Treuhänder within the Verwaltung category. For another example of protective behavior by Verwalter, see Wubs, Ben, International Business and National War Interests: Unilever between Reich and Empire, 1939–1945 (London: Routledge, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
43 NAH, CABR, 110330/Jarl, November 28, 1946.
44 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Privé-Dagboek.
45 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, “Op te nemen in de NOTULEN der te houding. Vergadering van Commissarissen der N.V. Deli-Maatschappij.” This document dates from perhaps March 1944 but includes references to 1943 developments. Two of the three tobacco men reporting were from the Deli Mij.
46 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Spruytenberg report, May 25, 1943, 3; ibid., “Bespreking Gehouden in het Gebouw van het Tabaksmonopolie,” May 13, 1943; NAH, (Deli Mij)/64/ Notulen, January 22, 1943.
47 BArch, (R55)/30379, June 10, 1938; NAH, CABR, 107513, Deposition of C. B., October 14, 1948, May 30, 1945; IfZ, ED 385/ Band 7.
48 IfZ, ED 385/Band 7; Dirnberger, however, also called him at times “unbearable.” BArch, (R55)/30379, letter from Leiter der Personalabteilung to Minister, July 24, 1941, on Salcher as “ein ‘zu rauher Krieger.’” See also NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Privé Dagboek on Salcher making a spectacle of himself at a dinner thrown by Reich Commissar Eric Koch during the first study trip; NAH, CABR, 86545, deposition of Willy Lages, October 10, 1948; and NAH, CABR, 107513, January 11, 1946, on the trouble that led to Salcher's arrest by the Germans in the last year of the war, after the Ukraine Project had folded.
49 See for instance his postwar claim, after being taken into custody, that he had been a Dutch citizen since 1937, which was conclusively proven false, and the variations in his record on place and date of birth: Amsterdam, Instituut voor oorlogs-holocaust-en-genocidestudies (NIOD), 281/355, February 22, 1946; NAH, CABR, 107513, W. H., “Verhoor van Getuigen,” July 12, 1949; NAH, CABR, 86545, October, 25, 1948; NAH, CABR, 107513, testimony of Salcher, July 6, 1949; BArch, (R55)/30379, personnel sheet, June 10, 1938; ibid., “Personalfragebogen,” January 3, 1939. He told the Dutch he had been born on Java in 1891; German records show Breganz, Austria in 1894.
50 NAH, CABR, 107513, report of H. P. Verputten, May 30, 1945.
51 NIOD, 281/355, report of Captain A. Van der Schuyt Jr. to Centrale Vermogens Opsporingsdienst, June 8, 1947.
52 His full name was Hermann Fritz Gotthardt von Rautenberg-Garczynski. See especially NAH, CABR, 105940, Directoraat-Generaal voor Bizj. Rechtspleging, Abstract of Dossier 84983, August 28, 1946; ibid., von Rautenberg's deposition, February 10, 1947; and ibid., the series of depositions in May 9, 1946. Efforts to recover his thefts after the war proved largely fruitless, save thirteen paintings, including some old masters. J. M. Boogert, the postwar trustee for recovery, noted in his final report that “this immoral trickster” had made off with millions: NAH, CABR, 131723, “Eindverslag van den beheerder over het vermogen van Hermann Baron von Rautenberg,” July 3, 1952. See also NAH, CABR, 131724, 131726 (which show that the von Rautenberg case still mattered to the Dutch into the 1960s); Washington DC, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Reparations and Restitutions Branch of the US Allied Commission for Austria, Record Group 260/Microfilm 78924/reel 27.
53 BArch, (R55)/22726/ card, n.d.
54 Aalders, Nazi Looting, 190.
55 NAH, CABR, 105940, August 28, 1946. According to one conversion table, 3 million florins in 1939 would be worth close to 28 million euros in 2016 values. If the year 1946 is used, the conversion is close to 15 million euros.
56 NAH, Reichskommissariat in den besetzten Niederländischen Gebieten Feindvermögensverwaltung (RBNGF)/1540, Der Reichskommissar für die Besetzten Niederländischen Gebiete to Herrn Ministerialrat von Boeckh, August 18, 1942; ibid., SS Hauptsturmführer, Der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD für die Besetzten Niederländischen Gebiete to Generalkommissar für Finanz und Wirtschaft—Feindvermögensverwaltung, October 9, 1942; ibid., letter from Dr. Schröder to Karl Kirchlechner, November 26, 1942. So bad was his reputation that the Nazis removed him from his Verwaltungen; he had been the original Verwalter of Wolf.
57 IfZ, Ed 385/Band 7. See the entries from October 20, November 7, November 9, November 10 (“Abends trinke ich noch mit Rautenberg, Oskar und Salcher”); November 12, November 20, December 20, 1943. The phrase is the author's.
58 NAH, CABR, 86545, Deposition of Kirchlechner, October 15, 1948; NAH, CABR, 107513, deposition of von Rautenberg, “Getuige verhoor contra Arthur Salcher,” March 11, 1946 (quoted). Von Rautenberg also gave Salcher custody of a motorboat, and several boxes of Salcher's were shipped back to Austria alongside the boxes that contained von Rautenberg's stolen paintings. NAH, CABR, 131723, Johannes Otjes, “Inzake: H. Baron von Rautenberg te Salzburg, Giselakai 47,” January 11, 1950; NAH, CABR, 131724, deposition of von Rautenberg, January 23, 1947. Von Rautenberg and Salcher were both from the Tyrol, and their personal relationship may have begun even earlier than the First World War.
59 NAH, CABR, 105940, deposition of von Rautenberg, February 10, 1947.
60 Salcher, through his subordinate, Jarl, could pressure Internatio to invest in the trading venture. The Böhmische Escompte-Bank, brought in on the financing of the company, noted that its founding included the collaboration of the Four Year Plan's section in Holland, “with whose leader, Captain Salcher, Herr v. Rautenberg enjoys good personal relations.” The bank further pointed out that von Rautenberg had obtained for himself and his friends licenses “for tobacco plantations in Ukraine.” Ukraine Project travel reports show Salcher traveling to Rowno with the firm's Ukraine representative. NIOD, 266/BB2124, letter from the Böhmische Escompte-Bank to Dr. Rasche, July 8, 1943 (quoted); NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Gransberg, “Rapport eener reis naar de Oekraïne,” August 14, 1943, 1, 7, 8; NAH, RBNGF/1690, Jarl, “Zwischenbericht am 30. Juni 1943,” September 6, 1943; ibid., 1943 Activity Report of Internatio.
61 Jarl said he had the control (beheer) of eight hundred companies: NAH, CABR, Jarl, Deposition of Jarl, March 10, 1947. Dirnberger put the number at a thousand: IfZ, ED 385/Band 7.
62 NAH, CABR, 131724, deposition of Kirchlechner, January 28, 1947.
63 IfZ, ED 385/Band 7; NAH, CABR, 86545, deposition of Fahrenholtz, October 15, 1948; NAH, (Deli Mij)/63, Rapport; BArch, (R55)/30379, June 8, 1938. The last document indicates thirteen years in the Indies.
64 NAH, CABR, 87079, “Lebenslauf,” n.d. Kufahl was German. On his meeting von Rautenberg: NAH, CABR, 131724, deposition of von Rautenberg, January 23, 1947.
65 NAH, CABR, 105940, Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. Sarphatistraat, “Verkocht aan de firma L. I. Wolf & Zoon in handen van den Heer O.K.E. Kufahl,” April 10, 1942; NAH, CABR, 87079, wine and whiskey, and other such purchases, September 18, 1942, November 24, 1942, September 16, 1943; ibid., Verwaltungen, July 22, 1942; NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, “Op te nemen … ,” n.d. Kufahl's wartime involvement with von Rautenberg comes largely from the materials cited on the latter. The quotation is from Spruytenburg's report on the second study trip in April–May 1943: NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, May 25, 1943. Spruytenburg had been sent to keep an eye on Kufahl and Jarl. For more of Kufahl's tendency to reminisce about the good old days on Deli, NAH, CABR, 87079, letter from Kufahl to Dr. Dörr, December 9, 1943. Kufahl also headed the Four Year Plan's Fachgruppe Tabak in Amsterdam.
66 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, October 1, 1942, 2; ibid., “Rapport eener reis … ,” August 14, 1943, 1. Quoted: Hermann von Harder of Rosenberg's Ostministerium and Dr. Walther of the Tobacco Monopoly.
67 NAH, (Deli Mij)/63, draft document on Enthoven, n.d.; NAH, (Deli Mij)/65, letter from Enthoven to J. Loudon, October 16, 1940, letter from President-Commissaris to Enthoven, October 23, 1940.
68 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, “Memorandum betreffende de model-concessievoorwaarden voor het planten van tabak in de Ukraine,” March 11, 1943.
69 Although, see the ingratiating letter to Arthur Seyss-Inquart, without indications but written on Deli Mij stationery in the early months of occupation: NAH, (Deli Mij)/64, October 16, 1940. This was also right at the moment when the firm was seeking to remove its Jewish identity in Nazi registers.
70 Klemann, “Occupation and Industry.”
71 NAH, Deli Mij/66, “Op te nemen …” (“allerminst baas in eigen huis”), n.d. The Ukraine Project was also about doing business in wartime Europe, and although that stricter business history exceeds the boundaries of this article, the Ukraine Project does confound some of the business history binaries. If one issue divides business historians the most about the NS-Zeit, it is over the primacy of Handlungsspielraum (room for maneuver) or Zwang (constraint). In the Ukraine Project, Verwalter protected as well as plundered their enterprises. And the Deli companies displayed considerable resistance to pressure, although wiggle room in this instance was also possible because the Germans were divided over inviting the Dutch into their empire. Timing too was on the Dutch side.
72 Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870–1979, 14–21, is especially good on this global corporate connection.
73 Enthoven, N.V. Deli-Maatschappij, 8, 33–38; Maatschappij, Gedenkschrift aangeboden aan den Heer Herbert Cremer, directeur N.V. Deli-Maatschappij, 117–22, 130–37. The rhetoric was also intended to counter negative publicity over past abuses or to stabilize the workforce. On the latter: Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870–1979, 42–44, 91.
74 NAH, (Deli Mij)/63, Rapport.
75 NAH, (Deli Mij)/64, Notulen, January 22, 1943; NAH, (Deli Mij)/ 66, Rapport Inzake, 16–17; NAH, (Deli Mij)/63, “Memorandum,” March 11, 1943.
76 Volker, Van oerbosch tot cultuurgebied, 49–51, 131; Allen, G. C. and Donnithorne, Audrey G., Western Enterprise in Indonesia and Malaysia: A Study in Economic Development (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954), 97–98Google Scholar.
77 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Gransberg, “Rapport eener reis naar de Oekraïne,” August 14, 1943, 5–6.
78 See especially Volker, Van oerbosch tot cultuurgebied, 13.
79 Stoler, Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra's Plantation Belt, 1870–1979, 47–89, 114–15.
80 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, Gransberg, “Rapport eener reis naar de Oekraïne,” August 14, 1943, 5.
81 NAH, (Deli Mij)/66, April 28, 1943.
82 Berkhoff, Karel C., Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 276–82Google Scholar; Lower, Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine, 188.
83 Talk of partisan attacks is sprinkled throughout 1943 travel reports. The quotes come from “Supplement Rapport Oekraine,” August 1943. Most likely this was written by either Gransberg or Schas.
84 Dirks, Nicholas B., The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Press, Steven, Contracts and Conmen in Europe's Scramble for Africa (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2017)Google Scholar; Johnson, Walter, River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013)Google Scholar.
85 Frank Bajohr, Parvenus und Profiteure. Korruption in der NS-Zeit (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 2001). See especially 133: “so stellte Korruption kein isoliertes Randphänomen dar, sondern eine systemimmanente Massenerscheinung, ja eine für das Herrschaftssytem konstitutive Praxis.”
86 Klemann and Kudryashov, Occupied Economies, 263–92, 317; Götz Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1907), especially the document, reproduced 113–16, on the Ukraine as “‘the Reich's flea market’”; Harold James, “Switzerland and Sweden in the Second World War,” in Working for the New Order: European Business Under German Domination, 1939–1945, ed. Joachim Lund (Copenhagen: University Press of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen Business School Press, 2006), 221–25.
87 Thomas Keneally, Schindler's List (Hammondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1983). On the supply need: Klemann and Kudryashov, Occupied Economies, 337–39.
88 Aly, Hitler's Beneficiaries, 184.
89 Parallel operations, conducted also under the Four Year Plan, were carried out by Johannes Karl Urbanek (for purchase of industrial diamonds) and Arthur Bozenhardt.
90 This story can best be followed in Laureys, Eric, Meesters van het diamant. De Belgische diamantsector tijdens het nazibewind (Tielt: Lannoo, 2005)Google Scholar and A. J. Van der Leeuw, “De Aktion Bozenhardt & Co.,” Studies over Nederland in oorlogstijd 1 (1972): 257–77. See also de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de tweede wereldoorlog, vol. 7, Part 1, 207–26, on Veltjens's earlier “Blau-Aktions,” and the clandestine milieu in which a large proportion of Nazi activity was mired. BArch, Beauftragter für den Vierjahresplan, (R 26) I, and NIOD, 281/125, 273, 355 provide documentary material; the NIOD material is especially useful for the pursuit of stolen diamonds after the war.
91 NAH, CABR, 105940, deposition of von Rautenberg, February 10, 1947; ibid., summing up by interrogators, May 9, 1946.
92 NIOD, 281/355, report of Capt. A. Van der Schuyt Jr., June 11, 1947; IfZ, ED 385/Band 7; NAH, CABR, 86545, deposition of von Rautenberg, March 11, 1947 (quoted).
93 NIOD, 281/355, report/deposition of Salcher, February 22, 1946. On Miedl, see Aalders, Nazi Looting, 46, 75–78; Nicholas, Lynn H., The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War (London: Macmillan, 1994), 104–6Google Scholar.
94 Bernhard, Patrick, “Colonial Crossovers: Nazi Germany and its Entanglements with Other Empires,” Journal of Global History 12, no. 2 (July 2017): 206–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hedinger, “The Imperial Nexus.”
95 Miller, Europe and the Maritime World, 295.