Sir Henri Deterding

Extract from a film about Royal Dutch Shell and its founder Sir Henri Deterding. Copyright holder of the original film is unknown. Probably made for Shell. It is evident from the narration that relevant filming took place between 1921 (nearly 100 years ago) and the mid 1930's, over 80 years ago. In the years leading up to WW2, Sir Henri, the Dutch founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, became an ardent Nazi. He financially backed the Third Reich and met directly with Hitler on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell. As a major financial contributor to Nazi Germany in pre-WW2 years, the Royal Dutch Shell Group, under Dutch leadership, arguably had some indirect responsibility for the death toll in the subsequent war, in which sadly over 50 million people perished. Shell publicly boasted at the time about the importance of its financial contribution to the German economy. The claims were made by Shell in Germany while the country was under Nazi control. The portrayal in 2007 by Shell’s paid historians in the four volume set - A History of Royal Dutch Shell - of a distant relationship between Sir Henri and Hitler, in which all attempts by Sir Henri to meet with Hitler were rebuffed, is simply untrue. In fact, their meetings included a four-day one-on-one summit held at Hitler’s mountain retreat, as reported in a Reuters syndicated article published in 1934 in the New York Times and other newspapers. There are credible allegations that the Royal Dutch Shell Group, under the control of Dutch directors, used forced labor at its German subsidiary, Rhenania-Ossag. Many of its directors and staff of the company were fanatical Nazis. Royal Dutch Shell collaborated in the annexation and occupation of sovereign countries by the Nazis - Austria and Czechoslovakia - this was before the outbreak of WW2. Donations and financial contributions to the Third Reich were carried out under the control of Dutch directors of companies within the Royal Dutch Shell Group. In 1936, while still a director of multiple Royal Dutch Shell group companies, Sir Henri purchased the Castle Dobbin estate North of Berlin for over a million Reich marks from Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Deterding moved into Castle Dobbin with his young German wife, his former personal secretary, herself a fanatical Nazi, said by one source to be a former private secretary of Hitler’s. Sir Henri’s friend Hermann Göring, the founder of the dreaded Gestapo, regularly visited Castle Dobbin to go hunting with him. Deterding generously gave Göring a Hunting Lodge in East Prussia as a spectacular gift. Kaiser Wilhelm II once owned it. In 1936 and 1937, Sir Henri - while still a director of multiple companies within the Royal Dutch Shell Group, in which he held a controlling interest - made huge donations of food - literally “millions of tonnes” - to Nazi Germany as part of what was known as the “Winter Help” scheme. Seven thousand railway wagons were used in the first immense delivery. A New York Times report in June 1937 - “Deterding to Distribute More Food in Germany” - specifically linked the food donations to Germany’s re-armament policy. The massive donations enabled significant funds to be diverted at a time when the Nazi regime was engaged in an urgent build up of its military might. Deterding died just before the outbreak of WW2. He was honored by a Nazi ceremonial funeral at Castle Dobbin in February 1939. It was attended by a full contingent of Royal Dutch Shell Group directors mingling with Nazi military officers. A glowing tribute to Sir Henri on behalf of the German nation was inscribed on a wreath sent by Adolf Hitler. Dutch directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group engaged in anti-Semitic policies against Shell employees and were also guilty of collaboration and appeasement. In the latter part of WW2, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, SS leader Heinrich Himmler and General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command, were all stationed at Dobbin Castle. Hitler’s final despairing message from his Berlin bunker, a day before he committed suicide, was sent to Field Marshal Keitel at Dobbin Castle, whilst it was still owned by the Deterding family. Evidence was on display at Castle Dobbin, signed by Hitler, confirming Sir Henri’s financial support for the Nazis. Also a personal testimony by Herman Göring acknowledging the generosity of his great friend and benefactor, Sir Henri Deterding.