From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich

by Peter Hayes

Overview

The Degussa corporation played a pivotal role in the processing of plundered precious metals in Nazi-occupied Europe and controlled the production and distribution of Zyklon B, the infamous pesticide used to gas the inmates of Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps, during the Third Reich. Peter Hayes traces the extent of the corporation's involvement in these and other Nazi war crimes, including the Aryanization of Jewish-owned property and the exploitation of forced labor, and delineates the motivations for such conduct.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521782272
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	394
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Peter Hayes is Professor of History and German and Theodore Z. Weiss Professor of Holocaust Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era, 2nd edition (Cambridge, 2000), which won the Conference Group on Central European History's biannual book award in 1988. He is also editor of Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World (1991), and four other collections. He has written more than 40 articles published in German, French, Italian, as well as English. In 1997–8, he was the Shapiro Senior Scholar in Residence at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of abbreviations; Preface and acknowledgements; 1. Introduction and overview; 2. The company, the party and the regime; 3. Aryanization; 4. Autarky and armament; 5. Precious metals for the Reich; 6. War production and spoliation; 7. Forced labour; 8. Degesch and Zyklon B; 9. War's end and aftermath; Appendices; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Like his critical study of IG Farben, Hayesas new work on the German corporation Degussa stands at the intersection of business and political history. Hayes raises many important questions, still valid today, about business partnerships. Recommended." CHOICE May 2005

"...the most mature study of a single German firm under National Socialism currently available, and its conclusions regarding the relationships between business and the Nazi government more generally are likely to stand the test of time." Business History Review, Jeffrey Lewis, Ohio State University

"a meticulously documented book" The International History Review Feldafing

"this fine book is a long overdue contribution to our knowledge of how National Socialism affected specific sectors of German society...Hayes has done a mangificent job in explaining the complexity of Degussa'a situation, and if we cannot look on its plight with much sympathy, we can at least do it with understanding." - Decian O'Reilly, Michigan State University

From the Publisher