Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Standard Oil and World War 2

I was searching the interwebs for Standard Oil stuff and came across this little nugget..
http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_04.htm

Could it be? Companies like Ford, GM, Standard Oil are the reason 70 million people died? According to this, World War 2 would not have been possible, Germany did not have the technology to fuel their war machine, had it not been for Standard Oil.

Our fathers and grandfathers died stopping this nonsense created by an American company...blows away everything I thought I knew about WW2.

they didn't teach that in school, interesting .. ...

That's some pretty intriguing stuff, seems most of the sources check out. Though, when it comes down to it, I cannot say I find it surprising. It would appear Standard Oil took the risk that no one else was willing to. As oil embargos were introduced by the majority, if not all but Standard Oil, Germany became desperate for a source to power/lubricate their war machines. Despite what the article has laid out, the amount of oil provided by Standard was not sufficient enough to provide to all forces/machines and the lack, thereof, lead, in part, to their downfall. As a collector of Tide Water items, I have been suspect for some time of when they officially ( or unofficially) pulled back from supplying the Nazis. I can state that they were, in fact, supplying oil during a partial time period of the Nazi reign and, if you want to grasp at straws, could be held in some way at a fault. I have a Veedol map that proudly displays the Graf Zeppelin with Nazi flag clearly displayed on the tail from 1939. It is unknown how much these companies had knowledge of, but you never know. Business and sainthood never have gone hand-in-hand.

I appreciate you sharing this, it really gets ya thinking.

The way I read it , the Luftwaffe would never leave the ground without ethyl. Germans had no ethyl, had no way to make ethyl, 'til Standard Oil introduced them.

They did this because the company is more important than the country. No matter which side wins, Standard Oil will thrive..

Sam Colt was from Mass.,a union state, but he got caught selling 200,000 pistols to the confederacy...he said he was sorry..money matters

On the lighter side, making gasoline from coal should be a slam-dunk from here on out..we showed the Germans 70 years ago.

Yeah, you are absolutely right.

And the whole thing with Sam Colt was one of the first things that popped in my mind when I read that article - history repeats itself again and again, ecspecially when no one is held accountable. Spot on in pointing that out. Another thing that comes to mind is New York City's stubbornness during the Civil War. They had profitable trade with the South and an economy that depended on it. Because of this, they did a whole lot of "iffy" things during that time, to say the least.

When I think about it, prior to our inclusion in WWII, there was a pretty scary amount of pro-Nazi support from many government and business officials down to your blue collar every-man. Off the top of my head, I remember something of a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939 that drew thousands. This was not an isolated incident. It was commonplace to walk down Main Street of many cities and see Nazi flags in the windows of Mom and Pop stores and eateries. There was a great deal of old and new generations of German immigrants sprawled throughout the US, so assumably this whole thing was really awkward at best.

Further expanding on that, it brings to mind the stories of brother fighting brother, son fighting father, friend fighting friend, during the Civil War. The closest of individuals became heated enemies only because the war broke out. Yet, the business relationships were much, much harder to pry apart. Having a really positive, and financially successful, working relationship with those Nazi officials prior to WWII, it may have been a very complex operation to end every single business/agreement/contract they had in motion. This is compounded by the fact that there would be an end to the war at some point. And, as history has shown thousands of times over, war is profitable for business. This does not only apply to the time during which the war takes place, but before it begins and, ecspecially, after it ends. The article seems to only have a tidbit of say as to what specifically went on while we were included in the war, but prior to, they seem to have had the greatest influence - this, however, was by no means illegal. Immoral, maybe, but not illegal.

At the end of the day, we are all driving BMWs and VWs, popping Bayer aspirin and neglecting the past of each and all. Money, money, money....