Silesian-American Corporation
Founding and Corporate Setup
Silesian-American Corporation was the American holding company for Friedrich Flick's German steel empire; two thirds of which was controlled by Flick, Nazi Germany's largest arms supplier, with the remaining one third under the control of, initially, the Harriman Fifteen Corporation, and subsequent to its merger with Brown Brothers, the Brown Brothers Harriman Corporation. Friedrich Flick was the major co-owner of the German Steel Trust with Fritz Thyssen. The two men bankrolled the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany, through credit arrangements made with Dutch banks situated in Rotterdam to avoid entanglements with German banks and hoping to control the Nazi party's policy to their personal benefit. One of the main banks chosen for this credit arrangement was Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart (BHS), covert owner of Union Bank Company which Averrel Harriman was invested in and Prescott Bush was manager.
According to preparatory documents for the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, Flick was "one of the leading financiers and industrialists who from 1932 contributed large sums to the Nazi Party... member of the 'Circle of Friends' of Heinrich Himmler who contributed large sums to the SS."
The Flick-Harriman partnership was directly supervised by Prescott Bush, and by George Herbert Walker. The Harriman-Walker Union Banking Corp. arrangements for the German Steel Trust had made them bankers for Flick and his vast operations in Germany by no later than 1926.
In 1930, Allen Dulles (later the American Director of Central Intelligence from 1953 to 1961) arranged for the wealthy Czech family, the Petscheks to sell their interest in Silesian Coal to George Mernane. Mernane was used merely to hide the Petscheks interest. Dulles then sold the shares to the Nazi Plenipotentiary for War Economy (aka economic minister), Hjalmar Schacht. After the sale, Dulles became a director of Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation.
Harriman Fifteen Corporation (George Herbert Walker, president, Prescott Bush and Averell Harriman, sole directors) held a substantial stake in the Silesian Holding Co. at the time of the merger with Brown Brothers, January 1, 1931. This holding correlated to Averell Harriman's chairmanship of the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation. Its sole asset was a one third interest in Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Company. The remainder of the shares to be controlled by Fredrick Flick.
Following Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the profits from the Thyssen-Flick dealings soared. Both Union Bank and the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart were overflowing with money. Prescott Bush became managing director of Union Bank and took over the day-to-day operations of the German plan.
Problems In Poland
On March 19, 1934, Prescott Bush rushed off an alert to then absent Averell Harriman about a problem which had developed in the Flick partnership. Bush forwarded Harriman a clipping from the New York Times which was reporting that the Polish government was fighting back against American and German stockholders who controlled "Poland's largest industrial unit, the Upper Silesian Coal andSteel Company...."
The "Times" article continued: "The company has long been accused of mismanagement, excessive borrowing, fictitious bookkeeping and gambling in securities. Warrants were issued in December for several directors accused of tax evasions. They were German citizens and they fled. They were replaced by Poles. Herr Flick, regarding this as an attempt to make the company's board entirely Polish, retaliated by restricting credits until the new Polish directors were unable to pay the workmen regularly."
The "Times" made note of the fact that the company's mines and mills "employ 25,000 men and account for 45 percent of Poland's total steel output and 12 percent of her coal production. Two-thirds of the company's stock is owned by Friedrich Flick, a leading German steel industrialist, and the remainder is owned by interests in the United States."
Considering that the majority of Polish output was being exported to Hitler's Germany under depression conditions, the Polish government thought that Bush, Harriman, and their Nazi partners should at least pay full taxes on their Polish holdings. In response the Poles were locked out and the German management complained to Hitler's government. The letter to Harriman in Washington reported a cable from their European representative: "Have undertaken new steps London Berlin ... please establish friendly relations with Polish Ambassador [in Washington]."
A 1935 "Harriman Fifteen Corporation" memo from George Herbert Walker announced an agreement had been made "in Berlin" to sell a block of 8,000 of their shares in "Consolidated Silesian Steel". But the dispute with Poland did not deter the Bush family from continuing its enriching partnership with Flick.
By the end of January 1937, Dulles had merged all his cloaking activities regarding the financing of the Nazi empire into one client account, Brown Brothers Harriman-Schroeder Rock. Schroeder, of course, was the Nazi bank on whose board Dulles sat. The 'Rock' was the Rockefellers of Standard Oil, who were already coming under scrutiny for their Nazi deals. At the request of Prescott Bush Dulles had cloaked the Bush-Harriman dealings with the Nazis.
Polish Invasion
 Entrance of Auschwitz I — Arbeit macht frei With the invasion of Poland in September, 1939 by the Nazis, the taxation and labour dispute between the Polish government and the German-American ownership of "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation" was resolved. The major coal mining operations of "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation" were located near the Polish town of Oswiecim. When the plan to use Soviet prisoners as forced labor in the mines failed to materialize, the Nazis began shipping Jews, communists, Romanche (gypsies) and other minority populations to the camp the Nazis had set up. This was the beginning of Auschwitz. I.G. Farben soon built a plant nearby to take advantage, not only of the nearby coal deposits but also of available slave labour. According to a Dutch intelligence agent, Prescott Bush managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland.
Seizure of Assets Under The Trading With The Enemy Act
In 1942, nearly a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of the Nazis' share in the Silesian-American Corporation under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Enemy nationals were said to own 49 percent of the common stock and 41.67 percent of the preferred stock of the company.
The investigative report prior to the government crackdown explained the "NATURE OF BUSINESS: The subject corporation is an American holding company for German and Polish subsidiaries, which own large and valuable coal and zinc mines in Silesia, Poland and Germany. Since September 1939, these properties have been in the possession of and have been operated by the German government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country in its war effort."
The report also noted that the American stockholders hoped to regain control of the European properties after the war.
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