A Free, Virtual Jewish Book Council Author Talk by David de Jong – Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties
Tuesday, March 28 at 7pm
Click here to register for Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwudO2oqDgqGtdzUzmzMd4kCH_XMGGIew-1
On Zoom and Broadcast live on FCTV Public Channel 13 (Falmouth, MA)
What the critics are saying:
“Meticulously researched …compels us to confront the current-day legacy of these Nazi ties.” —Wall Street Journal
"Scathing … De Jong’s colorful narrative features cutthroat corporate intrigue, sordid kowtowing to Nazi potentates ... and a melodramatic feud.... The result is an intimate and vivid history." — Publishers Weekly
"De Jong is thorough in his tracing of business and personal relationships and sensitive to the complexities of opportunism and collaboration. But the picture he paints is a damning one, pointing to the complicity of those who allowed war crimes to go unpunished." — Booklist
“A detailed, compelling and bone-chilling account.” — Jerusalem Post
Falmouth Jewish Congregation and the Worcester JCC present a free, virtual Jewish Book Council Author Talk by David de Jong on his groundbreaking study Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties. Come hear how this masterly researched narrative compels us to confront the legacy of Germanys business dynasties. This event, which is free and open to the public, will take place virtually on Zoom and on FCTV. Visit the Falmouth Jewish Congregation website to register for Zoom participation (www.falmouthjewish.org) or watch live broadcast on FCTV Public Channel 13 or the FCTV website. Books are available through Eight Cousins Bookshop on Main Street, Falmouth.
In this landmark work of investigative journalism, David de Jong reveals the true story of how Germany’s wealthiest business dynasties amassed untold money and power by abetting the atrocities of the Third Reich – and how America allowed them to get away with it. The heirs of the Nazi billionaires have grown only wealthier in the generations since, while their reckoning with this dark past remains incomplete at best. Many of them continue to control swaths of the world economy, owning iconic brands whose products blanket the globe. The brutal legacy of the dynasties that dominated Daimler-Benz, co-founded Allianz, and still control Porsche, Volkswagen, and BMW has remained hidden in plain sight — until now. Nazi Billionaires shows how German tycoons seized Jewish businesses, procured slave laborers, and ramped up weapons production to equip Hitler’s army as Europe burned around them. De Jong also exposes how America’s political expediency enabled these billionaires to get away with their crimes, covering up a bloodstain that deles the German and global economies to this day.
David de Jong is a journalist who previously covered European banking and finance from Amsterdam and hidden wealth and billionaire fortunes from New York for Bloomberg News. His work has also appeared in Bloomberg Business-week, the Wall Street Journal, and the Dutch Financial Daily. A native of the Netherlands, De Jong currently lives in Tel Aviv. He spent four years reporting from Berlin while researching and writing this book.