Sydney Warburg

Sydney Warburg
Died	New-York
Language	English
Period	1933
Genres	Essay, Mémoires, Forgery, Imposture
Notable work	Hitler's Secret Backers

Sydney Warburg (1880 – 1947) is the pen name of an author or group of authors who remained anonymous and who published a book about funding of the Nazi Party by American bankers between 1929 and 1933. The book's Dutch title De geldbronnen van het Nationaal-Socialisme: drie gesprekken met Hitler refers to three conversations Warburg said Sydney would have had with Adolf Hitler. The original states that the text was "Door Sydney Warburg, vertaald door J.G. Schoup" (By Sydney Warburg, translated by J.G. Schoup).

Editions

The original version of this book was published in 1933 under the title De geldbronnen van het nationaal-socialisme, 3 gesprekken met Hitler (Financial origins of national socialism) in the Netherlands. According to Jean Gustave Schoup (sometimes spelled as Jan Gustaaf Schoup) the original text had been provided by Sydney Warburg and J.G. Schoup had translated this text English into Dutch. After the book came out the Dutch publisher learned from various sources that no "Sydney Warburg" existed in the New York Warburg family and called back all copies from book dealers and destroyed the whole edition.

One of the three surviving copies found its way to England, was translated into English and deposited in the British Museum. This copy and the translation were later withdrawn from circulation and are presently "unavailable" for research. The second Dutch language copy was acquired by Chancellor Schussnigg of Austria. Nothing is known of its present whereabouts. The third Dutch survivor found its way to Switzerland and was translated into German in 1947.

The original Dutch text was republished in 2008 together with an introduction by Karl Hammer Kaatee.

Analysis

The book that has been published under the pseudonym Sydney Warburg, De Geldbronnen van het nationaal Socialisme: drie gesprekken met Hitler (Funding of National Socialism: Three Conversations with Hitler), published by Van Holkema & Warendorf's Uitg.-Mij. NV disappeared almost immediately from bookstores. This book dealt with funding received by the Nazi Party in 1929, 1931 and 1933.

In 1950 major Robert H. Williams reported in his Williams Intelligence Summary for February 1950 about James Paul Warburg's role. He said: Last November, the widow of the late General Erich Ludendorff, on trial at Nuremberg, explained why her husband broke with Hitler. She stated that, ...as early as the summer of 1929 James Paul Warburg had undertaken an assignment from financial circles in America, which desired to exercise solitary influence on Germany in the unleashing of a national revolution. Warburg's task was to find the suitable man in Germany, and he entered into contract with Adolph Hitler who subsequently received sums of money amounting to 27 million dollars up to January 30, 1932, and still another seven million thereafter, enabling him to finance his movement.

Franz von Papen recommends the book in his memoirs that were published in 1953.

Henry Coston wrote in 1975 that Otto Strasser alone is the author.

Antony Sutton researched a copy of the book that escaped from the mysterious redemption of its publication. The British Museum has refused Antony Sutton access to their own copy but Antony Sutton found an original copy in Switzerland. Antony Sutton's book, published in 1976, is based on Sydney Warburg's book and also on the information republished by the two authors Rene Sonderegger and Werner Zimmerman in 1948. Antony Sutton describes the pre-war books with comments added to antisemitic connotations.

The editor of the English version of Hitler's Secret Backers wrote in 1983 that the original edition of this book might have been a warning by an individual member of the Warburg family against the coming European war.

Pierre de Villemarest wrote in 1984 that the pseudonym Sydney Warburg could refer to George Bell, agent of Henri Deterding, or the brothers Otto Strasser and Gregor Strasser.

According to what E.R. Carmin wrote in 1994 the book is a factual testimony as to Des Griffin.

Henry Makow wrote in 2004 that James Paul Warburg could be the true author.

In the introduction of the 2008 edition Karl Hammer Kaatee wrote that J.G. Schoup's son had admitted that J.G. Schoup had published under a pseudonym what he had learned himself as a spy about Hitler's financial backers.

The author Ben Peri evokes the theme in a pamphlet published in 2011.

According to what the journalist Louis Kilzer wrote in 2011, James Paul Warburg is the person named in the book as intermediary, that he is the perpetrator or not.

Cees van Hoore described Jean Gustave Schoup in 2014 as follows: Schoup was not only a talented writer but also a crook who boasted about his contacts inside the German Sicherheitsdienst. He told the resistance that he could liberate arrested resisters by paying ransom to these German contacts. However, Schoup kept the money for himself. I think this is why Schoup has been liquidated in 1944.'

Jasper Wielaert proved previously in 2014 that Schoup, aiming to profit, did indeed cunningly deceive the resistance. Nevertheless, he also arranged hiding places for Jewish people. Above that Jasper Wielaert makes it thoroughly clear that corrupt members of the Rotterdam resistance in 1944-1945 were equally involved in seeking financial gain. Wielaert hints that the individuals involved in the assassination may have been interested in murdering him not just because of his scams, but for their own very personal reasons.

Denial

For Jacques Attali, the Sydney Warburg in question, posing the son of Felix Warburg, Warburg is imaginary, from which no one has carried this name of Sydney It will be worth many family denials and false pamphleteer published in Amsterdam will be awarded to a Dutch journalist scandal. The book was the subject of an indignant denial in 1949, as a signed declaration (an affidavit) by James Paul Warburg, son of one of the two Warburg brothers implicated in the book.

Book summary

The supposed author, "Sydney Warburg", presented by the translator of 1933 as the son of a great American banker of Kuhn, Loeb & Co (Felix Warburg), describes a meeting had taken place in July 1929 with a "Carter" (John Ridgley Carter, who married Alice Morgan) the president of JP Morgan's Guarantee Trust, the leaders of the Federal Reserve, "the young Rockefeller" - John D. Rockefeller Jr. - and "Glean from Royal Dutch" (Henri Deterding). It was decided that Warburg who spoke German, had to travel to Germany and ask Hitler how much money he needed to become head of state. The only condition was that Hitler would take an "aggressive foreign policy". The intention of the sponsors of Warburg is not to cause a war between France and Germany, but to cause a threat of war on France for engagement as possible to support the financial affairs of the United States and Great Britain.

"Sydney Warburg" details three meetings with Hitler between 1929 and 1933. In total approximately $32 million were transferred to the NSDAP.

1929

The first meeting took place in a brewery and Hitler calculated his needs on a sheet of paper with the help of a Von Heydt. It appears from the book that Hitler would have received nearly $10 million in 1929. This was a very significant amount in this time of economic depression - the Nazis gave food and shelter to many supporters. Hitler was not informed of the reason for their help and did not ask. On one occasion he would have asked out loud if "Warburg" was himself Jewish, but had rejected the idea before he could answer.

1931

In October 1931, Warburg received a letter informing him that Hitler had spent all the 10 million and needed new financing. Back in Germany, he met Hitler again in his home where he asked "500 million marks to make a revolution or 200 million marks for acquiring power legally". Warburg, having telegraphed its bankers received a refusal message. He is visited by Hermann Göring and Julius Streicher and literally gets caught in part by Göring who accuses him of avarice. After having complained to Hitler about the behavior of his lieutenant, he received a letter of apology from Göring and next a visit from Von Heydt and Gregor Strasser. He eventually passes on the final response of its sponsors: $15 million at most. The amount is divided into three transfers: one at Mendelsohn & Co., Amsterdam, where he travels to with Von Heydt, the other in the Rotterdamsche Bankvereniging, Rotterdam, where he goes to with Gregor Strasser, and the at third Banca Italianna in Rome with Göring. In Rome, Italo Balbo and Cesare Rossi receive them, he and Göring.

1933

Warburg is in Berlin on the day of the Reichstag fire. On the evening of that day he meets Göring and Goebbels, and finally he met Hitler. Hitler asks again if he is a Jew but he responds by saying that he has a German name. Warburg promises Hitler $7 million payable directly to Warburg via Rhenania Joint Stock Co., the German branch of Royal Dutch in Düsseldorf. The book concludes with considerations by Warburg about predicting anything good on the consequences of these money transfers: The world continues to suffer under a system that has to bow to a Hitler to keep itself on its feet. Poor world, poor humanity!. The NSDAP and Hitler came to power.

Epilogue

The book concludes with an unsigned epilogue that has been written in 1946. This epilogue was not written by Sydney Warburg. In the epilogue it has been mentioned that Joseph Goebbels wrote the following in his diary Von Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei on February 20, 1933: "We are in the process of raising significant funds which will resolve our financial problems at once." However, it is unclear whether this jubilant exclamation from Goebbels refers to the Sydney Warburg transaction.

See also

• Sydney Warburg approximates about another later book whose provenance is uncertain repeating verbatim the thesis summarizing and adding the financing of international communism by international finance : Symphony in red.