reSee.it Video Transcript AI Summary
Himmler’s SS state by 1944 was enormous, hugely wealthy, and very important semi autonomous. Himmler was not only absolute leader of the SS, which would grow to over 900,000 personnel, but his economics office controlled the system of concentration camps, ghettos, and forced labor enterprises, generating enormous sums for the SS coffers. He also controlled all police organizations in Germany and had an excellent foreign intelligence unit, the SD, ensuring he knew better than any other top leader what was going on within and outside the Third Reich. Himmler made sure most of Germany’s industrialists were made honorary SS officers or were influenced to donate to SS funds. He oversaw the appointment of SS economics officers onto the management boards of major Reich economic concerns.
This influence and power over German industry culminated in an extraordinary meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in German-occupied Strasbourg, France on 08/10/1944, Northwest of Normandy where the battle raged. The Maison Rouge was an old hotel in the city center. The Allies learned of the meeting and were horrified by what they read. The reports are available at the British National Archives in London and the US National Archives in Washington DC. The US version’s subtitle explains Himmler’s plan succinctly: “plans of German industrialists to engage in underground activity after Germany’s defeat, flow of capital to neutral countries, end.”
Who attended? Himmler did not attend in person; he was represented by Obergruppenführer Scheid, who chaired the meeting and was a director of many German industrial concerns. All the major German firms sent representatives, including Krupp, Riesling, Messerschmitt, Volkswagen, Rheinmetall, and engineers from Braun Bovary, Hercules Werke, and Stadt Werke. Civil servants from the German naval ministry in Paris and the armaments ministry in Paris attended, indicating official sanction by influential military leaders.
A second meeting months later confirmed the Maison Rouge agreements. Scheid opened by saying the battle for France was lost along with the war, and it was made clear that this represented the official view of Himmler’s boss. The report quotes: “from now on, government will allocate large sums to industrialists so that each can establish a secure postwar foundation in other countries.” Himmler lifted the prohibition against export of capital; the new order was to export as much industrial capital as possible. The Maison Rouge meetings were Himmler’s step to ensure the financial survival of German industrial wealth and SS wealth after defeat under a cabal of his chosen men, safe from Allied reach. He ordered existing financial reserves in foreign nations to be placed at the disposal of the party to create a strong German empire after the defeat. The party would assist with transfers; a network of trusted SS officers would run the companies. SS institutes studied world economics; central SS economic evaluation department monitored this work and worked with the economics, armaments, and economic warfare ministries. By 1943, every major German company had been evaluated by the SS institutes, with SS officers on boards, except Krupp.
This offshore strategy extended to Latin America, where IG Farben, Ferrostall, and AEG expanded; the US pressured Latin American governments to intervene. In Uruguay, Deutsche Bank’s offices were seized; the FBI reviewed papers revealing SS operations in that country. In 1945, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay’s economies were upgraded, consistent with SS asset offshoring. The Red House plan involved figures like Walter Schellenberg orchestrating covert overseas ventures. The Dulles brothers allegedly helped in networks with Dallas, Wallenberg, and bank interests in Sweden and Switzerland, including the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), with a board including Montagu Norman, Walter Funk, Emil Puhl, Hermann Schmitz, and Baron von Schroeder, and US banker Thomas McKittrick. The BIS was described as “a sort of club for the world’s leading central bankers,” and allied governments faced interference from interests connected to Himmler’s circle.
US attempts to blacklist the BIS were blocked by the British Foreign Office, and cooperation to counter Himmler’s Red House plans faced resistance from government departments in both countries. Plenty of people profited from Himmler’s plan, with Walter Schellenberg identified as mastermind behind many covert overseas ventures. Henry Morgenthau Jr., US Treasury Secretary, opposed the Dulles-linked schemes but could not stop the broader financial reintegration of German capital after the war. The postwar German economic miracle and the influx of German capital from Latin America, Turkey, Egypt, the US, Britain, Sweden, and Switzerland align with discussions in the Red House reports.
The Red House reports were released in 1996 only after a US Freedom of Information Act request. Historians noted the reports changed perceptions of World War II. Some researchers speculate that Himmler’s death in British custody on 05/23/1945 might have been to prevent revelations of these networks, though this remains part of ongoing discussion.