Support the Devil. The involvement of German banks in the NS-politics from the occupation to the Final Solution

The economic strategy used by the Nazis could be defined more as a robbery than a planned economy of war (Herbert, 1991), in doing so the NSDAP Party were strongly supported by the German bank system, which gave the dictatorship a series of tools that were used even before the actual beginning of the war. Inside this essay it will be taken into consideration how the German banks supported the Nazi projects, by looking to a peculiar case study: the polish occupied territories. The first part will be devoted to the support that some bank gave to the invasion of Poland; by not only giving credit to the operations, but also establishing, already during October 1939, a series of branch offices in the territories that were directly annexed to the Third Reich (like the Warthegau). Secondly, it will be addressed how some specific tools, like the Sonderkontos (“special bank account”) where used in order to draw resources from activities like deportations, killing operations, liquidations of ghettos and camps. In the dark picture that this analysis will show, it will be clear how drawing resources was just a part of the work because, starting from the end of 1942 (third part), the Nazis tried to reinvest the money that they were able to take, especially from the Aktionen. Lastly it will be addressed how the German banks had an active role inside the complex relationship between productivity and profitability.