This topic will be discussed in an openDemocracy live discussion on 10 June: "UK: Petro-state?" featuring the author of Crude Britannia, James Marriott, and others. Register for the event here.
The oil company Shell faces calls to apologise as a new book highlights the full extent of its role in fuelling the Nazi war effort.
According to ‘Crude Britannia’, by James Marriott and Terry Macalister, at the outbreak of World War Two the Anglo-Dutch company “effectively divided into an Allied corporation and an Axis corporation”. The Nazi-supporting branch of Shell, called Rhenania-Ossag, “swung in behind the [German] government as the Nazi state began to invade other countries”.
Or as Shell's official history states 'Following Hilter's annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, (Shell) Group managing directors sanctioned Rhenania-Ossag taking over Shell companies in those countries.' The same process took place in Hungary, Yugoslavia and Greece after Germany took control of those states.
