Hitler's Bank Bares Its Dark Past

Business Week reports:

According to the study by a team of historians from German universities, Dresdner functioned as the house bank to Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS), lending more money than any other bank to the organization that was at the forefront of the most ghastly atrocities. Dresdner, co-founded by Eugen Gutmann, who was Jewish, quickly expelled its Jewish employees after the Nazi takeover and arbitrarily cut the pension payments of Jewish retirees. The bank even owned a stake in the construction company that built the crematorium at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

It has become almost a ritual for big German companies to finance detailed studies of their Nazi collaboration. Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler (DCX ), Siemens (SI ), and even menswear maker Hugo Boss (HUGSF ) have owned up to their histories. Part of the motivation may be genuine remorse, but companies also have learned that attempts to spin history can backfire.

No word yet on a comprehensive Bush family historical study.