Prescott Bush

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Prescott attended Yale University and served as an Artillery Captain in World War I. A Yale legend tells of Bush digging up the skull of Geronimo (1918) and giving it to the Skull and Bones society. He entered business in the organization of George Herbert Walker[?] and Averell Harriman and became an officer in Harriman Bank (later Brown Brothers-Harriman) in 1926.

When Adolf Hitler's financiers, the Thyssen family, formed a joint venture, Union Banking Corporation[?] to manage Thyssen family investments in America, they needed an up-and-coming youngster to run the new firm, and Prescott Bush was made Managing Director. The later congressional report described Union Bank as an "interlocking trust" with the German Steel Trust[?] responsible for supplying the German Military. Union Bank was also involved in raising funds from German-sympathizing Americans, and brokered the illegal transfer of aviation fuel technology that made the Luftwaffe possible. The coordination between Union Bank and the German Steel trust was so tight that Prescott spent some time in Europe in the late 1930s overseeing the mining operations in Poland which used slave labor out of Oświęcim. A July 1942 New York Tribune[?] front page article about Prescott's bank headlined "Hitler's Angel has 3 million in US bank"; ("Hitler's Angel" being Fritz Thyssen[?]) prompted the congressional investigation which closed Union Banking Corp, but caused only a brief dip in Prescott's personal and political fortunes.

Prescott Bush's business interests seized during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act[?] included:

• Union Banking Corp. (for Thyssen and Brown Brothers-Harriman)
• Holland-American Trading Corporation (with Harriman)
• the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation (with Harriman)
• Silesian-American Corporation (with Walker)

External link

• Straight Dope column about Prescott Bush's links to Nazi Germany (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030214)