The Deutsche Bank and the Nazi Economic War Against the Jews: The Expropriation of Jewish-Owned Property. By Harold James. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. 268. $25.00

This is an important book. The study of the Nazi economy, and the role of finance and industry in it, has been deeply influenced by the notion that the regime was little more than a cloak for the interests of big business, and the man in charge a mere spokesman for wire-pullers in top management. Although Harold James is by no means the first historian of the Third Reich to shed such preconceptions in favor of conscientious examination of one enterprise with distinct traditions, operating mechanisms, and sets of interests and strategies, his account is in certain respects the most telling yet to appear. The Deutsche Bank was of course the most important institution in the German private economy during the Hitler era, as well as the most prominent one internationally. The focus of the present study on the confiscation of Jewish property obviously raises profound moral as well as serious economic issues. As such, it may well open the whole topic of German big business to more dispassionate analysis.