Editing Hermann Josef Abs (section)

==Role During the Third Reich==
In 1938, Abs joined the managing board of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, where he oversaw foreign operations until 1945. He also served on the boards of 44 companies, including IG Farben, a chemical conglomerate that used slave labor from Auschwitz. As a key figure in Nazi-era finance, Abs was described by economic journalist Adam LeBor as “the lynchpin of the continent-wide plunder,” facilitating the regime’s economic exploitation, including the “Aryanization” of Jewish assets, such as the 1939 takeover of Mendelssohn Bank, which he claimed was at the owners’ request. 

Despite his role, Abs was not technically a member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) but none the less facilitated its activities. In January 1946, the Allies arrested him as a suspected war criminal, but British intervention secured his release after three months, and German courts dropped all charges. A Zagreb court reportedly sentenced him in absentia to 15 years for war crimes which included the financial transactions of theft of property during the war.