Statelessness in an Era of Nationalism: The Diamond Cartel and the Nazi War Machine

Abstract

For nearly the entirety of World War II, the De Beers diamond syndicate supplied Nazi Germany with industrial diamonds, a critical resource to manufacturing armaments. This constituted a war crime, undermines the company’s carefully constructed reputation for providing luxury goods, and amounts to a startling revelation for a company that was run by a Jewish family, had a major corporate presence in London, and maintained a keen focus on the lucrative American market. We investigate the industrial and historical context of this revelation discuss how it offers insights into the nature of corporate statelessness, the behavior of commodity cartels, and some internal contradictions of twentieth century Jewry.