Financial Times: Straight-talker ready to take risks
“It was a move so daring that five years later Mr Desmarest was seen – until last week when he ruled it out – as one of the only men capable of considering a bid for Royal/Dutch Shell, Total’s far bigger, yet distressed, rival.”
By Carola Hoyos in London
Published: September 15 2004
Thierry Desmarest, chair-man and chief executive of French oil group Total, occupies an enviable position among his peers. His company is not only returning vast amounts of cash to shareholders, but is also closing in on its bigger rivals by growing production at double the industry rate.
This has afforded the cerebral 49-year-old the ability to speak more frankly than most other oil executives about controversial issues facing an industry beset by activists and politicians.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
