Shell’s Dark Fuel: The Nazi Past the Oil Giant Couldn’t Bury

Shell’s Dark Fuel: The Nazi Past the Oil Giant Couldn’t Bury

By John Donovan Part 1: The Oil That Powered the Reich Shell likes to describe itself as “an energy company of the future.” But history, inconveniently, refuses to stay buried. Long before Shell courted wind farms and “net-zero” slogans, it courted Adolf Hitler. In the 1930s, as Europe spiralled toward war, Royal Dutch Shell — the genteel Anglo-Dutch oil giant whose modern logo is now synonymous with sustainability brochures — was actively suppl…