Eduard Schulte

Due to his career as a manager in the 1920s to 1940s, he had frequent contact with high German government and military officials, as well as other industrialists who had access to important information.

So in 1926 a majority share (51%) was sold to the US interests of Anaconda Copper Mining Co. and W. Averell Harriman who had registered the Silesian-American Corporation (SACO) and Silesian Holding Company in Delaware, US.

Just before the entry of the US into the war in 1941, the Swiss bank LaRoche acted jointly with Schulte to establish in Switzerland, Internationale Kapitalanlegen Gesellschaft (Ikap), also a wholly owned subsidiary of Giesche's Erben.

It was this corporation that Schulte managed to convince the US owners to sell their part of Giesche but before the sale could be completed a presidential order was issued freezing all financial transactions involving Germany and taking place in Switzerland and would require approval of the US Treasury Department.

On November 17, 1942, the Alien Property Custodian as authorized by the Trading with the Enemy Act took over control of the German-owned shares of the Silesian-American Corp.[1] Schulte's efforts to regain “eastern estates” collapsed.

In 1942, Schulte learned about the Final Solution concept, and in July 1942 he told Isidor Koppelman who relayed the information to Gerhart M. Riegner, the Swiss representative of World Jewish Congress.

In August 1942, the Riegner Telegram notified the Allies, but they largely ignored the information which stated the estimated number of 3.5 to 4 million Jews, and the planned use of hydrogen cyanide.