“In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of the Third Reich in Germany, so this meant working under the Third Reich,” Mayer said. “And in order to get permission, they actually had to go to Hitler himself, and William Rhodes Davis did the “Heil Hitler” to greet Hitler, and finally they got Hitler to greenlight this proposal so that they could build an oil refinery in Hamburg.”

“And the Hamburg Oil Refinery, built by the Winkler-Koch Co., became key, according to several German historians I talked to, to Hitler’s war efforts. By the time they built it, it was already clear that Hitler had very major military ambitions, but one of the things he was unable to do was to refine high-octane oil for warplanes. What this plant did was create that capacity, and it eventually supplied much of the fuel that was needed for Hitler’s Luftwaffe,” Mayer said.

“He was not a Nazi, and I certainly don’t suggest that in the book, but what he was was an American businessman looking for a good deal, and he was looking all over the world to see how he could make some money. Oddly, and what’s been known before, is before working under Hitler’s Third Reich, Fred Koch had worked for Stalin, where — under Stalin’s first five-year plan — Fred Koch helped build up the Russian, the Soviet oil refineries and really gave huge muscle to the oil industry in the Soviet Union,” Mayer said.

The Koch family’s relationship with Nazis did not end there, and actually extended into the home, according to Mayer.

“The father was gone doing business, and the mother was a very active socialite and was gone much of the time, and so she and the father placed the child rearing in the hands of a hired nanny,” Mayer said.