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While there is no evidence to support the claim the elder Schwab's was a Nazi military officer, party member or Hitler confidant, he did work as director of a mechanical engineering company Escher Wyss that contributed to the Nazis' war effort.
Per the National Library of New Zealand, "Swiss engineering firm of Escher Wyss & Co, Zurich, was founded by Hans Kaspar Escher in 1805. They produce water turbines, pressure pipelines, steam engines for vessels, steam turbines, high-pressure air compressors, paper making machines, steam boilers, pumps, motor launches, carbonic acid refrigerating machines, etc."
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In Paul Tice's book "The Race to Zero," the author referenced Eugen Schwab and the company that he helped run in Ravensburg where his son was born, following the family's move back to Germany from Switzerland: "Eugen, who was also an industrial engineer, actively supported the German war effort during World War II. The elder Schwab worked for the Swiss industrial manufacturer, Escher Wyss & Cie., and moved his family back to Germany."
In addition, Tice writes the following of Escher Wyss:
Escher Wyss was awarded the title of "National Socialist Model Company" by Adolf Hitler. Apart from the Schwab-run munitions factory, the Escher Wyss industrial conglomerate was also deeply involved in the Nazi atomic weapons program. ... The Ravensburg factory's use of forced labor during World War II was confirmed in an August 24 2000. statement by the National Swiss Press Agency.
Indeed, the National Swiss Press Agency provided a document, dated Aug. 24, 2000, to the Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation brought against Swiss banks, which listed Escher Wyss' factory in Ravensburg as having used "Swiss capital and forced labor in Germany," using around 200 forced laborers, likely from "nearby Nazi camps," per Politifact.
The U.S. National Archives made several references to Escher Wyss in the section of its website titled "Holocaust-Era Assets," as part of its efforts to trace assets looted by the Nazis from victims and survivors of the Holocaust:
Escher-Wyss of Switzerland is working on a large order for Germany. Flame-throwers are despatched from Switzerland under the name Brennstoffbehaelter. 1 p. Sept. 1944.
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Another English translation of a passage from Dunsch's book also noted that "after returning from the States, Klaus Schwab immediately made the jump to the board of Escher Wyss. This isn't entirely surprising, as Escher Wyss was the company whose factory in Ravensburg his father managed."
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So, while there is no corroborating evidence to support the claim that Schwab's father was a Nazi military officer, or that he was an "intimate confidant of Hitler" who was a member of the Nazi Party, he was indeed a Nazi-era industrialist who worked high up at Escher Wyss, an engineering company that was also used as a defense contractor, supporting Nazi war efforts by supplying munitions to the regime while using forced labor in its factories.
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