Hello, I want to share my family's story about how Syngenta (before it was named Syngenta) was taken over by Nazi control. We all know the Bayer-Monsanto Nazi connection, well their biggest counterpart Syngenta was literally taken over by Nazi control during WWII, and it wasn't until recently that my speculations were confirmed by my relatives.
Syngenta wasn't always known as Syngenta, obviously. 200 years ago it used to be known as Sluis & Groot Seed Co, and then Royal Sluis Co. In Googling these companies, I have learned that there have been a few offshoots of these companies throughout the years, and Syngenta has eventually accumulated all these offshoots into their big conglomeration of control.
[
link to news.agropages.com] <---- about halfway down this page I linked, is a ridiculously simplified flow chart about the history of Syngenta.
My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather was Nanne Jansz Groot, and he ran the seed company with his family. The surnames Sluis & Groot, and then Royal Sluis became the names of these seed companies.
Here is a little more history about the Royal Sluis company that mentions some more of my ancestors. [
link to dutchphilately.blogspot.com]
There is not much history online, but much of it is in my Sluis family's geneology books I was paging through last year. (Its been a while since I did my geneology, so I forget all the specific details of how they are all related, but I come from the Sluis lineage through my mother's side.)
My mom's uncle wrote a small book called "Coming to Mokena" [
link to www.amazon.com (secure)] (the hometown I grew up in). And in that book it talks about the story of my Great-Grandmother and Great-Grandfather.
"Those who survived World War II in Europe have terrible stories to tell. Willem and Ann came from a small, proud ancient city in The Netherlands. They married in 1939 wealthy and at the top of their society. World War II destroyed their plans, ruined their fortune and almost killed them and their children through starvation. Ann defied the death penalty to hide five men from slavery in work camps. After the war, penniless, they came to America to start over. Through faith, strength and endless optimism, they built their own house and rebuilt their lives in a small farm town in Illinois. This is their story. (sidenote: they built their house from a Sears catalog!)
Willem and Ann were the next generation involved in and running the seed company in the Netherlands. I forget if Willem is the son or grandson, (I forget exactly the relations, lol) of Nanne Jansz Groot, and there was also a Nanne Jansz Sluis. (Some of these names were very popular in that area back then, and I know there was a set of cousins that married each other in my family's lineage).
Willem was part of managing Royal Sluis before the war, which is how they acquired their wealth. My Great-Grandparents had the first washing machine in their town, and the first automobile, (which was conviscated by the Nazis).
Anyway, my Great-Grandmother Ann, (I called her Oma, who I knew her as a young child) ended up hiding a handful of jewish and Catholics in the crawl space under their floor during WWII. There is one story in the book where it talks about how Ann was making a bath for my Grandmother (who was a small baby) while Nazi soldiers were doing house checks. Another sibling ended up crying at the time the Nazis did their check, and they came upon the scene as a bit humorous, and then went on their way. Willem and Ann didn't have enough rations to feed everyone, and were literally eating seed at one point to keep from starving to death.
In that book, it goes a little further into the history of the seed companies. There is one paragraph in that book that mentions how Nanne Jansz went to a seed convention where he learned about genetically modifying seed. And he decided there was no good use for it.
I know he is rolling in his grave if he knew what the seed company has become...The book brushed over how the seed company left their hands, and sort of insinuated that it moved to Nazi control. It left a TON of questions in my mind! At the time I learned of all this (a few years ago), I had already been "fighting" against GMO's and being personally enraged and informing others about the questionable practices, dangers, etc. And when I come to learn about all this stuff, I was like "Are you fucking KIDDING ME?!" I thought "NO WONDER! It's literally in my BLOOD!!"
I wish my Oma was still alive, so I could now ask more inquiring questions. But she passed away over 15 years ago. Her children are still alive, and a few of them were older children during that time, so I can still get some questions answered...
A few months ago, I asked the author of Coming to Mokena about it, Joost Sluis (everyone calls his Joe). He is Ann's son and the one who originaly gave me a copy of the book years ago. He is my mom's uncle, and every once in a while I see him come into the library I work at. (I don't make it to the 4th of July family parties much anymore now that I'm grown and have other obligations to attend) So I asked him about how the seed company left the family; if Nazis conviscated it. And he brushed over that and didn't give me a direct answer, but told me it was sold off. It still left questions...
So over facebook yesterday, the topic of WWII came up and a different relative (my mom's cousin, and I think daughter of Joost Sluis) mentioned about how her Grandmother Ann hid the people under floor, and about how they miss hearing about all the stories over dinner, etc. So I took the opportunity to tell her I was still bothered by how the seed company left the family, and asked if the Nazis took it over. And she verified that YES, the company was sold to the Nazis.
Last Edited by Bleached1111 on 07/21/2019 11:03 AM