Introduction
As Allied investigators in 1946 looked into the roles of German corporations in Nazi occupations, one figure earned special attention in the German petroleum industry. That person was Ernest Fischer, one of the top German administrators with the economics ministry and the planning office of Albert Speer's munitions ministry. He seemed a good candidate to stand trial for war crimes, but he had fled to Switzerland just before the war ended. Ultimately, he faced no postwar sanctions. The question is: Why?