Eduard Schulte ( 4 January 1891 in Düsseldorf – 6 January 1966 in Zürich) was a prominent German industrialist. He was one of the first to warn the Allies and tell the world of the Holocaust and systematic exterminations of Jews in Nazi Germany occupied Europe. During World War I, Schulte led the department for soap production within the War Ministry. 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. Giesche’s Erben Company Bergwerksgesellschaft Georg von Giesche's Erben (Giesche's Erben) was a German-owned company and a successor to the huge industrial properties of the aristocratic Giesche family. In 1922, a major part of Giesche's Erben properties located in Silesia were included in the territory of the newly designated Republic of Poland. Giesche's Erben had created Giesche Spolka Akcyjna (Giesche) in order to consolidate Giesche's Erben Polish property and have it registered in Katowice as a Polish business. Giesche was entirely owned by Giesche's Erben. Managing the Polish company became too difficult in part from a high tax being levied by the Polish government that made it very difficult to use German money to pay the expense. 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. Schulte replaced Carl Besser as the general director of Giesche's Erben. Repatriation scheme The new general manager, only 35 years old, had an ambitious plan during the interwar for German re-ownership of the former Giesche Polish properties often referred to as “eastern estates”. He shared in the disdain common with many Germans during the interwar about the loss of territory. To regain it would never be possible as long as the region of Silesia belonged to Poland. Before World War II, the owners and leading managers of Giesche's Erben sought, through a "repatriation scheme", to regain legal control of Giesche through Eduard Schulte, the Giesche's Erben General Manager. World War II The German invasion of Poland brought about by 1940 the expelling of all American management of Giesche Corp. and the legal control of the company was delegated to the German military commissar, Dr. Albrecht Jung. Unofficially, all decisions were made by Schulte,