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Rolex founder suspected of being Nazi spy, per declassified British intel documents

The luxury Swiss watch company said that it hired a historian to investigate and will publish the results of the probe.

Rolex
Close-up of a Rolex Datejust watch. Credit: Lehel Mozgai/Pexels.

The luxury Swiss watch company Rolex told The Telegraph that it has hired a noted Holocaust-era historian to investigate a report published in the paper that the company’s founder was suspected of being a Nazi spy.

The Telegraph reported on the matter, drawing on recently declassified British documents, which suggested that British intelligence was monitoring Hans Wilsdorf, concerned that the German businessman was spreading Nazi propaganda. (JNS sought comment from Rolex.)

Wilsdorf was “well known for his strong Nazi sympathies,” according to the intelligence documents.

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