The Diamond World

By David E Koskoff
Published by Harper & Row Publishers, New York
ISBN 0-06-038005-5
1981

Harper & Row Publishers writes:

When Randolph Churchill, father of Winston, peered down into the vastness of “The Big Hole of Kimberley”, the great worked out diamond mine, and contemplated what it represented in human terms, he mused. “All for the vanity of woman.” To which one of the women in the party added, “And the depravity of man.” The Diamond World is about the vanity of women and the depravity of men.

On one level, of course, the book is about diamonds: it traces the stone from mine to finger. On another level, though, this book is about very different matters: smuggling in Zaire (DR Congo), corruption in Sierre Leone, income tax evasion in Israel, child labor in India, murder in New York and perversion of Japanese values. An incisive economic dissection of the world’s most glittering business, this book is also an anthropological, sociological, and political look at the world’s shabbiest business—the diamond trade.

The Diamond World is about the ways in which De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, the giant South African corporation that controls diamond distribution, has attained and maintained control of the diamond world, and the benevolent and malevolent faces of its power. It is about the diamantaires; the people involved in one or more aspects of the diamond industry and trade, and about the honor code that governs them, and which makes them quite possibly the world’s most honest businessmen—within their own group. Their honor code, however, has never had much relevance to the outside world; they victimize both consumers and the countries that shelter them, particularly the United States, Israel, and Belgium.

The diamond world is so secretive that even its New York labor union has an unlisted telephone number. “It’s like a prison system,” one customs official told the author. “If you talk,’ others won’t deal with you, buy from you or sell to you.” Nonetheless, with gall and charm—and mostly perseverance—David Koskoff worked his way into the arcane and colorful circle of the diamond people and managed to interview hundreds of them: small ‘diamond diggers’ prospecting for diamonds with more hope than knowledge; De Beers and other diamond mining executives on three continents; twelve-year old diamond polishers in the diamond cottages of India; jewelers in high priced goods and in schlock. Mostly people were evasive; with few exceptions; they do have something to hide. But from fragments of each person’s comments, Koskoff was able to piece together the puzzle of the diamond world. In the process he traveled around the world—to Amsterdam and Antwerp, Tel Aviv, India, Hong Kong, Tokyo; to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zaire, Ghana, Liberia and Sierre Leone.

There have been other books about the diamond world, but none that has so totally bared the inner machinations of the world’s most mysterious business.

About The Author

David E Koskoff, a practicing attorney, is the author of Joseph P Kennedy; A Life and Times and The Mellons: The Chronicle of America’s Richest Family. He lives in Plainville, Connecticut, with his wife, Charlotte.

David E Koskoff writes:

“Get the coat! Get the coat!” Harry Samuelson’s father yelled from the ship’s railing to his son on the wharf. “Go back to the hotel, pay the bill, and get the coat!”

Harry suspected what was afoot. The ship, from Virgo, Spain, to Cuba, was fully booked; the Samuelsons had appreciated that they would have to wait for the next boat to freedom. They had done to the docks only to say goodbye to some luckier friends, other Jewish refugees from Hitler, who had obtained the last berths available. Once aboard, though, the friends warned Harry’s father: Spain might change its tolerant policy toward the Jews; there might not be a next boat. This might be the Samuelson’s last chance to escape. The friends were willing to help. At length Harry’s father made the determination: They would stow away. Standing on the wharf, Harry, fifteen years old, pieced that much together.

But why the coat? What of their luggage, their important belongings? Why had his father neglected to mention these things of value? In Cuba it would be warm; his father would not even need an overcoat.

Harry rushed back to the hotel, threw the family’s most valuable possessions into a suitcase, and with a mine-is-not-to-reason-why sigh, put the useless overcoat on his own back and returned to the dock. With a surreptitiously obtained pass, he boarded ship, and when it embarked for Cuba and freedom, the Samuelsons—seven in all—were aboard, secreted in their friend’s cabin.

When the ship was well at sea, the Samuelsons confided in a Catholic priest, who brought young Harry to see the ship’s purser to make the family’s explanations and try to smooth things over. The purser was outraged to learn that there were stowaways on his ship and was not to be mollified by a mere boy. He demanded to see Harry’s father immediately.

Harry was terrified. Would they order that the ship be turned around, and hand the family over to the authorities as common criminals? Or worse, deport them to Spain across the border to Vichy France, where the Nazis were in firm control? He returned to the family’s hiding place where his father calmly heard what had occurred.

No, the father would not go to see the purser. Instead, he said, Harry must return to see the purser—this time alone, without the priest. He was to tell the purser that they were honest people, that they would pay for the passage, that they were grateful for his understanding and for his assistance, and—fumbling about in the lining of his old overcoat—that they wanted the purser to have a token of their appreciation. The father removed his hand from within the coat and dropped something into Harry’s palm: one shiny pebble.

Today Harry Samuelson is an important diamond dealer in Antwerp, Belgium, the capital of the world diamond trade. He has forgotten much in a full life, but he will always remember the look on the purser’s face when Harry gave him the diamond. “You can’t imagine how his face lit up; I saw a smile like I’ve never seen in my whole life.” And he remembers the wonderful trip to Cuba—everything was first class al the way. He remembers, too, the coat, the old overcoat, and what was sewn into his lining, the family’s passport to freedom.