HENRY FORD

Both of these famous Americans were admirers of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. They both accepted medals from the German dictator. And both of them were apologists for German aggression and urged the United States not to side with England and to stay neutral in the War. The next year Germany declared war on the United States.

Henry Ford, the American industrialist, was a virulent anti-Semite. He published some of the worst hate literature ever distributed in the United States. However, the German Nazis used his materials to influence young Germans who were great admirers of Ford whose autos and trucks sold also in Germany. In 1942, Ford repudiated his anti-Semitic positions () but by that time the damage had already been done with millions of German youth.

There were many Americans who accused Henry Ford of being a traitor but they never knew of his support of German Spies. They based their judgments on the fact that Ford was an outspoken admirer of Hitler and the Nazis and that Hitler had awarded Ford a Nazi medal, and the industrialist had accepted the award.

Frau Wagner was one of several agents of Nazi Germany sent to the United States to develop good will for Germany and funds for Hitler. Anti-German feeling was still high from the First World War but America had its share of right wingers like Ford. Hitler and Ford were mutual admirers. See {586988} for Hitler’s view of Ford.

At the time Ford was considering running for President and some of the American right wing extremists were encouraging him to do so. Hitler had demonstrated how his fascist storm troopers would intimidate a major city as he had done it first in Munich and later in most other German cities. At the time, Ford and his supporters were delighted to have the support of such an important modern world leader as Hitler. The American Nazi Party's first president, Heinz Spanknoebel, was an employee at the Ford Motor Company. Fritz Julius Kuhn, leader of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund, worked at Ford off and on. As Hitler’s practices and policies were more and more exposed, and WWII began, this quotation made any political role for Henry Ford very difficult. Ford was the only American named in Hitler’s maniacal book Mein Kampf. He describes Ford as the only American who is not controlled by Hitler’s paranoid view of the Jewish conspiracy. Ford himself was an anti-Semite. See related quotes. Hitler awarded Ford the German Eagle Order Medal—the only American to have ever received it. It was reserved for those who assisted the Nazi Party outside of Germany. Benito Mussolini was another recipient.

The Talmud is a Jewish legal and ethical collection; Henry Ford was a well known anti-Semite of the time.

Ford, an inveterate racist and anti-Semitic in his old age was very liberal when he first started and accomplished so much. He not only hired foreigners, but also some men of his initial workforce were handicapped. He was proud of the fact that jobs could be created on his concept of an assembly line that was so specialized that handicapped people could be productive workers as they did not have to do everything in the manufacturing process. Since the assembly line did the moving, men who had trouble walking could sit and be very productive at some tasks. Further, Ford did not try and pay his assembly line workers less than the going wage because their skills could be much narrower. He actually doubled the salaries (see {642361}) and picked men who were not wed to the older, traditional way of manufacturing things. The productivity came from the engineering of the cars and the assembly line, not be cutting wages, a practice that he did not continue as he grew older and tried to make his money the traditional way of exploiting the workers more. When the other auto companies had recognized the union, the elder Ford would not.

See {642361} for Ford’s announcement.

See {642361} for Ford’s announcement.

Henry Ford had more than doubled the market wages of workers and shortened the work day. In his young years he hired Negroes to work on the Assembly line with whites. In his older years he would not when he had become a Hitler and Fascist admiring racist. This was of the Black migrations to Detroit to work in the Auto industry. See {642361} for Ford’s wage announcement.

“Edsel Ford was unhappy with his father’s decision but at the time could not stand up to him. His entire life he struggled to live down the fact that he did not do his part in WWI. He broke with his father when Henry supported Adolf Hitler, and arranged to have the Ford Motor Company totally devoted to war production in WWII against his father’s wishes. Edsel’s sons both served in the military in WWII. As for Roosevelt, all four of his sons fought in WWI and one was killed in action.

There was a rumor in 1922 amongst American Fascists and extreme conservatives that Henry Ford was going to run for President. Hitler and Ford were mutual admirers. In Hitler’s diatribe, Mein Kamph, the only American he refers to with favor was Ford, whose virulent anti-Semitism was very popular in Germany.

Ford was a great admirer of Adolf Hitler who thought Ford was the greatest of the Americans. He was an inveterate Fascist—racism and all. He vehemently opposed United States entry into WWII against the Nazis. He was awarded a medal by Hitler, and he had no qualms about taking it.

Ford’s publication had printed a variety of virulent lies about Jews in general and Aaron Sapiro, a prominent Jew in particular. Shapiro sued for libel. Ford who had strong anti-Semitic views (See {586985}) tried to avoid testifying but could not. His attorneys then won a mistrial but Shapiro went to trial again. This time Ford wanted to settle and issued an apology as part of the settlement. In it he claimed that although the his publication had printed the Anti Semitic and libelous material, he knew nothing about the publications day-to-day operations and professed no animosity towards Jews. Most American Jews believed the apology sincere and knew very little of all of Ford’s anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi and fascist history. To this day it is unclear whether Ford knew the details about the virulent publications, or was a part of the writing and editorial policy and selection process, but his entire history indicates that the apology was more out of a desire to settle the lawsuit than to right a wrong.

Ford was then 74 years old and had become a very different man than in his youth when he was the hero of labor. He was very paranoid at this time. He even thought that financiers were actually backing the labor unions because their purpose was to go to war against Hitler who Ford greatly admired and supported. See {642379}. He claimed that the way they would do it is to fund the labor unions so most workers would join unions. This he thought would eliminate competition and lower workers’ wages. When workers’ wages were pushed low enough, the workers would demand American entry into the war to create government spending on armaments and a labor shortage to drive wages up again. There was not a single financier who was actually paying or lending any money to labor unions, and most industrialists other than Ford complained that labor unions would always demand higher wages. Ford’s son Edsel was the chief operating officer of Ford Motor Company, and did his best to work around his father to keep the company healthy and deal with a terrible labor relations problem his father caused.