Wall St. and the Rise of Hitler by
Antony C. Sutton from reformation.org
CHAPTER SIX
Henry Ford and the Nazis
I
would like to outline the importance attached by high [Nazi] officials to
respect the desire and maintain the good will of "Ford," and by
"Ford" I mean your father, yourself, and the Ford Motor Company,
Dearborn. (Josiah E. Dubois, Jr, Generals
in Grey Suits, London: The Bodley Head, 1953, p. 250.)
Henry Ford is often seen to be something of an enigma among the
Somebody
once said that sixty families have directed the destinies of the nation. It
might well be said that if somebody would focus the spotlight on twenty-five
persons who handle the nation's finances, the world's real war makers would be
brought into bold relief.
The
Times reporter asked Ford how he
equated this assessment with his long-standing criticism of the House of
Morgan, to which Ford replied:
There
is a constructive and a destructive Wall Street. The House of Morgan represents
the constructive. I have known Mr. Morgan for many years. He backed and
supported Thomas Edison, who was also my good friend ....
After
expounding on the evils of limited agricultural production — allegedly brought
about by Wall Street — Ford continued,
...
if these financiers had their way we'd be in a war now. They want war because
they make money out of such conflict — out of the human misery that wars bring.
On
the other hand, when we probe behind these public statements we find that Henry
Ford and son Edsel Ford have been in the forefront of American businessmen who
try to walk both sides of every ideological fence in search of profit. Using
Ford's own criteria, the Fords are among the "destructive" elements.
It
was Henry Ford who in the 1930s built the Soviet Union's first modern
automobile plant (located at Gorki) and which in the 50s and 60s produced the
trucks used by the North Vietnamese to carry weapons and munitions for use
against Americans.2 At about the same time, Henry Ford was
also the most famous of Hitler's foreign backers, and he was rewarded in the
1930s for this long-lasting support with the highest Nazi decoration for
foreigners.
This
Nazi favor aroused a storm of controversy in the United States and ultimately
degenerated into an exchange of diplomatic notes between the German Government
and the State Department. While Ford publicly protested that he did not like
totalitarian governments, we find in practice that Ford knowingly profited from
both sides of World War II — from French and German plants producing vehicles
at a profit for the Wehrmacht, and from U.S. plants building vehicles at a
profit for the U.S. Army. Henry Ford's protestations of innocence suggest, as
we shall see in this chapter, that he did not approve of Jewish financiers
profiting from war (as some have), but if anti-Semitic Morgan3
and Ford profited from war that was acceptable, moral and
"constructive."
On
December 20, 1922 the New York Times reported4
that automobile manufacturer Henry Ford was financing Adolph Hitler's
nationalist and anti-Semitic movements in Munich. Simultaneously, the Berlin
newspaper Berliner Tageblatt appealed
to the American Ambassador in Berlin to investigate and halt Henry Ford's
intervention into German domestic affairs. It was reported that Hitler's
foreign backers had furnished a "spacious headquarters" with a
"host of highly paid lieutenants and officials." Henry Ford's portrait
was prominently displayed on the walls of Hitler's personal office:
The
wall behind his desk in Hitler's private office is decorated with a large
picture of Henry Ford. In the antechamber there is a large table covered with
books, nearly all of which are a translation of a book written and published by
Henry Ford.5
The
same New York Times report commented
that the previous Sunday Hitler had reviewed,
The
so-called Storming Battalion.., 1,000 young men in brand new uniforms and armed
with revolvers and blackjacks, while Hitler and his henchmen drove around in
two powerful brand-new autos.
The
Times made a clear distinction
between the German monarchist parties and Hitler's anti-Semitic fascist party.
Henry Ford, it was noted, ignored the Hohenzollern monarchists and put his
money into the Hitlerite revolutionary movement.
These
Ford funds were used by Hitler to foment the Bavarian rebellion. The rebellion
failed, and Hitler was captured and subsequently brought to trial. In February
1923 at the trial, vice president Auer of the Bavarian Diet testified:
The
Bavarian Diet has long had the information that the Hitler movement was partly
financed by an American anti-Semitic chief, who is Henry Ford. Mr. Ford's interest
in the Bavarian anti-Semitic movement began a year ago when one of Mr. Ford's
agents, seeking to sell tractors, came in contact with Diedrich Eichart, the
notorious Pan-German. Shortly after, Herr Eichart asked Mr. Ford's agent for
financial aid. The agent returned to America and immediately Mr. Ford's money
began coming to Munich.
Herr
Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford's support and praises Mr. Ford as a great
individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in Herr
Hitler's quarters, which is the center of monarchist movement.6
Hitler
received a mild and comfortable prison sentence for his Bavarian revolutionary
activities. The rest from more active pursuits enabled him to write Mein Kampf. Henry Ford's book, The International Jew, earlier
circulated by the Nazis, was translated by them into a dozen languages, and
Hitler utilized sections of the book verbatim in writing Mein Kampf.7
We
shall see later that Hitler's backing in the late 20s and early 30s came from
the chemical, steel, and electrical industry cartels, rather than directly from
individual industrialists. In 1928 Henry Ford merged his German assets with
those of the I.G. Farben chemical cartel. A substantial holding, 40 percent of
Ford Motor A.G. of Germany, was transferred to I.G. Farben; Carl Bosch of I.G.
Farben became head of Ford A.G. Motor in Germany. Simultaneously, in the United
States Edsel Ford joined the board of American I.G. Farben. (See Chapter Two.)
A
decade later, in August 1938 — after Hitler had achieved power with the aid of
the cartels — Henry Ford received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, a Nazi
decoration for distinguished foreigners. The New York Times reported it was the first time the Grand Cross had
been awarded in the United States and was to celebrate Henry Ford's 75th
birthday.8
The
decoration raised a storm of criticism within Zionist circles in the U.S. Ford
backed off to the extent of publicly meeting with Rabbi Leo Franklin of Detroit
to express his sympathy for the plight of German Jews:
My
acceptance of a medal from the German people [said Ford] does not, as some
people seem to think, involve any sympathy on my part with nazism. Those who
have known me for many years realize that anything that breeds hate is
repulsive to me.9
The
Nazi medal issue was picked up in a Cleveland speech by Secretary of Interior
Harold Ickes. Ickes criticized both Henry Ford and Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh
for accepting Nazi medals. The curious part of the Ickes speech, made at a
Cleveland Zionist Society banquet, was his criticism of "wealthy
Jews" and their acquisition and
use of wealth:
A
mistake made by a non-Jewish millionaire reflects upon him alone, but a false
step made by a Jewish man of wealth reflects upon his whole race. This is harsh
and unjust, but it is a fact that must be faced.10
Perhaps
Ickes was tangentially referring to the roles of the Warburgs in the I.G.
Farben cartel: Warburgs were on the board of I.G. Farben in the U.S. and
Germany. In 1938 the Warburgs were being ejected by the Nazis from Germany.
Other German Jews, such as the Oppenheim bankers, made their peace with the
Nazis and were granted "honorary Aryan status."
A
post-war Congressional subcommittee investigating American support for the Nazi
military effort described the manner in which the Nazis succeeded in obtaining
U.S. technical and financial assistance as "quite fantastic.11
Among other evidence the Committee was shown a memorandum prepared in the
offices of Ford-Werke A.G. on November 25, 1941, written by Dr. H. F. Albert to
R. H. Schmidt, then president of the board of Ford-Werke A.G. The memo cited
the advantages of having a majority of the German firm held by Ford Motor
Company in Detroit. German Ford had been able to exchange Ford parts for rubber
and critical war materials needed in 1938 and 1939 "and they would not
have been able to do that if Ford had not been owned by the United
States." Further, with a majority American interest German Ford would
"more easily be able to step in and dominate the Ford holdings throughout
Europe." It was even reported to the Committee that two top German Ford
officials had been in a bitter personal feud about who was to control Ford of
England, such "that one of them finally got up and left the room in
disgust."
According
to evidence presented to the Committee, Ford-Werke A.G. was technically
transformed in the late 1930s into a German company. All vehicles and their
parts were produced in Germany, by German workers using German materials under
German direction and exported to European and overseas territories of the
United States and Great Britain. Any needed foreign raw materials, rubber and
nonferrous metals, were obtained through the American Ford Company. American
influence had been more or less converted into a supporting position (Hilfsstellung) for the German Ford
plants.
At
the outbreak of the war Ford-Werke placed itself at the disposal of the
Wehrmacht for armament production. It was assumed by the Nazis that as long as
Ford-Werke A.G. had an American majority, it would be possible to bring the
remaining European Ford companies under German influence — i.e., that of
Ford-Werke A.G. — and so execute Nazi "Greater European" policies in
the Ford plants in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, Budapest, Bucharest, and
Copenhagen:
A
majority, even if only a small one, of Americans is essential for the
transmittal of the newest American models, as well as American production and
sales methods. With the abolition of the American majority, this advantage, as
well as the intervention of the Ford Motor Company to obtain raw materials and
exports, would be lost, and the German plant would practically only be worth
its machine capacity.12
And,
of course, this kind of strict neutrality, taking an international rather than
a national viewpoint, had earlier paid off for Ford Motor Company in the Soviet
Union, where Ford was held in high regard as the ultimate of technical and
economic efficiency to be achieved by the Stak-hanovites.
In
July 1942 word filtered back to Washington from Ford of France about Ford's
activities on behalf of the German war effort in Europe. The incriminating
information was promptly buried and even today only part of the known
documentation can be traced in Washington.
We
do know, however, that the U.S. Consul General in Algeria had possession of a
letter from Maurice Dollfuss of French Ford — who claimed to be the first
Frenchman to go to Berlin after the fall of France — to Edsel Ford about a plan
by which Ford Motor could contribute to the Nazi war effort. French Ford was
able to produce 20 trucks a day for the Wehrmacht, which [wrote Dollfuss] is
better than,
...
our less fortunate French competitors are doing. The reason is that our trucks
are in very large demand by the German authorities and I believe that as long
as the war goes on and at least for some period of time, all that we shall
produce will be taken by the German authorities .... I will satisfy myself by
telling you that... the attitude you have taken, together with your father, of
strict neutrality, has been an invaluable asset for the production of your
companies in Europe.13
Dollfuss
disclosed that profits from this German business were already 1.6 million
francs, and net profits for 1941 were no less than 58,000,000 francs — because
the Germans paid promptly for Ford's output. On receipt of this news Edsel Ford
cabled:
Delighted to hear you are making
progress. Your letters most interesting. Fully realize great handicap you are
working under. Hope you and family well. Regards.
s/
Edsel Ford14
Although
there is evidence that European plants owned by Wall Street interests were not
bombed by the U.S. Air Force in World War II, this restriction apparently did
not reach the British Bombing Command. In March 1942 the Royal Air Force bombed
the Ford plant at Poissy, France. A subsequent letter from Edsel Ford to Ford
General Manager Sorenson about this RAF raid commented, "Photographs of the plant on fire were published in American
newspapers but fortunately no reference was made to the Ford Motor Company.15
In any event, the Vichy government paid Ford Motor Company 38 million francs as
compensation for damage done to the Poissy plant. This was not reported in the
U.S. press and would hardly be appreciated by those Americans at war with
Nazism. Dubois asserts that these private
messages from Ford in Europe were passed to Edsel Ford by Assistant
Secretary of State Breckenridge Long. This was the same Secretary Long who one
year later suppressed private messages
through the State Department concerning the extermination of Jews in Europe. 16
Disclosure of those messages conceivably could have been used to assist those
desperate people.
A
U.S. Air Force bombing intelligence report written in 1943 noted that,
Principal
wartime activities [of the Ford plant] are probably manufacture of light trucks
and of spare parts for all the Ford trucks and cars in service in Axis Europe
(including captured Russian Molotovs).16
The
Russian Molotovs were of course manufactured by the Ford-built works at Gorki,
Russia. In France during the war, passenger automobile production was entirely
replaced by military vehicles and for this purpose three large additional
buildings were added to the Poissy factory. The main building contained about
500 machine tools, "all imported from the United States and including a
fair sprinkling of the more complex types, such as Gleason gear cutters,
Bullard automatics and Ingersoll borers.17
Ford
also extended its wartime activities into North Africa. In December 1941 a new
Ford Company, Ford-Afrique, was registered in France and granted all the rights
of the former Ford Motor Company, Ltd. of England in Algeria, Tunisia, French
Morocco, French Equatorial, and French West Africa. North Africa was not
accessible to British Ford so this new Ford Company — registered in
German-occupied France — was organized to fill the gap. The directors were
pro-Nazi and included Maurice Dollfuss (Edsel Ford's correspondent) and Roger
Messis (described by the U.S. Algiers Consul General as "known to this
office by repute as unscrupulous, is stated to be a 100 percent
pro-German")18
The
U.S. Consul General also reported that propaganda was common in Algiers about
...
the collaboration of French-German-American capital and the questionable
sincerity of the American war effort, [there] is already pointing an accusing
finger at a transaction which has been for long a subject of discussion in
commercial circles.19
In
brief, there is documentary evidence that Ford Motor Company worked on both
sides of World War II. If the Nazi industrialists brought to trial at Nuremberg
were guilty of crimes against mankind, then so must be their fellow
collaborators in the Ford family, Henry and Edsel Ford. However, the Ford story
was concealed by Washington — apparently like almost everything else that could
touch upon the name and sustenance of the Wall Street financial elite.
Footnotes:
1June 4, 1938, 2:2.
2A list of these Gorki vehicles and
their model numbers is in Antony G. Sutton, National
Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union, (New York: Arlington House
Publishers, 1973), Table 7-2, p. 125.
3The House of Morgan was known for its
anti-Semitic views.
4Page 2, Column 8.
5Ibid.
6Jonathan Leonard, The Tragedy of Henry Ford, (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1932), p.
208. Also see U.S. State Department Decimal File, National Archives Microcopy M
336, Roll 80, Document 862.00S/6, "Money sources of Hitler," a report
from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.
7On this see Keith Sward, The Legend of Henry Ford, (New York:
Rinehart & Co, 1948), p. 139.
9Ibid., December 1, 1938, 12:2.
10Ibid., December 19, 1938, 5:3.
13Josiah E. Dubois, Jr., Generals in Grey Suits, (London: The
Bodley Head, 1958), p. 248.
14Ibid., p. 249.
15Ibid., p. 251.
16Ibid.
17U.S. Army Air Force, Aiming point report No I.E.2, May 29,
1943.
18U.S. State Department Decimal File,
800/61o.1.
19Ibid.
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