ford sold cars to nazi's?

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audiracing

audiracing

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The shock of a life time came to me when I was reading a somewhat anti-american book. It talked about how america had to have there arm twisted into joining the war. It sayed that before pearl habour got bombed that ford sold miliatary vechules to the nazi regime of germany.
Is this true? I can under stand mercedes and volkswagen selling cars to Hitler (being german companies) but ford.I can't believe it I'll try to find out more before I make any acussations.
 
It's a little known fact, but Ford himself was a rabid anti-semite, and a supporter of Hitler himself. I've heard it from several sources, most reputably the History Channel.

Other notable supporters of the Nazis and Hitler, by the way, included Charles Lindbergh and Walt Disney.
 
well aslong as they didnt want to get killed or detained, people from ford had no choice but to sell to the Nazi's, but yes some Nazi supporters that werent known about at the time owned small ford factorys
 
What?! Killed or detained? Ford was an American company, it was Henry Ford's crappy decision to help out his anti-Jew buddies. I don't believe he was forced to do anything, afterall, Hitler already had his VW, and I'm sure he could have forced Mercedes to give him something, but no, he was offered Ford. Not only did Henry want to support the Nazi party, he wanted to make money any way he could. He was greedy. If Ford could have stayed with what made the Model T such a great car(the fact that it was cheap compared to the others and could take a beating and keep driving), Ford would be a simi-respectable company in my book, though I'm not fond of supporters of the Nazi party that forced my great grandmother and her family out of Poland.

Then again, I wouldn't be here if that didn't happen, but it's still wrong.
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
I don't see the big deal here. But maybe I'm missing something.
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Hundreds of thousands canadains died due to the nazis, and that's nothing compared to the millions of europeans.

Originally posted by GT-40/787b well aslong as they didnt want to get killed or detained, people from ford had no choice but to sell to the Nazi's [/B]
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Ford wasn't forced to do anything, I did a little more reshearch and it turns out that Henry didn't support the nazi's but was selling cars to whoever had the money, allied or nazis.
 
If you are in the UK, you may want to pick up a copy of this months Top Gear magazine which contains an artice on Harry Bennett who was Henry Ford's enforcer.

Among the quite disturbing points in the article are:

Henry Ford funded an Anti-semetic newspaper called the Dearborn Independent.

Henry Ford was the first American to be awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, by Hitler, for his contributions to 'the Jewish question'.

Ford's security force (run by Harry Bennett) was described at the time by the New York Post as 'the largest private quasi-military organisation in existance'

Bennett himslef was a friend and golf buddy of J Edgar Hoover.

Ford refused to use banks (dealing instead only in cash) because he believed that they were part of a Jewish conspiracy to take the Ford motor company away from him.

Its a very eye-opening read and what surprises me most is how little is publically known of it.
 
Originally posted by audiracing
Hundreds of thousands canadains died due to the nazis, and that's nothing compared to the millions of europeans.
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True, but I still don't see the big deal with making money by selling cars to nazis.

It isn't like Ford sold the nazis some kind of Jew-killing potion.
 
Really.
If Hitler bought lined paper that was made in America would you freak out about that too? :odd:

Wow, Hitler bought a Ford, lets freak out about it Decades after the fact.
 
Originally posted by Rumple Foreskin
Really.
If Hitler bought lined paper that was made in America would you freak out about that too? :odd:

Wow, Hitler bought a Ford, lets freak out about it Decades after the fact.
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German companies who had dealings with the Nazi party are still having legal actions brought against them to this day, so yes it is a relevent point.

However the main issue for me was that the founder of one of the largest car manufacturers in the world was blatently anti-semetic with close links to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and as people still to this day hold Henry Ford up as a role model do you not think that these people have right to be aware of these facts.

Loius Renault was one of the founders of Renault and also sold cars to the Nazi's; guess what happend to him? Locked up on war-crimes charges and died in prison, looks like Henry got off lightly!

Feel free to bury your head in the sand or just consign it to the history books, but some of us have a genuine interest and feel that it is important to remember the lessons of the past.

The Ford motor company has some very iffy incidents in its past, such as those discussed above and the Ford Corsair. These things need to be remembered so that the same mistakes are not made again.

Not that Ford seem to do this, the recent Explorer/Firestone tyres issue is a classic example. Two companies sit around blaming each other rather than fixing the issues in question. Ford engineers informed the board 5 years ago that the wheel base of the Explorer should be widened by 3" to improve stability and reduce rollovers, when did this change finally make production? This year.

Know your past to prevent repeating your mistakes.
 
Yeh scaff I read that story in Top Gear mag very interesting, why is it all car companys seem to have been run by freaky old gits:lol: at some point.
 
does it really seem out of place that a nations leaderbought himself a car? also when the americans came to europe they brought fords as officer's cars. some of these cars probably got captured and made into german officer's cars. simple
 
It was more that that, though. As has been said, Ford did more than just do business with the Nazi regime, he actually spoke, and put in writing, support of the Nazis, and anti-semitisim.
 
Originally posted by Scaff

Henry Ford funded an Anti-semetic newspaper called the Dearborn Independent.

Henry Ford was the first American to be awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, by Hitler, for his contributions to 'the Jewish question'.

Ford's security force (run by Harry Bennett) was described at the time by the New York Post as 'the largest private quasi-military organisation in existance'

Bennett himslef was a friend and golf buddy of J Edgar Hoover.

Ford refused to use banks (dealing instead only in cash) because he believed that they were part of a Jewish conspiracy to take the Ford motor company away from him.
Click to expand...

Most of this stuff is very well-known - some people think Chevrolet or Chrysler could bring it up in some sort of hostile marketing campaign, but in reality, it would be impossible - after all, there's no sense finding excruciating details in anything that happened more than 40 years ago. The most people should know about this topic was that Henry Ford was a rabid Jew-hater, as many were in his time. It's long gone.

It was more that that, though. As has been said, Ford did more than just do business with the Nazi regime, he actually spoke, and put in writing, support of the Nazis, and anti-semitisim.
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He was very well out of the car business by 1933, though he didn't actually resign as president of Ford until 1944.
 
I'm not saying that everyone should freak out. I'm simply sharing knowledge about the past of the Ford company, and that's what it is the past, not the present so we shouldn't be worrying about. If we really want to look at the past all things should be consider inculding the fact that ford sold cars to the allies too and let's not forget the gt40 either.
 
That's absolutely true. Anything I have against Ford is a result of their cars, not their founder. Hitler is responsible for the existance of the Beetle, as well as the VW company itself, and I don't hold that against them. And Mitsubishi made many planes that killed amercans in WWII, and again, I don't boycott the company because of that.
 

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