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Did Henry Ford aid Hitler?

F

Fritz Maurer

Well-known Member
Got in a short cyber fight with an individual who made that statement. All I can find on the subject is Henry doing things like closing his factory to make war products. (for our side). This guy also says Ford took bailout money, and gave me a web page with no traceable origin to click on, as his "proof". Can anyone provide any info on this for me? If you wish to see the comments, type in "hilarious ford truck commercial" in your search engine. Thanks, Fritz
 
Ole Hank was a pacifist and worked to keep us out of WW I & II, but eventually he came around. Before Pearl Harbor some of our goods and materials may of ended up in Nazi hands, History teacher told us once the major reason for Japan attacking us was we stopped sending them oil so they could conquer China. Ford's WWII involvement included making jeeps airplanes (built a plant at Willow Run Michigan to make B-24 Bombers) tank engines and probably a lot of stuff we don't know about. Ford didn't take any bailout money when Chrysler and GM did. Reasons- 1.Bill Ford saw the storm coming and stepped aside and hired someone who got the company ready. 2. Ford actually had car companies they bought that were worth something (Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Mazda and Volvo) they sold them to raise cash. 3 The Ford family still very much runs the Ford Motor Company, taking the cash or doing a bankruptcy would cause them to loose control of the company something they were not willing to do when they had other alternatives.
 
Wonder if this joker realizes Henry Ford basically started cadicrap.

http://history.gmheritagecenter.com/wiki/index.php/Cadillac_Roots_Came_from_Henry_Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford_Company

I am surprised GM even admits to this.
 
Ford is financed to the gills but I don't believe it is government money. It is bank money. Oh, wait the goverment bailed out the banks. So who's money is it???

Anyway Ford is very heavily financed (meaning owned by someone else), check on google, many articles discussing how they did it. Wallstreet Journal, Bloomberg, etc all have covered this.

Rick
 
I know they would beat employees to make them work faster,and when in a stall in the restroom they had to keep there feet moving to prove they were not sleeping.
 
Ford did indeed apply for bailout money. However they decided that there were too many strings attached so didn't take it. ---so one source on the web states.

I actually thought they took it but didn't like the terms and paid all of it back within about two weeks of first receiving it. I can't find anything to substantiate that however.
 
(quoted from post at 23:06:53 01/03/12) Got in a short cyber fight with an individual who made that statement. All I can find on the subject is Henry doing things like closing his factory to make war products. (for our side). This guy also says Ford took bailout money, and gave me a web page with no traceable origin to click on, as his "proof". Can anyone provide any info on this for me? If you wish to see the comments, type in "hilarious ford truck commercial" in your search engine. Thanks, Fritz
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here is so much BS on the web that any jack A can take anything & run with it/propagate it. BS!, especially on what someone says, "he KNOWS...".
 
porsche most certainly did, I think lambrogini (sp?) also did to. But porsche made some of the furnaces used to burn the jews (college professor told me this) Ford on the other hand.....definitely did not
 
(quoted from post at 20:06:53 01/03/12) Got in a short cyber fight with an individual who made that statement. All I can find on the subject is Henry doing things like closing his factory to make war products. (for our side). This guy also says Ford took bailout money, and gave me a web page with no traceable origin to click on, as his "proof". Can anyone provide any info on this for me? If you wish to see the comments, type in "hilarious ford truck commercial" in your search engine. Thanks, Fritz
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Material support? No. Antisemitic inspiration? Yes.

No, Henry Ford gave Hitler no material support. He did, however give him inspiration. Ford was an antisemitic and he had allowed his name to be used in a series of antisemitic articles published in his own magazine in the 1920's. These articles were reprinted in German. After a lawsuit, he admitted he was in the wrong for the articles and publicly apologized. Ford was the only American mentioned in Hitler's book and he received a medal from Nazi Germany in 1938 (they also gave one to GM's overseas VP). By the time of the war, he was thoroughly behind the U.S. war effort and contributed much to defeating Nazi germany.
 
(quoted from post at 00:19:31 01/04/12)
(quoted from post at 20:06:53 01/03/12) Got in a short cyber fight with an individual who made that statement. All I can find on the subject is Henry doing things like closing his factory to make war products. (for our side). This guy also says Ford took bailout money, and gave me a web page with no traceable origin to click on, as his "proof". Can anyone provide any info on this for me? If you wish to see the comments, type in "hilarious ford truck commercial" in your search engine. Thanks, Fritz
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Material support? No. Antisemitic inspiration? Yes.

No, Henry Ford gave Hitler no material support. He did, however give him inspiration. Ford was an antisemitic and he had allowed his name to be used in a series of antisemitic articles published in his own magazine in the 1920's. These articles were reprinted in German. After a lawsuit, he admitted he was in the wrong for the articles and publicly apologized. Ford was the only American mentioned in Hitler's book and he received a medal from Nazi Germany in 1938 (they also gave one to GM's overseas VP). By the time of the war, he was thoroughly behind the U.S. war effort and contributed much to defeating Nazi germany.
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ardly "Hitler aid' in all the bombs dropped on Germany by bombers out of the Ford factories! Not to mention tanks, Jeeps, etc. My Dad worked in the factory during the war, so this ain't BS, just fact!
 
From what I have read Hitler did admire Henry Ford but Ford did not expecially care for Hitler. Henry ran his early factories like a dictatorship to the point where he banned his workers from smoking and drinking in their own homes. He even had spies knocking on employees doors to make sure they obeyed. During one period of time he hired a ruthless strongman to carry out his wishes to the point of beating people. Hitler got a big kick out of that type of management. But again, Henry did not reciprocate with Hitler more than just a few casual times. Jim
 
The VW bug was the brain child of Hitler and Porsche made them for Hitler back in the late 30s. VW is in English peoples wagon. Also many of the older VW and Porsche cars used parts that you could swap out like the 914 Porsche and the VW bug
 
Watched a show on the History Channel the other night about Hitler and it showed a video of Henry Ford being awarded an Grand Cross by Hitler for his donations. I haven't read all of the info on the link below but it appears that Ford was very antisemitic and did in fact aid Hitlers rise to power along with aiding with the war effort also.
Click here
 
Went back and read a bit more of the material I linked to a few minutes ago and realized that there was a home button on that page. It takes you to a link detailing Wall Street's involvment in Hitlers rise to power, and it appears it goes beyond just the investments made my Ford. Others can say what they want but I think with a bit of real research ((ie check out the refference material's associated with the material in the link)))) and I believe they will see that Ford wasn't the incorruptible angel that some seem to think he was and in fact was nothing more than a man who was looking to make money where ever he could, regardless of who's side he was making it off of..........
Whole document
 
I was more going for the don't hold me liable for this because a college prof told me this ....but sure
 
It is a fact that both Ford and GM had major subsidiaries in Germany before the war, and that the Ford and GM plants contributed to the Nazi war effort. Both companies broke off from their German subsidiaries when the US entered the war, although it has been argued that Ford didn't make as clean of a break as did GM. (This is consistent with the way the two companies were and are run: Ford has a much more centralized management structure, while GM at the time was run as a conglomerate of separate companies.)

The link before has a pretty good overview of the history of Ford and GM's German subsidiaries before and during the war.

As for Ford accepting bailout money, it is well-known that Ford declined to participate in the bailout. At the time of the 2008 financial crisis, Ford was in much better shape than Chrysler or GM. Ford had mortgaged most of its real estate assets a few years earlier to raise capital and had plenty of cash on hand to get through the crisis.
Washington Post article on Ford, GM and Nazi Germany
 
IH had a factory in Germany since 1909. In WW2 it carred on making hay machinery and grain binders for food production. After Hitler invaded the Soviet Union the was working 24hrs per day making harvesting machinery for crops grown in the conquered lands for food for Germany. MJ
 
well said, thats what has happened for the last 30 years, the problem is there is now 3 decades worth of people out there, who think this messed up system is normal, its all they've known,they never knew the country when it was like it should be, and, a lot of these people are old enough to vote
 
I'm unable to remember where I found this out, but it's my understanding that Henry Ford informed FDR that if the Allies bombed any of his plants in Europe that he would close a factory in the US/Canada for each one of his plants in Europe that was destroyed. - from what I've been able to determine, not one of Ford's plants was bombed.
 
(quoted from post at 06:23:48 01/04/12) I'm unable to remember where I found this out, but it's my understanding that Henry Ford informed FDR that if the Allies bombed any of his plants in Europe that he would close a factory in the US/Canada for each one of his plants in Europe that was destroyed. - from what I've been able to determine, not one of Ford's plants was bombed.
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Kinda funny but everyone seems to be brand loyal to a point. That means that they will do anything they can to trash the other brands. Don't matter if it's true or not. That goes for tools, electronics, vehicles, construction equipment and tractors. Just read these pages if you don't believe it!

Actually it's kinda sad (because of the numbers who died carring out those missions) but BDA at the end of the war proved that "strategic bombing" did very little to slow war production in Germany. Yes they destroyed the buildings but the equipment needed to make things was seldom damaged and could be quickly relocated (sometimes underground) and put back into production. Basically the standard 500 LBS bomb was too small. They did do a heck of a job on Germany's oil production!

Rick
 
Ford (Fordwerke) in Germany was taken over by the German Government in 1941. Ford got compensated for its German wartime losses via the US Congress in 1967.

To say Ford helped Hilter during wartime (with the US) is ridiculous.

Hitler's "AXIS" included Japan and Italy. Since the US government recently bailed out Chrysler and let Fiat of Italy take it over - seems some should be upset about that maybe?

As to bail outs from external_link to Ford? None on public record. Just government backed loans - mostly under US "clean energy and low emissions" programs. Nissan got some also (of the evil Japan AXIS?)

As a result of Hitler and WWII, the US bombed Stihl's factories in Germany for making armaments for Hitler. The USA also seized Stihl chainsaw patents and gave them to US saw companies. US also seized Bosch's assets in the US for the same reasons.

It amazes me how many people rave about Sthil chainsaws when Andreas Stihl helped Hitler kills us during WWII. Yet - people want to trash Ford?
 
LJD, it is funny how people will defend or trash a company regardless of what they have done based on what they like. I don't like Chrysler, I think most people know that. But I'm willing to admit and talk about Ford/GM and the exploding Pintos and Monte Carlos plus the other mistakes thay made. No company puts out the best product all the time.

I am waiting for the axe to fall over Fiat's ownership of Chrysler, CaseIH and NewHolland. Fiat has a wonderful track record for buying companies and running them into the ground. I think Fiat buying Chrysler is another attempt to break into the American car market. I think what we will see as more Fiat badged cars pass US standards they will discontinue the Chrysler cars and the ony thing that will be left is the mini vans and pickups. And then Fiat will source most of the parts from China and the next generation diesels will be imported from Turkey.

Rick

Rick
 
My dad and two uncles left Ky and went to Detroit to work for Ford during the 1920s. They all had nothing but praise for the the way they were treated while working there.

Dad got a piece of steel in his index finger which became infected while there. He lost the end of that finger spending 28 days in Fords hospital all for free. He was returned to work and put on light duty until he fully recovered. That doesn't sound like BAD treatment to me, there were no unions then either. Joe
 
I had several of those so-called "exploding" Pintos. The fix was a piece of plastic added to protect the gas-tank seam. My 94 Ford F250 was recalled last year for a fire hazard on top of the brake master-cylinder. These companies make many vehicles and mistakes/flaws are sure to get made. Some valid and some just plain silly (like blaming Ford and Firestone for SUV roll-overs).

I still have a 1960 Corvair Greenbriar station wagon. Ralph Nader said it was going to kill me years ago (Unsafe at Any Speed). Yeah, I suppose if I drive it like an idiot, I might get "more" hurt in it then other rigs.

Call me "old fashioned" but I never found it alarming when a small car that got rear-ended hard - could catch fire. But yeah, it could of been made better. So could the Chevy Vega, late 70s Chevy trucks with "suicide" hoods, etc., &c.

My 71 Chevy truck has the gas tank behind the back seat IN the cab with me. Seems that's a hazard? I have a 20s Ford that has the gas tank in the dash-board.

John Deere got hit with a massive law suit that led to a recall of every 2010 and 450 crawler they ever made (with the HL-R) trans. Again, the problem was not something regarded as a big danger when first designed and people took responsibility for their own actions. The problem was a lack of a true neutral in the gear trans and a worn shift valve in the HL-R could cause a machine to move IF the brakes weren't locked.

Oh well, I'm getting off point. I tried to follow the Fiat takeover of Chrysler. external_link et. al. begged FIAT to take Chrysler since there were no other possible takers. FIAT finally did so with a lot of reluctance and many "goodies" added to the deal by our US government. FIAT was not exactly eager to do it at first.

The facts now as I understand them . . . Fiat of Italy owns control of Chrysler (52%), Many governments/stockholders collectively own GM (USA, Canada, Ontario, UAW, etc.) and/or are out billions of dollars. As of 2012, the US has lost 60 billion on GM if I'm reading the facts correctly. Ford however - still owns Ford although it is heavily mortgaged. Even the "Blue Oval" is in the pawn shop.

I'm a new Ford fan. They ARE the "last man" standing.
 
I couldn't agree more about people being responsible for their own actions. Seems like today everyone wants to blame someone else for their actions.

To my understanding the big problem with the Caviars was tire pressure. Instead of reading the owners manual people went about life and aired the tires up according to what the "knew" to be right and not by the factory specs. At least that's what I have been led to believe.

The mention of the Pinto wasn't picking on it but more of an example that a lot of people know about. But again as it came out in court Ford knew that it was acceptable to it and produced it anyway.

Wife's cousin lost an eye to a screw driver. His fault and he will man up and tell you that. He never tried suing over it but how many have?

Yes companies have a duty to provide safe products but the end user has a responsibility to use them correctly.

Rick
 
Where do you guys get these ideas?

a. Hitler thought Henry was a Jew. Really, old Henry was one of the most famous anti-sematics until the day he died. He even ran a news paper,Detroit Independent, for a number of years was a Jew hating rag whose articles were compiled into a book published in Hitler"s Germany and distributed by the party. Speaking in 1931 to a Detroit News reporter, Hitler said he regarded Ford as his "inspiration", explaining his reason for keeping Ford"s life-size portrait next to his desk. Henry was even given the highest civilian medel by Hitler government.
b. Don"t like Stihl because he supported his homeland. If one didn"t in the USA, we would call him a traitor.
 
Actually Ford's financial position has greatly improved in the last 2 years. In 2008 they were mortgaged to the hilt but more than half of that has been paid back in the last couple years.

The thing to remember is they actually borrowed more than they needed from the markets in 2007 and early 2008 and then borrowed some from the Fed when they were handing out cash. While the rest of their balance sheet looked horrible they had a huge amount of cash on hand to meet immediate cash needs (and then some) - something the other automakers didn't have and couldn't get when the credit crunch came. Kind of like getting a huge cash advance on your credit card before the credit card company cuts you off. The boys running Ford knew what was coming and made plans to deal with it.


http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2011/09/ford_pays_off_18_billion_in_de.html



Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth announced the action earlier this week at an investor presentation in Frankfurt, Germany. Ford spokesman Todd Nissen confirmed that the payment was made Thursday. Ford's total debt now stands at $12.2 billion, down from $33.6 billion at the end of 2009.
 
That's a pretty stupid claim.

Henry Ford was removed from the day to day operations of Ford Motor Company during WW2 under threat of the US government. Production at the Willow Run plant was taking to long to get on line (B24 Bombers) and the GOVERNMENT TOLD FORD they either needed to speed up the conversion or they would nationalize the corporation and put its production assets under government control. To comply with the government demands Henry Ford senior lost control of most of his vast corporate holdings and Charles Sorensen and Harry Bennett took over. Even with massive government contracts and many of Ford's plants held a models of efficiency (1 B24 and hour was produced at Willow Run and over 250,000 Jeeps and over 50,000 M4 (Sherman) tanks) the Ford Motor Company was nearly bankrupt at the end of the war and only the placement of Henry Ford II (grandson) as president did Ford regain its footing.

Ford didn't tell the government what they'd do, THE GOVERNMENT TOLD FORD WHAT TO DO. Under Roosevelt the federal government had near dictatorship like power of the US economy in WW2 and you either did what they demanded or you took it in the shorts.
 
Hmmmm...seems to me we could be thinking similar thoughts sometime in the future if we ever get in serious conflict with The Peoples Republic of China. Just maybe the thought of making money by putting our investments and industries where ambitious people live and work...even under communism and/or socialism..dominates our preception of what the future will hold.
 
Hitler wanted a cheap 5 passenger car that people could afford - essentually a "modern" Model T for Germany. When it was first thought of it was referred to as the "Kraft durch Freude" wagon (Strength through Joy wagon). It was designed by Porsche to be affordable to buy and own and fit the budgets of Germany's common laborers. Hitler actually had nothing to do with its design but he happily took credit for it being "involved" in the production of a car for the masses (think Al Gore and the Internet). Its purpose was to help the German people feel prosperous under Nazi rule.
 
Kennedy was a big supporter of appeasement and the Nazis. When England was air blitzed by the German's Kennedy said "Democracy is finished in England." Boston Sunday Globe of November 10, 1940


He was apposed to sending aid to England and said it was a waste because England was finished. The British Navy was very "unhappy" with Joe when he proposed that the Royal Navy steam to US ports WHEN England surrendered. The English Government told Roosevelt to take him back and he was forced to resign in November 1940.

While a real POS I don't think Joe Kennedy ever sent arms to the Nazis - he wasn't in a position to do that. Maybe booze - but no arms.
 
The government did require Ford to build arms for the war effort, but the government also supplied the money to do so. Ford built the plant, under contract with the War Production Board, they never owned it. At the end of the war, the B24 plant was briefly owned by HJ Kaiser, building Kaiser autos. After he gave that up GM bought the plant and turned it into a transmission plant. GM closed it in 2009 or 10, and the trans now come from Toledo, Ohio, also a old war plant. When I first went to work for GM in the 1970's, we still had a bunch of toolroom equipment that had war production board tags on them. I wish I had gotten a couple of tags. I ran a real nice Monarch toolmaker's lathe that had a 1944 brass tag on it. I also had several supervisor's and coworker's that had served in WW2.
 
Naw, they didn't have to keep the feets moving. I have (had) relatives that worked for Ford in the 20's and 30's. A lot of the men's restrooms were right next to the line - so the worker's didn't ( or couldn't ) go very far. And the walls were only about 3 ft high - so that your boss could look over and see you taking a crap!!! As far as anti semetic, yeah, but that was pretty common back then. Ford did resist the union, even hiring Harry Bennet and a bunch of ex cons as goons. Ford also hired blacks when a lot of companies didn't. And one reason for that was union busting, he hoped the blacks would not join the union. Actually, back then a lot of unions didn't accept minorities. Having said all that, Henry Ford was a great man. By WW2, he really wasn't doing much with the company, I think he was too old by that point. I think it was 1940 or 41 that Ford signed a contract with the UAW.

Another thing Ford tried was cottage industry - he started several small plants in rural Michigan. The idea was to hire farmers to work in these small plants, and they could farm on the side. Too bad nobody does that now.
 
Yep henry thought hitler was the bees knees ,until of course he started making more money during the war. LOL!IN fact look at all the things ford did during the war that were considered at the time somewhat shady,changed the model number of the 9n tractor to 2n so he could call it a new tractor and it wasnt subject to price freezes.Was a huge problem when they said we couldnt get rubber for tractor tires,he sat there day after day raising cain until he got congress to relax the laws and allow farmers rubber.All these things were considered very definitly un-american at the time, and he was roundly criticised.But lots of folks were,look at the coal strikes and things, lindberg was very definitly pro german and anti war.As were most folks. Just remember we were just starting to make money again after the depression,and the big corporations and things were raking it in by the bushel baskets full under lend lease,none of them wanted to give up their workers to go fight a war!We were making ALL the money off a war from every side even the germans.Most of our war production actually was for germany that got diverted to england.Think of it this way,100s of thousands of american citzens were of german ,italian,irish,basically european descent in fact nearly all were!.and guess what every one of these countries were on germanies side or strongly supported them. We went to war against the japanese ONLY and only fought the germans because they declared war on us! you may not say he directly helped hitler,but he was definitly neutral or leaned that direction.Even though he made war materials,his wasnt by far the largest output,and he was one of the first ones paid .Some companies never were and folded because of it.
 
So!!!!!!!! what if he did?.

So!!!!!!!! what if he didn't?

What's the point? Both are dead; what's it going to accomplish, and if that is all you have to do, I have a hog wallow that needs cleaning........ pay normal farm rates. Bring your own lunch and you can't use the facilities in the house.

Mark
 
"When I was a kid, I loved VW cars. Then I grew up and found out they were built with slave labor under Hitler and the cars never looked the same again. Dave
 
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