New book exposes Ford & Lindbergh's Nazi collaboration
Julie Ziller
- Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh -pitted against a third-Franklin
Delano Roosevelt - over what to do about Adolf Hitler. Max Wallace
reminds us that the destiny of the republic hung in the balance in the
Great Debate of 1940-41."
- Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
3Wallace's extensive investigation probes three and four layers deeper
than others, pulls no punches, names names and creates a powerful
historical document."
-Edwin Black, author of IBM and the Holocaust
New Book Reveals Ford Motor Company1s Complicity in Nazi War Effort
& Lindbergh1s Close Ties to the Third Reich
A controversial new book, published by St. Martin1s Press, reveals
that the Ford Motor Company1s military and political complicity in the
Nazi war effort was considerably more extensive than the corporation has
acknowledged and that company president Edsel Ford, Henry1s son, was
about to be indicted for Trading With the Enemy " America1s most serious
corporate crime " at the time of his 1943 death.
In his new book The American Axis: Ford, Lindbergh and the Rise of
the Third Reich, exploring the pre-war Nazi sympathies of Charles
Lindbergh and Henry Ford, investigative journalist Max Wallace proves
that, despite company denials, America1s largest automaker amassed huge
profits from its wartime business dealings with Nazi Germany and from
the use of slave labor at its German plant.
Drawing on thousands of pages of previously classified documents,
Wallace discovered that the company sanctioned military and business
dealings with the Nazis even after Pearl Harbor and that a US government
post-war investigation concluded that the company had become 3an arsenal
of Nazism.2
The book, which promises to be the most sensational corporate
expose since IBM and the Holocaust, disputes a 2001 Ford Motor Company
internal investigation into the use of slave labor at its Cologne plant
during World War 2, which company officials have claimed as a
vindication of its wartime activities.
Wallace is a veteran investigative journalist and Holocaust
researcher who has worked for Steven Spielberg1s Shoah Project and has
contributed to the BBC and the Sunday New York Times. In the new book,
which recently received an editorial endorsement from Pulitzer Prize-
winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Wallace traces Henry Ford1s
ties to Nazi Germany back as far as the 19201s and reveals that Ford
used part of his vast fortune to finance the rise to power of the
obscure Austrian fanatic Adolf Hitler, who later described Ford as 3my
inspiration2 and hung a large portrait of the American industrialist
over his desk. Newly uncovered FBI and military intelligence files
reveal that Ford1s personal secretary and life-long confidante Ernest
Liebold was a German spy, who channeled his employer1s anti-Semitism to
further the cause of Nazi Germany. After Pearl Harbor, Ford used his
influence to countermand a federal warrant for Liebold1s arrest.
The book, which is scheduled for publication Aug. 1, 2003, goes on
to trace Ford1s close friendship and ideological bond with another of
America1s greatest heroes, the aviator Charles Lindbergh, as they
embarked together on an historic crusade to keep America out of World
War II. Working in close cooperation with Nazi Germany, the two men
almost brought democratic Europe to the verge of extinction. In 1938, by
proclamation of Hitler, both men received the highest Nazi decoration
that could be bestowed on a foreigner, 3for those who deserve well of
the Reich.2 Now, Wallace has discovered German Embassy dispatches
captured after the war that reveal the Third Reich believed Lindbergh
was their 3most valuable asset in America2 and that the Nazis secretly
plotted to install Lindbergh as the leader of the American movement to
keep America out of the Second World War.
Wallace is the first unauthorized biographer to have been granted
access by the family to Lindbergh1s archives at Yale University, which
have been sealed to the public since his death in 1974. He has
discovered significant new material shedding light on the aviator1s
anti-Semitic and white supremacist views.
Jeff nor Lisa
> 3Wallace's extensive investigation probes three and four layers deeper
> than others, pulls no punches, names names and creates a powerful
> historical document."
> -Edwin Black, author of IBM and the Holocaust
Black as an author, IMHO, has no credibility whatsoever; his
IBM book was based on pure speculation on some critical parts.
Other parts blamed one of IBM's founders being of Austrian
descent despite that being already 50 years prior to WW II
and long since gone from the company. Black's book seems
more based on emotional outrage.
> A controversial new book, published by St. Martin1s Press, reveals
> that the Ford Motor Company1s military and political complicity in the
> The book, which promises to be the most sensational corporate
> expose since IBM and the Holocaust,
I am not familiar with this author nor this book about Ford.
However, if it is being described in the same vein as Black's
IBM book, I don't give it much credibility. As mentioned,
above IMHO the Black book was not credible.
Until Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war against
the U.S., the sad fact is an awful lot of Americans were anti-
Semitic and not especially troubled by Germany's actions
(especially toward the Soviet Union). Back then many Americans
in the midwest distrusted the English. Ford and Lindberg were
notable supporters of Nazi Germany and they were NOT alone.
It was these feelings, along with basic isolationism, that
limited FDR's ability to support England and build up US
defense--the public would not tolerate it.
Even during the war the U.S. as a whole was not especially
concerned about foreign victims. Eastern European refugees,
both Jewish and gentile, were simply not wanted in the country.
Certainly the anti-Semitism of Ford and Lindberg didn't help
things any, indeed, encouraged it. But the prejudices were
there regardless. In those years, a person was judged much
on his ancestry as his current character, regardless of his
ancestry. The war helped changed that attitude.
> [snip] Working in close cooperation with Nazi Germany, the two men
> almost brought democratic Europe to the verge of extinction.
When the reviewers make a sentence like this "the two men..."
my credibility is tested.
hogdriver
Ford published a rabisly anti-Semitic tabloid in Dearborn, MI during, I
believe, the '20s and '30s.
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