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The Dark Side of Great Historic Figures

Khalid Elhassan December 11, 2020 33 min

Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony - Elizabeth Cady Stanton — Susan B. Anthony, left, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. NJTV

18. Great Industrialist Henry Ford Was a Raging Anti-Semite

Henry Ford in 1921 with his Model T. History

Great American businessman Henry Ford (1863 – 1947), founder of Ford Motor Company, was a complex man. It was not the good kind of complex, however, when it came to Jews. On the one hand, Ford was relatively progressive for his era in some racial aspects. His was one of the few major corporations that actively recruited black workers, and did not discriminate against Jewish workers or suppliers.

On the other hand, Ford had strong anti-Semitic views. So anti-Semitic as a matter of fact, that Hitler singled him out for praise in Mein Kampf, and identified him as one of his inspirations. He showed his appreciation for Ford’s anti-Semitism by bestowing upon him Germany’s highest award for foreigners. It is thus unsurprising that Ford got his company to collaborate with the Third Reich.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.