These Corporations Committed the Ultimate Evil

1. Plumbing the Depths of Evil, Ford’s German Branch Used Slave Labor to Manufacture War Materiel For the Nazis

Declassified letters between Edsel Ford and the head of Ford’s French subsidiary in 1942 indicate that Ford knew and approved of the subsidiary’s manufacturing efforts on behalf of the German military. That took place after America had joined the war, and Germany had become an enemy. Declassified documents reveal that the US Department of Justice concluded that there was a basis for a criminal case against Edsel Ford. In addition, Ford’s plants in Germany used slave workers to meet the demands of the German war effort.

That occurred not only after America joined the war and the plants were seized, but also during the interval between the war’s outbreak in September of 1939, and America’s entry into the conflict in December of 1941. During that period, Ford still controlled its German subsidiary, and knew what was going on in its factories. When the US Army liberated Ford’s plants in Nazi Germany, they found emaciated slave laborers behind barbed wires. A US Army investigator’s report, dated September 5th, 1945, accused Ford’s German subsidiary of serving as “an arsenal of Nazism“, with the parent company’s knowledge and consent.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Associated Press – Covering Tyranny, the Associated Press and Nazi Germany: 1933 – 1945

Atlantic, The, December 2^nd, 2014 – Bhopal: the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster, 30 Years Later

BBC – Hugo Boss Apology For Nazi Past as Book is Published

BBC – Siemens Retreats Over Nazi Name

Encyclopedia Britannica – Volkswagen Group

History Collection – Manmade Disasters

History Collection – 20 Nazi-Inspired Inventions

History Extra, November 1^st, 2013 – Where the Pulverized Bones of Soldiers and Horses Who Died at the Battle of Waterloo Sold as Soil Fertilizer?

Holocaust Online – Siemens

Jalopnik – The Real Story Behind the Nazis and Volkswagen

Nation, The, March 8^th, 2001 – Kodak’s Nazi Connections

New York Times, December 11^th, 1984 – Indian Journalist Offered Warning

History Collection – 10 Secret Nazi Technologies and Innovations that Changed Warfare Forever

PBS, American Experience – Ford’s Anti-Semitism

Snopes – Did a 1960s Oil Company Ad Boast How Much Glacier It Could Melt?

Snopes – Fanta and the Nazis

Telegraph, The, November 3^rd, 2003 – Ford ‘Used Slave Labour’ in Nazi German Plants

Washington Post, November 30^th, 1998 – Ford and GM Scrutinized For Alleged Nazi Collaboration

Wikipedia – Bhopal Disaster

Wikipedia – Mark 14 Torpedo

History Collection – Business Pioneers that Had Quite the Disturbing Background

History Collection – 20 Historical Figures Who Changed The World, and Also Committed Monstrous Deeds