Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate

By Neil Baldwin

Book Overview

How and why did this quintessential American folk-hero and pioneering industrialist become one of the most obsessive anti-Semites of our time-a man who devoted his immense financial resources to publishing a pernicious forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion? Once Henry Ford's virulent media campaign against the Jews took off during the "anxious decade" following World War I, how did America's splintered Jewish community attempt to cope with the relentless tirade conducted for ninety-one consecutive weeks in the automobile manufacturer's personal newspaper, The Dearborn Independent? What were the repercussions of Ford's Jew-hatred extending deeply into the 1930s? Drawing upon previously-uncited oral history transcripts, archival correspondence, and family memoirs, Neil Baldwin answers these and other questions, examining the conservative biases of the men at the inner circle of the Ford Motor Company and disentangling painful ideological struggles among an elite Jewish leadership reluctantly pitted against the clout and popularity of "The Flivver King."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586481630
• ISBN13: 9781586481636
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Important Part of American History

I found Niel Baldwin's research very credible, educational and revealing. Once I picked up the book, I found it highly interesting and it was very hard to put down. In the US deregulated laissez faire economy of the early 20th century, wealth was concentrated into the hands of the few large manufacturers like Ford. And they became the role models for millions of people around the world. People listened to them. Unfortunately, it didn't take wisdom, sharp intellect, insight, or moral judgment to have a large fortune and be considered a role model of success and influential to the world over. The fact is Henry Ford was out of control, speaking, endorsing and publishing foolish and hatefull, biased ideology, based on his library, consisting of three or four books, including McGuffey, Emerson and the bible. From Baldwin's credible sources, including many eye witness accounts, the Dearborne Independent, the International Jew, Questions, and other sources, Ford employs blatant racism, hate and simplistic conspiracy theory of world domination, using the scape goat mind set, which was accepted by so many of that time period, tolerated by the general public and completely out of character of today's consciousness, at least on such a blatant stereo typical level. Interesting to see when accused of racism in court, Ford's editor William John Cameron and personal secretary Ernest E. Liebold take all the responsibility, claiming Ford did not personally write or read the articles. Even the apology letter that was later written for Ford by Louis Marshall, a leading Jewish activist and constitutional lawyer, was defended by Liebold that Ford never read it and that he never changed his views against the Jews on world control and conspiratorial theories. Like the trumped up and bogus authenticity of the 15th century Witch hunting manual, the The Malleus Maleficarum, the Protocols of Zion revelation of "secret meetings of the elders," revealing a plot to rule the world, stolen from Theodore Herzel himself, was taken seriously by ethogenic and racial theorists. But when copies of this supposed secret plan to rule the world came across mainstream businesses and governments, this became a story that needs to be told and understood in history. Ford directly influenced the Nazis, including Hitler himself and received a medal from him. Ford's teachings helped fuel the Nazi death camps, as spoke about in the Nuremberg trials by Baldur von Schirach, Julius Streicher and Alfred Rosenberg and Ford's autobiography, My Life, was one of the only books in Hitler's library that had thumbprints and was dog eared from use. Ford's so called integrity in fighting for peace against the First World War (the peace ship), was hypocritically contradicted with his rhetoric of hate and racism and Ford-Werke A.G, the German Ford plant that employed forced slave labor and possibly produced German weaponry. Also, in the 50s and 60s Ford produced the trucks used by the North Vietnamese

A Business Genius...A Deeply-Flawed Human Being

As previously inaccessible material becomes available to an historian such as Baldwin (e.g. Ford-related documents released from archives in March of this year), it is possible to fill in at least some of the missing "pieces" of a complicated "puzzle" such as Henry Ford. By now Ford is widely recognized as an equal opportunity hater, not only of Jews, but as Baldwin suggests, he seems to have been obsessed with Jews. To a significant extent, Ford was a product of his times and of the specific circumstances of his youth and early career. He was not alone in his hatred of Jews nor was he alone when blaming them for all manner of social and economic crises whose true causes he was unwilling and/or unable to understand. Any evidence offered to dispute him was "bunk." No one questions Ford's importance in the development of 20th century business. His achievements were abundant, unique, and of major significance. Of course, Baldwin is fully aware of those achievements which are undeniable. The focus of his book, rather, is on Henry Ford the human being, not the industrial icon. Baldwin creates a context within which to understand Ford's personality as well as the values which motivated his behavior. We learn about the nature and extent of his draconian control over those whom he employed. We learn about the people he hired to maintain that control at whatever cost. We learn about his fundamental hypocrisies such as blaming the Jews for exploiting world wars to their advantage while he and his company reaped great profits from them, especially from World War One. Ford was an ignorant man and apparently proud of it. He learned only what he needed to know to establish and then build what has since become one of the world's largest manufacturing companies. Apparently Ford believed that he could mass-produce workers according to his strict specifications just as his company mass-produced automobiles according to equally stringent standards. Perhaps, just perhaps, Ford hated Jews so much because they did not meet such specifications. We know he used the word "Jew" interchangeably with other words such as "war profiteers" and "moneylenders." He maintained strict control over the mechanisms by which he could propagate his anti-Semitism. For example, the series "The International Jew: The World's Problems" ran for 91 weeks in the Dearborn (MI) Independent which Ford owned.For Ford, Jews were convenient scapegoats. After reading Baldwin's well-written and well-researched book, I still do not fully understand Ford's hatred of Jews. Perhaps even he couldn't explain it and no one else will ever know all of the reasons. In 1927, he signed (without reading it) an "apology" drafted by Lewis Marshall, a prominent Jewish lawyer. It is doubtful that the statement was sincere. More likely, Ford feared loss of business. His offensive theories about social engineering notwithstanding, he was until the day he died an unrepentant capitalist. He said or did whatever he deemed

Always Necessary

History must be revised when any new and accurate information appears. Neil Baldwin's book, "Henry Ford And The Jews The Mass Production Of Hate", utilizes some information that was only opened from archives in March of 2001. Further, no matter how much time may pass, history as portrayed in this book must always be available to new generations of readers. I believe that the darker aspects of this country's or any nation's history, must be documented accurately and fairly. Reality has demonstrated that with the passage of time facts are forgotten, and become the target for revisionists who replace history with fiction. Historical events like The Holocaust have been defended in court within the last 2 years. The defense was required to prove The Holocaust took place.Mr. Baldwin has documented the actions of one of the most influential businessmen of the 20th Century. Mr. Henry Ford's achievements in the production of his cars are a fact of history. Mr. Ford was a talented man, and had he confined himself to what he was competent to conduct, his memory would be a very different one. Mr. Ford is portrayed in this book by a wide variety of sources as a man who was amazingly ill informed, a man who placed no value on education, was a tyrant to those who made his fortune, and a man who had the distinction of having his portrait on the wall of Adolph Hitler's Office. Like other notable names in American History he accepted the highest honor bestowed on a non-German by Hitler. Another recipient Charles Lindbergh could claim he had no idea he was to be presented with the, "Honor". Mr. Ford accepted his on the occasion of his birthday with 1500 invited guests. Another famous recipient of the award was Mr. Thomas Watson of IBM fame. Of the 3 men, only the latter had the common sense to return the medal. Mr. Ford proudly stood for photographs of his presentation on July 30, 1938. At this point there is no conceivable defense for claiming not to know what Hitler was about.Mr. Ford claimed to hate those who were profiteers of war. His views changed as Ford operated in Germany throughout World War II producing tens of thousands of military trucks and cars, and unlike other companies, Ford was never nationalized, and retained majority ownership throughout the war. As the Nazi's invaded other nations they handed the production of cars over to Ford.It helps to bring the idea of how influential this man was forward in time. Today you would need to take the head of one of the world's largest companies, and then imagine his conducting himself as Ford did. Today it is inconceivable that a person could buy a newspaper for the express purpose of spreading Anti-Semitic hatred, that a person could publish countless thousands of copies of, "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion", and continue to claim they were anything but the fiction they were. But this is what he did, for decades. He continually tried to force anyone who bought one of his cars to buy a subscription to his

A searing Indictment of an American Icon

While Henry Ford's anti-Semitism was not unknown before Neil Baldwin's terrific new book, it was always considered a small aberration of personality, nothing to stop Ford from keeping his valued place in American history. No longer.In Baldwin's devastating account of the "Flivver King's" biases and how they grew, the reader is invited not merely to understand Henry Ford but the culture around him that fostered and nurtured his prejudices.The cast of characters in this astounding book, from the hateful men in Ford's inner sanctuum to the leaders of American Jewry, are a fascinating lot. Baldwin also includes depictions of others who attempted to sway Ford from his chosen path, including the European feminist-pacifist Rosika Schwimmer and the labor leader Aaron Sapiro, whose lawsuit finally caused Ford to issue an apology for his misdeeds.Among the most compelling facts that Baldwin has amassed are those tying Ford to the Nazi movement. I won't give away the particulars of that sordid story. Suffice it to say that America was linked more closely than we ever knew to Hitler and his henchmen, thanks to Ford's reckless behavior.This book is much more than an embellishment of a footnote in the life of a great American: It forces a total re-evaluation of Henry Ford. Whatever his business triumphs, they have been neutralized for all time.This is an important and timely book, gracefully written.