February 16, 1919 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS e Financing of Hitler and Ford's Propaganda Rol( ( LIAM SAPHIRE ht 1979, JTA, Inc.) I YORK — While diverse sources be have been ex- others, James his sister, Suzanne .e produced the de- r ook on the subject, 'inanced Hitler" ess). The question inced Hitler is, of rhetorical because wer is virtually !ment of post-World -erman society and •dent sympathizers Nazi funds could be in the wretched ; dropped into hats believers in smoky ils and in the mill- marks contributed, ies surreptitiously, nan industrialists; Pounds Sterling — ieless favorable pub- - from reactionary r.ess lords and in 3, especially from 'agnate Henry T have not -,countant's NS they have in the 2 moti- ld -\9 con- 9.5,, The -\9 -e as 79- 9,0 75 9.0 man 75 9 0 25 90 75 9,0 75 2 0 )r Tes 23 90 ig- eiudice and 23 20 sm. If 23 20 on de- 23 20 23 20 ed Hi- 24 21 rers, it 24 21 1. The 25 22 25 22 e var- 25 22 class, 25 22 ophis- 25 22 25 22 25 22 25 22 25 22 26 23 26 23 26 23 26 26 23 26 23 26 23 26- 23 26 23 26 23 r 26 23 27 24 27 24 27 24 27 24 27 24 27 24 27 24 27 24 27 24 h Dr. -6750 ars CK ner 3f Ger- ri ike a fection y time. ald be infec- t which ae bearer but suc- -Semitic Panama 1 of 1889 .flair. s, conser- and dis- itic tradi- urrender were a se- auma. It then, to ered mid- wish ban- lsible for lflation of — the small eh lenders osing on indus- trialists, generally men of good education and worldly contacts, were not anti- Semitic according to the Pools. Some, like Emil Kir- dof, head of a large coal mining complex who was Hitler's first patron among the industrial elite, were ac- tually friendly toward Jews. Others considered the "Jewish question" raised by the Nazis to be of little in- terest to them. Fritz Thyssen, "re- membered as the man who gave more money to Hitler than any other in- dividual," denied being an anti-Semite. But "he certainly felt the Jews were one of the principal forces behind Com- munism," the Poolg wrote. According to the authors, an anti-Semitic linkage was at least partly responsible for raising the obscure German Workers Party — precursor of the .NSDAP (Nazi Party) — above the numerous other radical right splinter factions, semi-political street gangs and disaffected veterans groups that littered the post-war German land- scape. The army, represented by the land-owning Jun- kers of Prussia and their Bavarian counterparts, also helped the Nazis with funds. The party was viewed by the officer Germany's Racist Thule Society Hitler gravitated to the Workers Party because he apparently knew it was re- ceiving clandestine support from a sinister racist cabal known as the Thule Society. This group preached racial purity, with emphasis on anti-Semitism. Its symbol was the swastika and at least some of its members practiced pagan rites de- rived from the mythical source-land of the Germanic tribes, Ultima Thule. The membership in- cluded upper middle class and wealthy Germans, some Prussian aristocrats and various obscure persons with mysterious access to high society. Through them, Hitler gained his first entry to respectable "salons" and promptly became the darl- ing of society matrons and dowagers. Although almost celibate in his personal life (he was not homosexual) Hitler exerted a magnetic attraction for women in all strata of society. On an individual basis, the Pools say, German women contributed propor- tionately more money to the Nazis than their menfolk. Another benefit derived from the Thule connection was its secret purchase of the failing Jew-baiting newspaper Volkischer Beobachter (Racial Ob- server) which became the Nazi Party press organ. ADOLF HITLER prosperous and stable middle 1920s. They began to soar again with the first signs of oncoming depression in 1928 and reached full flood with the world economic.crisis of the early 1930s. A more disturbing phenomenon than German support for the Nazis is the number and prestige of non-German donors who contributed generously to Hitler long before the Nazis could claim more than mar- ginal political influence. Al- though Henry Ford's anti- Semitic activities are old history, it comes as a shock to learn, as the Pools docu- ment, that the Nazis de- rived many of their ideas and Jew-baiting techniques from Ford rather than Ford from them. corps as a possible in- strument to unseat the hated Weimar regime and remove the yolk of Versailles. Esteem for the military had dropped sharply among the Ger- man masses after the war. The generals were interested in fostering a political movement that appealed to the working class but espoused nationalism instead of socialism and put the onus of Germany's defeat on "traitors" at home rather than the officers in the field. The young Nazi Party impressed the military by its ability to sway the lum- penproletariat. Hitler him- self, though discharged from active duty, remained a paid agent of the Bavarian army until 1920. It is not surprising that army funds were secretly funneled to the Nazis at an early date. When this was opposed by some of the officers, Hitler's early associate, the ineffa- ble Capt. Ernst Rohm, proved adept at embezzle- ment and blackmail. Discussing the period 1919-1923, the year of the failed Munich putsch which represented the low point of Nazi fortunes, the authors provide an incisive picture of Germany's desperately ill society. Indeed, the average German suffered mightily from unemployment, infla- tion, riots, strikes and fear of a Communist-led revolu- tion after World War I. In many instances it was desperation, com- pounded by ignorance rather than ideology which led them to "give" to the Nazis. Contribu- tions from individual Germans reached a peak during the worst of the unemployment and infla- tion but tapered off shar-_ ply during the relatively Henry Ford's Role Documented The authors devote a long chapter to "Ford and Hi- tler." They note, and it should be made clear to the reader, that the racial aber- rations of Henry Ford Sr. in no way reflected the at- titude of members of his family or the automobile company he headed. Henry Ford, the best- known American indus- trialist of his time, was and remains an enigma. A repu- ted genius at things mechanical, he barely com- pleted an elementary school pedition to end the war in Europe. He took with him a hastily assembled group of pacifists, idealists, wishful thin- kers, free-loaders and charlatans to "get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas." His un- likely collaborator in that well-intentioned but doomed enterprise was a Hungarian-Jewish jour- nalist and veteran of the women's suffragist lec- ture circuit, Rosika Schwimmer. Schwimmer possessed lit- tle in the way of feminine charm. But she was a for- midable personality, spell- binding at the lectern and as convinced of her righte- ousness as Ford was of his. She also had exceedingly thick skin, for Ford confided to her, as the peace mission was crossing the Atlantic, that it was the "Jewish bankers" who started the war and who had the power to end it. Nevertheless, Ford re- mained loyal to Schwim- mer, willingly paying her expenses until her eccen- tricities so alienated the rest of the group that he was forced to accept her resigna- tion from the project. (For an excellent account of this nearly forgotten episode, readers are referred to "The Peace Ship" by Barbara S. Kraft, published this year by MacMillan.) rectly from Ford's public tion . . . One of his (Hitler', closest associates, Dietric Eckart, specifically men tioned the 'Protocols' an `The International Jew' a'k, sources of inspiration foi, the Nazi leader." Whatever monies Fbrd gave the Nazis were trans- ferred secretly although there was nothing illegal involved. "It was obviously more prudent for Ford that there be no evidence linking his name with a rad rightist party," the aut,— wrote. They traced "three or four definite channels" by which Ford money flowed to the Nazis: One was through White Russian intermediaries lined up by Hitler's most successful fund-raising emissary overseas, Kurt Ludecke. Another was through Siegried and Winifred Wagner, son and daughter-in-law of Richard Wagner, who were entertained by Ford while visiting the U.S. in 1924, ostensibly to prom- ote the Bayreuth music festival. In the manner of many self-made men, poorly . edu- cated but crowned with vast material success, Henry Ford regarded his opinions on politics, economics and almost any other subject, to be infallible. Thus, when after the war Ford's anti- Semitism turned ugly and dangerous, he purchased the country newspaper "Dearborn Independent" specifically to propagate his opinions of Jews. HENRY FORD education. His outlook on the world was fixed by the homilies he learned from McGuffey's "First Electic Reader." Beyond that, he had little use for books be- cause they "mussed up" his mind. Ford could never recon- cile himself to the changes that were rapidly obliterat- ing the rural America of his boyhood and, in his simplis- tic way, he was convinced that some evil human force was responsible for them. He distrusted banks, and the bankers he knew least about were the "Jewish bankers," hence they must be the most evil. He was, for his times, a humane and generous employer — be- cause he dreaded any form of trade unionism. He be- lieved war to be wasteful and that tractors were more profitable than tanks; therefore, he was a pacifist and a sincere one. In 1915, Ford organized and financed — out of pocket in the amount of some $500,000 — an ex- Dearborn Paper Spread Anti-Semitism From 1919-1927 its nationwide circulation ex- ceeded a quarter of a mill- ion. Reprints of the articles were published in a four- volume set (1920-1922) under the title "The Inter- national Jew" which was translated into a dozen lan- guages, including German. The Pools wrote, "If `The In- ternational Jew' was the Bible, then to the. Nazis Henry Ford must have seemed a God. His anti- Semitic publications led many Germans to become Nazis," especially German youths. Further on, the authors noted, "Not only did Hitler specifically praise Henry Ford in 'Mein Kampf but many of Hitler's ideas were also a direct reflection of Ford's racist philosophy. There is a great similarity between 'The International Jew' and Hitler's 'Mein Kampf and some passages are so identical that it has been said Hitler copied di- Anti-Semitism was en- demic among the British upper classes during the 1920s, coupled with obses- sive fear of Bolshevism. Hi- tler received funding from those Lords of Fleet St., Rothmere and Beaverbrook and, even more valuable perhaps, excellent' prow notices for his- plans for the New Germany. Financial support, through devious and complex channels, was also forthcoming from "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" — the Bank of Eng- land — whose governor for 24 years was the anti Semitic Montagu Norman . Not even the Royal Fan- Hy was immune. At lea: one member, the Prince Wales, briefly King Edwai VIII and later Duke . Windsor, had a strong affin- ity for Germany since his youth. "Legend has it," the Pools wrote, "that Edward was compelled to abdicate due to his refusal to give up `the woman he loved.' -How- ever, this issue was_used as a facade to conceal the more critical objection which the government had with the King — namely his. pro- Nazi attitudes." If the Pr- ince did not give money, he lent considerable prestige to the Nazi cause. According to the authors' account, Nazi fundraising abroad was least successful with rank-and-file German Americans. Ludecke was almost thrown out bodily when he harangued a Ger- man Society meeting in Washington, D.C. in 1924. The heyday of the German-American Bund was, of course, a decade away and by then the tables were turned. The Nazis were not soliciting funds, they were financing prop- aganda and subversion all over the world.