''Business

The Daimler Legacy

Should the German
company's history during
the Holocaust be held
against it now?

ALAN ABRAMS
0 Special to The Jewish News

S

hould Jews be concerned
about the proposed merger of
German automaker Daimler-
Benz AG and the Chrysler
Corporation? Richard Lobenthal does-
n't think so.
The former executive director of
h.... the Michigan region of the Anti-
,' Defamation League and current inter-
im director of the Ecumenical
Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies
doesn't believe that Chrysler deserves
to receive any fallout from Jews upset
over Daimler-Benz's lurid history dur-
ing the Nazi regime.
One reason Lobenthal cites is
Chrysler's historic record is much less
anti-Semitic than the other two lead-
"' ing American automobile manufactur-
ers.
Ford was tainted by the personal
and vicious anti-Semitism of the
senior Henry Ford, and the anti-
Jewish, anti-intellectual thugs and
Nazi supporters like E.G. Leibold,
WJ. Cameron and Harry Bennett
with whom Ford surrounded himself
op Because of Ford's virulent anti-
Semitism and documented financial
support of the Nazis, some Jews still
will not buy or drive Ford products.
Ford Sr.'s grandson, Henry Ford II,
worked hard as Ford chairman to
overcome the image and started Ford
corporate ties with Israel.
At General Motors, it has only
been in the last decade that have Jews
Oft begun to occupy visible management
positions. This in spite of the fact that
GM's treasurer during the 1920s and
1930s, Meyer L. Prentis, was a Jew,
and the company was in the forefront
of awarding lucrative franchises to
Jewish dealers.
Cadillac's popular Catera is made
by German automaker Opel, a com-
pany whose Nazi-era history is as sor-
Pm" did as that of Daimler-Benz. Yet no
one has suggested boycotting GM for
this manifestation of the realities of
today's global economy.
It was Lee Iacocca at Chrysler who
defied long-standing auto industry
biases in the early 1970s to elevate
Gerald Greenwald to vice-chairman of
the company. On that level alone,

Lobenthal believes it would be unfair
for Jews to target Chrysler.
Having said that, Lobenthal also
questions whether Jews should be
venting their anger at Daimler-Benz.
"The corporation is a generation
removed from complicity" in Nazi-era
war crimes, said Lobenthal. But he is
equally quick to say that Daimler has
"never apologized for its complicity,
which includes helping Hider rise to
power."
Juergen Wittmann, a corporate
media relations specialist at Daimler-
Benz headquarters in Stuttgart, said in
a telephone interview that the
automaker's "board of management in
1988 paid about 20 million DM
(then almost $12 million) to former
forced laborers through the Jewish
Conference on Material Claims
ainst Germany."
However, critics point out the
amount is less than the total salary
and benefits (close to $16 million)
received by Chrysler Chairman Robert
J. Eaton in 1997.
Wittmann said Daimler-Benz was
the first of the German companies to
research its shameful history of using
Jewish and Eastern European slave
labor during World War II, and to
actually publish the findings. The
company did so in two books, the first
issued in 1986, the second in 1994.
And it cooperated fully with and
opened its vast archives to historian
Neil Gregor, who has just published
Daimler-Benz in the Third Reich.
In addition, the company erected a
monument to the slave laborers in
front of its main headquarters build-
ing.
Wittmann, who studied political
science at Tufts University, said the
company's current program of
"approaching former forced laborers is
much more important than any pay-
ments. You have to deal with your his-
tory, not just pay and forget it."
Wittmann also pointed out the
1u-daftness of stigmatizing current
Daimler-Benz management for the
sins of the past. Edzard Reuter, who
until 1995 was chairman of Daimler-
Benz, spent the Nazi era in exile
because his father, who became a post-
war mayor of West Berlin, was a lead-
ing anti-Nazi.
And if Israelis do not penalize
Daimler-Benz products, should
American Jews? Mercedes-Benz vehi-
cles are ubiquitous throughout Israel
as taxicabs.
Contrary to widespread belief, the
taxis are not there because of any

This space contributed as a public service.

"YES,THERE IS
LIFE AFTER
BREAST CANCER.
AND THAT'S THE
WHOLE POINT:"

—Ann Jillian

A lot of women are so afraid of
breast cancer they don't want to hear
about it.
And that's what frightens me.
Because those women won't prac-
tice breast self-examination regularly.
Those women, particularly those
over 35, won't ask their doctor about a
mammogram.
Yet that's what's required for breast
cancer to be detected early. When the
cure rate is 90 0 0. And when there's a

1

good chance it won't involve the loss of
a breast.
But no matter what it involves, take
it from someone who's been through
it all.
Life is just too wonderful to give up
on. And, as I found out, you don't have
to give up on any of it. Not work, not
play, not even romance.
Oh, there is one thing, though.
You do have to give up being afraid
to take care of yourself.

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
Get a chec kup. Life is worth it.

6/5
1998

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