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Turner's internal report or discuss the
company's Nazi-era or New Deal-era
history or archival holdings when
• originally contacted by this reporter.
How Open To The Public?
Turner's commissioned examina-
tion, along with GM Opel documents
assembled for the probe, were digi-
tized on CD-Rom and donated to Yale's
Sterling Memorial Library, where the
collection is categorized as being "open
to the public." In fact, the obscure
collection can only be viewed on a
computer terminal; printouts or digital
copies are not permitted without the
written consent of GM attorneys.
Turner later published the book
General Motors and the Nazis:
The Struggle for Control of Opel,
Europe's Biggest Carmaker (Yale
University Press, 2005), written from
his work as GM's historian. The book
features carefully detailed and footnot-
ed information, plus notes, an index
and a short appendix.
In his book, Turner disputed many
earlier findings about GM's complicity
with the Nazis, concluding that charges
that GM had collaborated with the
Nazis even after the United States and
Germany were at war "have proved
groundless."
Turner rejects "the assumption that
the American corporation did business
in the Third Reich by choice assert-
ing, "Such was not the case." Turner
also states that GM had no option
but to return wartime profits to its
stockholders, since "the German firm
prospered handsomely from Hitler's
promotion of the automobile and
from the remarkable recovery of the
German economy."
However, Turner does state explic-
itly that "by the end of 1940 more
than 10,000 employees at Opel's
Russelsheim plant were engaged in
producing parts for the Junkers bomb-
ers heavily used in raining death and
destruction on London and other
British cities during the air attacks of
the Battle of Britain."
Turner also condemns GM for tak-
ing the Opel wartime dividends, which
included profits made off of slave
labor. He writes, "But regardless of
who [in the GM corporate structure]
decided to claim that tainted money,
its receipt rendered GM guilty, after
the fact, of deriving profit from war
production for the Third Reich made
possible in part from the toil of unfree
workers."
Aware that questions would arise
about his relationship with GM,
Turner's book states in its preface:
"This book was not commissioned by
General Motors. It was written after
the documentation project was com-
pleted and without any financial sup-
port from GM. Its contents were seen
by no one at GM prior to publication.
It is therefore an independent under-
taking by the author, who bears sole
responsibility for its contents."
Turner did not respond to voicemail
and e-mail messages seeking informa-
tion about his sponsored GM history
project, his subsequent book or other
relevant topics.
Simon Reich, who compiled Ford's
Hitler-era documents, bristled at the
whole idea. "Ford decided to take a
very public, open and transparent
route he stated. "Any serious research-
er can go into the [Henry Ford]
archive, see the documents in paper
form, and have them copied. Compare
and contrast this with the fact that GM
conducted a very private study and
the,original hard-copy documentation
upon which the study was made has
never been made available, and today
cannot be copied without the GM legal
department's permission."
Between the unpublished GM internal
investigation, the restricted files at Yale
and the little-known insights offered
in Turner's book, the details of the
company's involvement with the Hitler
regime have remained below the radar.
Nonetheless, GM's impact in both
the United States and the Third Reich
was monumental.
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