bistro777
Donuts-Is There Anything They Can't Do?
Premium
join:2002-02-07
Englewood, CO
| Re: German History Ford is not a party to the 10 billion Deutschmark “German Fund.”
There were three classes of forced labor in Nazi Germany: (1) Auslandishce Ziviarbeiter – foreigners in response to advertisements placed in occupied countries - came freely, then many forced to stay; (1) Kriegsgefangene – POWs, mostly Poles and Russians; (3) Konzentration Haftlinge – concentration camp inmates. German industry bid on pools of labor – much like bidding on slaves here in the US – to satiate the call for more pre-war and then more wartime production. The Nazis had three methods of extermination: gassing, shooting and slave labor, known then as "Vernichtung durch Arbeit" literally "extermination through labor." (That gives a stark and literal meaning to the phrase "being worked to death", doesn't it?)
It has been reported, unlike most American-owned property in Nazi Germany, the Ford Werke plant near Cologne was never confiscated by the Nazi regime, and it continued to be owned by Ford Motor Company throughout the war. Ford Werke began utilizing French prisoners of war as forced laborers, and continued utilizing thousands of forced laborers throughout the war in violation of Article 52 of the Hague Convention and the provisions of the Geneva Convention Governing Prisoners of War.
Ford Werke became an aggressive (and successful) bidder for forced laborers. More than 50% of the workers at Ford Werke were unpaid, forced laborers - as well as many concentration camp inmates from Buchenwald. In 1938, Ford ceased consumer-oriented manufacturing and began making tracked vehicles for the transport of German troops and other military equipment. Military historians estimate that approximately 60% of the three-ton tracked vehicles produced for the German army were manufactured by Ford Werke.
If Ford Werke was from 1933-1945 a German-only company, then I guess all’s fair in love and war. But to be primarily owned/controlled by Ford USA during that time?!?
The dslr/bbr Equal Time ACt of 2002: Ford’s response when the fund was announced - - - - - Ford Motor Co. said in a statement that it had "lost all contact with and control over the plant during the war years, had no role in employing foreign labor and did not benefit from wartime operations." Its German plant, Ford Werke in Cologne, was confiscated by the Nazis, the statement said. Ford said its participation in the reparations agreement led by the U.S. and German governments to provide relief for victims was "inappropriate" because "Ford did not do business in Germany during the war." - - - Well, I can only say there are many scholars, researchers and historians who disagree…
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