Money and power was much more appealing to some American companies during the Holocaust rather than boycotting the Nazi regime. Companies such as IBM and Ford Motor Company helped fuel Hitler’s reign of terror when they could have done something to stop it. How much could Hitler have done without the help of these companies? Why did these companies choose to continue to aid the Nazis in the tragedies of the holocaust? The prospect of big business opportunities within the Nazi regime led large American companies to pursue the possibility of expanding, looking past how they really affected the outcome of an entire race of people.
Background
American companies like IBM and Ford had a good relationship with Germany in the early 1930’s. These companies are both accused of helping the Nazis throughout the Holocaust. IBM made a machine called the Hollerith machine. This machine was used by the Germans to track and identify Jews during the Holocaust. This technology was only made by IBM at this time and Hitler knew that he could use their help with his master plan. Most European countries used this machine to take their censuses (Eisenstadt). The Hollerith machines were manufactured by DEHOMAG or German Hollerith Machine Company. This company was a subsidiary of the American company IBM since 1922 (Eisenstadt). Henry Ford had a part in the American companies who helped egg on the Holocaust as well (Eisenstadt). Ford motor company also had a German subsidiary. The company manufactured military vehicles and weapons of war for the Nazis leading up to the war. Was fattening the CEO’s pockets the reason why an American company would be making war materials for an enemy company? The greed factors in greatly and shows how much these American c...
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...he spirits of those murdered will live on forever.
Works Cited
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The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the American Slavery and the Holocaust, in terms of which one was more malevolent than the other. Research indicates that “the “competition” between African-American and Jews has served to trivialize the malevolence which both has suffered” (Newton, 1999). According to L. Thomas “A separate issue that contributes to the tension between blacks and Jews refer to to the role that Jews played in the American Slave trade.”
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It is often said that nothing brings people together like a common enemy, and the Nazi’s knew this. The Jew and the communist would become this collective punching bag. The Nazi’s were convinced of an international conspiracy to “exterminate— that is, to kill— all the German people.” The Jews were
Turner argues that the representatives of big business did not support Hitler financially on his rise to power because the fear of a Nazi socialist government. Business representatives used their money and political power to keep a government free of Marxism. They realized their businesses would not thrive when politics totally controlled the economy. Turner says that big business' role in politics where to preserve a nonsocialist government by forming nonsocialist parties, funding nationalist candidates, and by supporting the conservative wing of the Nazi party.
Vanden Heuvel, William J. “The United States and Its Leaders Were Not to Blame for the Holocaust.” World War II. Don Nardo. Michigan: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Print.
Henry Ford, founder of Ford motor company, is most well known as an icon of American manufacturing and ingenuity. A lesser known aspect of Ford’s history is his fascist leanings and blatant anti-Semitism. Ford ruled over Dearborn Michigan as a de facto dictator, employing fascist tactics to control his workforce. His anti-Semitic writings influenced Adolf Hitler, who expressed admiration for the famed automobile industrialist. Ford’s company was instrumental in supplying the German military with vehicles during World War II even as they refused to assist the allies. Ford’s racist and corporatist views made him an idol of the National Socialists.
Synopsis – Hitler’s Willing Executioners is a work that may change our understanding of the Holocaust and of Germany during the Nazi period. Daniel Goldhagen has revisited a question that history has come to treat as settled, and his researches have led him to the inescapable conclusion that none of the established answers holds true. Drawing on materials either unexplored or neglected by previous scholars, Goldhagen presents new evidence to show that many beliefs about the killers are fallacies. They were not primarily SS men or Nazi Party members, but perfectly ordinary Germans from all walks of life, men who brutalized and murdered Jews both willingly and zealously. “They acted as they did because of a widespread, profound, unquestioned, and virulent anti-Semitism that led them to regard the Jews as a demonic enemy whose extermination was not only necessary but also just.”1 The author proposes to show that the phenomenon of German anti-Semitism was already deep-rooted and pervasive in German society before Hitler came to power, and that there was a widely shared view that the Jews ought to be eliminated in some way from German society. When Hitler chose mass extermination as the only final solution, he was easily able to enlist vast numbers of Germans to carry it out.
Many religious conflicts are built from bigotry; however, only few will forever have an imprint on the world’s history. While some may leave a smear on the world’s past, some – like the homicide of Semitic people – may leave a scar. The Holocaust, closely tied to World War II, was a devastating and systematic persecution of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime and allies. Hitler, an anti-Semitic leader of the Nazis, believed that the Jewish race made the Aryan race impure. The Nazis did all in their power to annihilate the followers of Judaism, while the Jews attempted to rebel, rioted against the government, and united as one. Furthermore, the genocide had many social science factors that caused the opposition between the Jews and Nazis. Both the German economy and the Nuremberg Laws stimulated the Holocaust; nevertheless, a majority of the Nazis’ and Hitler’s actions towards Jews were because of the victims’ ethnicity.
Vanden Heuvel, William J. "America, FDR, And The Holocaust." Society 34.6 (1997): 54. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
The causes and atrocities of an event like the Holocaust further the existence of the dark side of human nature. Before the Holocaust occurred, certain events foreshadowed danger for the Jewish community. For example, Germany suffered greatly after losing World War I. After the war ended and the stock market crashed at the end of the twenties, many countries were left in economic and political ruin, especially Germany. Some Germans blamed the Jewish population for the country’s loss because they were not faithful to Germany. Hitler represented the Nazi Party and became Chancellor of Germany by advocating this popular belief (“Adolf H...
What possible reason can someone have for supporting or participating in the genocide and murder of millions of innocent people? During the period of the holocaust, the German peoples participation or indifference’s towards state sponsored genocide and murder could have been an effect of racism, national pride, and peer pressure.
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“The United States and the Holocaust.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
The Volkswagen Company born out of the Third Reich and Hitler’s demands turned out to be much more than a little 1930’s German people’s car, but rather a world leading car company. The company, born out of the flames of war, withstood the test of time to become what it is today. “No present-day company is more a product of military might than Volkswagen.”(Lee, 2006, p.1)
This Research paper reports on the ethics of BMW through its history starting from 1916 to present time of 2013. It shows the progression of BMW’s ethical dilemmas of having prisoners of war and concentration camp workers, allegation of bribery, to its racial discrimination. And the changes that where implemented that led them to be on Ethisphere Institute's top 100 list of the World's Most Ethical Companies for 2009. Such changes such as new management, changing conduct codes, improving environmental awareness, and ethics programs to insure no reoccurring incidents.