#Volkswagen and IBM Nazi collaboration

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 1082: The Holocaust and German Record-Keeping

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What about Holocaust denial and German recordkeeping? Rick Rosner: Let’s briefly talk about it. I’ll say the Nazis kept very gooI’llcords. So, when people talk about six million Jews being murdered by the Nazis, 200,000 disabled people being murdered, and another five million or so people considered undesirable by the regime, including Romani (what we might call gypsies),…

[little-robin-h00d]

@bubblyevilconjurer thank you so much for wording it all so succinctly! this is exactly what's wrong, and exactly why we're unfortunately repeating history. This is why we're supposed to be TAUGHT history- but what we Americans were taught in school is not the full reality of things, just cherrypicked information. Nazis weren't all scary evil murderers.

Nazis were the people who feared that immigrants were stealing jobs and resources.

Nazis were the people who voted for someone because they agreed with some things they said and the others weren't a dealbreaker.

Nazis were the people worried about "the economy" more than the lives of the marginalized.

Nazis were the corporations who saw potential profit in the new leadership, and DID benefit greatly- so much that they're well-known brands even to this day. As far as I know, they didn't face consequences, and most don't even know that they collaborated with Hitler himself. (Volkswagen, Coca-cola, Ford Motor Company, IBM, General Motors, Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Kodak, Universal Studios, Chase National Bank, Hugo Boss, MGM, General Electric, Dow Chemical and Shell being some of the notable ones.) The slave labor proved fruitful for the capitalists- especially since FDR's New Deal and the labor movement in the US wasn't favorable for them. They directly profited from the Holocaust, and this likely contributed to their longevity, becoming industry titans and crushing competition.

Nazis were the people who sat at the table with the other Nazis, because they were "nice people", said the right things, were polite and "civil". Just wanting a "debate".

Nazis were the people that were just doing their jobs, "just following orders"

What a fun and cute photo, right? These people worked at Auschwitz, the most notorious concentration camp of the Nazi regime. They're normal people, smiling and laughing- one even playing the accordion. They were just doing their jobs, and by no means saw themselves as monsters.

Nazis have families, friends, loved ones they go home to at the end of the day. They appreciate art and music- so long as it's acceptable to their "traditional values".

Nazis are people who think the existence of minorities in media is "political".

Nazis are the people who say "think of the children!"

Nazis are the people who ban- and burn -books.

Nazis are the people who discard the disabled and the elderly, some of the most vulnerable in our society. The diagnosis of "Aspergers" was made by Hans Asperger, a Nazi scientist, who decided which autistic children would live- and which would die. It was only finally removed from the DSM in 2013. Shockingly recent. And I believe a certain CDC director said Covid was nothing to worry about because it would only get rid of the disabled and the elderly..? Something like that.

All of this, to many, has become shockingly familiar.

And not all Nazis faced punishment, no. Only the ones who were directly involved did, for the most part. Many of the "ordinary" Nazis, who supported the regime, went on to live their lives after the war ended- starting families, having kids, and passing their horrid beliefs on behind closed doors.

They've played the long game, boiled the frog, slowly shifted the rhetoric over the past decades further and further to the right, until today we now have fascists embedded in politics once more- except today, it's the United States is on the verge of becoming Nazi Germany.

I wish I knew what to do, how to stop this. I wish there was some sort of comfort I could give to those of us who have the most to lose, some reassurance that It Won't Happen Here... but that would be blind naivete- shoving our heads in the sand, as many have done. My own mother didn't believe me about what was coming, and still doesn't- how am I supposed to convince a stranger? I've seen the signs ever since 2016, and now we're at the brink. We are rapidly approaching a breaking point, as Germany once did, almost a century ago. I do not know if we will make it, but we certainly won't if we keep going on like this. Our current political leaders, save for a handful, have failed us. Not only failed us, but have contributed to where we are now- whether it be from active contribution, compliance with the status quo, or simply inaction.

In the end, I'm one of the most vulnerable: a multiply disabled, multiply queer person, who can't even take care of myself. People like me would've been some of the first to be killed, well before the point of gas chambers. My quality of life would have been deemed not worth the effort- even now, if I catch covid and have to go to the ICU, a doctor is likely to put me under a Do Not Resuscitate order without my consent and against my will. And that's if they just discriminate against me based on my disabilities- not even counting the fact that I have an X for gender on my ID.

Sorry to have ranted for so long, and thank you if you've read this far. If you're vulnerable, if you're afraid, if you don't know what to do, or are frustrated at your inability to do anything... just know you're not alone. I'm with you, and I refuse to go quietly into the night.

Although I may not have much, I still have my voice.

Sadly relevant.

[trans-corvo]

12 Companies Still Around Today that Profited Directly Off the Holocaust

Associated Press - The only western news agency to be allowed to operate within Nazi Germany in the latter half of the 30s. The AP was allowed this access on the condition they not publish anything “calculated to weaken the strength of the Reich abroad or at home.”In other words, the AP supplied American newspapers with approved Nazi propaganda. Nazi propagandists were also granted access to AP photo archives, photos from which were used in anti-Semitic propaganda.

Audi (then called Auto Union) - Used slave labour from the Leitmeritz concentration camp to manufacture military vehicles. By the company's own admission, are "morally responsible" for the deaths that took place at the camp. Audi exploited 3,700 prisoners at Leitmeritz, and another 16,500 labourers in Saxony. One of firm's founder and it's chairman, Dr Richard Bruhn, was a Nazi  and was allowed to reform Auto Union after the war.

Baccarat - Supported the Vichy regime and produced commemorative items honouring the Nazis and their collaborators. Many Nazis and Nazi collaborators remained in charge of the company until the early 90s, including Rene Bousquet (who was responsible for the deportation of tens of thousands of french Jews to concentration camps during the war.)

Bayer - The manufacturers of Aspirin. Their parent company operated factories within several concentration camps, and used the prisoners as slave labour, including 30,000 prisoners at Auschwitz. Furthermore, the company conducted medical experiments on the prisoners at these camps. One of the men responsible for the construction of the factories and experiments, Fritz ter Meer, was indicted for crimes against humanity, but served only three years of his sentence. He was then elected to Bayer's advisory board which he served on until 1964. The Bayer Science & Education Foundation was originally set up in his name.

BMW - Used slave labour in concentration camps (mainly Dachau) to manufacture vehicles. Nazi Party members Herbert and Harald Quandt made a large investment in the company using funds stolen from Jewish Germans.

Chase National Bank - Sold Nazi war bonds to German Americans, allowing them to finance the regime. When FDR ordered German assets in America be frozen, Chase collaborated with the Nazis to unfreeze the accounts and allow the funds to be transferred to Germany. In France, Chase enforced restrictions against Jewish property and even froze the accounts of Jews, effectively helping the Nazis plunder the wealth of French Jews.

IBM (German subsidiary Dehomag) - Concentration camps used IBM's punched card technology for parts of the camp's operations and for record keeping. IBM claims that the subsidiary had no choice and was taken over by the Nazis, but evidence suggests the company's New York headquarters directly controlled the subsidiaries that aided the Holocaust, even traveling to Berlin to deal with the Nazis. Thomas J. Watson, the CEO of IBM (and the namesake of the supercomputer) personally approved the company’s collaboration with the Nazis.

Ford - Manufactured vehicles for the Nazis using concentration camp prisoners as slave labour. Ford himself was an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist who blamed WWI on a Jewish plot, and worked to keep America out of WWII. Like many others, the company claimed it lost control of it's German subsidiary to the Nazis; however, evidence suggests that it helped the Nazi government with the full endorsement of Ford's American Headquarters.

Hugo Boss - Famously designed and supplied the Nazi's uniforms - uniforms which were created through the slave labour of concentration camp prisoners.

Mercedes-Benz (and its then-owner Daimler-Benz) - Almost half of its 60,000 'employees' during the war were POWs and concentration camp prisoners.

Porsche - Relied on the labour of concentration camp prisoners.

Volkswagen - Was founded in Berlin in 1937 by the German Labour Front (the Nazi organization that replaced labour unions). Made civilian vehicles, military vehicles, and munitions using forced labour, Soviet POWs, and concentration camp prisoners. The Volkswagen plant housed four concentration camps and eight forced-labour camps.

[antifainternational]

Is it true that certain companies were founded in Nazi germany (Cola company, BMW, etc)?

Yes.  Yes, companies did form in Germany during the period of nazi rule there (1933-1945) and many of those companies remain going concerns.  Two examples come to mind: -Fanta was starting by the German subsidiary of Coca-Cola to be able to continue making & selling soda after the embargo shut off their access to necessary ingredients from the U.S.  -Volkswagen was founded by a nazi-controlled labour union in 1937 after a decree by Hitler that Germany began manufacturing automobiles.  Other companies outside of nazi Germany were complicit in the nazis’ ambitions for genocide and world domination:   -IBM provided the technology that allowed the Holocaust’s bureaucracy to function for example.  -Both General Motors and Ford have been accused of actively assisting the nazi war effort, for another (the latter of which would be no surprise to anyone who knew about Henry Ford’s admiration for Hitler).  Here’s Henry Ford in 1938, receiving the German Grand Cross of the Eagle (the highest honour under nazi Germany; one created by Hitler himself):

We could go on and on about this topic.  Hugo Boss, Coco Chanel, BMW, Kodak, Siemens SG, Bayer - the list goes on and on.  Basically, any company doing business in Germany between 1933-1945 had to do so in collaboration with the nazis; many of them profited directly from the nazi regime’s use of slave labour and ability to grant monopolies to its friends (which of course flies in the face of any claims that the nazis were actually socialists).