I was looking through my bookshelves and picked out Trading with the Enemy published in 1983, updated 1995.

This massively researched book, based on trawling through documents obtained thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, has resulted in an exposure of those who see opportunity, not threats, during war. The more fierce and hideous the war, the more money is to be made. It is a sickening read for those of us who still hold dear to us the memory of those who fought for their country believing God was on their side ‘to rid the world of the Nazi scourge’.

All along, there were those behind the facade, rubbing their hands with glee that their corporations could maximise profits by trading with the enemy.

Charles Higham’s work can be found on the Internet with extracts from his book. He died in 2002 aged 81, but thankfully we can all read pieces from Trading with the Enemy: The Nazi-American Money Plot 1933 – 1949.

https://thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Car_Connection_TWE.html

Henry Ford:

admired Hitler from the beginning, when the future Fuhrer was a struggling and obscure fanatic. He shared with Hitler a fanatical hatred of Jews. He first announced his anti-Semitism in 1919, in the New York World, when he expressed a pure fascist philosophy. He said, “International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German-Jews, French-Jews, EnglishJews, American-Jews . . . the Jew is a threat.”

Ford produced a weekly newspaper which constantly denigrated the Jews:

The first anti-Semitic issue on May 22 carried the headline THE INTERNATIONAL JEW: THE WORLD S PROBLEM. The leading article opened with the words “There is a race, a part of humanity, which has never been received as a welcome part . . .” and continued in the same vein to the end. A frequent contributor was a fanatical White Russian, Boris Brasol, who boasted in one piece: ”I have done the Jews more injury than would have been done to them by ten pogroms.”

Brasol was successively an agent of the Czar and of the U.S. Army Intelligence; later he became a Nazi spy.

Ford’s book The International Jew was issued in 1927. A virulent anti-Semitic tract, it was still being widely distributed in Latin America and the Arab countries as late as 1945.

Ford is remembered by Americans in this way:

Table of Contents

Henry Ford: American Industrialist and Founder of Ford Motor Company

By 

Elysse Bell

Updated March 27, 2025

Reviewed by Margaret James

Fact checked by 

Vikki Velasquez

Who Was Henry Ford?

Henry Ford was an American inventor and business magnate and the founder of Ford Motor Co. He invented several vehicles, most famously the Model T automobile, and changed the auto industry forever by introducing the moving assembly line to car production.

His industrial innovations were so economically impactful that the term “Fordism” came to refer to the mass production and consumption that they enabled, which then more broadly characterized the pace and nature of the postwar era’s capitalist economy.

Ford died 2 years after the war. Before he died he was threatened with libel and so apologised for his anti-semitic rants.

https://www.investopedia.com/henry-ford-5225035

Higham tells us:

Edsel Ford had a great deal to do with the European companies. He was different in character from his father. He was a nervous, high-strung man who tried to work off his extreme tensions and guilts over inherited wealth in a furious addiction to tennis and other sports. Darkly handsome, with a whipcord physique, he was miserable at heart. He could not relate to his father, who despised him, and his inner distress caused him severe stomach ulcers that developed into gastric cancer by the early 1940s. Nevertheless, he and his father had one thing in common. True figures of The Fraternity, they believed in Business as Usual in time of war.

Edsel was on the board of American I.G. and General Aniline and Film throughout the 1930s. He and his father, following their meetings with Gerhardt Westrick at Dearborn in 1940, refused to build aircraft engines for England and instead built supplies of the 5-ton military trucks that were the backbone of German army transportation. They arranged to ship tires to Germany despite the shortages; 30 percent of the shipments went to Nazi-controlled territories abroad. German Ford employee publications included such editorial statements as, “At the beginning of this year we vowed to give our best and utmost for final victory, in unshakable faithfulness to our Fuehrer.” Invariably, Ford remembered Hitler’s birthday and sent him 50,000 Reichsmarks a year. His Ford chief in Germany was responsible for selling military documents to Hitler. Westrick’s partner Dr. Albert continued to work in Hitler’s cause when that chief came to the United States to continue his espionage. In 1941, Henry Ford delivered a bitter attack on the Jews to The Manchester Guardian (February 16, 1941) saying inter alia, that the United States should make England and Germany fight until they both collapsed and that after that there would be a coalition of the powers.

Ford replaced his son as a consultant with Charles Lindbergh, another person openly anti-semitic.

Lindbergh told a group of American Firsters:

There is only one danger in the world-that is the yellow danger. China and Japan are really bound together against the white race. There could only have been one efficient weapon against this alliance…. Germany…. the ideal setup would have been to have had Germany take over Poland and Russia, in collaboration with the British, as a bloc against the yellow people and Bolshevism. But instead, the British and the fools in Washington had to interfere. The British envied the Germans and wanted to rule the world forever. Britain is the real cause of all the trouble in the world today.

Edsel focused on Occupied France:

See Ford plant in Poissy:

https://histoire.ftm-cgt.fr/explorer/terrain/lutter/1944_ford_poissy/

Management of the Ford interests was in the hands of the impressively handsome and elegant Paris financier Maurice Dollfus, who had useful contacts with the Worms Bank* and the Bank for International Settlements. Although he had little knowledge of manufacturing processes, Dollfus supplied much of the financing for the new sixty-acre Ford automobile factory at Poissy, eleven miles from Paris in the Occupied Zone. Under Dollfus the Poissy plant began making airplane engines in 1940, supplying them to the German government. It also built trucks for the German army, as well as automobiles. Carl Krauch and Hermann Schmitz were in charge of the operation from their headquarters in Berlin along with Edsel Ford at Dearborn.

See Maurice Dollfus:

http://dvole.free.fr/matford/histoire.htm

See the Worm Bank:

The Banque Worms was a merchant bank founded by Hypolite Worms in 1928 as a division of Worms & Cie. The banking services division provided financing services to other branches of Worms & Cie, which were involved in ship building, shipping and the coal trade. During World War II (1939–45), Worms & Cie was placed under German supervision, and was subject to intense scrutiny after the war on suspicions of collaboration. The banking services division was spun off as the independent Banque Worms et Cie in 1964. The bank was nationalized in 1982 by the socialist government of François Mitterrand. The bank engaged in risky real estate investments, and lost most of its value. After being re-privatized, it was owned in turn by two insurance groups, then was acquired by Deutsche Bank. The bank was wound down in 2004.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banque_Worms

Ford was building trucks and armoured cars for Rommel’s campaign in Africa, at the Poissy plant, (see above).

Airplanes were also being built for German use, and the RAF bombed the Ford factory 4 times.

The Royal Air Force, apparently not briefed on the world connections of The Fraternity, had just bombed the Poissy plant. Ford wrote on May 15 that photographs of the plant on fire were published in our newspapers here but fortunately no reference was made to the Ford Motor Company. In other words, Edsel was relieved that it was not made clear to the American public that he was operating the plant for the Nazis.

On February 11, 1942, Dollfus wrote again-that the results of the year up to December 31, 1941, showed a net profit for Ford’s French branch of 58 million francs including payment for dealings with the Nazis.

And who were the Fraternity:

The Fraternity were ITT, General Motors, Ford, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Texaco, SKF and German corporations like I.G. Farben, Krupp and others. These corporations were so supportive of the Nazis that they built many of their weapons and supplied them with oil, while the American people suffered from oil rationing during World War 2. Individual capitalists belonging to The Fraternity were the Rockefellers, Fords, DuPonts, Morgans and the Bush family through Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker being on the board of Brown Brothers Harriman, which invested heavily in Nazi Germany.

Then Higham goes on to say:

One of the American subsidiaries of I.G. Farben called General Aniline and Film did extensive spying operations for the Nazis in the US and was very successful at it. General Aniline itself produced the khaki and blue dyes for army, air force and navy uniforms, giving its salesmen access to many US military bases. In addition, General Aniline owned Agfa and Ansco films and Ozalid, a blueprint corporation. Its salesmen persuaded the US military to use their film and have it developed in their laboratories. Consequently, photos of secret US military installations went straight into Nazi hands, as did the blueprints of American military plans through the Ozalid company.

Rockefeller’s Standard Oil of New Jersey was so flagrant in violating the Trading with the Enemy Act that it was called before two Senate committees, the Truman Committee and the Bone Committee. Standard Oil of New Jersey was in partnership with I.G. Farben, the company which used slave labor at Auschwitz, and supplied the Germans with synthetic rubber and tetraethyl lead for aviation gasoline. Standard Oil was also guilty of using German crews on its tankers and refueling Nazi submarines at Teneriffe in the Canary Islands, as well as shipping oil to Nazi Germany through Spain and Switzerland. Nothing came of these Senate hearings as Standard Oil essentially blackmailed the US government by stating that they could stop US oil shipments in a time of war.

The German and American capitalists of The Fraternity liked fascism, but they didn’t like Hitler after they discovered the deranged nature of his mind. What they wanted was a united front of fascist countries aligned against the common foe, the Soviet Union. In other words, they would have liked to depose President Roosevelt and convert the US to a fascist power and likewise bring fascism to England. The DuPonts and Morgans actually approached Major General Smedley Butler through an intermediary to determine if a military coup could be organized to oust Roosevelt. Major General Butler was deeply offended and reported the plot to Roosevelt. Irenee du Pont was very fascistic and organized both the American Liberty League and the Black Legion. The American Liberty League taught hatred of blacks, Jews, Roosevelt and communism. The Black Legion was a group of antiunion thugs, who would go through DuPont’s General Motors plants and terrorize workers and disrupt union organizing. The Fords and DuPonts also made use of the expertise of another member of The Fraternity, Charles Bedaux. He was a so-called efficiency expert, whose thoughts revolved around extracting the maximum amount of labor out of a worker in the minimum amount of time. This resulted in speedups on the assembly lines of Ford and General Motors and more accidents among workers.

https://mob.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/world/2003/10/278519.html

Included in the following extract are some details of The Fraternity corporations and some of their activities when assisting the Nazi war machine:

UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM. Britain, standing alone against the Nazis, armed and fueled by Standard Oil (Exxon-Mobil), General Motors, Texaco, Dupont, Alcoa, Ford, IT&T and all the rest, appeals to Franklin Roosevelt for armaments. In return, Winston Churchill offers the secrets to some of the most important scientific developments of the twentieth century including radar, sonar, antibiotics, the jet engine and much of the original research on atomic power and the atomic bomb.

When the Lend-Lease Bill is introduced in Congress, it encounters considerable opposition. Outside Congress, bootlegger and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K., Joseph Kennedy, and Third Reich award recipient Charles Lindbergh are among the most vocal opponents of supplying arms to Britain. Ultimately, the U.S. will transfer some $21 billion worth of war materials to Britain. In addition to giving the U.S. the scientific secrets, which had incalculable value, Britain will repay the entire cost of the arms over the following sixty five years, making the final payment in 2006.

1941-45: UNITED STATES. Using research provided by Britain and a host of European physicists, the U.S. launches the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. Interestingly, one of the major corporate contributors to the Manhattan Project is none other than Nazi financier, Jew hater and eugenics proponent Irenee Dupont’s Dupont Chemical. Dupont’s partner in crime, IG Farben, is meanwhile busily at work in Germany working on the Nazi atomic bomb.

1941: UNITED STATES. Even after they have converted their military vehicle plant in Russelsheim, Germany to engine production for Nazi bombers, General Motors executives tell dissenting shareholders in the U.S. that it is impossible to convert GM assembly lines in the U.S. in order to manufacture airplane engines for the U.S. and Britain.

1941: UNITED STATES. Twenty four members of the United States Congress are discovered to have sold their free Congressional mailing privileges to the Nazi-front America First group financed by Vick Chemical Company owner H. Smith Richardson and headed by the chairman of Sears Roebuck, General Robert E. Wood.

Millions of pieces of Nazi propaganda are mailed at the taxpayers’ expense. Most notable among the Nazi stooges is Republican Senator Burton K. Wheeler, long a prominent figure in disseminating Nazi propaganda in the U.S. It is also discovered that Wheeler has acted as a conduit for top secret U.S. defense plans.

1941: NICARAGUA. The U.S. Legation in Managua reports that the Rockefellers’ Standard Oil subsidaries are distributing Epoca, a pro-Nazi propaganda publication, in Nicaragua. The U.S. Consulate investigates and finds that Standard is, in fact, distributing pro-Nazi propaganda worldwide.

1941: UNITED STATES. Orson Welles creates the movie “Citizen Kane”, transparently based on the life and manipulations of media mogul, propagandist, warmonger and Nazi mouthpiece William Randolph Hearst. Hearst uses the full weight of his media empire in an attempt to make the movie disappear and even enlists transvestite blackmailer cum FBI head J. Edgar Hoover who institutes an FBI investigation which obediently labels Welles a “threat to the nation’s internal security”.

1941: JAPAN. On July 26, the U.S. freezes all Japanese assets in the U.S. On July 28, all Japanese assets in the Dutch East Indies are frozen and oil deals cancelled. The moves bring 75% of Japan’s foreign trade to a standstill and cut off ninety percent of its oil supply leaving the Japanese with little choice but to go to war with the U.S.

1941: UNITED STATES. Third Reich award recipient Charles Lindbergh tells an audience of 7,500 in Des Moines, Iowa, that Jews are seeking to force America into the war.

From: 2008
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR HYPOCRISY
http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com

America has led the world in car production, and the present administration wants that greatness to be reborn. The American Dream grew out of this history.

Each day we see rhetoric to restore manufacturing to its past greatness. Just exactly what are we seeing restored?

The meaning of ‘anti semitic’ has changed to mean, ‘don’t criticise the right wing factions in Israel’.

As Palestinians lose their land, international companies make profits from their loss. Today, Chris Hedges has pointed out (on his Substack) there is a Report out exposing a list of such opportunists.

War is a business. So is genocide. The latest report submitted by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, lists 48 corporations and institutions, including Palantir Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, International Business Machine Corporation (IBM), Caterpillar Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Massachusetts Institue of Technology (MIT), along with banks and financial firms such as Blackrock, insurers, real estate firms and charities, which in violation of international law are making billions from the occupation and the genocide of Palestinians.

The report, which includes a database of over 1,000 corporate entities that collaborate with Israel, demands these firms and institutions sever ties with Israel or be held accountable for complicity in war crimes. It describes “Israel’s “forever-occupation” as “the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers and Big Tech – providing significant supply and demand, little oversight, and zero accountability – while investors and private and public institutions profit freely.”

Corporates still unite to change the world order to their liking. Much of their language and actions are cruel, sadistic and deliberately threatening. They seem to still utilise the ‘othering’ of those who are poor, non white, and ‘unfit’ who are destined to be ‘no longer a burden to the economy’, thanks to their actions.

Perhaps we can go to a famous piece of literary work to finish this blog:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-moving-finger-writes.html