Unford of the Day

... maybe even of all time, is Henry Ford.

On this photo shot in 1938 he receives the 'Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches', the highest medal that Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. Due to his extremly anti-Semitic attitude he managed to do business with Nazi-Germany when other US-companies where already blamed for being 'ungerman' and therefore forced to shut down their branches in Germany.

In 1918 Ford's closest aide and private secretary Ernest G. Liebold purchased an obscure weekly newspaper called 'The Dearborn Independent'. It ran for eight years during which Ford published the 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion', that were discredited as a forgery invented by the Okhrana, the secret police in tsarist Russia.

In 1920 he published a book called 'The International Jew - The World's Foremost Problem'. Hitler was a great admirer of Henry Ford and his writings. Several sections of 'Mein Kampf' were based on Ford's writings.

Amongst other jewish organisations the Anti Defamation League (ADL) made great efforts to mobilize prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose Ford's message. A boycott against Ford products by Jews and liberal Christians showed an impact. Ford had to close the 'Dearborn Independent' after a trial held in San Francisco in 1927.

Though he recanted his views in a public letter to the ADL, it is reported that he remained an anti-Semite until the end.