photograph_20180603-071133

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photograph
A link between the Ford family and Nazi Germany
History
Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Nazi officials, 1938

One of America's greatest inventors is receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. The Grand Cross of the German Eagle is the highest award a foreigner could receive from Germany in the Third Reich, and Henry Ford was the first American recipient of this order, an honor created in 1937 by Adolf Hitler.

On the right is Karl Kapp, German consul in Cleveland, and on the left Fritz Heller, German consular representative in Detroit.

It is not commonly known to many people that Ford himself was staunchly anti-Semitic, but this picture says it all: a man is receiving an award from a country that is hell bent on exterminating a group of people based on the perception of a conspiracy.

A man who says "Those who have known me for many years realize that anything that breeds hate is repulsive to me" but then preaches hate in his own writings (see "The International Jew, the World’s Foremost Problem" published by Theodor Fritsch).
Dearborn, Michigan
1938
Story by Alejandro Daniel
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/henry-ford-grand-cross-1938/
This item is shared by Philip M Shearer with the Community and the World.
Created on 2018-02-04 at 00:52 and last updated on 2018-08-20 at 05:58.