Target Ford ( anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic Foundation )

"In the wake of Durban, Black noted, Jewish organizational leaders singled out one Palestinian NGO--the Palestinian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW)--for much of the anti-Israel agitation at the conference..."

It's not a surprise. Old man Henry Ford the first, himself, was a hate monger. His newspaper The Dearborn Independent at one time published blatant antisemitic articles. Ford thought Hitler was a great guy, until he realized how much money he could make building bombers that could hit Germany.

FUNDERS VIEW ALL

RESOURCES

FORD FOUNDATION

Printer Friendly Page

The Biggest Funder of the Left
By William Hawkins
July 23, 2003

The Open Borders Lobby and the Nation's Security After 9/11
By William Hawkins and Erin Anderson (Foreword by David Horowitz)
January 21, 2004

The Ford Foundation's International Agenda
By Martin Wooster
June 2004

This Is the Legal Mainstream?
By Heather MacDonald
Winter 2006

Ford Takes Steps to Reverse Funding for Anti-Israel Groups
By Edwin Black
December 18, 2003

Ford Announces New Funding Guidelines as it Admits to Aiding Anti-Israel Groups
By Edwin Black
November 18, 2003

Senate Finance Committee to Probe Ford's Link with Anti-Israel Hate Groups
By Edwin Black
November 14, 2003

Pressure Builds on Ford Foundation to Stop Supporting Anti-Israel Groups
By Joe Berkofsky
November 4, 2003

Jewish Group Considers Legal Action Following Revelations about Ford Funding
By Edwin Black
October 15, 2003

Funding Hate [Part 1]
By Edwin Black
October 15, 2003

Funding Hate [Part 2]
By Edwin Black
October 15, 2003

Funding Hate [Part 3]
By Edwin Black
October 15, 2003

Funding Hate [Part 4]
By Edwin Black
October 15, 2003

Multicultural Mafia
By Charles Sykes and K.L. Billingsley
October 1992

Ford Funds the Palestinian Left
By Lee Kaplan
February 9, 2004

"Charitable" Foundations: ATMs for the Left
By Ben Johnson
March 2, 2004

The Plot to Shush Rush and O'Reilly
By Brian C. Anderson
Winter 2006

How Ford Funds the Left
By William Bacon
May 15, 2003

Ford Has a Better Idea: One Nation Under Allah
By Alyssa A. Lappen
December 30, 2003

Funding Hate
By Edwin Black
October 20, 2003

Anti-Israel Activists at Durban Were Funded by Ford Foundation
By Edwin Black
October 16, 2003

Fifth Column Financier
By William Bacon
May 7, 2003

The Ford Foundation: Funding International Terror?
By Steven Bernstein
November 12, 2003

Ford: Sugar Daddy of the Greens
By John Perazzo
January 19, 2004

How the Ford Foundation Created Women's Studies
By Kimberly Schuld
February 20, 2004

How the Ford Foundation Created Multiculturalism
By Charles Sykes and K. L. Billingsley
January 9, 2004

Belittling Jesus for Grant Money
By Mike Adams
June 27, 2005

Letter to President of Ford Foundation on the Academic Boycott and post-Durban Guidelines
By NGO Monitor
January 27, 2006

Michigan Attorney General Calls for Investigation of Ford Foundation Spending on Political Campaigns
By NGO Monitor
April 2006

Ford Foundation Will Pay for Parley Of Anti-Israel Scholars at Lake Como [AAUP Boycott Conference]
By Alec Magnet
February 7, 2006

Delay Sought Of Parley Seen As Anti-Israel [AAUP Boycott Conference]
By Alec Magnet - Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 8, 2006

Making an Impact: NGO Monitor Crucial in AAUP Decision to Postpone Ford Foundation Sponsored Conference
By NGO Monitor
February 26, 2006

Buying Open Borders
By The Social Contract
Summer 2000

The Ford Foundation's NGO-Related Middle East Activities
By Danielle Hunter
July 15, 2003

Review of Congressional Investigation Against Ford Foundation
By NGO Monitor
December 5, 2003

Ford Foundation Update: Ford Money Still Being Used for Anti-Israel Activities
By NGO Monitor
May 15, 2004

Review of Congressional Investigation Against Ford Foundation
By NGO Monitor
December 5, 2003

Ford - NIF Partnership: NGO Monitor Analysis
By NGO Monitor
October 23, 2003

Cracks in the Foundation?
By New Jersey Jewish News
2003

Ford Foundation NGO Funding Update - Implementation of Post-Durban Guidelines is Slow and Lacks Transparency
By NGO Monitor
April 28, 2005

Ford NGO Funding Update: Al-Dameer
By NGO Monitor
December 20, 2004

Clinical, Cynical: You'll Never Believe What Left-wing Law Profs Consider "Mainstream"
By Heather MacDonald
January 11, 2006

320 East 43rd Street
New York, NY
10017

Phone :212-573-5000
Email :office-communications@fordfound.org
URL :http://www.fordfound.org/

Assets: $10,685,961,044 (2004)
Grants Awarded: $522,872,210 (2004)

The Ford Foundation was originally funded by Ford Motor Company stock from the estates of Henry and (his son) Edsel Ford in 1936. While there are hundreds of exceptionally wealthy foundations that finance leftist groups and causes, Ford leads the way in this regard. Its level of grant awarding is approximately fifteen times the amount of the three largest conservative foundations combined.

Henry Ford II was the son of Edsel and grandson of Henry Ford, and the head of the Ford Motor Company in the postwar era. When he resigned from the Ford Foundation's board of trustees in 1977, he made a statement expressing his profound disgust with the Foundation's drift to the political left. "In effect," he wrote in his resignation letter, "the Foundation is a creature of capitalism, a statement that, I'm sure, would be shocking to many professional staff people in the field of philanthropy. It is hard to discern recognition of this fact in anything the Foundation does. It is even more difficult to find an understanding of this in many of the institutions, particularly the universities, that are the beneficiaries of the Foundation's grant programs." He lamented that Ford was rejecting the very economic system whose abundance made its existence, as well as that of all other philanthropic foundations, possible. Since that time, Ford grants have been directed even more generously towards the anti-capitalist, anti-business enterprises of the political left.

The Ford Foundation derives its income solely from investments in international securities and does not accept contributions from any other source. As of September 2004, the Foundation had assets valued at more than $10 billion and a grant budget of over $500 million per year. An examination of the list of Ford Foundation grant recipients reveals a great deal about the Foundation's values and objectives.

Soon after the 9/11 attacks, for example, the Ford Foundation gave $150,000 to the pro-Castro Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) - a grant formally designated "for racial justice litigation, advocacy, and educational outreach activities related to the detention and racial profiling of Arab Americans and Muslims following the World Trade Center attack." In March 2002, CCR president Michael Ratner placed the blame for anti-American terrorism squarely on the shoulders of the United States. "If the U.S. government truly wants its people to be safer and wants terrorist threats to diminish," he said, "it must make fundamental changes in its foreign policies . . . particularly its unqualified support for Israel, and its embargo of Iraq, its bombing of Afghanistan, and its actions in Saudi Arabia. [These] continue to anger people throughout the region, and to fertilize the ground where terrorists of the future will take root."

Such sentiments are consistent with those of Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford, who, in the wake of 9/11, exhorted Americans to "explore the issues behind the headlines and broaden [their] understanding about the countries from which the attacks came." Characterizing the deadly hijackings as a wake-up call designed to make Americans see the responsibility they themselves bore for the horrors of that day, Berresford said, "For many living and working near ground zero, the 9/11 attacks had the same effect as any terrible shock. They forced us to think more deeply about what we do, how we live our lives, and whether we can do better." Given its ideological compatibility with the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Ford Foundation also gave CCR $250,000 in 2000, and another $75,000 in 2004.

In 2002 the Ford Foundation gave a $100,000 grant to the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) "as core support for activities to ensure the human rights of non-citizens detained in the United States in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001." The NLG, which originated as a Soviet front group, stands in the vanguard of the Open Borders movement and is one of the chief organizations championing the rights of Taliban soldiers held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Also in 2002, Ford gave a $300,000 grant to Fenton Communications "to promote informed voices in response to the September 11th attacks, with an emphasis on the protection of civil liberties and prevention of discrimination." These "informed voices" belonged to members of the leftist anti-war group September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, whose coordinator, David Fenton (the head of Fenton Communications and a longtime backer of anti-American causes), handled its media campaign. With the help of Ford's philanthropy, this group has taken its message across the United States and around the world; it is a message that blames American policies for having spawned Islamist terrorism and hostilities in Iraq. Peaceful Tomorrows representatives have spoken at universities, participated in major antiwar marches, and taken to the airwaves to make their case against the Bush administration.

Another noteworthy hallmark of the Ford Foundation's grant philosophy is its pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel bent. For instance, Ford was a major funder of the 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa. The conference, which concluded just two days before the 9/11 attacks, and which the United States boycotted in protest, was largely a forum for anti-Semitic and anti-American rhetoric, verbal and physical harassment of Jewish delegates, tirades against the United States and Israel, and declarations equating Zionism with racism.

Ford has also funded the Palestinian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, which maintains that Israel is a "racist, apartheid state." Other recent Ford grants include: $350,000 (from 2001-2003) to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, which disrupts Israeli Defense Force (IDF) anti-terror activities and is associated with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a radical anti-American and anti-Israel group that similarly disrupts IDF missions and gives material support to Palestinian suicide bombers; $135,000 (in 2001-2002) to the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute, which advocates the boycotting of Israeli goods; $200,000 (in 2001) to Ittijah, a Haifa-based NGO which, at the aforementioned Durban Conference, played a prominent role in denouncing "Israeli-state racism towards Palestinian citizens" and "the apartheid [which] the State [of Israel] practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip"; $50,000 (in 2000) to LAW, a Jerusalem-based NGO that depicts Israel as an oppressive nation that inflicts human rights violations, "apartheid," "war crimes," and "crimes against humanity" on its Palestinian minority; $550,000 (from 2000-2002) to MIFTAH, a Jerusalem-based NGO whose priorities are to undermine Israel and defend the Palestinian Authority; $680,000 (in 2001-2002) to the New Israel Fund, a Washington-based group that funds numerous organizations which regularly make anti-Semitic comments and false, highly politicized charges against Israel; and $700,000 (from 2000-2002) to the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization Network (PNGO), consisting of more than 90 Palestinian NGOs. It should be noted that shortly after 9/11, President Bush signed an order prohibiting tax-exempt American organizations (such as the Ford Foundation) from providing any further funding to Palestinian NGOs - because of their suspected links to terrorist groups.

A 1968 Ford Foundation "seed grant" created the radical Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), now the most influential Hispanic advocacy group in the United States. During the past three and half decades, Ford has given more than $25 million to this organization; nearly half of this amount ($11,285,000) was given between 2000 and 2004. MALDEF is a major player in the open borders movement, which seeks to liquefy American borders and grant amnesty and full civil rights to all illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

The Ford Foundation has been a longtime, loyal supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as evidenced by its $7 million grant to the ACLU in 1999. "The ACLU has no better partner and friend than the Ford Foundation," said the ACLU's then-executive director Ira Glasser. "It is fitting that the largest single gift . . . ever to the ACLU, should come from Ford."

The Ford Foundation is a member organization of both the Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG) and the the International Human Rights Funders Group (IHRFG); the latter is a network of more than six-dozen grantmakers dedicated to funding leftwing groups and causes. (For a complete list of IHRFG grantmakers, click here.)

Committed philosophically to the principles of racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender-based preferences, the Ford Foundation candidly celebrated its role in helping win the 1993 Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action, which upheld the University of Michigan Law School's race-based admissions system. "These landmark decisions," said the Ford website, "reaffirm the Ford Foundation's values of social justice and bolster continuing work for racial, sexual and economic equality."

The Ford Foundation's values and ideals are reflected unmistakably in its funding priorities. These ideals include the emasculation of homeland security and anti-terrorism measures; the dissolution of American borders; the promotion of mass, unchecked immigration to the United States; the redistribution of wealth; the blaming of America for virtually every conceivable international dispute; the false depiction of Israel as an oppressor state that routinely victimizes its Palestinian minority; the weakening of American military capabilities; and a devotion to the principle of preferences based on race, ethnicity, gender, and a host of other demographic attributes. By using its enormous wealth to fund organizations that promote these ideals, the Ford Foundation plays a major role in shaping American culture and public policy.

A further sampling of the leftwing groups and programs funded by the Ford Foundation includes: the Tides Foundation; the Tides Center; People for the American Way (PFAW); the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense & Education Fund (NAACP-LDEF); the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); the American Friends Service Committee; the National Council of La Raza; the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF); the United States Student Association; the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR); the National Lawyers Guild (NLG); Fenton Communications; the United Nations World Conference Against Racism; the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights; LAW; Ittijah; MIFTAH; the New Israel Fund; the Alliance for Justice; the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; the National Organization for Women; Save The Children Fund; the Union of Concerned Scientists; the Union for Palestinian Medical Relief Committee; the Rainforest Action Network; Public Citizen; the Earth Action Network; the Environmental Working Group; the Environmental Defense Fund; the Earth Island Institute; Friends of the Earth; Human Rights Watch; Human Rights First; the Cornell University Peace Studies Program; the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the Institute for Public Accuracy; the Migration Policy Institute; the Brookings Institution; the Ms. Foundation for Women; the International Federation of Human Rights; the National Immigration Forum; Physicians for Human Rights; Physicians for Social Responsibility; the William J. Brennan Center for Justice; the Center for Community Change; the Neighborhood Funders Group; the Council on Foundations; the International Crisis Group; the World Wildlife Fund/Conservation Foundation; the National Wildlife Federation; the Urban Institute; the Trust for Public Land; the Political Research Associates; Oxfam International; the Pacifica Foundation; the National Womens Law Center; National Public Radio (NPR); the National Immigration Law Center; the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education; the National Alliance for Choice in Giving; the Feminist Majority Foundation; the Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project; Democracy Now Productions; the Center for Women's Policy Studies; the USAction Education Fund; the Rockefeller Family Fund; the Proteus Fund; the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP); the Ploughshares Fund; Oxfam America; the Palestinian American Research Center; the Institute for Social Justice; EcoTrust; the Worldwatch Institute; the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; the Womens Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) for Human Rights; the Drug Policy Alliance; the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO); the Constitutional Rights Foundation; the Democracy Matters Institute; the Womens Action for New Directions (WAND) Education Fund; the World Resources Institute; the Women of Color Resource Center; the Center for Reproductive Rights; the Women's Foundation; the Woodstock Institute; the World Conference on Religion and Peace; the World Order Models Project; the United Nations; Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN); Planned Parenthood; Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health; the New America Foundation; the Native American Rights Fund; National Partnership for Women and Families; National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; the Center for the Advancement of Women; the National Council of Negro Women; the International Forum on Globalization; the National Center for Lesbian Rights; the National Center for Human Rights Education; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center; the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force; the National Center for Fair and Open Testing; the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights; the Center for Voting and Democracy; American Council for Voluntary International Action; Global Rights; the Global Peace Congress; the Fund for Peace; the Environmental Health Coalition; the Environmental Law Institute; the Environmental Grantmakers Association; Earth House; EarthRights International; Earth Day Network; the Center for Public Policy Priorities; the Center for Public Integrity; the Center for Law and Social Policy; the Carter Center; the Border Network for Human Rights; the the International Peace Academy; the Aspen Institute; the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; the Western Prison Project; We the People Media; Harvard University (black studies); Wayne State University (ethnic, black and poverty studies); University of Wisconsin (black and poverty studies); Clark Atlanta University (Environmental Justice Resource Center); the University of Virginia (black studies); the University of Texas (for the [Mexican] Border Philanthropy Project); the University of Southern California (Center for Urban Education); the University of North Carolina (black studies); the University of Notre Dame (Hispanic studies); the University of Minnesota (Institute of Race and Poverty); the University of Michigan (for the Environmental Justice Initiative); the University of Massachusetts (for the Center for Inclusive Teaching); the University of Maryland-College Park (for the Consortium for Gender Race and Ethnicity, African-American Studies Program and Women's Studies Program); Barnard College (black and ethnic studies); the University of Kansas (School of Social Welfare); the University of Illinois at Chicago (for integrating diversity into its research, teaching and living environment); Cornell University (Africana studies); Tufts University (peace studies - Humanitarian and War Project); Temple University (labor and poverty studies); Swarthmore College (Islamic studies); Spelman College (Women's Research and Resource Center); Smith College (for feminist studies); San Francisco State University (National Sexuality Resource Center); City University of New York (Hispanic, black, women's and queer studies); Princeton University (diversity studies); Pace University (black and women's studies); Arizona State University (to study affirmative action and diversity in wake of Grutter v. Bollinger); Ohio State University (to study affirmative action and diversity in wake of Grutter v. Bollinger); Oberlin College (Islamic studies); Brown University (Teaching and Research on Women-women's studies; War and Peace Project); Northwestern University (Institute for Policy Research - urban studies); New York University (for civil rights advocacy, black and women's studies); Duke University (Center for Study of Muslim Networks); Hamilton College (multicultural studies); Boston University (Islamic studies; peace and security studies; Johns Hopkins University (for the Institute for Policy Studies); Emory University (Islamic and black studies); Colorado State University (environmental advocacy); Columbia University (to study Brown v. Board of Ed.; black studies); Center for International Conflict Resolution; War and Peace Studies; Human Rights Justice Project; the United Nations Foundation; the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Educational Fund; Refugees International; the Rebecca Project for Human Rights; the Rainforest Alliance; the Public Citizen Foundation; the Public Agenda Foundation; Progressive, Inc.; the Progressive Jewish Alliance; the Poverty and Race Research Action Council; the Population Council; the Organization for a New Equality; the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers; the Nine to Five Working Women Education Fund; the Institute for Womens Policy Research; the Immigration and Refugee Services of America; the Humanitarian Project (social justice); the Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute; Friends of the Khalidi Library (Islamic Law); Freedom Inc.; Free Press; the Center for Economic and Social Rights; the Center for Economic and Policy Research; the Center for Defense Information; the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society; Arts of Peace; the Arms Control Association; the Tamer Institute for Community Education for Palestinians Living in the West Bank; the Arab Image Foundation in Lebanon; the Arab Studies Society; the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights; and the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights.

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.

..................

I read recently that the former head of the Ford Foundation "moved on" to the New York Times.

faced with massive pressure from Nadler, Jewish organizations and newspapers like the New York Sun

Say what? Massive pressure? From the nudnik Nadler? From the New York Sun? Will they make them feel guilty or something?

ADL still has Ford under a microscope, and has heavily criticized recent actions by the foundation, including its decision to fund a conference on academic boycotts sponsored by the American Association of University Professors in Bellagio, Italy. The conference was eventually canceled.

Oh, that's it. After getting money from Ford, the ADL, and Simon Weisonthal center FORCED the Ford Foundation to back off that wonderful conference....

"Ford," says Anthony Romero of the ACLU, "really stands alone at this point."

That's it. The poor dears. Those poor Ford foundation representatives. Stuck with over 11 billion and all alone in the world. It is obviously the result of some sneaky coniving greedy group. A group that loves money and will sacrifice those poor poor givers of goodness at Ford.

I wonder what group the auther could be talking about...

" the Ford Foundation gave $150,000 to the pro-Castro Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) ..."

Indeed, Henry Ford was a notorious anti-Semite.

Before the 1960's it was uncommon to see Jews driving Ford products. Among the people I knew, it wasn't until JFK made Lincoln Continental's popular that anyone Jewish bought a Ford product.

This is the Ford Foundation, not associated in any way with Ford Motor Company today. This article is blatantly trying to make the connection and I find the tactic to be contemptible. The author of this hit piece is no better than the Foundation they are trying to slam.

history from the ADL

a quote:
In the decades following Ford's death in 1947, what was once a privately-owned business became a corporation owned in large part by the public. Since then, the Ford family and the Ford Motor Company have engaged in numerous projects and endeavors in the public interest, including many that have been supportive of Jewish concerns. Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II, consistently supported Jewish charities and cultural organizations. In 1997, for example, the Ford Motor Company sponsored the first screening of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List," commercial-free, on national network television.

"This is the Ford Foundation, not associated in any way with Ford Motor Company today. This article is blatantly trying to make the connection and I find the tactic to be contemptible. The author of this hit piece is no better than the Foundation they are trying to slam."

True, but the Foundation was started by the Ford family out of the company's profits. They were very foolish to relinquish control.

Now, the Dow Foundation, on the other hand, is building a minor league baseball park, to help provide activities and attract a team to its hometown - Midland, Michigan.

If you'd like to be on or off this
Christian Supporters of Israel ping list,
please FR mail me ~

MikeFromFR ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
Warnings ~

"The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets...."—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Holocaust Chronicle ~

"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."—FReeper sgtbono2002
"Then let's wait and see what the Arabs do after they take Gaza. There's nothing like Arab reality to break up a Jewish fantasy."—FReeper Noachian
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"—Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."
The Nature Of Bruce ~

Thank you ***Salem***!!!

I think it is interesting that Aldous Huxley featured Ford in his book Brave New World. I know Ford was a bit of a big brother - to the extent that he nosed into the private lives of his employees. One of those social engineers like that Owens fellow that set up New Harmony.

Thanks for the heads up on this very informative thread.

It has a long history:

>>> From Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power 1919-1933 by James Pool and Suzanne Pool (The Dial Press, 1978), pp 111, 129:

"That Henry Ford, the famous automobile manufacturer gave money to the National Socialists directly or indirectly has never been disputed," said Konrad Heiden, one of the first biographers of Hitler.[87] Novelist Upton Sinclair wrote in The Flivver King, a book about Ford, that the Nazis got forty-thousand dollars from Ford to reprint anti-Jewish pamphlets in German translations, and that an additional $300,00 was later sent to Hitler through a grandson of the ex-Kaiser who acted as an intermediary.[88] The US Ambassador to Germany, William E. Dodd, said in an interview that "certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy."[89] At the time of Dodd's criticisms, the general public was aware that he was speaking of Ford because the press made a direct association between Dodd's statements and other reports of Ford's anti-Semitism.

.... Henry Ford's reward from Hitler finally came in July 1938, when on his seventy-fifth birthday he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle. Ford was the first American and the fourth person in the world to receive this medal, which was the highest decoration that could be given to any non-German citizen. Benito Mussolini, another of Hitler's financiers, had been decorated with the same honor earlier that year.[128]

The presentation was made in Ford's Dearborn office by the German Counsul on Cleveland, Karl Kapp, and Consul Fritz Hailer of Detroit. Kapp placed the silk red sash over Ford's right shoulder. The sash was worn in a diagonal line from the right shoulder to the left hip where it was clasped with a gold and white cross. Kapp then pinned a large, shining star-shaped medal of Ford's white suit. The decoration was given "in recognition of [Ford's] pioneering in making motor cars available for the masses." Hitler's personal congratulatory message accompanied the award.[129]

Endnotes

87. Konrad Heiden, Hitler: A Biography, p. 221.

88. Upton Sinclair, The Flivver King: The Story of Ford in America (Pasadena, Calif., 1937), p. 109.

89. Georg Seldes, Facts and Fascism (New York, 1943), p. 122.

128. See Chapter 7.

129. Detroit News, July 31, 1938.

No worries - I wouldn't buy Ford anyway!! ;)