On Nazis, Heroes, Inspiration Follow Money - Walla! vehicle

2022-01-27T08:58:05.762Z

When Ford and General Motors made money from collaborating with the Nazis, the SS officer who ran the Nazi racing venture, the Citroen ploy and more. Motor skills on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On Nazis, Heroes, Inspiration Follow Money

The simple and ingenious ploy of Citroen, the SS officer appointed by Hitler to handle the Nazi racing project, the money greed of the American and Jewish manufacturers that humiliated the Nazi party

Keenan Cohen

27/01/2022

Thursday, 27 January 2022, 09:45 Updated: 10:49

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The Nazi officer, Hitler and the race cars, Rene Dreyfus, Opel and Citroen (Photo: image processing, Keenan Cohen)

Today (27.1) International Holocaust Remembrance Day is celebrated around the world.

Here at Walla! Car we have over the years published quite a few articles dealing with those difficult years of the 20th century and perhaps human history from the perspective of the cars, people and events they gave birth to.

These were years when the capabilities of manufacturing, science, technology, materials engineering and all human industrial resources were harnessed in favor of the huge war machines that collided on land, in the sky and in the oceans around the world above and below water.

Although vehicles had already appeared in World War I, thanks to the tremendous progress that the automotive industry has known in the 20 years that have passed between the two.

The scope of their use, the variety, capabilities and applications of vehicles have expanded on an unprecedented scale.

The cars that changed the world - Part 1

To the full article

But these were not only their uses on the battlefield and not even during the war itself, even before that they served as an arm in the Nazi propaganda machine, a fertile pad for experimenting and developing technologies and driving methods that were later applied in military tools.

And of course, also the economic interests behind this war, those who were happy to take part in it and those who preferred to lose everything and gain nothing from it.

This day is an opportunity to stop and recall these stories.

Adolf Hohleinen, projector of the Reich in the racetracks (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

Hitler's baby and the man who ran it

He was an decorated officer in the German army, and was later personally appointed by Hitler to be in charge of the Nazi racing project - this is the story of Adolf Hohleinen.

The story of the Nazi regime's racing projector

Background:

Even before he came to power, Hitler was a car enthusiast.

When he foresaw Germany's rise to global dominance he saw transportation, cars and the nation's mechanization in general as a significant springboard.

Part of this perception is reflected in the People's Car (Volkswagen) project that has become a beetle.

Another aspect of it is the highway project that provided employment, an economic accelerator and a force mobilization platform to the front.

The possibility of overcoming barriers to military development through the car industry and even the use of the technological spearhead of those years - car racing as a propaganda arm for the Nazi party.

On the same arm of propaganda and assurance of dominance German cars carry the swastika on the tracks - Mona Adolf Hohleinen.

From the article:

"So who really was Adolf Hohleinen?

A racing enthusiast who was swept away by an opportunity he was given to" play in race cars "ostensibly without ideological involvement? Or did he see himself as a server in the party line and part of the war and propaganda effort?"

Adolf Hohleinen - a tragic character or a cold-blooded Nazi officer?

To the full article

The American manufacturers who made good money on both sides (Photo: Manufacturer's website, Manufacturer)

Spread aspirations, make money and anti-Semitism

War is money, a lot of money.

From the urgent need that pushes aside any economic consideration and ending with the fact that the unprecedented amount of destruction in this conflict has led to a relentless demand for means of transportation of all kinds.

Car manufacturers knew this, took advantage of it well.

Some cynically.

- Make money, hypocrisy and Nazi medals

Background:

The business ties of the Americans and Germans began long before World War II.

For some it was done under a business platform and for others it was also a conceptual partnership, as in the case of Henry Ford.

Who was an outspoken antisemitic and dark racist.

But not just there, James David Mooney, a senior at Motors, has for years been weaving ties between the Nazi party.

Beginning with a joint meeting of him and Hitler and senior members of the party in 1934 and later with the receipt of a medal from the Order of the German Eagle for his excellent service to the Reich.

So how did that "heavenly match" between the American industrial giants and the Nazis go through?

How did these companies earn huge sums, including from the employment of forced laborers and how did they try to whitewash the whole story?

From the article:

"General Motors was much more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland. Switzerland was a reservoir of money, General Motors was an integral part of the Nazi war effort. The Nazis could invade Poland and Russia without Switzerland - they would not do it without C. General Motors "

Skeletons under the hood

To the full article

All thanks to a small gauge (Photo: manufacturer's website, manufacturer)

To drive the Nazis crazy

It was so simple, ingenious and sophisticated to stay under the noses of the Germans for so long. And he was not only genius - he even took advantage of the Nazis' greatest weakness to knock them to the bone.

Citroen's quiet sabotage of the war machine

Background:

Pierre Bollinger The legendary CEO of Citroen during the Nazi occupation had two choices: end up in the Gestapo basements or worse or agree to the Nazi demands and harness the company's production capabilities to the needs of the German army. Not only about him, but the Germans in the end will get what they want when the person appointed in his place does it. The second option was unthinkable for him. So he chose the third option.

He produced for the Nazi army the trucks he needed, lots of them, but with one trick , Small. Very small, really marginal and unimportant. And he was ... No, well, go into the article and know.

From the article:

"In the first stage he made it clear to all the workers that their pace of work should be extraordinarily relaxed, even in terms of French workers. He personally raised difficulties and evaded meetings scheduled for him with Ferdinand Porsche, the man of Hitler when it came to automating the Third Reich."

French sabotage

To the full article

Rene Dreyfus in Delhi car (Photo: Manufacturer's website)

A complete insult to the Nazis and an expensive price

Rene Dreyfus did not really refer to his Jewish origins.

For him, he was a racing driver, a Frenchman, a man and, among other things, of Jewish descent.

But his life trajectory created a script that no Hollywood writer would have been able to produce.

- It was more than a victory in a race - Rene Dreyfus

Background:

On the way Hitler perceived the racetracks as an opportunity to glorify and enhance the Nazi advantages and superiors on the technological level and in terms of quality of Aryan drivers we have already written in Adolf Hohleinen's story.

This dominance, backed by huge investments by the National Socialist Party, pushed the feet of those who enjoyed control of the racetracks until those years - the Italians and the French.

Then, in 1938, at the height of their success, in the opening race of the Grand Prix season, the first place is taken by a French car, from a relatively small and not very well-known manufacturer and to complete the humiliation - it is driven by a Jewish driver and with such a symbolic name - Dreyfus.

Coincidence brings him out of France weeks before the invasion and it's good that way - Gestapo officers were sent to find him and any documentation of the victory and wipe out this humiliating stain.

His post-war incarnation is no less fascinating ...

From the article:

"He deserves tremendous respect, one who deserves someone who not only achieved extraordinary sporting achievements time and time again, but also enlisted to defend his homeland and the country that served him as a refuge - just because it was the right thing to do. And among us was a Jew who defeated the Nazis twice - on the track and on the battlefield. "