Three American Companies that Shamelessly Supported Nazi Germany

Doing business on both sides of the Atlantic in World War II was profitable

Nazi flags in Berlin, 1940s, Image by WikimediaImages from Pixabay

During World War II, Germany was largely viewed by the American public as a pariah on the world stage — but that didn’t stop American companies from doing business with the Nazi regime. Perhaps American companies should have known better, but the German economy presented a business opportunity some corporations saw as too good to pass up. As a result, several American companies did business in Germany and some actually assisted the German war effort, at least until America itself was engaged in war with Germany.

While it is easy to lay blame on these companies, they should not necessarily be regarded as traitorous. Even as they looked to profit from their operations in Germany, a fair number of them were important to America’s war effort after the U.S. entered the war. War can result in business profits regardless of the wartime adversaries.

Here are three major American companies that supported Nazi Germany.

Ford

Ford is almost symbolic of the complex, contradictory relationship some American companies had with Nazi Germany. To begin with, the company’s founder, Henry Ford, was revered by Adolph Hitler, who…