The Secret American Holocaust History

     I considered writing this post last week, but every time I attempted to, I became sick to my stomach. But scrolling through Facebook today, I came across a post from ABC 13 News with a recent video from BBC News of very recent footage of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Amazing. Enlightening. And very chilling. You can see it yourself below.

     After watching this viral video, my mind is stuck on this subject once again, so, I'm going to suck it up and write about it because someone out there might gain a new, much-needed perspective of this dark part of human history.

     It is very hard for me to think about the Holocaust, but not for the typical reasons that most have for not wanting to talk about it simply because it's sad or a buzz kill. For me, it's because out of all the "ugly" truths I have been exposed to in my studies and research, the real history behind the Holocaust is by far the ugliest, most sickening one to date. Some of this secret history I have known for quite some time because I'm a nerd that reads nerdy stuff - in this case, Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation (2001). But some of it I was not aware of until very recently.

     When my partner and I, along with some friends, recently visited the Houston Holocaust Museum, we walked through a large sector with an abundance of information about societal conditions in Germany before and during WWII, Hitler, conditions in concentration camps, etc. There were also books, clothing items, and a train car that served to make something in distant history and foreign lands tangible to Americans visiting the museum. There was also a video that visitors could watch, in which many survivors from the concentration camps spoke about their experiences. It was beautiful in a tragic way. In a way where you are experiencing the pain of others and sharing in human experience.

     However, I knew, even then, that there was a secret American history that visitors were not being exposed to and would likely never know about, strictly based on my reading of the aforementioned IBM and the Holocaust. One that maybe even the survivors and workers that are involved with running the museum aren't even aware of. But that, in my opinion, is absolutely necessary for mankind to fully understand this tragedy and for Americans to understand the truth about their government. To add to that already existing knowledge, I did some more research after our visit, and I learned even more that I honestly wish I could give back. But now that I know about it, I think everyone else should, too.

The History Americans Know

Thanks to our media, history books, and today's Holocaust museums, we are taught that America stood against the Nazis and supported the Jews. Our country was a Jewish WWII ally and condemned Nazi behavior. Our country:

• Stood against the tyranny of Hitler 
• Supported the Jewish, who are considered Christianity's most protected and honored followers
• Assisted in militaristically defeating the Nazis in WWII
• Rescued German POW's after the war was over
• Served as a safe haven for the Jewish - 45% of all immigrants to America during this time were Jewish and received assistance once they were here

The History Americans Don't Know (Some of it...)

America did not become involved as an ally to the Jewish until 1941. Prior to that, we voiced support to Hitler, assisted the Nazis in developing the systematic means to run their concentration camps and hunt down the Jewish,  attempted to keep the Jewish out of our country, and exploited Jewish slave labor from the camps.

• Prior to our entrance into WWII, the murder of Jews was largely ignored in the U.S. media, and when violence in Germany was covered, the idea of a "race" war was ignored. 
• Political and social forces kept us from entering the war until 1941, while violence in Germany against the Jews had already been occurring for many years prior. 
• We attempted to limit Jewish immigration through the 1924 Immigration Law that made it much more restrictive for them to enter legally. 
• American corporations provided the Nazis with the means to exterminate the Jews and profited off of it, prior to entering the war.

IBM 

By 1933, this American corporation had provided Hitler with the data processing technology that allowed them to identify and locate the Jewish. They also provided the punch card technology used by the camp to identify prisoners according to their skills. These prisoners were then used by U.S. companies that literally had subsidiaries located on the outskirts of the concentration camps (Ford Motor German affiliate Fuhrer, General Motors German affiliate Opel, Coca-Cola, etc.). And the blue, numeric tattoos on all the prisoners? Yep, that was IBM's technology. 

Ford Motors

The prison labor that their Fuhrer affiliate used from the camps was used to produce 1/3 of the military trucks for the German army. Jewish slave labor was used to provide the army with more arsenal to use against themselves, all thanks to this American company. But the support for the Nazis wasn't just shown at the business level with this corporation, but it was also shown between the founder, Henry Ford, and Hitler himself. 

• Ford published a journal called "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem," in which he discusses numerous topics that all tie into the idea that the power the Jewish held at the time was undue and unsafe in the world arena,  as well as the need to do something about it. 
• Hitler once said the he hoped Ford would run for President of the United States, and he could help in his campaign.
• Hitler also praised Ford in Mein Kampf, where he said, "It is Jews who govern the stock exchange forces in the American Union...only a single, great man, Ford, to their fury, maintains full independence." 
• The Nazi regime provided Ford with the Grand Cross of German Eagle, their highest honor to foreigners, in 1938. 
• To this very day, Ford has not paid anything to or provided support for victims of the Holocaust, despite his role in building support for Hitler and Ford Motors' use of Jewish slave labor. 

General Motors

Their Opel affiliate also used slave labor to build trucks for the German army, as well as the world's first jet fighter for Hitler. And even better??? They were responsible for building Auschwitz. So, that video above that you watched above showing you what Auschwitz looks like today that ripped your heart out....yeah G.M. built that. 

This American corporate involvement is only the surface of it all. In a nutshell, America contributed to Hilter's rise to power and profited greatly off of the Holocaust, prior to entering WWII against the Germans. I don't know about you, but I struggle a lot with determining which is worse: the Germans for persecuting the Jews, or America for contributing to it, profiting off of it, turning on the Germans, and then trying their best to hide this massive part of history from not only the rest of the world, but from their own people. That is called being in bed with the devil. People and countries alike will pay a huge cost for behavior such as this one day. 

Go back...watch the video again....and this time, think about how if it wasn't for our American corporations, none of the Holocaust would have been possible. Hatred for the Jewish and small-scale violence would have occurred, but the systematic persecution of an entire race would have been impossible. And we wonder why other countries hate us...