Ford was a conspiracy theorist who drew on a
long traditionof
false allegations against
Jews. Ford claimed that Jewish internationalism posed a threat to traditional American values, which he deeply believed were at risk in the modern world.
[74] Part of his racist and antisemitic legacy includes the funding of square-dancing in American schools because he hated
jazz and associated its creation with Jewish people.
[75] In 1920 Ford wrote, "If fans wish to know the trouble with American baseball they have it in three words—too much Jew."
[76]
In 1918, Ford purchased his hometown newspaper,
The Dearborn Independent.
[77] A year and a half later, Ford began publishing a series of articles in the paper under his own name, claiming a vast Jewish conspiracy was affecting America.
[78] The series ran in 91 issues. Every Ford dealership nationwide was required to carry the paper and distribute it to its customers. Ford later bound the articles into four volumes entitled
The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, which was translated into multiple languages and distributed widely across the US and Europe.
[79][80] The International Jew blamed nearly all the troubles it saw in American society on Jews.
[78] The
Independent ran for eight years, from 1920 until 1927. With around 700,000 readers of his newspaper, Ford emerged as a "spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice."
[81]
In Germany, Ford's
The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem was published by
Theodor Fritsch, founder of several antisemitic parties and a member of the
Reichstag. In a letter written in 1924,
Heinrich Himmler described Ford as "one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters".
[82] Ford is the only American mentioned favorably in Hitler's autobiography
Mein Kampf.[83] Adolf Hitler wrote, "only a single great man, Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence ... [from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions." Speaking in 1931 to a
Detroit News reporter, Hitler said "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," explaining his reason for keeping a life-size portrait of Ford behind his desk.
[84][79] Steven Watts wrote that Hitler "revered" Ford, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany", and modeling the
Volkswagen Beetle, the people's car, on the Model T.
[85] Max Wallace has stated, "History records that ... Adolf Hitler was an ardent Anti-Semite before he ever read Ford's
The International Jew."
[86] Ford also paid to print and distribute 500,000 copies of the
antisemitic fabricated text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
[87][88] Historians say Hitler distributed Ford’s books and articles throughout Germany, stoking the hatred that helped fuel the Holocaust.
[88] [89]
