Henry Ford: An all-American Antisemite.
- John Zek
- Apr 17
- 4 min read
When it first was published in 1905 as an appendix to Sergie Nilus’ book The Protocols did not make much of an impact outside of Russia, only more than a decade later during the Russian Revolution and the following Civil war did it begin to grain traction. Much like the French revolution conservatives and reactionaries scrambled to explain the events in understandable and simplistic terms. This time the Bolshevik’s were accused of being in the thrall of the Jews (termed Judeo-Bolshevism) and proponents claimed that more than 85% of the Bolshevik party was Jewish.[i] Coupled with burgeoning fascist movements around Europe, the text quickly spread around the world.
In the United States The Protocols were shared mainly through the work of the industrialist Henry Ford. In fact, Ford was the only US citizen who written about positively in Hitler’s Mein Kampf and who later received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1938, the highest medal given by Nazi Germany to foreigners. The story of The Protocols in the U.S played out very differently to Europe.
Henry Ford is known mostly as the creator of the famed Model-T but he was also a raging antisemite was responsible for circulating the English version of The Protocols in the U.S. Ford used his car empire to stoke antisemitic beliefs and conspiracy theories by forcing dealers to sell a copy of his newspaper ‘The Dearborn Independent’ alongside the Model-T despite their protests. This made the weekly newspaper one of the largest in the country, with a circulation of 900,000 in 1925, in response to this, many dealers up destroyed the newspaper rather than push away customers.[ii] The Dearborn Independent quoted and wrote extensively on The Protocols until 1927 when facing growing boycotts organised by the ADL (anti-defamation league) and libel lawsuits Ford closed the paper and issued an apology (though some dispute whether this was even penned by him).
Possibly the strangest legacy Ford left in the West was the popularity of square dancing.[iii] He believed jazz was a Jewish invention designed to create moral decay in the US, writing in 1921:
“Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.” [iv]
Believing jazz corrupted white youth Ford and his wife set about funding and creating square dancing in US schools. He made his workers attend square dancing events and funded competitions and radio programs showcasing fiddling and ‘old time dancing music’.[v]This created a revival for square dancing. Square dancing at some point became the national dance of the US for a period in the 1980s and even now many states legislate it as the official state folk dance. [vi] Ironically while Ford viewed square dancing as a traditional ‘white’ dance much of its style comes from African culture, developed when black slaves were used as musicians. These musicians ‘called out’ dance forms, a call and response style that resembles drum traditions from African culture.[vii]
Ford died in 1947. Josephine Gomon who worked for Ford in his late years later wrote an unpublished manuscript on her time with him and claimed that when Ford saw newsreel footage of liberated Nazi concentration camps, he collapsed with a stroke from the horror which contributed to his death.[viii] As Gomon wrote:
"The man who had pumped millions of dollars of anti-Semitic propaganda into Europe during the twenties saw the ravages of a plague he had helped to spread. The virus had come full circle."[ix]
Today many compare the actions and statements of Elon Musk as well as his purchase of the social media platform ‘X’ to continue to promote his ideas as similar to Henry Ford. I have compiled a helpful table.
[i] A claim that was echoed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013 at the opening of a Jewish library.
[ii]Jonathan R. Logsdon. Power, Ignorance, and Anti-Semitism: Henry Ford and His War on Jews. Independent studies, 1999.
[iii] And for Australians having to perform line dancers like ‘Nutbush’ and Macarena.
[iv] Henry Ford. The International Jew: The World’s foremost problem. (Aaargh Internet Edition. 2003.) Accessed 23/08/24 https://archive.org/details/HenryFordTheInternationalJew_201812/Henry%20Ford%20-%20The%20International%20Jew/mode/2up P. 285
[v] David Lewis. The Square-Dancing Master. AMERICAN HERITAGE. Volume 23 Issue 2 (1972, February) https://www.americanheritage.com/square-dancing-master
[vi] Robyn Pennacchi. America’s wholesome square-dancing tradition is a tool of white supremacy. (Quartz December 12, 2017). https://qz.com/1153516/americas-wholesome-square-dancing-tradition-is-a-tool-of-white-supremacy
[vii] Erin Blakemore. The Slave Roots of Square Dancing. JSTOR Daily. (2017, June, 16). https://daily.jstor.org/the-slave-roots-of-square-dancing/
[viii] As some have pointed out, the story may be apocryphal as Gomon was a prominent labour rights activist. She wrote her memoir almost 20 years after Ford's death so take it with a grain of salt.
[ix] As quoted in: The American Axis, P. 359
Musk vs Ford Sources:
U.S. Air Force / Trevor Cokley. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks with Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, during the Ira C. Eaker Distinguished Speaker Presentation in the Academy's Arnold Hall on April 7, 2022 in Colorado Springs. 04.07.2022 Wikimedia commons, Accessed 10/10/204/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elon_Musk_Colorado_2022_(cropped2).jpg
Hartsook (1919?) Henry Ford, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left. [Photograph] National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress. Source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/94506959/
Comments