The Ford Boys

Review of The Ford Boys: Henry Ford’s Americans in Germany by Isaac Edward Leibowitz, G. G. Lord, The Labor Literary Review, 2005

Among the American traitors of the World Revolutionary War, Henry Ford looms large. A figure whose assembly line production methods defined the late period of American republicanism, his later vehement, fanatical work in Nazi Germany would forever tarnish his name as that of the worst kind of rich fanatic. Someone ruthless and efficient in the cause of evil. But, Ford could only get as far as he did, whether in business or in fascism, through his underlings. His employees both loyal and reluctant would lay the groundwork for Ford to amass power. His most loyal employees would eventually follow him to Germany, but while Ford would get a trial, some of them would be able to slip under the radar out of Europe and would flee justice for many years.

In 1993, Ford R. Bryan, himself a member of the Ford family and the chief historian of the Calgary Foundation, wrote Henry’s Lieutenants , about the many people who worked for Ford and later Lincoln, and some of the most important of his lieutenants. However, whilst their history with Ford is extensively explored during the pre-Revolution period, their activities during the 30’s and World War II are only briefly touched upon, with some exceptions (such in the case of Ford’s assistants Ernest Liebold and Harry Bennett, who Bryan blames for “encouraging Henry’s demons” and the war crimes Ford would be involved with.)

Leibowitz, a former Haywood City electrical engineer turned Trinitarian minister and historian, decides to repudiate this work of apologia by focusing on some of the Americans Ford would bring with him to Germany. Some of his most loyal secretaries, enforcers, and engineers would follow Ford to Germany. Some stayed, some would leave before the war started. Ultimately, much as they built Ford’s America, they would, in their own way, build Ford’s Nazi war machine.

As opposed to Bryan’s profiles, Leibowitz instead crafts a narrative, focusing primarily on six individuals who would follow Ford into Germany: Harry Bennett, Ernest G. Liebold, Charles Sorensen, William J. Cameron and Frank Campsall, as well as the wartime head of the Ford-Werke plant in Cologne Robert Hans Schmidt. However, Liebold and Bennett (whose role in Ford’s life was also touched upon in Max Wallace’s The American Axis) take center stage for much of the book. Liebold in particular becomes the central villain, while Bennett takes on something of a tragic figure, unable to escape the trap he had built for himself. Both represent the dichotomy of Ford and American Nazis, with the rest struggling under it.

Liebold’s hold on Ford starts the book off. The son of German immigrants in Detroit, Liebold was hired as Ford’s personal secretary in 1910 thanks to his work in establishing the Ford affiliated Highland Park State Bank. With a “mind like a spreadsheet”, Liebold would eventually gain power-of-attorney for Ford and his wife Clara, and would come to manage much of Ford’s business affairs outside the Ford Motor Company and would become a very close confidant of Ford.

In this capacity, Liebold would gradually impart his German nationalism and antisemitism onto Ford. Liebold was himself a Germany spy during the Great War (as he himself admitted during his war crimes trial in 1946) and had managed Ford’s disastrous anti-war, pacifist campaign. In 1918, Liebold purchased a small Michigan paper called the Dearborn Independent on behalf of Ford, and as general manager used it as a platform to express both his and Ford’s growing antisemitism, selling it at Ford agencies across the country.

The Dearborn Independent would become the leading purveyor of antisemitic and anti-communist rhetoric throughout the 20’s, culminating in a series of articles collected as The International Jew in 1920, which adapted and expanded on the already discredited antisemitic text The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , introduced to Liebold by Russian exile Boris Brasol. It extensively followed the trial of Carol Mejer, accusing a “Judeo-Bolshevik” conspiracy of subverting the American will and lauded Hamilton Fish as a “true American hero.” (Fish himself distributed the Protocols to his staff.) The viciousness of the Independent would not go unnoticed, and due to complaints and lawsuits (including one by Mejer himself), it would shut down in 1930, but Liebold remained a loyal compatriot.

Bennett’s rise was less controversial in some ways, but no less dramatic. A Navy veteran and boxer, he was discovered by a friend of Ford (either Arthur Brisbane or Bernie Ghets) after being jailed for a fight. The friend bailed Bennett out and brought him before Ford. Ford, impressed by the short, but fast witted boxer, hired him for the art department. Bennett subsequently rose to become head of Ford’s notorious Service Department in 1921.

During the Roaring Twenties, as the Workers’ Party rose in prominence amongst the nation’s unions, Bennett became Ford’s most loyal disciple and fiercest enforcer. He would amass the largest private police force in the nation’s history (over 3,000 men) from elements of Detroit’s underworld and used it to fight unionization across Ford plants, but especially at Ford’s prized River Rouge plant, run by Charles Sorensen.

Bennett was so fiercely loyal to Ford, when asked what he’d do if Ford asked him to blacken the sky, Bennett replied: “You’d see 100,000 workers coming through the plant gates with dark glasses tomorrow.” [1]

Bennett’s viciousness and efficacy when combating unionizing workers was noted in the communist press and he very quickly became one of their main targets, along with Ford himself (something Bennett had pride in.) Bennett also intimidated the workers and even the executives by shooting BB pellets into the air and bringing in big cats to intimidate them.

Most of the rest are filled in between these two men. Danish American Charles Sorensen became one of Ford’s production managers, and would found several Ford associated companies. William Cameron was the main journalist for the Independent, refining Ford and Liebold’s rants into cohesive pieces. Frank Campsall was Ford’s personal secretary, as opposed to the more legal oriented Liebold.

All of these men’s lives would change with the Revolution. Even before the revolution, Liebold gradually built up a relationship with the nascent Nazi Party in Germany, who openly admired Ford. Hitler kept a large portrait of Ford and the International Jew was very popular amongst party ranks. As the election of 1932 threatened Ford’s finances, Liebold arranged on Ford’s behalf the transfer of Ford’s personal assets to Germany, and, with Sorensen, oversaw the expansion of Ford-Werke GmBH (its European division) in preparation of a potential Ford takeover. In addition, through his government contacts, he also had talks to have Ford take up a prominent government position to “help the cause.

Of course, after the state of emergency was announced and the workers began taking over, Liebold was able to arrange for Ford to travel to Germany (Campsall joining him), while Bennett attempted a last minute counter-operation against the workers of the Red Rouge plant. Luckily, forces under Walter Reuther were able to capture the plant, and by the end of March, Bennett himself was also taken to Germany as the plant became the centerpiece of the “Detroit Arsenal”.

Sorensen actually first left for Calgary, where he helped Edsel Ford set up the Ford Motor Company in exile in Canada and Cuba, before being recruited to become production manager of Ford-Werke GmBH. Cameron would sit out the Civil War in London before joining Ford again at the latter’s request.

Liebold, whose personal influence had been slipping prior to the Revolution, reasserted himself as Ford’s assistant, especially since he was his main contact with the German government. As Ford became Deputy Minister of Armaments, Liebold continued managing Ford’s personal affairs. In particular, they decided to replay the Dearborn Independent saga and became partners with newspaper Der Sturmer, under iconoclast Julius Streicher. Liebold restarted some of the Independent’s columns with Cameron (putting all their articles under Ford’s name and signature) and like the Independent, would distribute copies at all Ford dealerships across Germany.

Liebold’s association with Der Sturmer would culminate in him becoming general manager. Unlike the unstable Streicher, Liebold became popular with the Nazi elite and became co-publisher. After Streicher’s removal for corruption, Liebold became lead publisher and made Der Sturmer more reputable, but still pushing its strongly anti-Semitic line.

For Bennett, he joined the SS (particularly the Silberne Legion), and was made liaison between Ford-Werke and the German government. He would become the lead enforcer in Ford managed plants, recruiting other stormtroopers to replace the Service Department, and enforcing even harsher measures on workers. Bennett’s ruthlessness earned him accolades and a new home in Cologne, where he would emulate his mansion in Michigan, including all its trap doors, secret passages, and outposts for him to wander.

However, unlike the fanatical Liebold, Bennett was very much not a Nazi in his own beliefs. At his own war crimes trial in 1966, he said that he did not approve of Kristallnacht or the “crudeness of Nazi persecution”, and said he only joined the SS because “it was the most efficient and easiest way to convey Mr. Ford’s commands.”

[…]

As the book reaches World War II, most of the other characters drop off. Sorensen, horrified by what the Nazis and Swedes did to his native Denmark, elects to move to Canada to instead work for Edsel Ford. Campsall, edged out as Liebold became much closer to Ford, joins him. After Kristallnact, Cameron resigned and fled back to his native Canada .

From here on, Liebold and Bennett’s stories become dominant and subsequently diverge. Liebold, now both Ford’s personal secretary and full-on assistant, continued to stoke Ford’s increasing Nazism, as Ford would become more dedicated to the Nazi cause, and even as he became aware of the Shoah and the approval of slave labor, continued to publish increasingly unhinged works detailing Jewish conspiracies. Gradually, Der Sturmer became just as vitriolic as it had been under Streicher (after some time, even Streicher himself had returned to resume writing duties), and its influence even more wide-reaching under its Ford deal.

Meanwhile, Bennett, while still loyal to Ford was increasingly uncomfortable with his duties, especially with having to enforce slave labor. He watched as his boss morphed into someone he didn’t recognize, paranoid and delusional, and as the war progressed and slave labor demands increased, he found himself unwilling to enact extreme measures with the same vigor he had done in the 20’s and 30’s. He’d lock himself in his office and drink while underlings at the Ford-Werke GmBh, including Robert Hans Schimdt did it for him, without him having to see it for himself. Still, he felt an obligation to serve Ford, and continued his duties, allowing for Ford’s notoriously brutal treatment of enslaved workers to continue.

[…]

As the war turned sour, Ford, now having become a full-throated devotee, became obsessed with the idea of creating a separate peace with the Franco-British Union. Liebold attempted to switch the tone of Der Sturmer towards this end, which caused the increasingly unstable Nazi leadership to shut it down for “defeatism,” in 1945.

Ford had Liebold send several telegrams asking for peace with the capitalists, only to be rebuffed multiple times. Liebold also attempted to seize control of Ford-Werke to increase production, and have evidence of mistreatment suppressed, only for Ford to angrily refuse, noting that Liebold was not officially part of the company.

In the meantime, Bennett saw his mansion in Cologne destroyed with the Ford-Werke plant, and realized that the war effort was lost. As opposed to Liebold’s furious efforts to keep the war effort going, Bennett sought to get him and Ford out before either could suffer consequences. He attempted to contact several governments with surrender offers, but never got responses. In a last ditch effort, he contacted Edsel Ford in Canada, and appealed to family ties to get him and Ford Cuban visas or papers to emigrate. Edsel (who long resented the closeness Bennett had to his father and having cut ties with his father over his work in Nazi Germany) refused.

[…]

With Ford’s capture by Yugoslav forces, Liebold’s own days were numbered. He attempted to flee to Switzerland, but thanks to an intercepted communique, an American squadron was there to meet him. Interviewing him after his capture was none other than Carol Mejer himself.

While Streicher and Liebold had no direct involvement with the Holocaust or the war crimes committed, Der Sturmer played a major role in disseminating and justifying the bigoted attitudes that allowed it to spread and played a large role in giving the atrocities public support. As co-publishers, the two were put on trial.

As opposed to Streicher, whose notorious flamboyance and excess even alienated fervent Nazis during his trial, Liebold mostly gave short, demurred statements. He said that he had written all the articles that were attributed to Ford, both in the Dearborn Independent and Der Sturmer, and that Ford had little editorial control. Despite massive evidence to the contrary (including telegrams and mentions in the columns themselves), he claimed neither him nor Ford had knowledge of slave labor or the mass extermination.

Because Streicher had been more involved and had more vitriol, he would receive death by hanging. Liebold, who was more restrained and less obvious, would get a mere 10 years of hard labor. He would receive a pardon for health reasons, and retire to the German countryside where he died in 1956.

Bennett would have a more dramatic, but more prolonged fall. Once he learned Ford had been captured, Bennett made plans to flee alone. Through his SS contacts, he learned that there were ratlines heading to war torn Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. There, in the midst of the chaos, Nazis and other fascists could slip into existing immigrant communities undetected. Bennett wore a Red Army uniform and headed towards Italy, where Austrian bishop Alois Hudal had been organizing them. He received papers under the name “Henry Hubert Williams”, and was able to reach Sao Paulo by early 1947.

After the ratlines were exposed in 1949 (and Hudal laicized in the aftermath), Bennett, fearing his exposure, fled to the Brazilian countryside, and used his remaining funds to build a small farm, complete with trap doors and secret exits.

Still, when Shin Bet[2] was able to locate him, they (allied with Brazilian intelligence AIB) thoroughly infiltrated the compound, appearing in every door and escape entrance. When Bennett arrived, he had nowhere to go.

Deported to East Germany, he would receive a life sentence in 1966. After a stroke in 1973, he would be sent to the UASR, where he would die at the Attica Criminal and Mental Health Center in 1979.
[…]

While a bit misleading with its description and with a bit of a slow grind towards the end, The Ford Boys is ultimately an interesting look into a little known bit of history. Ford’s evil has been well-documented, but less documented was how he could only enact such evil thanks to close associates who pushed him along the way. The book also provides insight into those who are also led by their own aides.

[1]Actual Bennett quote
[2]Palestinian intelligence *[WPA]: Works Progress Administration *[NBI]: National Bureau of Investigation