Date:         Thu, 07 Nov 96 07:01:13 CST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: New Book Examines Volkswagen's Nazi Years

On Thu, 7 Nov 1996 01:28:17 -0600 James Cohen said:
>Times.  We may all love VWs but we should never forget it's less than
>innocent beginings.  Sometimes I'm not sure how to reconcile the fact
>that every car I own is a VW with Nazi roots, but if I was in Germany
>50 years ago I could've been condemned to slave labor and made to work
>to death.
>VWs are great, but there is blood it's hands.

then we should not drive Nissans or Toyotas or Hondas?? Toyoda (the spelling
of the parent company before the war) made most of Japan's military trucks.
Nissan also helped. Honda (the man, not the current car company) made piston
rings for Toyoda. so they all contributed to the Pearl Harbor attack??

and what about the anti-union "police" employed by GM and Ford during the
20's and 30's?? there's blood on those cars as well ... and not even the
"excuse" of nationalism: just pure capitalistic greed and exploitation of the
"working class".

my point here is that none of our families are pure of record. one of my own
ancestors was hung for horse stealing in north carolina. my mother's side left
ireland because of some sort of shady dealings or trouble with the law (they
won't talk about it! ;)   and while family ties are well and good, they do
NOT define who *I* am. neither do the maniacal dreams of Hitler and his
hencemen define what a VW is today.

the helicopter was pushed into development because of war, and pushed even
farther into its current state of reliability and ability by the Korean war
and the Vietnam war. but i don't think any of us want to do without the
helicopter ... it is far too useful in saving lives as a flying ambulance.

ALL inventions and developments of technology are two-edged swords: they can
be used for good, or they can be used for evil. your bus can carry sick people
or dogs or cats to the hospitcal ... or it can transport drugs into or across
the country. a pistol can be used to enforce law and prevent a crime ... or it
can be used to defy law and kill someone.  it's the choice of the humans.

if *WE* had been directing things back then, WE wouldn't have done the same
things, knowing what we know now. but WE weren't there, and the people that
were did what they did. for good or bad, that's what the history is. we can
either live with that and go on with our lives, or we can try to find some
totally pure and unsullied products on which to base our lives. and i'm afraid
that there are NO such products. at least, not that i've seen in my lifetime.

... and another thing: a book is the product on HUMANS. and HUMANS are subject
to make mistakes or, at the very least, mis-interpretations of "facts" at a
later date. any anthropologist will tell you NOT to try to put today's ethics
and morals onto any society in the past, based on what you dig up out of the
ground. interpreting past history in terms of today's "political correctness"
can lead to misleading conclusions. remember what Stalin did and said about
controling "history": he who writes the books writes history. no matter what
REALLY happened.

so take things like that with a grain of salt. things done in wartime aren't
always exactly what you or the people involved would like ... the U.S. took
its own Japanese citizens and placed them into concentration camps during
World War II. why? racist fear of sabotage. why didn't we put the German
citizens in similar camps? even though the FBI did, in fact, find several
German/Nazi sabotage/spying groups? or the Italians? or the Irish (who tended
to side with the Germans, simply because they didn't like the English)? ;)

>that gave as much latitude to its favorites as it tormented its
>victims.

gee. pretty much like every other dictator in any country in any historical
period. Caesar, all the Khans, Attila the Hun, the Phaerohs, the Inca and
Mayan city-kings, ...

>   The story of the Beetle begins with Ferdinand Porsche, then a
>disgruntled former employee of Daimler-Benz. Postwar chroniclers have
>built a more flattering picture of him than the book, which condemns
>him as "morally indifferent" to the use of slave labor.

Henry Ford was considered pretty "morally indifferent" to his laborers as
well. perhaps not in the same degree, but then in this country at that time,
he was considered a "normal businessman". sort of a Bill Gates of the times.
Thomas Edison was also considered to be not exactly kindly toward his paid
employees. and i'm sure that most of us older folks have worked for people
whose vision of THEIR designs and goals kept them from concerning themselves
with the mundane problems of workers and their problems.

>   When American troops occupied the plant on April 14 and 15, 1945,

hmmm. i'd always read that it was British troops that occupied the plant.

>   Klaus Kocks, a Volkswagen spokesman, said he hoped the book's
>depiction of the company's inglorious past would not be used by
>Volkswagen's competitors. "You don't sell cars with things like this,"
>he said.

aha!! it's another smear-job by Ralph Nader and the GM boys!!!! :)

seriously, folks. if you believe every new book that comes along, or every
old book written "after the fact", you'll be swapping philosophies and
changing your belifs at least twice every decade. take what you read with
a grain of salt. if it bothers you, research it further. read OTHER books
by OTHER authors. form your OWN opinions ... don't buy wholesale from some
new kid on the block who's screaming louder than anyone before. the new
tactic of sales is Shock. National Inquirer makes millions from that tactic.
read it if you must, but THINK about what you are reading.

unca joel
<there's a point in there somewhere. i'm sure of it ... >