Working for the Enemy: Ford, General Motors, and Forced Labor in Germany During the Second World War [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Karola Fings (Author), Anita Kugler (Author), Nicholas Levis (Author), Reinhold Billstein (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2000

About eight million people were forced to work for the "Reich war economy" during the Second World War. Their stories were rediscovered in recent years by a new, detail- and person-oriented approach to contemporary history. Fifty-four years after the end of the war, the lack of restitution for their labor and their suffering has turned into an international legal dispute. This collection presents new studies by leading German historians that reveal how General Motor's and Ford's subsidiaries in Nazi Germany became involved in the Hitler regime and its crimes. It also contains gripping oral accounts from a number of former slave laborers, an overview of the current legal and political issues, and a wealth of pictorial material.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This well-selected anthology... ranges from analytical articles to interviews with people conscripted into the forced labor pool... This is a vital supplement for students of the era or anyone wrestling with the legal and moral debates regarding restitution and repayment for involuntary work." Choice "By carefully examining the automotive companies' collaboration with the Reich and placing it in an international context, the book is indispensable reading for all who are interested in the moral implications of capitalist economies under totalitarian conditions." Hans Mommsen in The International History Review "... comprehensive... a plethora of information and moving first-person testimonies... underscores the myriad human rights implications of today's corporate policies in a global economy." The Nation "... a revealing and meticulously presented series of essays... this compelling and informative contribution... is a significant, scholarly and welcome addition." Midwest Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Author

Nicholas Levis, Editor of Working for the Enemy

This book presents in a vivid and readable fashion the current state of scholarly research on Ford, General Motors and Nazi Germany.

Three historians who have published previous German-language works on these subjects - Reinhold Billstein, Karola Fings and Anita Kugler - worked with me in creating a complete version of their findings for an English-speaking audience. They engaged in new research and we collected dozens of photos and other materials that appear in the book.

The longest chapter adapts the testimonies of nine former forced laborers at Ford Werke, and of a German man who at the time was an apprentice at the Ford factory in Cologne, into a single, chronological narrative.

I wrote an Introduction and Prologue designed to introduce non-specialist readers to the context of Nazi Germany, its prewar motorization policy, and its forced labor programs during the Second World War.

With three full-size photo essays, a complete glossary, a list of abbreviations, biographical insets, and an index, and with the Notes grouped at the back of the book, it stands alone and is accessible to the general reader as a work of German and American history.

The final chapter reviews the recent controversies over compensations for forced labor and the complicated negotiations between Germany, German corporations, the United States and claimant groups based in various countries.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Berghahn Books; illustrated edition edition (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571812245
• ISBN-13: 978-1571812247
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,722,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profit knows no allegiance, July 6, 2001

By 

Chuck Devine (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Working for the Enemy: Ford, General Motors, and Forced Labor in Germany During the Second World War (Hardcover)

War, any war, is a sad and brutal indictment of failed politics and blundered diplomacy, but it always finds its willing supporters: militarists, super patriots, blind loyalists and cynical businessmen whose pursuit of profit knows no moral or ethical barrier. Could any war exist without them? This excellent book revealed many pages of World War II's history that I, and I suspect, many other people did not know existed - or existed on such a vast scope. It is both scholarly AND readable. It documents facts, not speculation. There can be little argument as to what went on during those years. Only someone suffering a massive bout of denial could argue with the facts. Still the book, with all that it reveals, and it reveals much, would not have guts or emotion without the perspective of the little guy. If anyone can read Mareno Mannucci's ordeal of his first night at Ford Werke and not see the pathos, feel his complete and total fear when he awakened alone and lost in the blackness of that night, with the sound of air raid alarms filling the tense night air and the shriek of his panicked voice joining the blaring alarms in a surreal duet of terror and helplessness, then that reader is not human. THAT memory of Mareno Mannucci probably is shared in one form or another by countless millions who experienced the war first hand. I wonder how many times he re-lived that night in the ensuing decades. The world should forever remember all the Mareno Mannuccis, whether they were frontline GIs, or Brits, or Russians, concentration camp prisoners, POWs, or slave laborers, but it won't. There's no profit in it. This is a real history book. Buy it, read it and remember it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing and meticulously presented essays, May 19, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Working for the Enemy: Ford, General Motors, and Forced Labor in Germany During the Second World War (Hardcover)

In Working For The Enemy: Ford, General Motors, And Forced Labor In Germany During The Second World War, Reinhold Billstein, Karola Fings, Anita Kugler, and Nicholas Levis effectively collaborate to present the reader with a revealing and meticulously presented series of essays on the history of German industry within the context of World War II. From airplane manufacture at a General Motors Subsidiary (1939-1945), to forced labor at Ford Werke in Cologne, this compelling and informative contribution to twentieth-century German history is a significant, scholarly, and welcome addition to academic collections and reading lists.