Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Nazi officials, 1938
At a ceremony in Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford is presented with the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle on his 75th birthday. Henry Ford was the first American recipient of this order, an honor created in 1937 by Adolf Hitler.
This was the highest honor Nazi Germany could give to any foreigner and represented Adolf Hitler’s personal admiration and indebtedness to Henry Ford. The presentation was made by Karl Kapp, the German consul in Cleveland, and Fritz Heller, German consular representative in Detroit.
The peculiar admiration that National Socialists had for Henry Ford and the supposed sympathies that the Detroit industrialist harbored for Nazism keep attracting the curious, both academic historians and internet readers.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/henry-ford-grand-cross-1938/
Henry Ford and Antisemitism: The Notorious “Dearborn Independent”
Henry Ford (1863-1947) is famous most generally for founding the Ford Motor Company, developing the assembly-line technique for mass production, and creating the first automobile affordable to middle-class Americans. He is relevant to Jewish studies, however, because he was hailed by many as an “antisemite.” But on what grounds?
In the early 1920s, Ford sponsored The Dearborn Independent, a weekly, widely distributed paper published under his name. The Dearborn Independent ran for eight years (1920-1927) and, in addition to its membership, was disseminated at every Ford franchise location in the country. Circulation reached at least 900,000 by 1926.
The Dearborn Independent, especially with its choice to re-publish The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, became a notorious source of antisemitism for its libel against Jews. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a historic hoax document first published in Russia in 1903, expressed the conviction that a global Jewish community conspires for world domination. Each week, the front page of the newspaper, under the title “The International Jew: The World’s Problems,” published articles purporting this theory. Additionally, while the Dearborn Independent articles condemned the violence – particularly pogroms – against Jews in Europe, the newspaper blamed Jews themselves for provoking the violence. Ford later apologized for his part in publishing these documents, although the testimony disagrees on whether his statements were authentic.
https://www.americanjewisharchives.org/snapshots/henry-ford-and-antisemitism-the-notorious-dearborn-independent/