AT THE CROSSROADS OF FASCISM: THE DECISION OF FORD, GENERAL MOTORS, AND IBM TO DO BUSINESS WITH NAZI GERMANY

The purpose of this dissertation is to reassess and provide clarity to the contentious field of U.S. business in Nazi Germany. This is a qualitative study focused on a limited group of businesses: Ford Motor Company (FMC), General Motors (GM), and International Business Machines (IBM). The primary historical question involves corporate agency: How much freedom did American companies have to operate under the Nazis? These companies created corporate archives relatively recently to provide more transparency about their past. This study utilizes these internal documents. The analysis of those documents presented here demonstrates that FMC, GM, and IBM made deliberate choices to continue building war materiel for the Nazis despite the fact that they were unable to extract profits from their German subsidiaries. Internal documentation shows that American managers knew divestment was an option. In each case, American managers were aware that their company contributed significantly to German war aims. Although the companies have released documents, this study also found that all three companies continue efforts to obfuscate the history of their activities.