Conti & The Nazi’s

[ChrisL]

You see this article on Continental?  So how do feel about them fancy tires now?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25N1TL
 

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, ChrisL said:

You see this article on Continental?  So how do feel about them fancy tires now?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25N1TL
 

The same way we feel about VWs and Porsches?? 

[Kzoo]

Cancel culture.  

 

[a bunch of numbers]

I'm pretty sure Mitsubishi built the engine for the zero's. 

[Randomguy]

Well what else were the forced laborers going to do all day, sit on their hands?

[Razors Edge ★]

A tidbit from the article:

It took Germany until 2000 to create a forced labour compensation fund which had paid more than 4.37 billion euros ($5.2 billion) to around 1.7 million victims by 2007. Contributors included Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank and Bayer.

I wonder why they didn't just "run out the clock" and claim no ties to the actions of their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, nor the cumulative benefits of immeasurable theft and ruthless murders.

[ChrisL]

Just now, Rick5234 said:

I'm pretty sure Mitsubishi built the engine for the zero's. 

I believe they built the entire plane. 
 

It was interesting to me that Continental came out with the info now.  It looks like they and several other companies that profited off the Nazi war machine paid repatriations but far too late IMHO.

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, ChrisL said:

but far too late IMHO.

It's all relative, though.

[Dirtyhip]

Non issue for me.  I don't run Conti on any of my bikes. It's moot.

Maxxis are my favorite tires.

[ChrisL]

2 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

A tidbit from the article:

It took Germany until 2000 to create a forced labour compensation fund which had paid more than 4.37 billion euros ($5.2 billion) to around 1.7 million victims by 2007. Contributors included Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank and Bayer.

I wonder why they didn't just "run out the clock" and claim no ties to the actions of their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, nor the cumulative benefits of immeasurable theft and ruthless murders.

Yeah I believe that was the case.

My dad never received his back pay for the 3 years he was a POW from the Dutch Govt.  The Dutch government then said oh well, he’s dead now... In the 1990’s my mom finally got his back pay with interest but it took a lot of legal wrangling.

[Prophet Zacharia]

I think there is a difference between making weapons of war as demanded by your government, and employing slave labor. So I see Porsche and Mitsubishi who made tanks and airplanes, apparently without slave labor, on a higher plane than say Conti and VW, who did use prisoners.

Now, you can probably argue that the companies themselves were forced by their government and army to employ such tactics. So it becomes a fine line between being complicit versus being strong-armed. 

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, ChrisL said:

In the 1990’s my mom finally got his back pay with interest but it took a lot of legal wrangling.

Don't mention that to some folks around here.  That's a non-starter.  Back pay to 40+ million folks for decades of work would be pretty hefty.

[Prophet Zacharia]

2 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I think there is a difference between making weapons of war as demanded by your government, and employing slave labor. So I see Porsche and Mitsubishi who made tanks and airplanes, apparently without slave labor, on a higher plane than say Conti and VW, who did use prisoners.

Now, you can probably argue that the companies themselves were forced by their government and army to employ such tactics. So it becomes a fine line between being complicit versus being strong-armed. 

And then there is Bayer, who made poison gas.

[JerrySTL ★]

Over 70 years ago? I can forgive. 

[Kzoo]

1 minute ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

And then there is Bayer, who made poison gas.

During WW I Bayer had all of it's US Patents stripped by the US Govt.  There was intellectual property that they didn't get back from WW I until the 1990's.

[maddmaxx ★]

14 minutes ago, Rick5234 said:

I'm pretty sure Mitsubishi built the engine for the zero's. 

Designed and built the whole plane.  While early versions had a mitsubishi engine the actual engine used in combat was designed and made by Nakajima,

[ChrisL]

3 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Over 70 years ago? I can forgive. 

I think many Americans can but I do wonder what a Frenchman or a Russian who lost family in the war might feel about it.  

My parents, especially my dad took a deep hatred of all things Japanese to their graves.

[maddmaxx ★]

12 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Non issue for me.  I don't run Conti on any of my bikes. It's moot.

Maxxis are my favorite tires.

Go covet someone else's tires.

[Mr. Silly]

28 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

A tidbit from the article:

It took Germany until 2000 to create a forced labour compensation fund which had paid more than 4.37 billion euros ($5.2 billion) to around 1.7 million victims by 2007. Contributors included Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank and Bayer.

I wonder why they didn't just "run out the clock" and claim no ties to the actions of their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, nor the cumulative benefits of immeasurable theft and ruthless murders.

Because they know the difference between right and wrong?

 

“Business has a responsibility to help preserve democracy,” Degenhart told journalists, adding the study would feed into training programmes to promote social responsibility and help tackle racist and radical views.

[ChrisL]

18 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Don't mention that to some folks around here.  That's a non-starter.  Back pay to 40+ million folks for decades of work would be pretty hefty.

The crappy thing is they just kept kicking the can down the road... I get that the country was devastated after the war but by the 1960’s they could have, they just chose not to.  Bizarre to me really. 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

A good source for more information on the whole Nazi use of German industries for the war efforts is in Hell’s Cartel. Information was gathered from the Nuremberg trials where companies and their executives were investigated. Very interesting read. 

[Dirtyhip]

28 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Go covet someone else's tires.

Didn't get this at first.  

[maddmaxx ★]

Can we ever forget the "Thing", a slightly modernized version of the German Army Kubelwagen?  Porsche and Volkswagen production was turned over completely to military work.  51,000 Kubelwagens built during the war.

 

[Dottleshead ★]

1 hour ago, ChrisL said:

You see this article on Continental?  So how do feel about them fancy tires now?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN25N1TL
 

They did what any other nationalist, loyal company out there would do.  There's a lot of that going on in this country right now.

They do have good tires.  I bought them once at Costco I believe.

[Johnny Come Lately Name]

2 hours ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

on a higher plane

Heh. Unintentional pun.

[MickinMD ★]

3 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

A tidbit from the article:

It took Germany until 2000 to create a forced labour compensation fund which had paid more than 4.37 billion euros ($5.2 billion) to around 1.7 million victims by 2007. Contributors included Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank and Bayer.

I wonder why they didn't just "run out the clock" and claim no ties to the actions of their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, nor the cumulative benefits of immeasurable theft and ruthless murders.

Don't get too severe with past generations, otherwise the USA would have to give up a ton of land to Native Americans as well as the Southwest to Mexico, which was taken after the Mexican War that President Grant, who fought in it, called, the greatest injustice of a large power on a small power in history.

The English and Danes will have to give up England to Wales, the Turks will have to give up Constantinople and their Aegean Coast to the Greeks (it's still Constantinopolis on Greek maps), etc. etc. etc.

I think we've reached the point where things have gotten complicated.  For example, there have been movements to pay a fee to the descendants of former slaves in the USA. What about the descendants of the Chinese and Irish who worked and often died on the railroads for scandalously-low wages in the 1800's who received no benefit from pre-1860's slavery?

[Randomguy]

3 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Don't get too severe with past generations, otherwise the USA would have to give up a ton of land to Native Americans as well as the Southwest to Mexico, which was taken after the Mexican War that President Grant, who fought in it, called, the greatest injustice of a large power on a small power in history.

The English and Danes will have to give up England to Wales, the Turks will have to give up Constantinople and their Aegean Coast to the Greeks (it's still Constantinopolis on Greek maps), etc. etc. etc.

I think we've reached the point where things have gotten complicated.  For example, there have been movements to pay a fee to the descendants of former slaves in the USA. What about the descendants of the Chinese and Irish who worked and often died on the railroads for scandalously-low wages in the 1800's who received no benefit from pre-1860's slavery?

I agree, fuck it.  Reparations are stupid, you got ripped off and you just gotta deal.   If you don't get it in a few years, you gotta be stupid to expect it.  Every country has been conquered over and over, everybody has been enslaved, and none of it is exceedingly pleasant and nobody alive today was responsible for that old-timey crap.  Move along.

[ChrisL]

6 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

I agree, fuck it.  Reparations are stupid, you got ripped off and you just gotta deal.   If you don't get it in a few years, you gotta be stupid to expect it.  Every country has been conquered over and over, everybody has been enslaved, and none of it is exceedingly pleasant and nobody alive today was responsible for that old-timey crap.  Move along.

It’s easy to make these comments if you have never lost everything to an invading country.  My mom grew up with wealth & privilege and the Japanese took everything, including her dads life.  I bet my grandmother would have liked to have had her husband, home and her money back but it never happened.  

Yeah tuff luck move along is a bitter pill to swallow when it hits you personally.  I’d like the Japanese to pay my family back, apologize for killing both my grandfathers and nearly killing my dad.

 

.

 

[Randomguy]

3 hours ago, ChrisL said:

 I bet my grandmother would have liked to have had her husband, home and her money back but it never happened.  

Yeah tuff luck move along is a bitter pill to swallow when it hits you personally.  I’d like the Japanese to pay my family back, apologize for killing both my grandfathers and nearly killing my dad.

Well shit, I meant more the broader sense going way back.  I don't mean the sting isn't there from recent generations, it most certainly is, especially as you see how it affects you.  Still, you can't count on countries paying financial reparations, your only choice is to get past it.

As someone of Irish descent, they have been shit on by England in particular for multiples of hundreds of years, and a bunch of others besides.  not a unique story.  Just have to lump it, no way of chasing people down or saying sorry in any meaningful way.  The perps are dead and long gone, at least the architects of it are.