Henry Ford's notorious anti-Semitic book The International Jew appears in its first German translation. It is simply a collection of anti-Semitic articles from his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, but its reception is tremendous. It may be difficult to underestimate the influence of Henry Ford on German anti-Semitism.
When he is put on trial in Nuremberg for war crimes, Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach will cite Ford as the origin of his becoming vicious anti-Semite:
"The decisive anti-Semitic book which I read at the time, and the book which influenced my comrades, was Henry Ford's book The International Jew. I read it and became anti-Semitic. This book made in those days a great impression on my friends and myself because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success, also the representative of a progressive social policy.
In the poverty-stricken and wretched Germany of the time, youth looked toward America, and, apart from the great benefactor Herbert Hoover, it was Henry Ford who, to us, represented America. ... If he said the Jews were to blame, naturally we believed him."
