After I first dropped out of college, I worked for a few years as a historic archeologist, under the direction of a character named Ed Rutsch. Ed, a former President of the American Society of Industrial Archaeologists, wasn’t just a brilliant historian, and an accomplished archeologist, but a good friend. He was also funny as hell. I should probably write an entire post about Ed one day, but, for now, I’ll just say that he was a larger-than-life character, and leave it at that. Anyway, one day, over drinks, I told Ed that I was thinking about moving to Michigan. Without missing a beat, he said, “You should go check out Hitler’s boyhood home. Henry Ford moved it there.”
I, of course, had heard that Henry Ford, the father of the automotive industry, admired Adolph Hitler. I knew that Hitler famously said of Ford, “I regard (him) as my inspiration.” I also knew that Ford, who was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle by Hitler, had some connection to the anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” But, I’d never heard anything about a house.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Ford was a collector of buildings. On his property, called Greenfield Village, he assembled over 100 buildings by the time he died. Among them are the Wright brother’s Dayton bicycle shop, and Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory. (He also has a glass tube said to contain Thomas Edison’s dying breath… the collection of which I think must have been quite awkward.) Ed told me all of this, and suggested I go and visit. And, there, among all the other buildings, he told me that I’d see Hitler’s home. (I can’t recall if he said it was Hitler’s birthplace, or childhood home, but it was one or the other.) He said it was, for obvious reasons, unmarked.
I didn’t push Ed for details at the time. I half thought, as I still do, that he was pulling my leg, but it’s still something that has been rolling around in my head for the last 20 years. Unfortunately, Ed passed away about five years ago, so I guess I’ll never know if he was being serious. Given Ford’s admiration for Hitler, and the fact that he bought up property associated with everyone else that he idolized, however, it certainly seems plausible. I guess that’s what makes a good urban myth. The weird thing is, I’ve never heard about this from anyone else, and I’ve been talking to people about it for several years now. I’ve even asked a few people at Greenfield Village. They all tell me that they’d never heard the rumor, but that, knowing Ford, they suppose it could be true. Right now, I guess I’m about 40% convinced. I’d be more certain, if not for the fact that none of the 100 buildings appear on the surface to have housed the boy F
13 Comments
Out of 100 buildings, the “Swiss” chalet is the only home at Greenfield Village that isn’t credited to an actual person or place…
The Swiss Chalet was built with plans provided by Cartier, so the story goes, to simulate a watchmaker’s home and place of business. Sure.
I’ll bet there’s an A.H. carved with a little boy’s penknife somewhere in or around that building.
O.E.C. smells a rat … or perhaps he has been reading “MAUS.”
They do serve a delicious Führerfurter in their cafe.
I have a relative who worked there for several years. She never heard of it.
You’d be smart to stop this crusade. You may not like where it leads. If you must go on though, please don’t start asking questions about the museum’s ovens. You don’t want to know.
I cannot reveal my sources, but what you suspect is true, although lacking in specifics. Ford did transplant the boyhood home of Hitler to Michigan. However, the boyhood home you’re searching for is much older and more significant than you suspect.
As you may know, Edsel, was a profound disappointment to the Fords. A fervent, albeit occasionally misguided, believer in both modern science and genetics, HF secretly had the remains of Klara Polzl Hitler exhumed and her womb (it being the original boyhood home of Hitler) removed and transplanted into Clara Ala Bryant, Ford’s wife.
Far less known, is that extremely late in life, Clara miracously conceived and bore Ford a second son, birthed with Ford’s genes and delivered from Hitler’s womb. The post-war details of the pregnancy and birth were hidden from the public, as Hitler’s popularity had a rather sharp, post-war decline in the states.
In short, your friend was right, Hitler’s earliest boyhood home is in Michigan, now resting with Clara in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.
Oh, and Ford’s dad was a watchmaker. That’s why he built that Swiss thingy.
And Caution is right, this isn’t a path you want to go any further down. I’ve said too much alr
According to the Wikipedia entry on Henry Ford, at the age of 80, he was shown film of a German concentration camp. There wasn’t any context given. My guess is that someone in our government showed it to him, in hopes that it would change his mind. I wonder if it did.
Many people don’t know it, but Hitler’s mother’s womb also served as the world’s first automotive airbag. Ford would smash his Model T into things just so that he could fly into it’s soft, warm embrace.
hitler sucks
ballzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
ballzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I would pay top dollar for video confirmation of this, Mr. Magnum.
We should all learn a lesson here from pimp magnum’s courage and take a stand against fascism.
Post a Comment