General Motors and the Nazis: The Struggle for Control of Opel, Europe's Biggest Carmaker

General Motors and the Nazis: The Struggle for Control of Opel, Europe's Biggest Carmaker by Turner, Henry Ashby. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780274743209.

This book the first ever based on unrestricted access to General Motors internal records documents the giant American corporations dealings with the Third Reich. GM purchased Opel Europes largest automaker in the 1920s and continued to hold it through the Second World War. Historian Henry Ashby Turner Jr. uncovers the fascinating story of how the American carmaker conducted business in Germany under the Nazi regime and explores larger issues concerning the relations between international corporations and the Third Reich. The book presents new and detailed information about General Motors interactions with Hitler and other Nazi officials including the carmakers attempt to capture the Volkswagen project. It also reveals how American GM executives thwarted a sustained Nazi effort to gain control of Opel. The author concludes with an assessment of the extent of the companys implication through Opel in the Nazi war effort and in the exploitation of forced labor.