← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 8626 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-07-31
2003-07-31 18:32 | User Profile
I know you're right Mr. Raub. Hang in there buddy, we know you were right.
[SIZE=3]Bank apologises for praising Hitler [/SIZE] [img]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39345000/jpg/_39345541_hitler_203.jpg[/img]
Germans worked hard for Hitler, the bank argued
A Chicago bank has apologised after praising Adolf Hitler as a great economic leader. Glenview State Bank said it had received "many letters and calls" from people offended by its July economic newsletter, which credited sound economic policies for the German boom of the 1930s - a decade when most economies were in severe depression.
The Anti-Defamation League formally complained about the report - written by Glenview president Dave Raub - and called its positive portrayal of Hitler "deeply disturbing".
"We sincerely apologise for this error. We did not intend to offend anyone. Please forgive us for this mistake," the bank wrote in an apology posted on its website.
Hard work
In defending Hitler, Glenview was seeking to make a serious economic point.
During the 1930s, Germany poured money into capital projects - town-planning, road-building, armaments production and so on - which contributed to a huge economic upswing and the near-disappearance of unemployment.
In his report, Mr Raub argued that Hitler infused confidence into German workers, making them "work harder than anyone else in Europe".
This performance, he said, was in sharp contrast to the dramatic slumps endured by Germany's adversaries, especially the United States.
'An insult to millions'
The Anti-Defamation League, however, thoroughly demolished the pro-Hitler argument.
Much of the hard work of Nazi Germany, it pointed out, was at the hands of unpaid slave labourers.
And the perceived upswing was at least partly produced by manipulating the economy: Jews and other persecuted groups were not counted in the unemployment statistics, and women were encouraged to marry and leave the workforce.
More to the point, the league said: "to write of Hitler without the context of the millions of innocents brutally murdered and the tens of millions who died fighting against him is an insult to all of their memories."
The league appreciated that Glenview had quickly retracted and apologised for the report, and urged the bank to build on it as a "teachable moment".
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3112611.stm]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3112611.stm[/url]
2003-07-31 20:40 | User Profile
There were no "millions of slave laborers" in Germany in the 1930s, when the German economic miracle was the envy of the world. On the contrary, the German recovery was accomplished despite both a world depression and a growing international freezeout of Germany and German goods by world Jewry.
Let's face it, if you publicly announced Hitler loved dogs, some braying 10-5-W would be demanding a retraction, read by Lassie herself on national television . These same people - who insist to this day that the American 50s were a nightmare of national psychosis and repression - are the only ones administering compulsory loyalty oaths that I can detect. And Lord help the hardheaded dissident! You'd have a far easier time of it if you'd told McCarthy and Kefauver to go f**k themselves 50 years ago than if you said likewise to B'nai B'rith and the ADL today, in these enlightened times we're lucky to live in.
2003-08-09 18:38 | User Profile
Here's an update on the story of the Chicago area banker who praised Hitler's economic policies:
Bank president who lauded Hitler on economy resigns
August 8, 2003
BY TAMMY CHASE Business Reporter Advertisement
The president of Glenview State Bank, who caused controversy last week after promoting Adolf Hitler as an economic leader, stepped down this week from his post because of the fervor his comments raised among customers and members of Chicago's Jewish community.
David Raub told bank owners John Jones and Jones' son Paul Jones that he would voluntarily step down, the bank said. Paul Jones will become president of the bank, and Raub will be senior executive vice president of the bank's trust department, the bank said in an announcement Thursday.
"We believe this action will allow us to move forward, and continue our tradition of providing quality service to our customers and supporting worthy causes in our community," John Jones said in a statement.
The Hitler remarks appeared in a monthly newsletter Raub wrote for the bank's trust customers. In a 1,500-word document, Raub wrote: "The Great Depression of the 1930s saw falling prices, staggering unemployment and shattered stock markets all over the world, and the world's leading statesmen seemed helpless to defeat it. Except for one. His name was Adolph Hitler."
Last week, Raub said he often uses economic history to discuss the outlook for the economy and markets today.
Those newsletters, which Raub had said he had written for 15 years, will cease "temporarily," said David Kreiman, vice president and director of marketing. Kreiman said the Jones family did not ask Raub to step down, though they did not disagree with Raub's decision to do so.
Last week the Anti-Defamation League asked the bank to apologize for the July newsletter, which had appeard on the bank's Web site until a week ago.
The league said it had received complaints about newsletter's content, in particular its lionizing of Hitler with no mention of "his great policies of virulent anti-Semitism, racism and genocide," League director Richard Hirschhaut wrote. The letter did not ask for Raub's resignation.
Shoshana Buchholz-Miller, the league's associate director, said her agency did not seek the resignation, saying the league "felt that was a decision the bank should make."
The bank posted an apology on its Web site (www.gsb.com) a little more than a week ago, and said at the time that Raub would remain president. By last Tuesday, however, Raub had told employees of his decision to step down.
A bank employee said Raub was on vacation and was not available for comment.
[url=http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-glen08.html]Bank President Who Lauded Hitler on Economy Resigns[/url]
This reminds me of how the Austrian Jorg Haider was always lambasted for praising Hitler's unemployment policies. The only support for Haider's position that I recall reading in the mainstream press was from Alexander Cockburn in THE NATION.