Book Reveals That Volkswagen's Beetle May Have Had Jewish Roots

The tale is intriguing: A Jewish engineer and journalist, whose designs and published work in the 1930s laid out the basics for the Volkswagen Beetle championed by Hitler, was arrested, chased from Germany and nearly airbrushed out of history.

The story of Josef Ganz is the result of more than five years of research by Paul Schilperoord, a Dutch technology journalist who is studying industrial design in Italy. The trove of documents and photographs he assembled form the basis of "The Extraordinary Life of Josef Ganz: The Jewish Engineer Behind Hitler's Volkswagen" (RVP Publishers, 2011).

 

Agent009 - 1/30/2012 11:10:08 AM

0 Boost

True... everybody needs to be a model citizen on this topic. (finger holding above ban button)

BrownsGoBack - 1/30/2012 4:03:35 PM

+1 Boost

Yeah, enough time hasn't gone by that it has all been sorted out by automotive historians. It's a big conspiracy.

aboodesta - 1/30/2012 5:24:20 PM

+1 Boost

o, the irony..

1c3am5 - 1/31/2012 1:35:42 PM

+1 Boost

The whole shape stolen from the production Chrysler Airflow of 1934 (which also experimented with the idea of a rear-engine).

_43LE - 1/31/2012 6:06:05 PM

+1 Boost

Wow, I wonder what Sporty Turbo, or whatever his name is now, would say about this? We know he just loves Jewish people, judging by what he said about them a while ago.