Those of us Jews who choose to live the uncomfortable paradox of driving German cars can assuage our farfegnugen guilt in light of some information courtesy of Jonathan Katz of WeirdJews:
In looking at history it seems that the original plans for the VW Beetle were conceived and stolen from a Hungarian-born German Jew named Josef Gantz. The “volkswagen” or “people’s car” of Germany envisioned by Hitler circa 1933 was actually Gantz’ design (from 1928) that Ferdinand Porsche stole. Gantz actually coined the name ‘bug’ for the car, too…One can drive a Porsche or VW and know that the ingenuity and genius of the engineering design came from one of us.
Next time someone gives us sh*t about riding around on the blood of our ancestors, we’ll remember this. It’s true that VW used slave labor during Germany’s Nazi reign, but what about all the many Jews driving Mercedes, Porsches and BMWs? In this time of oil wars and union strikes, isn’t driving a car at all a contribution to global evil? Perhaps only by converting our beloved ’91 pop-top Vanagon into an environmentally-friendly biodiesel vehicle (30+ mph and 50% less emissions, yo!) could we bring this guilt trip to an end.
Yo, Yenta!
From the edge of the Diaspora rises a new generation of Jewish mother
Great post! Just this week on the Ed Shultz show (www.wegoted.com <-- shamless plug!) they had a big show on Bio Diesel, i didnt know you jamerica folks were into that stuff. BTW, its typical of those nazi's to take our ideas and labor. Good think Albert Einstein jumped ship when he did.
if hitler’s ‘grandpa’ could have invented something ‘good’ (as you all are aware that his grandpa was a jew) he would have stolen that idea also