So I’ve heard this about several different companies. What I’ve never heard is if the companies, such as Ford in this case, actually received any of the funds associated with those factories or if the government got them at cost or appropriated profits or required profits to be kept in-country. Does anyone know?
They couldn’t repatriate the profits until after the war. I think they also got some reparations ($1.1 million) from the US taxpayers because of bombs that missed their targets and damaged Ford assets. Earlier, they had gotten similar payments from the Nazi government.
From the Washington Post:
“Spellich said that company historians are still researching this issue but have found documents showing that, after the war, American Ford received dividends from its German subsidiary worth approximately $60,000 for the years 1940-43.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm
($60,000 in 1943 would be worth about $835,328.32 now - not huge profits, but better than a hole in the ground. Added to the $1.1 million, that would be roughly $2 million in income from their Nazi operations)
Ford also had facilities in France that were used to produce trucks for the Nazis. I’ve never come across any information on how that income might have been treated - I think it was run through the Koeln offices.
You can keep your overhead down when you use slave labor.