OT: OMG! Jets/Giants to play in Nazi-Affiliated Stadium!!!(merged and moved)

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Re: OT: Giants and Jets consider naming rights of stadium to company tied to Nazis

My boss, who is Jewish, says he will never buy a Mercedes Benz becuase they profited from being a preferred supplier of vehicles to the Nazis. I guess the same could probably be said for almost any other German company in existance then and still around now.

My dad is a WWII vet and feels the same way (or even worse) about Mitsubishi, who of course manufactured the infamous Japanese Zero, used in kamakaze bombings.

I guess I can fault either one- I didn't suffer from losing ancestors to Hitler's brutality or watch fellow soldiers die in kamakaze attacks.

I am Jewish.

I won't buy a German car. My folks were disappointed when my sister bought a VW. But mom consumes a Bayer aspirin every day for her heart, and I worked for three years for a German company (in the US) that had made weapons during the war (and I used part of that money to buy a chevy that was made in Canada)

There was a great debate in 1960's in Israel over whether they would buy some German tanks. In the end they bought them because they needed the tanks and nobody else was willing to sell to them. W/o them Israel would have lost the 6 day war.

I saw more German cars in Israel when I visited (as a %) than I see in the US.

Personally I don't see a big deal in naming of the stadium. If some neo-Nazis had ponied up enough cash to name it Hitler memorial stadium it would be a different story.

If a couple of fans don't want to attend someone else will buy the tickets.

I won't buy a VW or Benz as a point of principle. But I don't refuse to ride in the car of friends who have them.

This seems a bit over the top to me.

 

[fourthandmiles]

Re: OT: OMG! Jets/Giants to play in Nazi-Affiliated Stadium!!!

If we are going to start talking ethics here, we can start with some of the energy companies here in the US and what they've done with toxic materials.

Seriously, people here need to get a clue on the situation and know what they are talking about before they open their trap.

The COMPANY was not responsible for the actions. The people in the company were. Its not like the COMPANY could tell its executives it didn't want to insure them. The EXECUTIVES are the company. And the executives of Allianz, who were responsible for the actions, have been dealt with. And Allianz, as a company, decided that to make things "right".

Thanks for the link DaBrinz. I truely had no clue. The only thing I could think of was life insurance. Say the guards having life insurance while working in a concentration camp. The irony of that.

I did see "Band of Brothers" I think it was two weeks before I felt "right" again. It was gut wretching. The townspeople seemed to have no clue that was going on. I have heard this from someone that lived in Germany at the time. They had no clue. I am sure that was the case of many people. Even the everyman at Allianz.

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: OT: Giants and Jets consider naming rights of stadium to company tied to Nazis

It's not a matter of boycotting German companies. It's actually simple. I would most definitely not want the New England Patriots to play football in a stadium that bears the name of a company that put an insurance policy on Auschwitz. That's all. Agree to disagree.

Its ignorance like this that is so mind-boggling. First of all, they didn't have a choice. They were in a country that MANDATED what they did during a time of war. They were going to insure it or the Reich was going to take the company over and insure it anyways. Secondly, one of the things that you'd learn if you did any sort of in depth study on WWII is that many of the German citizenry didn't KNOW that they were concentration camps at the time. As was noted, when one of their representatives went to Dachau, they were only shown the manufacturing facilities there. Not anything else.

Are you going to stop taking aspirin, driving on roads (the Germans perfected the mixture we know today as ashphalt), driving most cars (you can find many pieces that were made by German companies that go back to WWII)

And lastly, Allianz has taken up a MORAL obligation for what happened even though they didn't have a choice in the matter. They didn't have to do so. But they did and have done so and continue to do so.

Now, I don't blame WWII vets for feeling the way they do. They experienced it. They earned that right.


OH, btw, in your case, grizzafted, you are being a hypocrite because you aren't treating them all the same. Volkswagen, Mercedes, and BMW, had much more to do with the attrocities committed during WWII than Allianz ever did.

 

[JAYHAWKS34]

FYI

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/09/12/giants.jets.ap/index.html