In a message dated 1/9/2000 9:37:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< Indeed, the Cologne plant proved to be so important to the Reich's war
effort
 that the Allies bombed it on several occasions.  >>


You didn't expect me to resist this one, did you?

I remember my father (who left Germany for Holland at the beginning of 1939,
and left Holland for the US in March 1940) saying that upon his return to
Germany in the spring of 1945 (courtesy of his then-employer, the US Army),
he was quite disgusted to see that Ford factories had not been bombed.

However, it gets messy.  Upon his demobilization in 1946, he was unable to
buy a Chevrolet, which I think he attributed to anti-Semitism on their
(dealer's?) part.  He subsequently bought Fords. When he went looking for a
van when they first came out in the early 60's, he didn't want a VW because
he said they were "too Nazi," and bought an Econoline (Ford).  In the early
70's when business was better, he bought himself a Mercedes, and a few years
later, another one.

Who could figure it out?

Ralph