Allianz one-time connection to Nazis? True?

[Oraisteach]

I happened to stumble upon a 2008 report about Allianz and their failed attempt to get naming rights for NY Jets/Giants stadium.  According to the article, "Allianz once insured Nazi death camps and refused to pay life insurance claims to its Jewish clients — instead granting the proceeds to the Nazis."  Does anyone know whether this is true or not, and if so why has no-one, to my knowlege, questioned their sponsorship of the GAA's NFL.  Should it even matter?

Link:  http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26664101/

[dec]

I would imagine that any current German company that started prior to 1933 would have some connection to the Nazis from the 1933-1945 period.

[Oraisteach]

I'd agree with you, dec, but there is a difference between having "some' connection to and doing what Allianz allegedly did, isn't there?  Our very own Pope Benedict was in the Hitler Youth, after all?

[armaghniac]

and refused to pay life insurance claims to its Jewish clients — instead granting the proceeds to the Nazis."

One imagines that they complied with the law of the period. In any case in what sense is Allianz now linked to then, other than the name. I imagine it doesn't have the same shareholders.

How many US companies had segregated facilities for people of different races during this period?

[Oraisteach]

Fair enough, armaghniac, but I'm not delighted by the Nuremburg defense of "I was just doing what I was told."  And you're no doubt right that today's company has nothing to do with its predecessor, but learning of its past conduct and the idea  that its modern financial health may well have been built on the back of Holocaust victims kind of sours me. 

As for American companies and their complicity with Jim Crow laws, if I knew who they were I'd probably sour on them too.  In fact, if I knew the truth about the rest of them, I'd probably never shop anywhere again and live off tree bark.  I wonder if anyone on here deliberately boycotts a company or store because of its labor practices, its political biases or its history.  For example, I wouldn't be exhilarated to buy a car from Prentices in Portadown, but maybe I'm way off on that too.

[Tonto]

For example, I wouldn't be exhilarated to buy a car from Prentices in Portadown, but maybe I'm way off on that too.
[/quote]
Read and inwardly digest http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/746750.stm

"In the statement Mr McPhilemy and Roberts Rinehart said they "accept that David and Albert Prentice are not and have never been members of a committee as described in the hardback and paperback editions of the work entitled The Committee Political Assassination in Northern Ireland, and in the press release associated with it."

[JimStynes]

Wasn't Hugo Boss the official tailors who kitted out all the SS uniforms?

[seafoid]

I happened to stumble upon a 2008 report about Allianz and their failed attempt to get naming rights for NY Jets/Giants stadium.  According to the article, "Allianz once insured Nazi death camps and refused to pay life insurance claims to its Jewish clients — instead granting the proceeds to the Nazis."  Does anyone know whether this is true or not, and if so why has no-one, to my knowlege, questioned their sponsorship of the GAA's NFL.  Should it even matter?

Link:  http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26664101/

I think in most cases where Jews had money denied in WW2 compensation has been paid  often unwillingly.  The Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein explains where the money  went . All I would say is that 200000 holocaust survivors live under the poverty line in Israel and many lawyers got rich . We are not a not very impressive species .

[Hardy]

I'd agree with you, dec, but there is a difference between having "some' connection to and doing what Allianz allegedly did, isn't there?  Our very own Pope Benedict was in the Hitler Youth, after all?

What has Pope Benedict go to do with the GAA?

[Tony Baloney]

BMW, Bosch, Siemens, Allianz all used forced labour in Nazi Germany. I doubt if they were given much choice.

[Oraisteach]

Hardy, didn't  you know that Benny lined out in goals for Armagh's AI-winning team?

[Oraisteach]

Well. Tonto, as I noted, I'm probably way off.  I wasn't even thinking of McPhelimy's book when I mentioned the Prentices.  My lack of gra for them derives from eons ago, back when the Model-T was wheeled out.  Always felt they had an affinity for things loyalist, not an endearing quality to a 15-yr-old popehead cycling the ten miles to have a dip in Portadown pool back in 1970.

Curiously enough, just this week, I was reading about the LVF and came across Jim Fulton, who, oddly enough, according to Wikipedia, that fountain of fact, was the son of Sylvia Prentice.  Odd coincidence.

Anyway, this Allianz topic is not something that has me raging like a banshee, but I was a little unsettled at the thought of companies acquiescing to, or worse, propping up, brutall regimes and was wondering if any on here boycott businesses because of their practices or affiliations, past or present.

And thanks, Tonto, for the suggestion that I inwardly digest because, frankly, I've been making a hell of a mess with that outward digestion habit of mine.

And thanks also to seafoid for that book recommendation--sounds like a good read.