Ecclestone comments anger Jews

Eurosport - Tue, 07 Jul 14:01:00 2009

Germany's Central Council of Jews has urged motor racing teams to boycott Formula One after its supremo Bernie Ecclestone praised Adolf Hitler's ability to "get things done".

FORMULA 1 Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone arrives in the paddock in Silverstone - 0

Ecclestone, 78, was quoted in The Times on Saturday as saying he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and as singling out Hitler for pushing things through effectively.

"No team should work with him any more - a boycott would be more than appropriate," said the Council's vice president, Dieter Graumann.

Graumann said Ecclestone was "either empty headed or unbelievably malicious - probably both" and said he risked driving the whole of Formula One into a wall.

Germany's Grand Prix takes place at the Nuerburgring this weekend.

"Just one week before the start of the Nuerburgring, the teams should make very clear that whoever praises Hitler, shows he is not serious," Graumann told Handelsblatt newspaper. The Council confirmed the quotes.

Ecclestone was quoted in The Times as saying: "In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done."

German media also reported that Guenther Oettinger, state premier of the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, had cancelled a planned meeting with Ecclestone on the sidelines of the Nuerburgring race because of his comments about Hitler.

Ecclestone tried to clarify his comments in top-selling Bild newspaper on Monday.

"It is all a big misunderstanding. In the interview we talked about structures and that it's sometimes good if something can be handled stringently and decided without limits," he said.

Asked by Bild why he had praised Hitler, Ecclestone said: "I did not mention Hitler as a positive example but I just pointed out that before his terrible crimes, he succeeded in fighting unemployment and the economic crisis."

Asked if he wanted to apologise, he said: "I would never dream of hurting the feelings of a community. A lot of people among my closest friends are Jews. Everyone that knows me, knows that I would never attack minorities."

Reuters

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  1. Its about time the Jewish community grew up, stopped­ jumping on the bandwagon of mis-representation and took­ a good long look at their own tolerance of other­ religions. Oh, and stop using the Holocaust to justify­ your anger.

    From Peter, on Thu 9 Jul 11:49PM
  2. It's really strange, I don't really know if­ Bernie's comments were taken out of context,­ something journalists excel at, or not. Yet, he­ shouldn't even so much as hint that hitler knows­ how to get things done, knowing that at 78, Bernie­ surely remembers the terrible sound of Hitler's­ V2's blindly falling on the heads of innocent­ civilians

    From smima1966, on Thu 9 Jul 11:21AM
  3. they will let this go and that bad when people die to­ free those country and for this man to use Hitler and­ Saddam Hussein in any form of racing is wrong!!!

    From raiders1, on Wed 8 Jul 6:31PM
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    YES

    From brucef1lee, on Tue 7 Jul 11:31PM
  5. Helen dear, you're wasting your breath. Mules­ don't understand history, they're too stupid.

    From owen gayer, on Tue 7 Jul 11:18PM
  6. .BMW board of directors must demand fromFamily Quandt­­­ that they handover their shares to the factoryworkers­­­ !!!
    Family Quandt got the money through warcrimes !!

    From Ape, on Tue 7 Jul 10:52PM
  7. the poisen demented dwarf has finally got his­ cumuppance !!
    hope you get what for you horrible­ little turd ,
    8 million jews suffered at hitlers reign­ , and having moseley at your side banging slags with­ his swasticker arm band , the pair of you want kicking­ out of the sport . And now with a little luck you will­ be !!

    From rock, on Tue 7 Jul 10:33PM
  8. well Francis if you have been following all the posts­ about this then you will have noticed that my posts­ (despite thumbs down) about the history do include the­ ideology that led to the problems and that it went­ across many countries I think so far I have named the­ UK USA Sweden and Austrailia as well as Germany. I have­ also clearly stated that its the views of the obnoxious­ man rather than a country and that he set about­ creating the situation where he could fulfil his­ vision.

    However that does not mean that this was a­ forum for discussing all aspects of conflict across the­ globe in the last 100 years, as the article was about­ the views of a man in F1 and no matter how many tinmes­ he tries to say he was misunderstood, and not­ considering the time of the holocaust and the killing­ of Jewish people (which rightly he was not) he misses­ the entire point that at that time Hitler was messing­ with the heads, minds and hearts of his own people and­ taking German lives at that point. Wider extermination­ was only possible in the war.

    So yes you are right­ there are many unpleasent conflicts and truths in­ history, but we were only concentrating on one because­ this is not a history forum but one concerning F1 and­ this was concerning the views of the owner of F1.

    From Ellie, on Tue 7 Jul 8:41PM
  9. and helen. if you dont believe me just look at the­ posts from that idiot ape. some where along the line­ his family tree musta tried the @#$% thing cause this­ clown is definately queer

    From Francis S, on Tue 7 Jul 8:24PM
  10. well hello darling . how are you. everyone got history­ behind them so if you are going to throw the stones­ than your going to get a few rocks throwed back at you.­ this kinda talk leads some people to think that all the­ germans are bad , or all the brits are bad or the irish­ . the favorite saying here last november was " get­ over it " . funny how the gang here dont seem to­ think that way about somethink 65 years ago .

    From Francis S, on Tue 7 Jul 8:21PM
  11. The Quandts, the documentary asserted, had close ties­ to high Nazi party officials. Adolf Hitler himself­ acted as witness to the second marriage ceremony of­ family patriach Gunther Quandt's first wife Magda­ to Nazi propoganda mastermind Joseph Goebbels, and the­ infamous couple raised Gunther's son Harald. The­ Quandts, according to the research, used the wealth­ amassed from the suffering of victims of the Nazi­ regime fifteen years after the war to buy BMW, and­ continues to hold 47% stake in the automaking­ conglomorate.

    From Ape, on Tue 7 Jul 7:35PM
  12. Filed under: Government/Legal, BMW,­ Earnings/Financials

    Documentary implicates BMW's­ controlling shareholders in War Crimes
    by Noah Joseph­ on Oct 25th 2007 at 7:01PM

    For those who missed the­ news, a documentary aired late last month at the­ Hamburg film festival and on German television in which­ the Quandt family, principal shareholders in BMW, have­ been implicated in Nazi war crimes stemming from the­ family's past during the Holocaust and concurrent­ Second World War.

    The result of five years of research­ into the Quandt family's wartime activities, The­ Silence of the Quandt Family asserts that Afa, the­ family's battery company that supplied specialized­ power cells and munitions to the Third Reich, employed­ slave labor provided by the Nazis. Documents unearthed­ as part of the research show that the company­ appallingly estimated that approximately 80 of its­ forced laborers would die each month at its factories.­ The film included testimonies from survivors who­ attested to the subhuman working and living conditions,­ as well as from former Nuremberg war-crimes prosecutors­ who asserted that, based on the evidence previously­ hidden by the Quandts and now revealed, the family­ would have been convicted of war crimes.

    From Ape, on Tue 7 Jul 7:33PM
  13. Francis S you know me, I support you learning proper­ gramma and all that, and I even have given you several­ thumbs up when I like what you say, but I will give you­ a thumbs down because there is no need to be­ deliberately provocative at this time. Now behave

    From Ellie, on Tue 7 Jul 5:45PM
  14. EGK Good posts.When I did A'Level History our class­ was told to read 5 books on a subject eg Lenin,Bismarck­ as history is still one authors interpretation.The­ problem is that history can be distorted as the Soviets­ did to give the impression of strength,or to protect­ certain politicians/generals reputations(quite a few­ documents on the First World War were lost during the­ Blitz,and were pieced together from overseas).The­ problem still remains that victorious nations dont tend­ to want to learn from history,whereas defeated nations­ have little to no choice such as Japan and­ Germany.Bernie is proving that using certain notorious­ people to back up a claim can backfire badly.

    From Rick Moth, on Tue 7 Jul 5:22PM
  15. my my my 1 thumbs down already . i guess you dont like­ admitting about yer own history .

    From Francis S, on Tue 7 Jul 5:02PM
  16. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    ireland, katholics , protestants , british soldiers,­ pubs ,

    From Francis S, on Tue 7 Jul 4:55PM
  17. Also, I don't know that much about history so­ it's been interesting reading all the threads. I­ didn't really pay much attention to it, it's­ not been my field and never will be to be honest. So­ please understand, as with every subject, not all the­ truths are in books, and not the whole story can be­ found in one, or many either.

    From EGK, on Tue 7 Jul 4:42PM
  18. Yes you are right, Japanese schools only returned to­ teaching school children the full extent of History­ within the last 10 years. But the information was­ available to university and research students. So not­ all was lost. But in the UK it was a blanket ban on any­ properganda insighting totalitarian ideals to work. So­ all books relating to that subject matter became­ increasingly hard to find, or read, and maybe nowadays­ are left to thought or assumed to be folk law!

    From EGK, on Tue 7 Jul 4:39PM
  19. EGK it is interesting what you say about Japan after­ the war. But weren't the details of Japanese­ cruelty suppressed after the war, so that Japanese­ school children growing up after the war had no idea­ what went on.

    I remember a poll carried out in the­ 1970s (if my memory serves) where quite a large group­ of Japanese children were asked: "If Japan went to­ war in the future then who would be the enemy?". ­ Now plenty of candidates in that part of the world -­ China (much more insular at the time) and N. Korea­ spring to mind. But no by a very large majority the­ children said the USA. On investigation it was­ ascertained that they believed this because the­ Americans had dropped the atomic bomb on Japan for no­ reason at all - just totally out of the blue.

    I think­ in one of the Anthony Beevor books he recounts the tale­ where an American officer is asked by a German Civilian­ (after the surrender) why did the Americans declare war­ on Germany!!!!

    These stories illustrate the power of­ propaganda.

    From B Mackenzie, on Tue 7 Jul 4:36PM
  20. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    It's a long way to Tipperary,
    It's a long way­ to go.
    It's a long way to Tipperary
    To the sweetest­ girl I know!
    Goodbye Piccadilly,
    Farewell Leicester­ Square!
    It's a long long way to Tipperary,
    But my­ heart's right there

    From Francis S, on Tue 7 Jul 4:27PM
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