Company with Nazi Ties Interested in Giants/Jets's Stadium Naming Rights

As the Giants and Jets consider possible companies to buy naming rights to their new stadium, one serious suitor appears to be German insurance and financial services company Allianz. Some say a 30-year deal could go for $25 million. However, the NY Times' Richard Sandomir has an article about Allianz's "disturbing connections to Nazi Germany. Allianz insured facilities and personnel at concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau." It also refused to "pay off the life insurance policies of Jews, and sent cash that was due beneficiaries and survivors to the Nazis. It also became the insurer of Jewish valuables taken by the Nazis."

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By Jen Chung in News on September 10, 2008 6:18 PM

Comments [rss]

monday09

Nearly most of the companies, American and German, that were around during WWII had a hand in Nazi support.

The difference between now and then? The people that ran the companies then, aren't running them now.

Hugo Boss, IBM, Volkswagon and so many more. It would be different if the company was making statements that they still supported the Nazi movement, but they aren't.

Alot of companies made alot of bad decisions back then, no one else has any problem with buying a cute little VW bug with flowers in it and driving it around everywhere, which btw was designed specifically for Hitler.

Learn from the past and improve, and don't blame a child for its parents mistakes.

JMH

I'm more offended that they're selling naming rights ON TOP OF the ridiculous seat pricing scheme than about the particular company they chose.

smitty

ok, but the VW Jetta is a great little car.

ha

dkim2015

omfg... seriously let it go. the jews who boycott German goods because of OLD Nazi ties are biased and bigots. The NYTimes really writes a lot of shit. They need a freaking overhaul. Friedman can also take a flying fuck at the moon.

Bouncing Soul

So it is possible that football fans will be attending the Hitler Sports Complex Stadium or the Sieg Hiel Stadium?

matukonyc

I don't buy Volkswagens and I'm black... you know, when the history is so well known, is it so difficult to choose sides?

Snoopy

bsalamon, Henry Ford was a big time anti-semitic individual so cross off a Ford in your future. This whole Nazi thing is as stupid as all the Afro Americans wanting to get their fair share for being enslaved for hundreds of years.

My family had nothing to do with enslaving blacks eight generations ago or persecuting Jews three generations ago. GIVE IT UP ALREADY.

NannyState

...and who hasn't enjoyed many a pleasant evening at the Degesch Zyklon GiftGas Pavillion in Davenport Iowa or the ThyssenKrupp Center in Fort Wayne?

cofsnowdon

It's all wearing very thin, more than sixty years later. It was a long time ago. Many millions in reparations have been paid by insurers, including Allianz. As other commenters have noted, if you sever your ties with any company that did business with the Nazis, you're going to spend a lot of time at home in the dark. On your list of BMWs, VWs, and Mercedes, you have to add Fords, too, as they supplied the Germans. My apartment elevators are made by ThuyssenKrupp. Krupp made German bombs and tanks that were aimed at my grandfathers fighting in Europe. Do I boycott my elevator? What about IBM? The list goes on and on.

It's time to move on and worry about what appalling acts are going on in the world today, applying the lessons from the past. Never forget, maybe, but move on, for God's sake.

Toby von Meistersinger

bsalamon: You may want them to also add Ford and GM to that list, too.

matty

I want the pussycat dolls to do a rendition of "Springtime for Hitler" at the halftime show.

Roger McDowell

So we all agree, Eli Manning is a Nazi? So is Farve, fucking Nazis!

Future Taliban

Forgot about the freakin' Nazis. That was 60 years ago.

LET'S TALK ABOUT TODAYS NAZIS aka THE USA.

-Still invading countries under false pretenses.

-Managing concentration camps where people are held without rights.

-Applying & justifying torture techniques.

-Oppressing its non-white citizens thru selective racism.

I hope the day is near when NO ONE WILL WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THE USA.

NannyState

Allianz needs to own up finally to their dark past. That said, they presently have a decent enough record with their customers and business interests and have their name on the cool new soccer stadium in Munich...oops, I guess that means they're total Nazis.

bsalamon

same reason why no one in my family will ever own a VW, Benz or BMW

blablanyc

You can spell "All Nazi" with the letters in Allianz. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Barbj8

If you change the letters around it says 'All Nazi". Coincidence?

Snoopy

If one looked deeper into those insurance companies I am sure a Jewish name or two would show up.

nik13

Hugo Boss designed uniforms for Hitler's SS. Shouldn't that company pay up too?

I don't Jews should be driving German cars. Nor Japanese by reason of Japan being allied with Germany during WW2. American & Korean tin-boxes only.

peanuthead

who the F cares?!

1) what major german company dating to before wwII does not have nazi ties, and what is anyone to do about that?

2) what about the "bad ties" that american companies have? e.g. slavery, poor labor relations, eminent domain abuse, union busting, financing of oil wars and a whole slew o' proxy wars etc. etc.

oh right, its all the old jews and aipac who care.

fuck 'em!