Not true... they sold export vehicles early into about 1940 then stopped. The German government, however, took over Ford Germany and they never ceased production. But that was always a German Company with German management. And like Ford Canada or Ford UK, initially built licensed Ford cars, then started to branch out into market-specific offerings. After the war, most of the leadership of Ford DE argued that if they did not maintain production, they would have been killed. Which was true. Not sure if any went to prison. But would not surprise me either way.
That said, Henry Ford was to his eyeballs in supporting early Hitler... and his Dearborn Independent anti-Semitic newspaper and promotion of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion fueled many of Hitlers racial positions. Hitler gave Henry Ford a medal (which Ford returned in 1939 or 40) not long before he died. Henry Ford was far from the only American complicit in helping Hitlers rise and/or cheering it. Charles Lindbergh and Henry Perkins, the eugenacist we’re both right there.. and have buildings and airports named after them.
But it is a myth that Ford sold to Germany through the war. Or at least a glossing over the actual structure of Ford. GM was in the same boat, btw. Opel was GM Germany well before the war. And they supplied the Nazis too. And then there was Dr. Porsche... and all the French carmakers who kept producing...
For a good read on all the above, Douglas Brinkley Wheels For The World is a superlative history read. Also, Small Wonder, the history of VW.
Sirhr
PS. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a fabrication by the Czars secret police c. 1905 is still causing trouble in the world today. Marched into by Ford, serialized in the DI and printed and circulated in millions of copies, the Arab street today believes it to be holy writ. It is at the heart of many of the fires fueling middle east tensions, wars, entifadas and bloodshed. Selling some pos staff cars to the Nazis was small potatoes. Henry Ford helped turn 6 million innocent people into air pollution. And now his foundation is trying to do it all over again. What a legacy.