Let's dispense with pleasantries: I am outraged. The Giants and Jets' new stadium is on track to be named after Allianz, a German insurance and finance company with strong Nazi ties. Now, let me be clear. I am Jewish and proud of it. But I am not of the mindset that no Jew should ever buy a German car or that today's Germany is an evil place with evil people. So when I first heard that a German company might be the namesake of the Giants' new stadium, I was more upset that a football stadium would be named after a non-American company than I was that it was, specifically, a German company. I really didn't give it much thought. Then I read about Allianz.
Saying that Allianz had some connection to the Holocaust would be like saying that the Giants had some connection to last year's Super Bowl. During the reign of the Third Reich, Richard Sandomir writes in today's New York Times, Allianz did the following: It "insured facilities and personnel at concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau. Kurt Schmitt, its chief executive in the 1930s, served as Hitler’s second economics minister and can be seen in a photograph from a rally wearing an SS-Oberführer’s uniform and delivering the Nazi salute with Hitler standing in front of him. Like other insurers in Germany at the time, Allianz followed anti-Semitic policies by terminating or refusing 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." This provokes feelings in me that are fifty times more potent than the "I won't buy a Volkswagon" argument. This would be New York's football teams playing under the banner of Holocaust enablers. And frankly, this should not fly.
Now, I know that Allianz is a different company today, with different executives, different workers, and newer policies that tend to frown on systematic murder. But despite the sixty years that have passed and despite the company's lukewarm attempts to compensate survivors, this is still an issue about which many people are rightfully very sensitive. The Giants and Jets need to respect that and think very carefully before they agree to this deal. These teams are seriously considering, and by all accounts are leaning toward, naming their new stadium after a company that was a willing participant and a direct beneficiary of genocide. Financially speaking, this may make the most sense. The teams are businesses and in business, the dollar trumps all. But football and sports in general aren't just about money - not to the millions of fans who make football such a deep part of their lives. To force fans to cheer their team in a stadium named for a company that enabled the Holocaust is cruel. It's disgusting, it's despicable, and it says exactly what the teams' owners think of their fans. What does this say to any Giants or Jets fan, let alone a Jew, a Holocaust survivor, or the families of victims? If they go through with this, they will have to deal with the fallout and last I checked, New York didn't exactly have a tiny Jewish population. I would have a very hard time rooting for a team that calls Allianz Stadium home. And I'm sure I'm not alone.
