Yes, this statement is attributed to Henry Ford (1863–1947), the American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, who was a prominent 20th-century antisemite.
According to reports from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and other historical records, Ford made this claim while discussing the causes of war, specifically during the 1920s when he was aggressively promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Context of the ClaimThe Quote: "Get the fifty leading Jewish financiers of the world together and render their manipulations of money impossible, and all wars will cease. In no other way can peace be established".
Motivation: Following the failure of his "Peace Ship" mission during World War I in 1915, Ford developed a fixation that wars were not caused by political conflicts, but by a conspiracy of "international Jewish bankers" who profited from human destruction.
Publication: Ford bought The Dearborn Independent newspaper in 1918 and, from 1920 to 1922, published a series of articles entitled "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem," which argued that a small, secret group of Jewish financiers manipulated global finance and orchestrated wars.
Impact: Ford's views were highly influential and were cited by Adolf Hitler, who praised Ford in Mein Kampf and was the only American mentioned in the book.
Retraction
Although Ford published a formal apology in 1927, which was drafted by attorney Louis Marshall, to settle a libel suit brought by Aaron Sapiro, the anti-Jewish articles continued to be distributed worldwide.
