3 ms·
I remember reading this book when it came out in 2002 and the expanded version in 2012. It made a largely circumstantial case for IBM's involvement in the holo
by Aloha 2y ago
I remember reading this book when it came out in 2002 and the expanded version in 2012.
It made a largely circumstantial case for IBM's involvement in the holocaust.
Yes - the following things are true:
* Germany used IBM Tabulating Equipment to compile its racial census.
* Deutsch Reichsbahn used IBM Punched Card equipment to run most of its operations.
* The German Government made extensive use of IBM Punched Card equipment to track prisoners, including in the concentration camps.
Beyond those three facts the case is basically circumstantial - Black made a bunch of suppositions when drawing his conclusions -
* IBM New York knew all of the particulars of use of its tabulating equipment, and what the outcomes would be.
* IBM New York had defacto continuing control of its german subsidiary (Dehomag) even after it was functionally nationalized.
* IBM New York provided technology and parts thru IBM Geneva.
* Profits from Dehomag were funneled thru IBM Geneva to IBM New York.
* Most glaringly, he asserts that IBM Punched Card technologies were the only way to do what Nazi Germany did at the scale it did it at.
However he makes the assertions without much backing evidence for it, and its all clouded in an aura of leading purple prose.
This article presents a pretty concise version of the gaping flaws in the book - https://muse.jhu.edu/article/33853 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/33853
Most notably, the book leaves out important context - even if everything he supposed about IBM were true, what IBM did wasn't unique, it was common corporate practices at the time, indeed, many american corporations had similar subsidiaries, all of whom at a minimum contributed to the german war effort.
- belligeront 2y agoHe claimed in 2002, after the book was published, to have found additional evidence that IBM established a Polish subsidiary after Germany invaded Poland to sell machines to the Nazi government. https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/The-business-of-making-the-trains-to-Auschwitz-2821685.php https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/The-business-of-makin...
- chasil 2y agoThough I also read the book, I don't remember the details of DEHOMAG control via Switzerland, but I would be surprised if there wasn't a paper trail of directives from Armonk, NY via the Swiss to maximize DEHOMAG's market. I do remember that Coca-Cola in Germany was not able to use the formula for the eponymous soft drink, and developed Fanta during this time. I do not imagine that much secrecy in tabulating machines was present. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehomag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehomag Looking over the DEHOMAG wiki, there are some curious facts... "Watson had received Order of the German Eagle medal at the Berlin ICC meeting in 1937, but after Nazis' pogroms against Jews started in 1938 Watson himself wanted to distance himself and IBM from Germans but was convinced not to do so by Secretary of State Hull and he gave up the idea until spring of 1940. "Leon Krzemieniecki, the last surviving person involved in the administration of the rail transportation to Auschwitz and Treblinka, stated he knew the punched card machines were not German machines, because the labels were in English. Income from the machines leased in General Government was sent through Geneva to IBM in New York."
- Aloha 2y agoThe issue is, there isn't a paper trail - now TJ Watson wasn't a big leaver of paper either. He learned at working at NCR - but this was an era when international phone calling was prohibitive.
- rexpop 2y ago> even if everything he supposed about IBM were true, what IBM did wasn't unique Not only an ethically irrelevant assertion, but additionally a scientifically irrelevant assertion: one cannot be expected to research all subjects in all contexts. Black investigated the subject for which he had observations. The rest is up to the rest of us.