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It’s JUST Business – IBM and the HOLOCAUST
IBM had continuous business relationship between Watson's IBM and the Nazi Germany headed by Adolf Hitler and his cronies.
The establishment of Concentration camps
The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime. After Hitler came into power concentration camp was established in Bavarian town of Dachau. The Nazis were very methodical in getting rid of ethnically inferior races from the face of the earth. An extensive filing and listing process was launched to account for each and every head its ancestry, recording every single bit of detail even to the extent of physical features. Witch-hunt of the political opponents and the country's substantial ethnic Jewish population began at once. By April 1933, some 60,000 had been imprisoned.
The role of IBM
IBM right from the start gave an extensive sales pitch to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in how the IBM system can help them in their noble cause, readable cards with standardized perforations, each representing specific individual traits such as gender, nationality, and occupation. The millions of cards created for each individual counted in the national census could then be sorted and resorted on the basis of specific bits of information they contained — thereby providing a quantified portrait of the nation.
Despite the violent and repressive climate emerging in the new ultra-nationalist Germany, business relations between IBM and the Hitler regime continued uninterrupted in the face of broad international calls for an economic boycott. Indeed for, Willy Heidinger, (who remained in control of Dehomag (IBM), the 90%-owned German subsidiary of IBM) it made great business sense.
Ethnic identification
On April 12, 1933, the German government announced the plans to immediately conduct a long-delayed national census. The project was particularly important to the Nazis as a mechanism for the identification of Jews, Gypsies, and other ethnic groups deemed undesirable by the regime. Dehomag (IBM)offered to actively assist the German government in its task of ethnic identification, concentrating first upon the 41 million residents of Prussia.
American and IBM executives travelled to Germany in October 1933 – surprise surprise IBM ramped up its investment in its German subsidiary from 400,000 to 7,000,000 reichsmarks — about $1 million. American capital allowed IBM to purchase land in Berlin and to construct IBM's first factory in Germany.
Edwin Black in his book ‘IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black (13 Mar 2008)’ describes this as "tooling up for what it correctly saw as a massive financial relationship with the Hitler regime."
0914153102 Amazon books.
Black also asserts that a "secret deal" was made between Heidinger and Watson during the latter's visit to Germany which allowed Dehomag commercial powers outside of Germany, enabling the "now Nazified" company to "circumvent and supplant" various national subsidiaries and licensees by "soliciting and delivering punch card solution technology directly to IBM customers in those territories." As a result, Nazi Germany soon became the second most important customer of IBM after the lucrative US market, Black notes
Edwin Black
Syndicated columnist, and journalist specializing in the historical interplay between economics and politics, Middle East and WWII historian, investigative journalist and Author.
His parents were ethnic Jews from Poland, survivals of the genocide committed by fascist Nazis and its allies. His mother survived the Holocaust in Aug 1943 (12 years old girl at that time) by jumping out of the moving vehicle in which her family was being taken to Treblinka extermination camp. Black’s father escaped a mass shooting pit. Both survived World War II by hiding in the forests of Poland for two years.
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All is fair in Love and War but more importantly in Business.
IBM had continuous business relationship between Watson's IBM and the Nazi Germany headed by Adolf Hitler and his cronies.
The establishment of Concentration camps
The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime. After Hitler came into power concentration camp was established in Bavarian town of Dachau. The Nazis were very methodical in getting rid of ethnically inferior races from the face of the earth. An extensive filing and listing process was launched to account for each and every head its ancestry, recording every single bit of detail even to the extent of physical features. Witch-hunt of the political opponents and the country's substantial ethnic Jewish population began at once. By April 1933, some 60,000 had been imprisoned.
The role of IBM
IBM right from the start gave an extensive sales pitch to Hitler’s Nazi Germany in how the IBM system can help them in their noble cause, readable cards with standardized perforations, each representing specific individual traits such as gender, nationality, and occupation. The millions of cards created for each individual counted in the national census could then be sorted and resorted on the basis of specific bits of information they contained — thereby providing a quantified portrait of the nation.
Despite the violent and repressive climate emerging in the new ultra-nationalist Germany, business relations between IBM and the Hitler regime continued uninterrupted in the face of broad international calls for an economic boycott. Indeed for, Willy Heidinger, (who remained in control of Dehomag (IBM), the 90%-owned German subsidiary of IBM) it made great business sense.
Ethnic identification
On April 12, 1933, the German government announced the plans to immediately conduct a long-delayed national census. The project was particularly important to the Nazis as a mechanism for the identification of Jews, Gypsies, and other ethnic groups deemed undesirable by the regime. Dehomag (IBM)offered to actively assist the German government in its task of ethnic identification, concentrating first upon the 41 million residents of Prussia.
American and IBM executives travelled to Germany in October 1933 – surprise surprise IBM ramped up its investment in its German subsidiary from 400,000 to 7,000,000 reichsmarks — about $1 million. American capital allowed IBM to purchase land in Berlin and to construct IBM's first factory in Germany.
Edwin Black in his book ‘IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black (13 Mar 2008)’ describes this as "tooling up for what it correctly saw as a massive financial relationship with the Hitler regime."
0914153102 Amazon books.
Black also asserts that a "secret deal" was made between Heidinger and Watson during the latter's visit to Germany which allowed Dehomag commercial powers outside of Germany, enabling the "now Nazified" company to "circumvent and supplant" various national subsidiaries and licensees by "soliciting and delivering punch card solution technology directly to IBM customers in those territories." As a result, Nazi Germany soon became the second most important customer of IBM after the lucrative US market, Black notes
Edwin Black
Syndicated columnist, and journalist specializing in the historical interplay between economics and politics, Middle East and WWII historian, investigative journalist and Author.
His parents were ethnic Jews from Poland, survivals of the genocide committed by fascist Nazis and its allies. His mother survived the Holocaust in Aug 1943 (12 years old girl at that time) by jumping out of the moving vehicle in which her family was being taken to Treblinka extermination camp. Black’s father escaped a mass shooting pit. Both survived World War II by hiding in the forests of Poland for two years.
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All is fair in Love and War but more importantly in Business.
