======================================================================
=                       IBM_and_the_Holocaust                        =
======================================================================

                            Introduction
======================================================================
'IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany
and America's Most Powerful Corporation' is a book by investigative
journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic
technology services rendered by US-based multinational corporation
International Business Machines (IBM) and its German and other
European subsidiaries for the government of Adolf Hitler from the
beginning of the Third Reich through to the last day of the regime, at
the end of World War II when the US and Germany were at war with each
other.

Published in 2001, with numerous subsequent expanded editions, Black
outlined the key role of IBM's technology in the Holocaust genocide
committed by the German Nazi regime, by facilitating the regime's
generation and tabulation of punched cards for national census data,
military logistics, ghetto statistics, train traffic management, and
concentration camp capacity.


                              Summary
======================================================================
In the early 1880s, Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), a young employee at
the U.S. Census Bureau, conceived of the idea of creating readable
cards with standardized perforations, each representing specific
individual traits such as gender, nationality, and occupation. The
millions of punched cards created for the population counted in the
national census could then be sorted on the basis of specific bits of
information they contained--thereby providing a quantified portrait of
the nation and its citizens. A circuit-closing device was used to
electromagnetically record the data represented by the perforations.
The technology enabled searching for individuals using the traits as
search terms.

In 1910, the German licensee Willy Heidinger established the Deutsche
Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft (German Hollerith Machine
Corporation), known by the abbreviation "Dehomag". The next year,
Hollerith sold his American business to industrialist Charles Flint
(1850-1934) for  (equivalent to $ in ). The counting machine operation
was made part of a new conglomerate called the
Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). Flint chose Thomas J.
Watson (1874-1956), the star salesman of the National Cash Register
Corporation, to head the new operation. In 1923, the German licensee
Dehomag became a direct subsidiary of the American corporation CTR. In
1924, Watson assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of CTR and
renamed the company International Business Machines (IBM).

Black details an ongoing business relationship between Watson's IBM
and the emerging German regime headed by Adolf Hitler and his National
Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler came to power in
January 1933; on March 20 of that same year he established a
concentration camp for political prisoners in the Bavarian town of
Dachau, just outside the city of Munich. Repression against political
opponents and the country's ethnic Jewish population began
immediately. By April 1933, some 60,000 had been imprisoned. Business
relations between IBM and the Hitler regime continued uninterrupted in
the face of broad international calls for an economic boycott. Willy
Heidinger, who remained the chief executive of Dehomag, the German
subsidiary of which IBM owned 90%, was an enthusiastic supporter of
the Hitler regime.

On April 12, 1933, the German government announced plans to conduct a
long-delayed national census. The project was particularly important
to the Nazis as a mechanism for the identification of Jews, Roma, and
other ethnic groups deemed undesirable by the regime. Dehomag offered
to assist the German government in its task of ethnic identification,
focusing upon the 41 million residents of Prussia. This activity was
not only countenanced by Thomas Watson and IBM in America, Black
argues, but was actively encouraged and financially supported, with
Watson himself traveling to Germany in October 1933 and the company
ramping up its investment in its German subsidiary from 400,000 to
7,000,000 Reichsmark--about $1 million (equivalent to $ in ). This
injection of American capital allowed Dehomag to purchase land in
Berlin and to construct IBM's first factory in Germany, Black charges,
thereby "tooling up for what it correctly saw as a massive financial
relationship with the Hitler regime".

Black also cites documents regarding a "secret deal" that 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 U.S. market. The 1933
census, with design help and tabulation services provided by IBM
through its German subsidiary, proved to be pivotal to the Nazis in
their efforts to identify, isolate, and ultimately destroy the
country's Jewish minority. Machine-tabulated census data greatly
expanded the estimated number of Jews in Germany by identifying
individuals with only one or a few Jewish ancestors. Previous
estimates of 400,000 to 600,000 were abandoned for a new estimate of 2
million Jews in the nation of 65 million.

As the Nazi war machine occupied successive nations of Europe,
capitulation was followed by a census of the population of each
subjugated nation, with an eye to the identification and isolation of
Jews and Romani. These census operations were intimately intertwined
with technology and cards supplied by IBM's German and new Polish
subsidiaries, which were awarded specific sales territories in Poland
by decision of the New York office following Germany's successful
Blitzkrieg invasion. Data generated by means of counting and
alphabetization equipment supplied by IBM through its German and other
national subsidiaries was instrumental in the efforts of the German
government to concentrate and ultimately destroy ethnic Jewish
populations across Europe. Black reports that every Nazi concentration
camp maintained its own 'Hollerith-Abteilung' (Hollerith Department),
assigned with keeping tabs on inmates through use of IBM's punchcard
technology. In his book, Black charges that "without IBM's machinery,
continuing upkeep and service, as well as the supply of punch cards,
whether located on-site or off-site, Hitler's camps could have never
managed the numbers they did."

Major changes were made for the 2002 paperback editions on Three
Rivers Press/Time Warner Paperbacks, as well as the 2012 expanded
edition on Dialog Press. In the updated 2002 paperback edition, the
author included new evidence of the connection between IBM's United
States headquarters and its Polish subsidiary during Nazi occupation.
In 2012, Black published a second expanded revision with more
documents. The 2012 expanded edition provides 32 pages of new
photographic and documentary evidence.


IBM's post-invasion Polish subsidiary
=======================================
A revised 2002 paperback edition provides additional evidence that IBM
New York established a special subsidiary in Poland called Watson
Business Machines to deal with railway traffic in the General
Government. Edwin Black asserts that IBM did so after the September 1,
1939 Invasion of Poland by Germany, and continued this business
relationship during the Holocaust in Poland. Watson Business Machines
operated a punch card printing shop near the Warsaw Ghetto.

In a 2002 editorial in the 'SFGate', Black documented that this Polish
subsidiary reported to IBM Geneva which in turn reported to IBM New
York.  Black further states that IBM's European general manager
reported directly to Thomas Watson Sr., that some machines in Poland
were sent to Romania to assist in the Jewish census there, and that
these Polish machines were later replaced. In his book, Black quotes
Leon Krzemieniecki, the last surviving person involved in the
administration of the rail transportation to Auschwitz and Treblinka,
as stating he knew the punched card machines were not German machines,
because the labels were in English. Black details how income from the
machines leased in Poland was sent through Geneva to IBM in New York.


Ongoing sales
===============
Edwin Black details how IBM not only leased Nazi Germany the machines,
but then provided continuous maintenance service, and sold the spare
parts and the special paper needed for the customized punch cards.



After the publication of the 2012 expanded edition, he wrote for 'The
Huffington Post', "The punch cards, machinery, training, servicing,
and special project work, such as population census and
identification, was managed directly by IBM headquarters in New York,
and later through its subsidiaries in Germany, known as Deutsche
Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft (DEHOMAG), Poland, The Netherlands,
France, Switzerland, and other European countries." He added that the
punch cards bore the indicia of the German subsidiary Dehomag.


IBM's response
================
Though IBM has never directly denied any of the evidence posed by the
book, it has criticized Black's research methods and accusatory
conclusions. IBM claimed it does not have any other information about
the company during its World War II period or the operations of
Dehomag, as it argued most documents were destroyed or lost during the
war. IBM also claimed that an earlier dismissed lawsuit, initiated by
lawyers representing concentration camp survivors, was filed in 2001
to coincide with Black's book launch. Lawyers for the Holocaust
victims acknowledged the timing of the lawsuit to coincide with
Black's book release, explaining their public relations strategies
played an important role in their record of achieving Nazi-era
settlements totaling more than $7 billion without winning a judgment.

After the publication of Black's updated 2002 paperback edition, IBM
responded by stating it wasn't convinced there were any new findings
and there was no proof IBM had enabled the Holocaust. IBM rejected
Black's assertion that IBM was hiding information and records
regarding its World War II era. Several years previously, IBM had
given its corporate records of the period to academic archives in New
York and Stuttgart, Germany, for review by undefined "independent
scholars". In early 2021, Black published the 20th anniversary edition
with special public events and a syndicated article stating that in
twenty years, "not a comma has been changed", adding that "IBM has
never requested a correction or denied any facts in the book."


Wikipedia editing controversy
===============================
In 2010, Black reported on unidentified Wikipedia editors
marginalizing his research on IBM's role in the Holocaust. It is not
clear whether the editors involved were IBM employees, but Black
states that, "[they were] openly fortified by official IBM corporate
archivist Paul Lasewicz using his real name, and others"; Black
nevertheless calls Lasewicz a "man of integrity" and points out that
he deferred taking the lead because of potential conflict of interest
and then recused himself entirely.


Critical response
===================
The book was published on February 11, 2001, simultaneously in 40
countries in 14 languages, with numerous subsequent expanded editions,
and hundreds of published reviews in many languages have appeared. At
the first edition release in 2001, 'Newsweek' called the book
"explosive", adding, "backed by exhaustive research, Black's case is
simple and stunning. ... Black clearly demonstrates that Nazi Germany
employed IBM Hollerith punch-card machines to perform critical tasks
in carrying out the Holocaust and the German war effort ... Black
establishes beyond dispute that IBM Hollerith machines significantly
advanced Nazi efforts to exterminate Jewry." In 2003, the American
Society of Journalists and Authors acknowledged 'IBM and the
Holocaust' with its award for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Richard Bernstein, writing for 'The New York Times Book Review' about
the original 2001 first edition, said "Edwin Black makes a copiously
documented case for the utter amorality of the profit motive and its
indifference to consequences" but that Black's case "is long and
heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that IBM bears
some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done". In
a 2001 review in the 'Los Angeles Times', historian and UCLA professor
Saul Friedlander wrote, "The author convincingly shows the relentless
efforts made by IBM to maximize profit by selling its machines and its
punch cards to a country whose criminal record would soon be widely
recognized. Indeed, Black demonstrates with great precision that the
godlike owner of the corporation, Thomas Watson, was impervious to the
moral dimension of his dealings with Hitler's Germany and for years
even had a soft spot for the Nazi regime."

In another review of the first edition, David Cesarani of Southampton
University stated that Black provided "shocking evidence" that IBM in
America continued to provide punch cards and other services to the
Nazis "in defiance of Allied regulations against trading with the
enemy." In a 2001 review of the first edition in 'The Atlantic', Jack
Beatty wrote, "This is a shocking book ... Edwin Black has documented
a sordid relationship between this great American company and the
Third Reich, one that extended into the war years." Robert Urekew's
review in the 'Harvard International Review' stated: "Black's
meticulous documentation reveals an undeniable fact: after the
outbreak of the World War II, the IBM corporation knew the whereabouts
of each of its European-leased machines, and what revenues it could
expect from them."

After the updated paperback edition in 2002, Oliver Burkeman wrote for
'The Guardian', "The paperback provides the first evidence that the
company's dealings with the Nazis were controlled from its New York
headquarters throughout the second world war." Sam Jaffe in
'Businessweek' wrote: "With exhaustive research, Black makes the case
that IBM and Watson conspired with Nazi Germany to help automate the
genocide of Europe's Jews." Reuters reported in 2002 that historians
on Black's research team stated the paperback edition had used newly
discovered Nazi documents and Polish eyewitness testimony to link
IBM's U.S. operations directly to the Third Reich operations in
Poland. Several reviewers publicly retracted their negative reviews,
with signed written apologies and donations to Holocaust museums,
including reviewers in 'The Jerusalem Report', 'Nature Magazine',
'AudioFile' magazine, 'Annals of the History of Computing', and the
World Association of International Scholars.


                       Related legal actions
======================================================================
In February 2001, an Alien Tort Claims Act claim was filed in U.S.
federal court against IBM for allegedly providing the punched card
technology that facilitated the Holocaust, and for covering up German
IBM subsidiary Dehomag's activities. There was no evidence in the suit
that IBM officials in New York explicitly ordered that technology be
supplied to the Nazis with the understanding it would be used in
concentration camps; however, lawyers representing victims of Nazi
oppression claimed Dehomag's founder Heidinger expressed pride in
giving Hitler data that could be used in "corrective interventions",
and pledged to "follow his orders blindly". In April 2001, the lawsuit
was dropped after lawyers feared the suit would slow down payments
from a German Holocaust fund for Holocaust survivors who had suffered
under Nazi persecution. IBM's German division had paid $3 million into
the fund, while clearly avoiding admission of liability.

In 2004, the Roma human rights organization Gypsy International
Recognition and Compensation Action (GIRCA) filed suit against IBM in
Switzerland. However, the case was dismissed in 2006 under the
relevant statute of limitations. The Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) said in a 2015 unrelated lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court
against IBM, "We point out the disturbing parallels between IBM's
actions 'vis-à-vis' South Africa and Nazi Germany: IBM New York
purposefully 'facilitated gross human rights abuses by the Third
Reich.'"


                              See also
======================================================================
* Alfred P. Sloan
* Final Solution
* Henry Ford
* James D. Mooney
* Identification in Nazi camps
* List of international subsidiaries of IBM


                           External links
======================================================================
*
*
[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ibm-and-quot-death-s-calculator-quot-2
Excerpt from "IBM and the Holocaust" with photo of Hollerith machine],
Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved July 16, 2010.


License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust