Edwin Black (1950--) IBM and the Holocaust (2001).
The strategic alliance between Nazi Germany and America's most powerful corporation.
To my daughter, Rachel, who will read this book, and to six million who will not.
Part Three. XV. The Spoils of Genocide, II
...When the U.S. military formed its Machine Record Units (MRU), IBM employees, or those IBM had trained, became the backbone of the elite MRU forces. IBMers also commanded in other key areas, especially in administrative units, where their experience would be instrumental. In the minds of many of these men, unswerving loyalty to Thomas Watson and devotion to IBM was completely consistent with military discipline in the field and loyalty to the Allied cause. As a result, when IBM Soldiers happened upon Dehomag equipment and factories, they did not see evidence of a war crime to docket or a key Nazi industrial installation to capture. They saw something inspiring and beloved that needed protect
...Dehomag, the Berlin company so integral to the Hitler war machine, was never treated as an enemy entity. It was welcomed back as a precious American interest and still under the control of Thomas J. Watson.
...Military law No. 52 was a problem.
Article I stated: "All property in occupied territory is subject to seizure of possession or title of management, supervision or otherwise, which is owned or controlled in any way by: (a) The German Reich or any sub division or agency thereof; (b) any Governments or nationals at war with the United Nations at anytime since September 1, 1939; (c) the outlawed NSDAP . . . or its agencies; (d) persons held by Military Government under detention."
Dehomag qualified on all accounts. It was controlled by known Nazis, Heidinger and Rottke, who also owned 10 percent of the shares. Rottke and Hummel had been arrested for their Nazi affiliations. The company's Board of Directors since 1941 was completely Nazified. As part of the war machinery, Dehomag was under the jurisdiction of the Maschinelles Berichtwesen, a wartime agency.
Chauncey had reviewed a summary of Military Law No. 52 and other Allied decrees as early as May 21, 1945. IBM sought to be carved out of the sphere of culpability and absorbed into the apparatus of victory. It wanted restitution for its war-damaged property, not to become a candidate for reparations. IBM did not want to join the roster of all those deemed part of what was termed "Nazi conspiracy and aggression." Fortunately for IBM, there seemed to be a concerted effort to keep Watson and the company out of the reparations discourse.
...IBM's view held that even if their machinery and corporate acumen had helped organize and optimize the Third Reich's aggression, they should be held exempt-ipso facto-by virtue of its American ownership. The company contended that its Nazi payments were protected revenues.
However, the prevailing thought among the Allies and those who demanded justice was that all in government and the private sector who helped Hitler destroy Europe and commit genocide should be held accountable in war crimes. Their war gains and economic wherewithal were not sacrosanct. Rather, they should be sacrificed as reparations to the victims-nations and individuals both. Whether dressed in jackboots and swastikas, or suit and tie, accountability was demanded. Indeed, the world understood that corporate collusion was the keystone to Hitler's terror. Businessmen who cooperated with Hitler were considered to be war criminals or "accessories to war crimes."
...Indeed, the trial process was slowed by the necessity of translating all documents, exhibits, and testimony into several languages of the war crime tribunal: French, Russian, German, and English. Justice Jackson turned to a newly invented process called "simultaneous translation." One company reviewed all the evidence and translated it not only for real time usage at the trial proceedings, but for posterity. That company was International Business Machines. It made the final translated record of all evidence back and forth from French, Russian, German, Polish, and English. Watson offered to undertake the massive evidence handling free of charge.
...Many wealthy men stood in the dock at Nuremberg. Publishers, financiers, bankers, and industrialists were summoned to account for their commerce. Hjalmar Schacht himself, former president of the Reichsbank and out of power for years, although ultimately acquitted, was forced to explain his involvement at the bar of justice.
But it was a far different story for IBM. It seemed to be immune from the debate itself. Every bloodstain and barracks blueprint in the camps was examined, catalogued, and probed. Machines such as Dachau's D11-A, inspected by Chauncey, and those at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Westerbork, and at the Warsaw Ghetto, were simply recovered and resorbed into the IBM asset list. They would be deployed another day, another way, for another client. No answers or explanations would be provided. Questions about Hitler's Holleriths were never even raised.
To my daughter, Rachel, who will read this book, and to six million who will not.
Part Three. XV. The Spoils of Genocide, II
...When the U.S. military formed its Machine Record Units (MRU), IBM employees, or those IBM had trained, became the backbone of the elite MRU forces. IBMers also commanded in other key areas, especially in administrative units, where their experience would be instrumental. In the minds of many of these men, unswerving loyalty to Thomas Watson and devotion to IBM was completely consistent with military discipline in the field and loyalty to the Allied cause. As a result, when IBM Soldiers happened upon Dehomag equipment and factories, they did not see evidence of a war crime to docket or a key Nazi industrial installation to capture. They saw something inspiring and beloved that needed protect
...Dehomag, the Berlin company so integral to the Hitler war machine, was never treated as an enemy entity. It was welcomed back as a precious American interest and still under the control of Thomas J. Watson.
...Military law No. 52 was a problem.
Article I stated: "All property in occupied territory is subject to seizure of possession or title of management, supervision or otherwise, which is owned or controlled in any way by: (a) The German Reich or any sub division or agency thereof; (b) any Governments or nationals at war with the United Nations at anytime since September 1, 1939; (c) the outlawed NSDAP . . . or its agencies; (d) persons held by Military Government under detention."
Dehomag qualified on all accounts. It was controlled by known Nazis, Heidinger and Rottke, who also owned 10 percent of the shares. Rottke and Hummel had been arrested for their Nazi affiliations. The company's Board of Directors since 1941 was completely Nazified. As part of the war machinery, Dehomag was under the jurisdiction of the Maschinelles Berichtwesen, a wartime agency.
Chauncey had reviewed a summary of Military Law No. 52 and other Allied decrees as early as May 21, 1945. IBM sought to be carved out of the sphere of culpability and absorbed into the apparatus of victory. It wanted restitution for its war-damaged property, not to become a candidate for reparations. IBM did not want to join the roster of all those deemed part of what was termed "Nazi conspiracy and aggression." Fortunately for IBM, there seemed to be a concerted effort to keep Watson and the company out of the reparations discourse.
...IBM's view held that even if their machinery and corporate acumen had helped organize and optimize the Third Reich's aggression, they should be held exempt-ipso facto-by virtue of its American ownership. The company contended that its Nazi payments were protected revenues.
However, the prevailing thought among the Allies and those who demanded justice was that all in government and the private sector who helped Hitler destroy Europe and commit genocide should be held accountable in war crimes. Their war gains and economic wherewithal were not sacrosanct. Rather, they should be sacrificed as reparations to the victims-nations and individuals both. Whether dressed in jackboots and swastikas, or suit and tie, accountability was demanded. Indeed, the world understood that corporate collusion was the keystone to Hitler's terror. Businessmen who cooperated with Hitler were considered to be war criminals or "accessories to war crimes."
...Indeed, the trial process was slowed by the necessity of translating all documents, exhibits, and testimony into several languages of the war crime tribunal: French, Russian, German, and English. Justice Jackson turned to a newly invented process called "simultaneous translation." One company reviewed all the evidence and translated it not only for real time usage at the trial proceedings, but for posterity. That company was International Business Machines. It made the final translated record of all evidence back and forth from French, Russian, German, Polish, and English. Watson offered to undertake the massive evidence handling free of charge.
...Many wealthy men stood in the dock at Nuremberg. Publishers, financiers, bankers, and industrialists were summoned to account for their commerce. Hjalmar Schacht himself, former president of the Reichsbank and out of power for years, although ultimately acquitted, was forced to explain his involvement at the bar of justice.
But it was a far different story for IBM. It seemed to be immune from the debate itself. Every bloodstain and barracks blueprint in the camps was examined, catalogued, and probed. Machines such as Dachau's D11-A, inspected by Chauncey, and those at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Westerbork, and at the Warsaw Ghetto, were simply recovered and resorbed into the IBM asset list. They would be deployed another day, another way, for another client. No answers or explanations would be provided. Questions about Hitler's Holleriths were never even raised.