CONNECTICUT LIBRARIES
October 2001, Vol. 43, No. 9
Mr. and Mrs. Abraham (pseudonym) spoke English with the warm, rich tones of eastern Europe. He was slim, energetic, and gregarious, comfortable with customers of all ages. She was quiet and shy, with lovely, sad eyes."Do you know what's under her bandage?" my friend asked me as we left their store, a frequent stop on the way home from junior high school. Truthfully, I had never noticed the bandage. "It's her number--from the camps."
We looked at each other and shuddered. Born in the shadow of World War II and raised in a predominately Jewish community, we knew about concentration camps. Newsreel images of tortured faces behind barbed wire, of living skeletons in striped uniforms, and of bulldozers plowing mounds of naked human bodies often crept into our nightmares.
"The dawn of the Information Age began at the sunset of human decency," Edwin Black tells us. Information technology was the tool of Adolph Hitler in his campaign to exterminate Jews.
On the eve of WWII, IBM was not yet in the computer business, but it monopolized information technology. It held the patent on Hollerith cards, with exclusive rights to produce and sell them, as well as the machinery needed to punch, sort, and tabulate. Herman Hollerith had developed his system to expedite the tabulation of the 1890 U.S. census. Contemporary experts once estimated that America would start its 1900 census before the results of 1890 were available! Hollerith saved the day. His system recorded information (gender, age, nationality, occupation, etc) by punching holes at standard locations on cards. Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company evolved into IBM.
Taking the reins of the company in 1914, Thomas Watson was a new kind of leader. He appreciated the value of employee loyalty and enthusiasm to company success. He treated IBM personnel well. In return, they sang company songs, repeated company slogans, and thought first and foremost of IBM's needs. Watson's sales experience made him a ruthless competitor. No person, no company, and no government would stand between IBM and its rightful profits.
In pre-War Germany, a political system with an insatiable appetite for information welcomed a greedy, aggressive company with the means to satisfy that hunger. The Nazi goal of disenfranchising, impoverishing, enslaving, and, finally, eliminating the Jews required the processing of information at every stage. Hitler was obsessed with census after census in Germany, and later in conquered territories. Jews could not be persecuted unless they could be identified, especially since many assimilated Jews no longer practiced the religion of their forefathers. As early as 1933, IBM's German subsidiary, Dehomag, contracted with the Hitler regime to conduct a census of Prussia, Germany's largest state. Jews could not escape the whirring "clickety-clack" of IBM's punch cards, cards that recorded and collated names from one generation to the next, address changes from one town to another, baptisms and religious conversions, and all manner of personal data. Hollerith cards inventoried slave labor resources to assure their most efficient deployment. Box cars and locomotives, scheduled through IBM technology, transported millions to their final destination.
Is it possible that Watson and his IBM managers were unaware of the ends to which their technological means were put? Black says, "no." While the company was enlarging its German business commitments, news reports of campaigns against the Jews were appearing in the American press. Large-scale anti-Nazi protests were being held in New York City, blocks from IBM offices. As diplomatic relations with Germany chilled, Watson preached "peace through trade." He advocated that companies help Germany obtain the natural resources it claimed beyond its borders. Black has documented Watson's numerous visits to Nazi Germany. The 1937 International Chamber of Commerce Congress was held in Berlin at Watson's insistence. There he met Hitler, conferred with Nazi leaders, and was decorated with a medal from "Der Fuhrer."
Black explains that Hollerith cards are carefully designed for specific applications. He insists that designers had to be aware of the uses to which the cards would be put. Although most of this work was done by the German subsidiary Dehomag, IBM personnel would have knowledge because Watson was a classic micro-manager. This was especially so in Germany, where he feuded with Willy Heidinger, CEO and founder of Dehomag. Heidinger resented selling his company to Watson under unfavorable conditions, felt cheated of his proper income, and chafed under IBM's yoke.
Watson did business with Nazi Germany because it was profitable. Hitler may have burned books, but he invested heavily in information technology. As "Greater Germany" expanded, so did the Hollerith market. Persecution, conquest, and genocide were good for business.
Perhaps if Watson had looked into the lovely, cheerful eyes of a young woman in 1933, a girl who had not yet met Ben Abraham, he might have seen more than dollar-signs.
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