IBM and the Holocaust
| Industry | Technology, Computing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1911 |
| Founder | Charles Ranlett Flint |
| Headquarters | Armonk , United States |
| Products | Punched card technology, Electromechanical tabulating machines |
IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation is a work by investigative historian Edwin Black that exposes the collaboration between the US multinational International Business Machines (IBM) and its European branches in supplying technological support to Adolf Hitler’s regime throughout the Third Reich’s ascendancy and World War II, despite hostilities between the United States and Germany.
First published in 2001 with several expanded versions thereafter, Black uncovers IBM’s pivotal involvement in facilitating the Holocaust by providing Nazi Germany with punched card technology used for national censuses, military organization, ghetto demographics, railway logistics, and administration of concentration camps.
Summary
During the 1880s, Herman Hollerith (1860–1929), working at the U.S. Census Bureau, innovated standardized punched cards that encoded personal attributes such as gender and ethnicity. These cards allowed for rapid sorting and analysis of census information through electromagnetic reading machines.
In 1910, Willy Heidinger, a German licensee, established Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft (Dehomag). The following year, Hollerith sold his American enterprise to industrialist Charles Ranlett Flint for $1.41 million, leading to the creation of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). Flint appointed Thomas J. Watson as its leader. By 1923, Dehomag became a subsidiary of CTR; Watson rebranded CTR as IBM in 1924.
Black details IBM’s continued commercial dealings with Hitler’s government after 1933 despite global calls for boycott. Dehomag’s CEO Heidinger was an active supporter of the Nazi party. The 1933 German census sought to identify Jews, Roma, and other persecuted groups; Dehomag provided tabulation services focusing on Prussia’s population of 41 million. Watson personally traveled to Germany in October 1933, boosting Dehomag’s capital from 400,000 to 7 million Reichsmarks (approximately $1 million), which financed IBM’s initial factory in Germany—laying groundwork for substantial business ties with the Nazi regime.
The book references a "confidential agreement" between Heidinger and Watson granting Dehomag commercial rights beyond German borders, allowing it to bypass local subsidiaries and directly engage clients in other regions. As a result, Nazi Germany became IBM’s second-largest market after the United States. The 1933 census data processed with IBM technology raised estimates of Germany’s Jewish population from 400,000–600,000 to nearly 2 million by including individuals with partial Jewish heritage.
Following Nazi occupation across Europe, censuses conducted in conquered countries identified Jews and Roma using IBM equipment supplied through German and Polish subsidiaries authorized by IBM’s headquarters in New York after the Blitzkrieg campaign. IBM punchcard systems were essential for managing prisoner records in concentration camps; each camp maintained a Hollerith-Abteilung (Hollerith Department) dedicated to inmate documentation. Black argues that without IBM’s machines, ongoing maintenance services, and punch cards, Nazi camps would have been unable to efficiently control their detainee populations.
The book underwent significant revisions with its 2002 paperback releases via Three Rivers Press/Time Warner Paperbacks and an expanded 2012 edition published by Dialog Press featuring newly uncovered documents. The 2002 update disclosed additional links between IBM’s main offices and its Polish subsidiary during the Nazi occupation; meanwhile, the 2012 edition presented extensive new photographic proof reinforcing these conclusions.
IBM's Polish subsidiary after the invasion
A 2002 paperback release reveals that IBM New York formed a Polish branch called Watson Business Machines to oversee railway operations in the General Government following Germany's 1939 Invasion of Poland. According to Edwin Black, this subsidiary functioned in proximity to the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust in Poland.
In his 2002 editorial for SFGate, Black explains that Watson Business Machines reported to IBM Geneva, which in turn reported to IBM New York. He points out that IBM’s European general manager was directly accountable to Thomas Watson Sr. Some punched card machines from Poland were temporarily sent to Romania for Jewish census activities before being replaced. Black references Leon Krzemieniecki, who worked in rail transport administration linked to Auschwitz and Treblinka, confirming that the punched card devices were IBM’s based on English labeling. Revenue generated by these Polish machines passed through Geneva en route to IBM New York.[1][2]
Continued transactions
Edwin Black outlines IBM’s leasing of punch card equipment to Nazi Germany, including ongoing support such as maintenance, replacement parts, and specialized paper supplies.[3]
In his expanded 2012 edition, Black stated in The Huffington Post that IBM’s New York headquarters directly oversaw punch card production, equipment provision, personnel training, servicing, and special initiatives like population censuses through subsidiaries across Germany (Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft or DEHOMAG), Poland, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and other European nations. The punch cards carried markings from the German branch Dehomag.[4]
IBM's stance
IBM has not explicitly denied the evidence featured in the book but has challenged Black’s research approach and interpretations. The company asserted it possesses no additional documentation regarding its World War II activities or Dehomag operations, attributing this to wartime loss or destruction of records. IBM also highlighted that a lawsuit initiated by attorneys representing concentration camp survivors in 2001 coincided with the book’s release. The plaintiffs acknowledged this timing as part of a public relations effort that helped secure over $7 billion in settlements related to Nazi-era claims without court verdicts.
After the 2002 paperback edition appeared, IBM reiterated that it uncovered no new proof linking it to Holocaust facilitation and denied accusations of withholding records. The corporation had previously deposited corporate archives from that era into academic institutions in New York and Stuttgart for independent scholarly examination. In early 2021, Black published a 20th anniversary edition emphasizing that IBM never sought corrections nor disputed any facts presented in his work.
Controversy over Wikipedia editing
In 2010, Black reported that anonymous Wikipedia contributors diminished his research regarding IBM’s involvement in the Holocaust. Although it remains uncertain whether these editors were affiliated with IBM employees, Black noted their support from IBM corporate archivist Paul Lasewicz, who eventually recused himself due to a conflict of interest but was described by Black as "a man of integrity."
Critical reception
Released on February 11, 2001, across 40 nations and translated into 14 languages simultaneously, IBM and the Holocaust attracted widespread attention and underwent several expanded reissues. Newsweek described it as "explosive," emphasizing Black’s evidence that IBM’s Hollerith machines played a crucial role in enhancing Nazi efforts to carry out the Jewish genocide. In 2003, the American Society of Journalists and Authors honored it as the Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year.
Richard Bernstein of The New York Times Book Review recognized Black’s thorough exposition of corporate ethical indifference but raised doubts about whether IBM alone bore distinct culpability. Historian Saul Friedlander commended the work for revealing IBM's persistent profit-oriented collaboration with Nazi Germany and Thomas Watson’s indifference to the ethical consequences.
David Cesarani highlighted Black’s proof that IBM maintained the supply of punch cards to Nazi Germany despite Allied embargoes. Reviews in The Atlantic and the Harvard International Review underscored Black’s detailed account of IBM’s awareness and financial gains from its European operations during World War II.
The paperback edition released in 2002 introduced new findings indicating that IBM’s headquarters in New York exercised control over its dealings with Nazi Germany throughout the conflict. Businessweek spotlighted Black’s contention that IBM actively conspired with the Nazis to mechanize genocide. Reuters covered newly uncovered Nazi documents alongside Polish eyewitness accounts connecting IBM’s U.S. branch directly to Third Reich activities in Poland. Subsequently, several critics who had initially offered negative reviews issued retractions accompanied by apologies and donations to Holocaust memorial institutions.
Related litigation
In February 2001, a lawsuit under the Alien Tort Claims Act was initiated in a U.S. federal court against IBM, accusing the corporation of supplying punched card technology that facilitated the Holocaust and concealing its German subsidiary Dehomag’s involvement. Although no direct evidence showed IBM officials in New York explicitly ordering technology provision for concentration camps, attorneys representing Holocaust survivors cited statements from Dehomag's founder Heidinger, who expressed pride in supporting Hitler with data for "corrective interventions" and vowed to "follow his orders blindly." The case was withdrawn in April 2001 due to concerns it might hinder disbursements from a German Holocaust compensation fund, to which IBM’s German division contributed $3 million without admitting any fault.
In 2004, the Roma advocacy organization Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action filed a suit against IBM in Switzerland, but it was dismissed in 2006 because of expiration under the statute of limitations. Separately, a 2015 lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in U.S. federal court drew parallels between IBM’s conduct during Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa, alleging that IBM New York knowingly enabled severe human rights violations perpetrated by the Third Reich.
See also
External links
- Selection from "IBM and the Holocaust" featuring an image of the Hollerith device, Jewish Virtual Library. Accessed July 16, 2010.
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