[464192002d7fe1c]

An interesting book, for sure.

The thing of it was, while they made some very interesting connections they didn't particularly make one that IBM (America) directly knew about the literal holocaust.

Now, IBM definitely knew their technology was being used to catalogue specific groups, and thus that that technology was being used to facilitate mass involuntary migrations of those people. What I don't recall (I read this book when it first came out in 2001), is if they knew (or should have reasonably known) that those people were being killed. When I think of the Holocaust, I associate that more with the deaths of those people and less with the forced migrations/etc. Both are terrible, of course, but one is obviously far worse.

In any event, that's a very good book to read, even if ultimately I find culpability for IBM to be somewhat tenuous.

I'm glad I don't live in a country/world where anyone is proposing registering anyone, Muslim or Jewish.

[mikeyouse]

New documents came out after the book was published that showed that IBM had specific punch cards for each concentration camp, each reason (homosexual, Jew, antisocial, gypsy,etc.) and for manner of death (natural causes, suicide, death by gas chamber).

The SS had to be trained, the machines had to be maintained, and the cards had to be updated. IBM engineers were on site at each concentration camp throughout most of the war.

[apta]

> New documents came out after the book was published... and for manner of death (natural causes, suicide, death by gas chamber).

Do you have a citation for that?

[mikeyouse]

The author of the 2001 book that OP was referring to wrote a new edition in 2012ish with the new docs. He wrote about it in HuffPo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/ibm-holocaust_b_13...

[celticninja]

whilst one is considerably worse than the other, both were morally repugnant and the 'lesser' offence would now be illegal due to discrimination laws (if they were not illegal then for other/similar reasons). So IBM should have had some awareness of what was happening. In much the same way that we consider Hacking Team selling hacking services to the Syrian government as essentilly being involved with the dissappearance or torture of political activists so we should hold IBM to account for their involvement.