#IBM and the Holocaust

[davidaugust]

In WW2, IBM’s European operations made punch cards that helped sort the trains and the people put on the trains. Cards included a person’s status, and among the options, they could describe a person as “concentrated.” The code for gas chamber was “8.”

Tech has failed to prevent harm and enabled harm before now. But we need not help them do it. Leave meta, twitter, tiktok. If not totally, as much as you can. Seek open internet options, decentralized options: like subscription feeds, email lists, things like Mastodon now and in the future Bluesky (hopefully it will decentralize).

More on IBM and the Holocaust: https://besacenter.org/ibm-holocaust/

A book on IBM and the Holocaust: https://amzn.to/3PL2iCk

More on leaving meta: https://davaug.medium.com/leave-metas-platforms-5b4dfdb68878

More on moving from twitter to Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/@davidaugust/109480458203330017

My Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/@davidaugust

My Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidaugust.bsky.social

My email list: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/r/C9E152CB6729E2B4

[thedigital-witnesses]

The Stargate Project is giving "IBM and the Holocaust."

"The leaders of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank outlined a $500 billion, four-year plan to build out U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure at the White House on Tuesday. The companies will create a joint venture, dubbed Stargate, which is committing an initial $100 billion to build data centers and other campuses, with more investment to come. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will serve as Stargate's chair; Nvidia, Arm and LinkedIn parent Microsoft are also among the technology partners" (https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/tech-giants-unveil-500b-ai-venture-6530417/)

Hmm... makes me think of:

"IBM & the Holocaust tells of IBM's strategic alliance with Nazi Germany--beginning in 1933 in the 1st weeks that Hitler came to power & continuing well into WWII. As the 3rd Reich embarked upon its plan of conquest & genocide, IBM & its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step-by-step, from the identification & cataloging programs of the 30s to the selections of the 40s. Only after Jews were identified--a massively complex task Hitler wanted done immediately--could they be targeted for efficient asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, enslaved labor & annihilation. It was a cross-tabulation & organizational challenge so monumental, it called for a computer. Of course, in the 30s no computer existed. But IBM's Hollerith punch card technology did exist. Aided by the company's custom-designed & constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate the persecution of the Jews.

Historians were amazed at the speed & accuracy with which the Nazis were able to identify & locate European Jewry. Until now, the pieces of this puzzle have never been fully assembled. The fact is, IBM technology was used to organize nearly everything in Germany & then Nazi Europe, from the identification of the Jews in censuses, registrations & ancestral tracing programs to the running of railroads & organizing of concentration camp slave labor. IBM & its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions, anticipating the Reich's needs. They didn't merely sell the machines & walk away. Instead, IBM leased these machines for high fees & became the sole source of the billions of punch cards needed. 

IBM & the Holocaust details the carefully crafted corporate collusion with the 3rd Reich, as well as the structured deniability of oral agreements, undated letters & the Geneva intermediaries--all undertaken as the newspapers blazed with accounts of persecution & destruction. Just as compelling is the human drama of one of our century's greatest minds, IBM founder Thomas Watson, who cooperated with the Nazis for the sake of profit. Only with IBM's technologic assistance was Hitler able to achieve the staggering numbers of the Holocaust. Edwin Black has now uncovered one of the last great mysteries of Germany's war against the Jews: how Hitler got the names."

[dirjoh-blog]

IBM and Its Role in the Holocaust: A Dark Chapter in Corporate History

BM CEO Thomas J. Watson (second from left) meets with Hitler in Berlin, June 1937, just before receiving medal for “service to the Reich The Holocaust remains one of the darkest periods in human history, and while the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime are well-documented, the role of major corporations in facilitating these crimes is often less discussed. One such corporation is…

[immaculatasknight]

Surveillance Valley on steroids

[barrymccaulkinem]

ok so retroactively here's the plan: at 22 years old i time travel back to 1970 and live and party from then for ~20 years until i prevent my own birth by any means necessary and end my existence and maybe time as we know it :3 sorry but it was worth it im sure

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 1082: The Holocaust and German Record-Keeping

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What about Holocaust denial and German recordkeeping? Rick Rosner: Let’s briefly talk about it. I’ll say the Nazis kept very gooI’llcords. So, when people talk about six million Jews being murdered by the Nazis, 200,000 disabled people being murdered, and another five million or so people considered undesirable by the regime, including Romani (what we might call gypsies),…

[greasersinpoodleskirts4cumshots]

[txttletale]

hey so you actually got it backwards. the capitalists didn’t perpetuate the holocaust they actually teamed up to stop the holocaust. they even teamed up with the communists and sent them money (lend lease) so they could help them too.

?

[quotes-by-dilanka]

To the blind technocrat, the means were more important than the ends.

The destruction of the Jewish people became even less important because the invigorating nature of IBM's technical achievement was only heightened by the fantastical profits to be made at a time when bread lines stretched across the world.

—Edwin Black, IBM and the holocaust

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

you know what sure i’ll double down. i bet there’s a lot of breeding/insemination/creampie kinks associated with vault suits. how ELSE do do you ensure the ongoing survival of humanity huh

omg.

[eretzyisrael]

Several well-established American companies aided Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, directly profiting from the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish People. These include well-known businesses like IBM, which supplied data processing systems to the Nazi regime, and Ford, whose German subsidiary produced military vehicles for the Wehrmacht. The majority of individuals involved in the decision to do business with Nazi Germany were motivated by greed rather than anti-semitism. The question remains whether or not these corporations should continue to be held responsible today for the role they played in the murder of Jews during World War II.

[muj0]

I know this is a bit dramatic, but this what watching Youtube feels like for me anymore:

Me - (Hypothetically) *watching long form documentary about the Holocaust* Youtube - Here have an ad about IBM Me - wtf Youtube - Oh, and another one for Volkswagen Me - Jesus Christ

[justgracehere]

Blog Post 9/6

Why is it important to understand critical theory when examining the impact of social media on society?

Critical theory examines the complex relationships between different aspects of society in order to reveal the power dynamics that exist there. It is important to understand critical theory when exploring social media’s impact because social media did not develop independently of society. There are many structures, inequalities, and biases that exist in society which informed the ways social media was designed to appeal to consumers and to maintain oppressive systems. For example, Fuchs explains how the international growth of IBM was a direct result of the business it received from the Nazis, who used its technologies to commit mass murder during the Holocaust (Fuchs 2014).

Do social media companies dominate society?

Social media companies are a dominant force in society. Fuchs uses Facebook as an example to describe how the collection of data on social media sites is a form of exploitation. Fuchs explains that because social media users generate the data that platforms sell to advertisers, they are being exploited. Users see none of the profit that their data creates. Additionally, Fuchs states that domination occurs when one group “has the means of violence” which it may use to maintain power over another group. In one example provided in the reading, the Occupy movement, Fuchs discusses how Facebook expressed willingness to provide information about protestors’ activities to the police. He quotes one user from the movement who states that they prefer using a livestream feature for activities because it prevents members from “getting hurt” or arrested during run-ins with law enforcement. This suggests that social media companies may cooperate with law enforcement to subdue movements, representing an ability to utilize force to maintain power (Fuchs 2014).

Considering the concept of dialectical reasoning, what is one contradiction that exists within the impact of social media?

Social media is a creative force, because it allows users to share information, ideas, and artistic works with others. However, as Fuchs described, it is also an exploitative force, because whatever information is shared on a social media platform can be collected by the company as data and sold to advertisers. The subject which makes social media a marvel of modern communication also highlights its worst feature. This is an example of the dialectical reasoning concept of contradiction because it demonstrates how one aspect of a system which largely benefits society may also damage society’s progress, because it reinforces a power dynamic which holds one group above another (Fuchs 2014).

What power dynamics exist within social media’s political economy?

Political economy describes the relationship between production, laborers, and a governing body. In the context of social media, political economy can refer to the information shared on a platform, its reception, and the dynamics which determine what information most users have access to. For example, data obtained from users may determine the information which advertisers want viewers to see. According to Fuchs, large, influential companies and news services have more power to spread their information to viewers than individual journalists, advertisers, or bloggers. In this way, social media companies control the information consumed on their platforms, revealing a large power dynamic between social media companies, news services, major advertisers, and everyday users (Fuchs 2014).

Fuchs, Christian. 2014. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

[bogusfilth]

(shifting into lib mode) it's plausible to me that we could see a sufficiently strong ICJ statement that would have impacts on EU trade in particular to have serious negative impacts on Israel's economy & capacity for war. (normal again) this is like trying to stop the Holocaust by banning IBM from leasing punch card machines to Nazi Germany.

[immaculatasknight]

IBM's progeny

[trashwaaveactual]

Anti child groomers have added context:

Goodbye, Lynn. Thank you for your constant support and encouragement since the day I started these comics. It has meant the world to me, and I wish I could have told you. We will remember you forever.