IBM and the Holocaust

by Edwin Black

  125. Letter, W. Heidinger to Thomas J. Watson, April 26, 1939, IBM Files.

  126. Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, May 20, 1939, IBM Files.

  127. Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, IBM Files; see Letter, Thomas J. Watson to H. Rottke, September 13, 1939, IBM Files; Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, IBM Files; see Telephone Notes of Thomas J. Watson and H. Rottke’s Conversation with J.W. Schotte, September 29, 1939, IBM Files.

  VII: DEADLY COUNT

  1. “Reich Census on May 17,” NYT, April 4, 1939; also see “Reich to Take Census of Her 80 Millions,” NYT, May 17, 1939; “National Registry in Germany,” Sir. N. Henderson to Foreign Office, February 14, 1939, PRO FO 371/23006.

  2. “Reich to Take Census of Her 80 Millions,” NYT, May 17, 1939.

  3. “Reich Housing Laws Segregate Jews,” NYT, May 4, 1939.

  4. RMBliV (1938), pp. 369f cited in Gotz Aly and Karl Heinz Roth, Die restlose Erfassung: Volkszahlen, Identifizieren, Aussondern im Nationalsozialismus (Berlin: Rotbuch Verlag, 1984), p. 24, fn16.

  5. “Aus dem Volkszahlungshaus in Berlin,” Der Stromkreis (Werkzeitschrift DEHOMAG), Berlin, 66 (February 1940): 1-8, cited in Friedrich W. Kistermann, “Locating the Victims: The Nonrole of Punched Card Technology and Census Work,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 19:2 (April-June 1997); Hollerith-Tabelliermaschine D-11 mit Zahleinrichtung (D 11 VZ), (Berlin: Dehomag, 1939) cited in Kistermann, “Locating the Victims: The Nonrole of Punched Card Technology and Census Work”; Letter, J.G. Johnston to J.E. Holt, June 14, 1938, Department of Justice, War Division, Economic Warfare Section, NA RG60; also see Biehler, “Lochkartenmaschinen im Dienste der Reichsstatistik,” Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv ( ASA) 28 (1938/39): 90ff, 93.

  6. RMBliV (1938), p. 369f cited in Aly and Roth, p. 24, fn16.

  7. “National Registry in Germany,” Sir. N. Henderson to Foreign Office, February 14, 1939, PRO FO 371/23006; ZSTAP/M, Rep. 77, Tit. 343, Volume 1, No. 107 cited in Aly and Roth, p. 23, fn17.

  8. Kistermann, “Locating the Victims: The Nonrole of Punched Card Technology and Census Work”; Klaus Drobisch, “Die Judenreferate des geheimen Staatspolizeiamtes und des Sicherheitsdienstes der SS 1933 bis 1939,” Jahrbuch fur Antisemitismusforschung, 1993, p. 2 cited in Saul Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews: Vol. 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939, (New York: HarperCollins, 1997), p. 199 fn77.

  9. Kistermann, “Locating the Victims: The Nonrole of Punched Card Technology and Census Work.”

  10. Aly and Roth, 20; Kistermann, “Locating the Victims: The Nonrole of Punched Card Technology and Census Work.”

  11. Kistermann, “Locating the Victims: The Nonrole of Punched Card Technology and Census Work”; Klaus Drobisch, “Die Judenreferate des Geheimen Staatspolizeiamtes und des Sicherheitsdientes der SS 1933 bis 1939,” Jahrbuch fur Antisemitismusforschung, 1993, p. 2, cited in S. Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews, p. 199 fn77.

  12. Letter, Statistical Office for Reich Gau Ostmark to Reich Kommisar for Reunion, December 15, 1939, in “Translation of Document 1948-PS,” Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV: Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), pp. 566-590, NA RG 238.

  13. Bruno Blau, “The Jewish Population of Germany 1939-1945,” Jewish Social Studies, pp. 11-172; Letter, Statistical Office for Reich Gau Ostmark to Reich Kommisar for Reunion, December 15, 1939, in “Translation of Document 1948-PS,” Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV: Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 588, NA RG 238.

  14. Edwin Black, The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich & Jewish Palestine (New York: Macmillan, 1984; Washington, D.C.: Dialog Press, 1999), pp. 260-262; Frank Stoakes, “The Supervigilantes: The Lebanese Kataeb Party As Builder, Surrogate, and Defender of the State,” Middle Eastern Studies 11:3 (October 1975), pp. 215-236, cited in Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Boulder: Westview Press, 1990) .

  15. Helmut Krausnick et al., Anatomy of the SS State, transl. Richard Barry et al. (New York: Walker and Company, 1968), p. 541; “Nazis Urged to Maintain Race Purity,” NYT, September 3, 1940; “Goering Threatens Jews on Boycott,” NYT, September 3, 1937.

  16. “Migration Register Is Started in Germany,” NYT, June 22, 1939; “Goering Threatens Jews on Boycott,” NYT, September 3, 1937.

  17. “Czechs Still Wait for Guarantees,” NYT, February 21, 1939.

  18. “Sofia Decree Limits Civil Rights of Jews,” NYT, October 9, 1940; “Rumanian Premier Acts Against Jews,” NYT, July 31, 1937; “Wider Threats Reported,” NYT, March 25, 1939; “Polish Jews Fear Fate for Germany,” NYT, January 26, 1937; “Czechs Still Wait for Guarantees,” NYT, February 21, 1939; “Hungary Planning to Take Jews Lands,” NYT, January 13, 1939; also see “Jewish Influence Scored,” NYT, December 31, 1937; “For Strict Ban on Jews,” NYT, April 22, 1939; “Modifies Anti-Jewish Act,” NYT, April 3, 1939; “Curb on Jews Held Official in Poland,” NYT, April 22, 1937; “Polish Jews Fear Fate of Germany’s,” NYT, January 26, 1937; “Polish Jews Held in Immediate Need,” NYT, February 26, 1937; “Warsaw Students Bar Gate to Jews,” NYT, January 29, 1937; “Poland Presses Jewish Migration,” NYT, February 9, 1937; “Polish Jews Offer Solution of Plight,” NYT, February 10, 1937; “More Riots at Universities,” NYT, February 12, 1937.

  19. Letter, C. Fust to Reichssippenamt, June 29, 1936, BA R1509/555.

  20. Meeting Minutes of Breslau Party Comrades, July 2, 1936, NA RG242, T-175, Reel 410, Frames 2934957-58; Aly and Roth, 74.

  21. “Sales School Is Opened,” NYT, July 15, 1936; “Confidential Report on Our Dealings with War Ministries in Europe,” J.W. Schotte to L.H. La Motte, p. 1, circa spring 1940, Department of Justice, War Division, Economic Warfare Section, NA RG60; see Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, IBM Files.

  22. “Monthly Average Card Cost and Selling Price Per Country, Three Months Ended March 31, 1939,” Department of Justice, War Division, Economic Warfare Section, NA RG60.

  23. “Aryan to Be Dropped by Reich Law Texts,” NYT, February 17, 1939.

  24. “Japan Withdraws Parley Bid,” NYT, January 27, 1938; Letter, Thomas J. Watson to Franklin D. Roosevelt, June 9, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/399.

  25. Memorandum, William D. Hassett to Cordell Hull, June 13, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/399.

  26. Letter, Thomas J. Watson to Franklin D. Roosevelt, July 5, 1939, p. 1, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  27. Letter, Thomas J. Watson to Franklin D. Roosevelt, July 5, 1939, p. 1, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  28. “Terrors of Nazis Related by Benes,” NYT, June 3, 1939. Shirer, p. 448.

  29. “Terrors of Nazis Related by Benes,” NYT, June 3, 1939.

  30. “Terrors of Nazis Related by Benes,” NYT, June 3, 1939.

  31. Broadcast Transcript, Station WJZ, June 29, 1939, p. 8, NA RG59 600.00171/402; Transcript, Closing Address, Thomas J. Watson to ICC Congress, July 1, 1939, p. 3, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  32. Letter, Thomas J. Watson to Franklin D. Roosevelt, July 5, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  33. See Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Memorandum for the State Department for Preparation of Reply for My Signature,” July 15, 1939, from State Department’s Adviser on Political Relations, Division of International Conferences, and Division of European Affairs; also see Note, Division of Protocol to Fenstermacher, Department of State, July 16, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402; also see Note, Adviser on International Economic Affairs, Department of State, July 21, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  34. Draft Letter, Franklin D. Roosevelt to Thomas J. Watson, circa July 22, 1939, and see accompanying memos July 19-22, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  35. Review Memo, J. Hickerson to Reviewers, Department of State, Division of European Affairs, July 19, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402, 600.00171/405.2
>
  36. Memorandum, Stinebower, Department of State, Advisor on International Economic Affairs, July 20, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  37. Memo, Department of State, Assistant Secretary, October 6, 1939, NA RG59 600.00171/402.

  38. William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960), pp. 594-595, 597.

  39. “Hitler in Warsaw, Cites It As Warning; 75 Per Cent of Polish Capital Reduced to Ruins,” NYT, October 6, 1939; see Shirer, p. 597.

  40. “250,000 Jews Listed As Dead in Poland,” NYT, January 23, 1940; “Sikorski Calls Nazis Barbarians in Poland,” NYT, November 30, 1939; also see “Polish Atrocities Charged by Nazis,” NYT, September 9, 1939.

  41. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (New York: Quadrangle Books, 1961, Harper Colophon Books, 1979), p. 126; Notes for an Oral Report, prepared by Blaskowitz, February 6, 1940, NO-3011 cited in Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, p. 127; see “Nazis Hint Purge of Jews in Poland,” NYT, September 13, 1939.

  42. “Nazis Hint Purge of Jews in Poland,” NYT, September 13, 1939.

  43. Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, IBM Files.

  44. Robert Sobel, IBM: Colossus in Transition (New York: Truman Talley Books, 1981), pp. 80, 86; James W. Cortada, Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created, 1865-1956 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 134; James Connally, History of Computing in Europe (IBM World Trade Corporation, circa 1967), pp. E-11, E-13; see Emerson W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1995), p. 53, plus attached photo; Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, IBM Files.

  45. Cortada, 134.

  46. Sobel, 80; Dehomag Notes on Telephonic Discussions with Geneva, September 29, 1939, IBM Files; Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, plus attached statement, IBM Files.

  47. Letter, Thomas J. Watson to H. Rottke, date-stamped September 13, 1939, IBM Files.

  48. Letter, Thomas J. Watson to H. Rottke, date-stamped September 13, 1939, IBM Files; Letter, Watson’s Secretary to J.C. Milner, September 13, 1939, IBM Files; Letter, J.C. Milner to J.G. Phillips, Geneva, March 15, 1939, IBM Files; Letter, J.C. Milner to H.K. Chauncey, April 6, 1938, IBM Files; Letter, H. Rottke to J.C. Milner, April 11, 1938, IBM Files.

  49. Letter, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, November 17, 1939, IBM Files; Dehomag Notes on Telephonic Discussions with Geneva, September 29, 1939, p. 1, IBM Files; Connally, pp. 43, E-15.

  50. Dehomag Notes on Telephonic Discussions with Geneva, September 29, 1939, IBM Files.

  51. Dehomag Notes on Telephonic Discussions with Geneva, September 29, 1939, IBM Files.

  52. Dehomag Notes on Telephonic Discussions with Geneva, p. 2, September 29, 1939, IBM Files.

  53. Letter and Attached Statement, H. Rottke to Thomas J. Watson, September 9, 1939, IBM Files.

  54. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, USHMM Folder B; Reinhard Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939 for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., eds., Documents on the Holocaust, trans. Lea Ben Dor (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981; Bison Books, 1999), pp. 179-180.

  55. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939, for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  56. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939, for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  57. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, p. 2, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939 for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  58. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, pp. 2-3, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939, for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  59. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, pp. 3-4, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939, for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  60. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, pp. 3-4, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939, for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  61. Express Letter, Heydrich to Einsatzgruppen, September 21, 1939, pp. 3-4, USHMM Folder B; Heydrich, Implementation Order No.1 for the Regulation of October 26, 1939, for the Introduction of Forced Labor for the Jewish Population in the Government-General, December 11, 1939, VBIGG, 1939, pp. 231-232 cited in Arad et al., pp. 179-180.

  62. Aly and Roth, pp. 83, 85.

  63. Raul Hilberg et al., eds., The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow, transl. Stanislaw Staron (New York: Stein and Day, 1979), p. 76; Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation (New York: Macmillan, 1972; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972), p. 1; Yisrael Gutman, Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1994), opposite p. 107.

  64. Hilberg et al., pp. 78, 79, 80, 81.

  65. Abraham I. Katsh, ed. and transl., The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan (New York: Collier Books, 1965), p. 52.

  66. Hilberg et al., pp. 81-86.

  67. Turkin, “Polish Territory Occupied by Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in September 1939,” PRO FO 371/24470/C1523/116/55; Hilberg et al. , p . 28.

  68. Hilberg et al., pp. 54, 84; see photo, “SS Man Publicly Humiliating a Religious Jew in Warsaw,” Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin, Germany, 1939); see Katsh, p. 54.

  69. Hilberg et al., p. 84.

  70. Hilberg et al., p. 84.

  71. Hilberg et al., pp. 85, 90.

  72. Hilberg et al., pp. 85, 87, 90.

  73. Hilberg et al., pp. 85, 86.

  74. Katsh, p. 55.

  75. Katsh, p. 57.

  76. Katsh, p. 59.

  77. Katsh, p. 86.

  78. Kenneth Barker, ed., The NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), p. 604.

  79. Hilberg et al. , p. 86.

  80. Hilberg et al., p. 86; Joseph Kermish, ed., To Live with Honor and Die with Honor: Selected Documents from the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Archives, “O.S.” [Oneg Shabbath], (Jeru - salem: Yad Vashem, 1986), p. 137.

  81. Hilberg et al., pp. 86-87.

  82. Hilberg et al., pp. 90-91; “Jews’ Plight Held Critical in Poland,” NYT, December 10, 1939; Kermish, p. 138.

  83. Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. “Warsaw,” p. 342; Hilberg et al., pp. 59-60, 88; “Jews’ Plight Held Critical in Poland,” NYT, December 10, 1939; www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/Holocaust/deportations.html. Trunk, pp. 356, 382.

  84. Connally, p. E-10.

  85. Connally, p. E-10.

  86. J.W. Schotte, Curriculum Vitae, circa 1940, Department of Justice, War Division, Economic Warfare Section, NA RG60; see Connally, p. 30.

  87. J.W. Schotte, Curriculum Vitae, circa 1940, Department of Justice, War Division, Ec
onomic Warfare Section, NA RG60; see Connally, p. 30.

  88. Connally, p. 30.

  89. Connally, p. 30.

  90. Connally, p. 30.

  91. Connally, p. E-12, 31; H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, p. 5, July 19, 1945, IBM Files; www.ibm.com website.

  92. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, pp. 1, 5, 7, 11, IBM Files; Connally, p. E-12.

  93. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, pp. 1, 6-7, IBM Files; Connally, p. E-12; CSDIC, “Secret Report: PW Intelligence Bulletin No. 2/57,” April 25, 1945, section II, p. 4, NA RG226; “Confidential Report on Our Dealings with War Ministries in Europe,” J.W. Schotte to L.H. La Motte, Appendix Item 2, circa spring 1940, Department of Justice, War Division, Economic Warfare Section, NA RG60.

  94. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, p. 3, IBM Files; Connally, p. E-12.

  95. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, pp. 4, 11, IBM Files; Connally, p. E-12; Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. “Warsaw,” p. 342.

  96. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, pp. 2 (subsection 1), 88-9, 15, IBM Files; Connally, p. E-12.

  97. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, p. 9, IBM Files.

  98. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, pp. 12-13, IBM Files.

  99. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, pp. 12-13, IBM Files.

  100. H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, p. 9, IBM Files.

  101. Correspondence to Author, July 14, 2000; H.B. Fellinger, Enclosure 4, July 19, 1945, p. 9, IBM Files; also see Letter and attached photo, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny (Jewish Historical Institute), July 14, 2000, and map #4 in Abraham Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, transl. Christopher Hutton (Oxford: Basil Blackwell), p. 4.

  102. Trunk, pp. 172-175.

  103. Aly and Roth, p. 10; see Trunk, pp. 259, 286; Aly and Roth, p. 11.

  104. Aly and Roth, pp. 10-11.

  105. Aly and Roth, pp. 10-11.

  106. Aly and Roth, p. 11.