It's buried halfway down the "History" section and does not elaborate.
In 1937, IBM's tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process huge amounts of data. Its clients included the U.S. Government, during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the Social Security Act, and Hitler's Third Reich, for the tracking of Jews and other persecuted groups, largely through the German subsidiary Dehomag. The social security-related business gave an 81% increase in revenue from 1935 to 1939.
Going to the page for Dehomag, the German subsidiary of IBM, you can find the following
As an IBM subsidiary, Dehomag became the main provider of computing expertise and equipment in Nazi Germany. Dehomag gave the German government the means for two official censuses of the population after 1933 and for searching its data. It gave the Nazis a way of tracing Jews and dissidents using the powerful automated search tools using the IBM machines.
The article makes sure to clarify that "It was legal for IBM to conduct business with Germany directly until the United States entered the war in December 1941", but then at the very bottom goes on to say that IBM established a special subsidiary in occupied Poland, made the punch cards look like Dehomag punch cards, and sent the profits back to New York through Geneva.
As an addendum, this made me laugh:
Richard Bernstein, writing for The New York Times Book Review in 2001, pointed out that "many American companies did what I.B.M. did. ... What then makes I.B.M. different?" He states that Black's case in his book IBM and the Holocaust "is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that I.B.M. bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done."
Way to miss the point, dude.
Wikipedia has the most insufferable neoliberal moderators who would literally rather die than let anything left remain uncensored.
Meanwhile on the Havana Syndrome article:
"Some scientists said this illness is not a real thing, however: [3 paragraphs of direct quotes from the CIA and State Department]"
Wikipedia talk page is unlimited entertainment. They can censor the articles themselves but they can't censor the talk pages.
“many American companies did what I.B.M. did. … What then makes I.B.M. different?” He states that Black’s case in his book IBM and the Holocaust “is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that I.B.M. bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done.”
Imagine thinking this is a credible defense of IBM rather than the the beginning of a righteous condemnation of all of those companies
Broke: "We were just following orders."
Woke: "We were just following profits."
Also, why was it fucking legal? The US made it illegal to do business with Cuba for decades for way less.
HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey is a reference to IBM, the name "HAL" being made of each of the 3 preceding letters that make up IBM.
Tech nerds think this is a computer joke but it was really Kubrick trying to warn us that IBM was an unfeeling homicidal collection of data.
"It was totally legal for IBM to profit from the Holocaust and there's nothing wrong with the fact that they did it" — some Silicon Valley bro, probably
This is your friendly :reddit-logo: reminder that threats against the lives of Nazis will not be tolerated
this is why fascism is a death cult the us in 'us vs them' is always changing and so is the them, until theres only 1 fascist left and he kills himself
