Both the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

government and

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

government used IBM punched card technology for some parts of their camps' operation and record keeping.

By country

Germany

In Germany, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, IBM engaged in business practices which have been the source of controversy. Much attention focuses on the role of IBM's German subsidiary, known as ''Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft'', or

Dehomag Dehomag was a German subsidiary of IBM with a monopoly in the German market before and during World War II. The word was a portmanteau for Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen GmbH ( en, German Hollerith Machines LLC). ''Hollerith'' refers to the Germa ...

. Topics in this regard include: *documenting operations by Dehomag which allowed the Nazis to better organize their war effort, in particular the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

and use of

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

; *comparing these efforts to operations by other IBM subsidiaries which aided other nations' war efforts; *and ultimately, assessing the degree to which IBM should be held culpable for atrocities which were made possible by its actions. *the selection methods as developed and used had the purpose to select and kill civil people.

United States

In the United States IBM was, at the request of the government, the subcontractor for the Japanese internment camps' punched card project: IBM equipment was used for cryptography by US Army and Navy organisations,

Arlington Hall Arlington Hall (also called Arlington Hall Station) is a historic building in Arlington, Virginia, originally a girls' school and later the headquarters of the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) cryptography effort during Wor ...

and

OP-20-G OP-20-G or "Office of Chief Of Naval Operations (OPNAV), 20th Division of the Office of Naval Communications, G Section / Communications Security", was the U.S. Navy's signals intelligence and cryptanalysis group during World War II. Its mission ...

and similar Allied organisations using ''Hollerith'' punched cards (

Central Bureau The Central Bureau was one of two Allied signals intelligence (SIGINT) organisations in the South West Pacific area (SWPA) during World War II. Central Bureau was attached to the headquarters of the Allied Commander of the South West Pacific area ...

and the

Far East Combined Bureau The Far East Combined Bureau, an outstation of the British Government Code and Cypher School, was set up in Hong Kong in March 1935, to monitor Japanese, and also Chinese and Russian (Soviet) intelligence and radio traffic. Later it moved to Sing ...

). The company developed and built the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator which was used to perform computations for the

Manhattan project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

Critics of IBM's actions during World War II

A 2001 book by

Edwin Black Edwin Black (born February 27, 1950) is an American historian and author, as well as a syndicated columnist, investigative journalist, and weekly talk show host on The Edwin Black Show. He specializes in human rights, the historical interplay be ...

, entitled ''

IBM and the Holocaust ''IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation'' is a book by investigative journalist and historian Edwin Black which documents the strategic technology services rendered by US-based ...

'', reached the conclusion that IBM's commercial activities in Germany during World War II make it morally complicit in the

. An updated 2002 paperback edition of the book included new evidence of the connection between IBM's

headquarters, which controlled a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

subsidiary, and the Nazis.

Oliver Burkeman Oliver Burkeman (born 1975) is a British author and journalist, formerly writing the weekly column ''This Column Will Change Your Life'' for the newspaper ''The Guardian''. In 2021, he published '' Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Morta ...

wrote for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', "The paperback provides the first evidence that the company's dealings with the Nazis were controlled from its New York headquarters throughout the second world war." In February 2001, an

Alien Tort Claims Act The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in viol ...

claim was filed in U.S. federal court on behalf of concentration camp survivors against IBM. The suit accused IBM of allegedly providing the punched card technology that facilitated the Holocaust, and for covering up German IBM subsidiary Dehomag's activities. In April 2001, the lawsuit was dropped after lawyers feared the suit would slow down payments from a German Holocaust fund for Holocaust survivors who had suffered under Nazi persecution. IBM's German division had paid $3 million into the fund, while making it clear they were not admitting liability. In 2004, the human rights organization

Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action The Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action is a human rights organization seeking justice on behalf of the Romani people (Gypsies) for the crimes of the Porajmos. In 2002, it filed suit against IBM for IBM's involvement with Nazi ...

(GIRCA) filed suit against IBM in Switzerland. The case was dismissed in 2006, as the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

had expired.

Responses to critics

In an "IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit", IBM responded in February 2001 that: Richard Bernstein, writing for ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' 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 ''

'' "is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done." IBM quoted this claim in a March 2002 "Addendum to IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit," after the publication of Black's revised paperback edition:

References