pro/con IBM/Nazi

[davemarc]

Here are some selections from those sites Doug listed.

>From http://hometown.aol.com/merryeee/ibmstory.htm comes this priceless
"exuberant"
quotation from Willy Heidinger, the director of DEHOMAG, IBM's Germany
subsidiary, in 1934.

"We are recording the individual characteristics of every single member of
the nation onto a little card. We are proud to be able to contribute to such
a task, a task that makes available to the physician of our German
body-social [i.e. Adolf Hitler] the material for his examination, so that
our physician can determine whether, from the standpoint of the health of
the nation, the results calculated in this manner stand in a harmonious,
healthy relation to one another, or whether unhealthy conditions must be
cured by corrective interventions. We have firm trust in our physician and
will follow his orders blindly, because we know that he will lead our nation
toward a great future. Hail to our German people and their leader!"

This is what the plaintiffs seek (from
http://www.cmht.com/casewatch/cases/ibm.pdf where the case is listed under
Civil Rights & Employment Discrimination):  "[T]hat IBM USA be enjoined from
destroying any documentation related to its role in the Holocaust, and
ordering it to open its archives and produce any data it has which was
derived from its Hollerith technology and utilized by the Nazi regime, so
that the victims of its acts can finally learn the truth and set the record
straight about the company's complicity in the Holocaust" and "as a matter
of equity and fairness, IBM USA must disgorge any ill-gotten gains it
acquired from its conduct during World War II."

(www.cmht.com is the website of the law firm representing the plaintiffs.
The law firm specializes in class action suits against corporations.  Its
successes include the Texaco, Inc. $176.1 Million Settlement, and other
cases against discrimination.)

So the plaintiffs are calling for IBM to give up information and "ill-gotten
gains."  How much money--and where should it go?  In the Forbes article at
http://www.forbes.com/2001/02/12/0212global.html law firm attorney Suzette
Malveaux addresses that issue.  "'We feel IBM should give back the money it
gained during the Holocaust to a fund for survivors,' Malveaux says. As it
stands now, the firm estimates profits may have been about $10 million in
today's currency. While it's a substantial number, it doesn't amount to much
for a company that reported $2.7 billion in net income during the fourth
quarter of 2000 alone."

Here's the conclusion of IBM's statement in response to the lawsuit and the
publication of the book:  "IBM takes the allegations made by the author and
the plaintiffs very seriously, and looks forward to and will fully cooperate
with appropriate scholarly assessments of the historical record."

So where in the complaint against IBM is the Nazi-ish dishonesty, the
insidious motives, the "yellow journalism," the propaganda, the incitement
to hatred and persecution (against whom, of whom?)?  From what I've seen of
the complaint (it's at http://www.cmht.com/casewatch/cases/ibm.pdf), it
seems to me that the case of the plaintiffs is reasonable and reasonably
put forth, and that (ob Pynchon) they might bring to light more evidence of
the corporate complicity that many members of this mailing list seem to find
praiseworthy in Pynchon's writings.

Here's the law firm's press release, which outlines the complicity:

http://www.cmht.com/casewatch/cases/ibm2.pdf

d.