Business and War

[Tecnos]

These are old articles, but they explore the symbiotic relationships of corporations and war.

The first that pops into my mind, is the relationship between IBM and the Nazi war machine.....

I'm not even getting into the debate regarding (ostensibly) the fundholders of the company were supporting the extermination of their own race.

IBM and the Holocaust.....

The book details how IBM's New York headquarters and CEO Thomas J. Watson acted through its overseas subsidiaries to provide the Third Reich with punch card machines that could help the Nazis track down the European Jewry (especially in newly conquered territory). The book quotes extensively from numerous IBM and government memos and letters that describe how New York-based IBM, its Geneva office and its German subsidiary, Dehomag, were intimately involved in supporting Nazi oppression. The book also includes IBM's internal reports that admit that these machines made the Nazi's efforts much more efficient.

Several documentaries and newspaper articles, including the 2003 film The Corporation, C-SPAN, The Times, the Village Voice, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published close-ups of documents demonstrating IBM's involvement in the Holocaust. One example used was IBM code sheets for concentration camps taken from the files of the National Archives. IBM's Prisoner Code listed 8 for a Jew and Code 11 for a Gypsy. Camp Code 001 was Auschwitz, Code 002 was Buchenwald. Status Code 5 was executed by order, code 6 was gas chamber.

One extensively quoted IBM report written at the time by the company's European manager explained the purpose of IBM's relationship with the Nazis as helping Germany in “a campaign started for, what has been termed … ‘organization of the second front.’” The memo added, “In military literature and in newspapers, the importance and necessity of having in all phases of life, behind the front, an organization which would remain intact and would function with ‘Blitzkrieg’ efficiency … was brought out. What we had been preaching in vain for years all at once began to be realized.”

The book documents IBM's CEO Thomas J. Watson as being an active Nazi supporter. Watson made numerous arguments to the international community that it should abolish the economic sanctions placed on Germany. As head of the International Chamber of Commerce, Watson once scheduled its annual meeting in Berlin, where he was witnessed giving a Nazi salute to Hitler in the infamous "Sieg Heil" fashion. Watson traveled to Germany numerous times after the Nazis took power in 1933, but it was on the Commerce trip that he received an honor medal from Hitler.

An IBM customer site, the Hollerith Abteilung, operated in almost every concentration camp. It either ran machines, sorted cards or prepared documents for IBM processing. In addition, the infamous Auschwitz arm tattoo began as an IBM number.

Although IBM actively worked with the Hitler regime from its inception in 1933 to its demise in 1945, IBM has asserted that since their German subsidiary came under temporary receivership by the Nazi authorities from 1941 to 1945, the main company was not responsible for its role in the latter years of the Holocaust.[23] Shortly after the war, the company worked aggressively to recover the profits made from the many Hollerith departments in the concentration camps, the printing of millions of punchcards used to keep track of the prisoners, the custom-built punchcard systems, and its servicing of the extermination through its labor program. The company also paid its employees special bonuses based on high sales volume to the Nazis and collaborator regimes. As in many corporate cases, when the US entered the war, the Third Reich left in place the original IBM managers who continued their contacts via Geneva; thus company activities continued without interruption.

[edit] IBM's response

IBM has consistently refused calls by Jewish, Gypsy, survivor, and veterans groups to apologize for its involvement with the Nazi regime. IBM has never contradicted any of the evidence or facts in the books or the many documentaries nor has it disputed Black's allegations,[1] but claimed it has no real information on the period and has questioned the research done and the conclusions made. IBM and the Holocaust has been featured in hundreds of news articles, magazine stories, TV shows and documentaries, virtually none with rebuttal from IBM.[2] The company has stated that Black's case "is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that I.B.M.[sic] bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done."[2]

Source......

A challenge to all of us in Truthed......

What companies can we find links that support war?

I have commented in the past couple of days about ZIM Shipping.....

But what others?

I'm sure they are out there and easily accessible by Google......

[Tecnos]

'Sandline International'

'Executive Outcomes'?

They are PMC's but come on..... let's find more!!!!!

Enron and Iraq?

Raytheon?
Amec?
Control Risks?
PB Power?
HSBC?
Aeigis?

Come on people..... why aren't you Googling away?

[kidflash2008]

President Eisenhower did warn of the military industrial complex in his final speech to the public. He knew well of what he spoke, and Congress never took heed. We have had escalations in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, etc where wars or conflicts were fought for profits.

I have plugged the book many times, Tecnos, but you may like "The Rise of the Fourth Reich" by Jim Marrs. It is more relevant since the release of Bush documents. Also, his book "Rule By Secrecy" is another one to read.