IBM and the Holocaust (17 page)

"We are proud that we may assist in such a task, a task that provides our nation's Physician [Adolf Hitler] with the material he needs for his examinations. Our Physician can then determine whether the calculated values are in harmony with the health of our people. It also means that if such is not the case, our Physician can take corrective procedures to correct the sick circumstances. . . . Our characteristics are deeply rooted in our race. Therefore, we must cherish them like a holy shrine, which we will—and must—keep pure. We have the deepest trust in our Physician and will follow his instructions in blind faith, because we know that he will lead our people to a great future. Hail to our German people and
der Fuhrer
! "
²⁸

The entire group then filed out of the massive building and motored to IBM's new factory in the quiet Berlin section of Lichterfelde to attend the official opening. At 10:30, Dehomag employees stopped their work to gather for the great event. Tall trees along the perimeter were still nearly barren from the Berlin winter. The swastika-bedecked square in front of the four-story factory complex was already jammed with hundreds of neighborhood onlookers and well wishers.
²⁹

Just before noon, two columns of Storm Troopers took up positions along either side of the walkway leading to Dehomag's front door. A band from the SA's 9th Regiment played Nazi victory songs. Finally, the NSDAP hierarchy arrived.
³⁰

Dehomag had invited Nazi higher-ups representing the organizations most important to the future of IBM's partnership with the Third Reich. From the German Labor Front came Rudolf Schmeer, a last-minute stand-in for Dr. Robert Ley, leader of the organization. The German Labor Front was the militant coalition responsible for mobilizing unemployed Nazi millions into both newly created jobs and vacated Jewish positions. The Front also inducted Germans into regimented squads that functioned as veritable military units. So important was Dr. Ley and his German Labor Front that the entire Lichterfelde factory opening was delayed two days because he took ill. Only when it became clear he would not recover for days was the event suddenly rescheduled with Schmeer, accompanied by an entourage of potentates, standing in.
³¹

At Schmeer's side was A. Gorlitzer representing the SA, the rough and ready Storm Troopers, the violent edge of Hitler's forces. Gorlitzer was a powerful Nazi. When Goebbels became Propaganda Minister, Gorlitzer took his place in the Storm Trooper organization. Now, the presence of Gorlitzer, in gleaming, black leather boots and fighting uniform, would testify to the importance of Dehomag in Hitler's future plans.
³²

As the invited Nazi officials paraded through echelons of honor guard, the Brown Shirts pumped their arms rigidly diagonal. Schmeer, Gorlitzer, and the other leaders returned the disciplined Hitler salute with a casual, almost cocky bent-elbowed gesture, their open palms barely wafting over their shoulder.
³³

Bouquets decorated Dehomag's reception hall. One large swastika emblem dominated the front of the podium, and an even larger swastika flag hung across the wall. Music inside was provided by an NSDAP men's choir. To record the event, a tall, circular microphone stood nearby.
³⁴

The company's most important users were there as well. Heidinger's guest list included the directors of the
Reichsbank
and other financial institutions, the Police, Post Office, Ministry of Defense, Reich Statistical Office, and an executive contingent from the
Reichsbahn,
that is, German Railway.
³⁵

The future was in the cards—a future of names, of police files and concentration camps, of bank accounts and asset transfers, of war offices and weapons production, of endless statistical campaigns and registrations, and of trains. So many trains. The men and organizations assembled would help shape that future in ways people were only beginning to imagine.

Representing Watson at the event was his personal representative, Walter Jones. Jones was the Paris-based manager of all European operations and a man who would one day become chairman of IBM Canada.
³⁶

Framed by swastikas front and rear, a clearly impressed Jones was the first to speak. He proclaimed in German, "It is an outstanding honor and privilege for me to be with you and to represent Mr. Thomas J. Watson, president of International Business Machines, on the occasion of the formal opening of this magnificent factory . . . the new and permanent home of Dehomag."
³⁷

Repeatedly using Nazi buzzwords for economic recovery, Jones made clear that Mr. Watson agreed to the new construction "because he realized your organization had outgrown the facilities . . . [and] the time was propi-tious . . . as it would give employment to many idle workmen and thus help . . . the unemployed." Peppering Watson's name and imprimatur throughout his address, Jones praised, "the noble work undertaken by your government in its aim to give work to every German citizen."
³⁸

When Heidinger came to the front, nattily dressed with a small hand-kerchief peeking from his suit jacket pocket, the man was clearly emotional. "I feel it almost a sacred action, if in this hour I consecrate this place of our mother earth," he began. Reviewing Dehomag's turbulent history, he described how the tiny company had persevered despite a lack of financing, the Great War, and the suffocating post-War inflation.
³⁹

Although at that very time, Heidinger was battling Watson over the appointment of Hummel, in this moment of Nazi fulfillment, Heidinger was effusive. Recalling IBM's acquisition of Dehomag, he recast the story not as an acrimonious takeover but as a financial rescue by a benevolent friend of the German people. "I express our deepest appreciation and our thanks for the noblesse not to be surpassed, proved by our creditor . . . International Business Machines Corporation under the management of their president, Thomas J. Watson, in our condition of distress. . . . [IBM] could have been in a position to take over our entire firm by . . . enforcing their claim for bankruptcy . . . but [instead] purchased a share in our company."
⁴⁰

Continually invoking Nazi re-employment cliches, Heidinger promised that Dehomag would provide "bread and work" for German citizens. In that vein, he said that IBM had calculated the cost of a grand opening banquet and instead would contribute the 10,000 Reichsmarks to the Winter Subsidy, a Nazi program donating funds and food to those thrown into deeper joblessness by the international anti-Nazi boycott.
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He concluded by unveiling a building plaque commemorating the factory both to "the national awakening of the German people" and to its future. Heidinger concluded by asking that "the blessing of heaven may rest upon this place."
⁴²

Final remarks were offered by Schmeer on behalf of the powerful German Labor Front. "German men, German women," he proclaimed, "the fact that we are on the way up under Hitler's leadership despite the present conditions was doubted by many, not just by our enemies, but also by people who were willing to work honestly and diligently. The opening of this factory . . . shows that the road Hitler has prescribed and which he took last year was right, namely to bring trust into the German economy. People in the past were not lacking commitment to hard work but they lacked trust . . . the
Volks
community now present in this factory is here to stay, and stay for all eternity. . . . It will produce goods, which will help our people in their ascent."
⁴³

Snapping into respect, Schmeer pumped his arm forward exclaiming, "I now ask you to collect our joy and cry out: 'Our Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler,
Sieg
Heil!
' " The crowd reciprocated with fire:
Sieg Heil
! The choir burst into the national anthem, "Deutschland uber Alles."
⁴⁴

Marching out enthusiastic and reassured, swept into the moment, the regaled Brown Shirts chanted the "Horst Wessel Song."
⁴⁵

Soon Hitler's flags will wave
Over every single street
Enslavement ends
When soon we set things right!

For IBM and Dehomag both, it was an extraordinary day of Nazi communion. Two days later, Jones sent off verbatim translations of the speeches to Watson with an enthusiastic cover letter declaring, "as your representative, I attended the formal opening . . . I have never witnessed a more interesting ceremony." Jones attached a list of all the Nazi figures that attended, and even made clear that the dignitaries included the SA's "Gorlitzer, who succeeded Dr. Goebbels in the latter's former position." Jones' letter proudly mentioned "a full company of Nazi storm troups [
sic
] with band" and promised IBM's Leader that plenty of photos would follow.
⁴⁶

Watson sent a personal letter to Heidinger. "Mr. Jones sent me a copy of the speech you made at the opening of the new factory in Berlin . . . and I have read it with a great deal of interest . . . you are certainly to be congratulated upon the manner in which you conveyed your thoughts." The company was so proud of the event that Dehomag printed commemorative programs of the event with photographs and transcripts of the speeches made at both the census complex and the factory.
⁴⁷

There was no turning back now. IBM and the Nazi party had bonded. Swastikas and corporate slogans had found their common ground. Day and night, the Jewish names clattered through IBM systems, faster and faster, city by city, profession by profession. Dehomag was the Third Reich's informational deliverer. As such, they were afforded a special place in the mindset of Nazi planners. It was an awesome responsibility for Dehomag and IBM, but one they accepted with doctrinaire devotion.

The feeling was captured by one Nazi newspaper,
Der Deutsche,
which sent a reporter to cover the Lichterfelde ceremonies. The paper quoted Heidinger on the nature of the company. Heidinger explained it this way: "Children's character is determined by their parents. Firms' by their founders."
⁴⁸

GERMANY WAS
quietly tabulating.

While Hitler's rhetoric was burning the parade grounds and airwaves, while Storm Troopers were marching Jews through the streets in ritual humiliations, while Reich legislative decrees and a miasma of regional and private policies were ousting Jews from their professions and residences, while noisy, outrageous acts of persecution were appalling the world, a quieter process was also underway. Germany was automating.

Hollerith systems could do more than count. They could schedule, analyze, and compute. They could manage.

Several dozen Hollerith systems were already in use by a small clique of German industrial firms and government offices.
⁴⁹
But now Hitler's Reich discovered that in its quest for supremacy, it could mechanize, organize, and control virtually all aspects of private and commercial life, from the largest industrial cartel to the humblest local shopkeeper. Just as people would be categorized and regimented down to the least characteristic, so would all of German business be analyzed to the smallest detail—and then subject to Nazi discipline. The economy could recover. People could go back to work. But it would all be done toward a single, totally coordinated Nazi goal.

A global movement was loudly organizing to shatter the German economy and topple the repressive Hitler regime by denying economic recovery, prolonging German joblessness, and boycotting German commerce. But IBM was mobilizing its financial and engineering might to do the opposite. General Manager Rottke echoed IBM's attitude at the Lichterfelde factory opening, declaring, "We are able to hereby assist our government in its battle against unemployment."
Work and bread
was the theme IBM and Dehomag used again and again to describe their venture—all in support of the National Socialist goal. As Heidinger told his audience, "Public interest prevails over private interest."
⁵⁰

Hollerith technology had become a German administrative way of life. Punch cards would enable the entire Reich to go on a war footing. For IBM, it was a bonanza.

Dehomag's client list sparkled. Electrical combines such as Siemens in Berlin and Lech-Elektrizitatswerke in Augsburg. Heavy industry such as Mannesmann in Dusseldorf and I.G. Farben in Frankfurt. Automakers such as Opel in Russelsheim and Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. Retail stores such as Woolworth and Hertie in Berlin. Optical manufacturers such as Zeiss in Jena and Zeiss Ikon in Dresden. Chocolate factories such as Schokoladenfabrik in Tangermunde. Coffee producers such as Kaffee Handels A.G. in Bremen.
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