“IBM contributed to the holocaust” was a rather abstract bad thing for me until I read this thread & started to understand that it was deliberate and profitable and _crucial_ to the Nazi’s machinery of death.
More info: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehomag
More info: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehomag
The numbers the Nazis tattooed on prisoners’ wrists were IBM identifcation codes.
The IBM computers decided where people were sent. I wonder: is this the first big example of using the fence of “it’s just algorithms” to declaim personal responsibility?
The IBM computers decided where people were sent. I wonder: is this the first big example of using the fence of “it’s just algorithms” to declaim personal responsibility?
IBM’s German subsidiary paid $3 million into a fund for holocaust victims, while never admitting any responsibility.
Soooo let’s see, apparently IBM figured that each person their systems sent to their death was worth 18 cents.
Noted.
Soooo let’s see, apparently IBM figured that each person their systems sent to their death was worth 18 cents.
Noted.
Oh, but lots of those folks were killed in other ways, you say! Not all were scheduled for termination by computer!
Ok then, let’s take the narrowest possible number. Let’s consider only people killed in extermination camps, whose rail system was run by computer.
Ok then, let’s take the narrowest possible number. Let’s consider only people killed in extermination camps, whose rail system was run by computer.
Let’s not include any deaths at concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, or Buchenwald, or in prison camps, labor camps, or ghettos.
(Even though IBM’s computers & technicians had a huge hand in ‘relocating’ people to those places as well.)
(Even though IBM’s computers & technicians had a huge hand in ‘relocating’ people to those places as well.)
$1.15
That’s how bad IBM felt about each person their algorithms murdered.
That’s how bad IBM felt about each person their algorithms murdered.
I’m going to go hug my kids.
Remember that the work you do and who you do it for matters.
Ask the questions.
The real ones.
The uncomfortable ones.
Remember that the work you do and who you do it for matters.
Ask the questions.
The real ones.
The uncomfortable ones.
CORRECTION: the numbers tattooed onto prisoners’ bodies at Auschwitz were not IBM computer codes.
Thanks @AuschwitzMuseum for the correction & subsequent discussion.
Thanks @AuschwitzMuseum for the correction & subsequent discussion.
IBM’s technology enabled the Nazis to track people, & their algorithms determined how “relocate” them to camps & ghettos efficiently, but the numbers assigned to prisoners at Auschwitz were generated by hand, & records there were handwritten or typed.
Some camps did have IBM machines, and sometimes prisoners transferred from another camp would show up with punch cards bearing their information.
But that was separate from the tattooing, which seems to have been an Auschwitz-only procedure, & only applied to prisoners intended to work (not ones sent immediately to execution).
I now know waaaay more about this than I did yesterday. Sometimes social media is pretty cool :)
I now know waaaay more about this than I did yesterday. Sometimes social media is pretty cool :)
Even when the subject matter is horrific and impossibly sad.
Keep asking those questions - even very small actions can help your company close the gap between the values it talks about and the values it practices. A company is just people, in the end.
Keep asking those questions - even very small actions can help your company close the gap between the values it talks about and the values it practices. A company is just people, in the end.
