Hermann HollerithBorn in Germany 1860Moved to US 1875Degree in Engineering with perfect grades 1879Assistant in US Census Bureau 1879

1880 Census predicted to take 10 years to countHollerith designed a punch card system to automate the censusFirst prototype 1884Won a contest for 1890 census. Hollerith machines saved a third of Census Bureau’s budget in 18901870 – 5 questions asked on census1890 – 235 questions asked

Census Bureau only needed machines once every 10 years. What to do in meantime?

From Hollerith to IBM• 1910 Hollerith licensed patents to Deutsche Hollerith

Maschinen Gesellschaft (Dehomag) — the German Hollerith Machine Corporation

• Machines never sold, only leased• Monopoly on cards and paper necessary for cards• Thomas J Watson joins as CEO in 1922• 1924 company renamed as International Business Machines

(IBM)

Questions?

• Is history of computing relevant to us?• What can we learn from history?

– Edmund Burke - "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.“

• Which ethical issues might have faced IBM in 1924?

• Any problems with what IBM has done?

Dehomag• Dehomag pay royalties to IBM• 1923 hyperinflation• Dehomag unable to pay

Watson buys 90%

• Watson a micro-manager. Set sales quotas for Dehomag and benefited from improvements made to machines by German engineers.

Using the Machines• Each system unique, designed by engineers• Each card custom-designed

– Specific column and corresponding hole for each piece of information. – Dummy cards in pen & pencil to ensure categories and placement

acceptable to Dehomag and reporting agency. – Information could only be input if it met Dehomag specifications. – Customers tailored data collection to match Hollerith requirements. – Dehomag only source to purchase the cards– Generally sold in lots of 10,000, often pre-printed with project names.

• Employees needed to be trained to use cards• Dehomag (and IBM) knew everything recorded by cards

– Sound familiar?

1933

• Hitler takes power in Germany• 20-3-33 - first concentration camp Dachau • 27-3-33 - 20,000 protest in Madison Sq Gdns• 1-4-33 - 60,000 Jews imprisoned, 10,000 fled• 12-4-33 - Census of all Germans announced

• Heidinger, head of Dehomag, a keen Nazi• Dehomag takes the contract

1934

• Not just census• Dehomag’s German clients included:

– Aircraft engines: 10– Coal mining: 7– Chemical plants: 18– Electrical products: 10– Iron and steel: 19– Railways, post, air force and navy– Massive part of future German war effort

1934

• Law for Simplification of the Health System– Coordination of medical records

• The Law for the Prevention of Genetically Sick Offspring– Enforced sterilization of undesirables– Included low IQ, epileptic, bi-polar

1935• Law for the Protection of German Blood and Reich

Citizenship Law – Deprive all Jews of German citizenship

• NY Times front page:– “National Socialist Germany ... decreed a series of laws

that put Jews beyond the legal and social pale of the German nation.”

• Jews continue to flee Germany– 125,000 refugees, many to US

1936-37

• 16 September 1936:– NY Times: Nazi announces “that in the last

analysis, extermination is the only real solution to the Jewish problem. Mr. Streicher made it clear in his address that he was not discussing the question in regard to Germany alone … but of a world problem.”

• 1937: new census scheduled for 1938

Thomas Watson

• More than a business partner of Nazis• Holleriths enabled rearmament on massive

scale• Refused to join boycotts, advocating free trade• Reich responded with highest honour for a

non-German: Merit Cross of the German Eagle with Star

Anschluss

• 1938 Census delayed• 13-3-38 - Germany marched into Austria

• Nazis knew exactly where to find the Jews– How?

Adolf Eichmann• 1938 Eichmann sent to Austria to organize

Jewish emigration• Found Holleriths in place and used these.• “For weeks in advance … every able-bodied man

they could find was put to work in three shifts: writing file cards for an enormous circular card file, several yards in diameter, which a man sitting on a piano stool could operate and find any card he wanted thanks to a system of punch holes. All information important for Austria was entered on these cards. The data was taken from annual reports, handbooks, the newspapers of all the political parties, membership files; in short, everything imaginable. . . . Each card carried name, address, party membership, whether Jew, Freemason or practicing Catholic or Protestant; whether politically active, whether this or whether that. During that period our regular work was put on ice.“ Eichmann

1938• Census delayed a year to cope with data from Austria

• 6-7-38: Dehomag to IBM NY: “IBM [retains] unlimited power to dispose of such new products, and in view of its [IBM’s] position within Dehomag, is absolutely in a position, even without our express declaration of assent, on its part to formulate the conditions for the inclusion of Dehomag in such new business. ”

• 30 September: Sudetenland, then Czechoslovakia

1939• 17 May: New census of 80m people in Reich

– NY Times: census would “provide detailed information on the ancestry, religious faith and material possessions of all residents. Special blanks will be provided on which each person must state whether he is of pure ‘Aryan’ blood. The status of each of his grandparents must be given and substantiated by evidence in case of inquiry.”

• 1 September: Germany invades Poland

• Dehomag worked overtime: 450,000 cards a day to 1m cards a day to meet deadline: 10 November 1939

• Nazis found expansion had increased Jewish population in Reich by c.100,000– Needed a “better” solution than expulsion

Questions?

• IBM providing equipment through Dehomag to Nazis for census – is this a problem?– IBM’s business what Nazis asked on census?– Or is the customer always right?

• Any problems with what IBM has done?

Reinhard Heydrich• Needed to relocate Jews in

ghettos near railways

• Relocation needed Holleriths: food needed, labour provided, annual deaths predicted

• Watson approved transfer of latest Holleriths from Austria to Dehomag. Worked 20 times faster than predecessors.

• Ordered census in ghettos

1940 Schotte’s Memo to IBM• IBM’s general manager for Europe (based in NY)• “Up to about one and a half years ago [about the time of Kristallnacht in 1938], our

negotiations with the war ministries of the twenty-four countries which are under the jurisdiction of IBM European headquarters in Geneva, had not been very successful. This was due to several reasons, but mainly to the fact that in military circles administration was considered a ‘necessary evil’ of little importance for the defense of the country.”

• Late ‘38, “in Germany a campaign started for, what has been termed . . . ‘organization of the second front.’ … 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.”

• “Lectures on the punched card system were held by our representatives before officials of the general staff of various countries ... with our men. The study of possible applications was begun … progress was rather slow, and it was not until about eight or nine months ago [summer 1939] when conditions in Europe clearly indicated that a war was more or less unavoidable, that the matter became acute.”

• “The War Ministries of Yugoslavia, Rumania, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Holland and France (these are the ones that I remember very distinctly from memory) sent us orders for punched card equipment, some of which is already installed, others being installed when the war started, and further equipment not yet installed or still in transport.”

Schotte on IBM and Nazi Military• All Luftwaffe missions recorded.• War injuries analyzed by Holleriths• Decrypting of UK dispatches carried out by Holleriths • Every combat order, bullet, and troop movement was

tracked on a Hollerith

• 1940, IBM NY - exact location of every machine in the Greater Reich on an updated basis.

Over-reliance?• Nazis too reliant on IBM? IBM would know of innermost Nazi

secrets.• Needed millions of cards each week. Cards printed on special

paper owned by IBM• Expected card use of 1.5bn/year by 1943, but took 6 months

to build a press in a good year. Clients had just 30-day stock of cards. IBM owned the cards.

• Precision maintenance needed on machines. New factories to make parts would take 6-12 months. IBM controlled the parts.

• IBM monopoly could be replaced, but it would take years. Nazis relied on Holleriths, so no choice.

Railways• Military and Jewish transport• IBM systems ran nearly all railways of Nazi-dominated Europe • Holleriths had exact location of every freight car, its capacity

and most efficient schedule • Freight car locations updated every 48 hours. Without

Holleriths these locations would generally be more than two weeks out of date and useless in war.

• In 1938 more than 200 million punch cards were printed for European railroads. In Nazi Poland, the railroads (95% IBM Poland’s business) used more than 21 million cards annually.

General Ruling 11 (1941)• US knew war imminent• GR 11 prevented trade with Nazi Germany• Would not affect neutral countries• IBM’s response:

– Cabled all subsidiaries involved with Axis nations. – Did not order them to stop producing cards for Nazi Germany. – Did not order them to cease all operations. – Did not set limits on which projects they could participate in. – Did not require offices in neutral companies to stop supporting Hitler’s

program. – Did not demand that spare parts no longer be sent to machines in

concentration camps. – Cable merely directed managers not to “call on us for any advice or

assistance until further notice.” Black, 289

Questions?

• Is this a computing problem or a business problem?– Can you separate the two?

• Any problems with what IBM has done?– What has changed your mind?

Holocaust

• Nearly every concentration camp had a Hollerith

• Dachau had at least 24 IBM sorters, tabulators and printers

• The major camps were assigned Hollerith code numbers for their paperwork: Auschwitz … 001; Buchenwald . . . 002; Dachau … 003

• In August 1943, a timber merchant from Poland, arrived at Auschwitz, one of 400 (mostly Jewish) inmates.– First, a Polish doctor examined him to determine his fitness for work. His

physical information was noted on a medical record for the “camp hospital index.”

– Second, his full prisoner registration was completed with all personal details. – Third, his name was checked against the indices of the Political Section to see

if he would be subjected to special cruelty. – Finally, he was registered on Hollerith equipment in the labor index of the

Arbeitseinsatz and assigned a characteristic five-digit Hollerith number, 44673.• Later in the summer of 1943, the timber merchant’s same five-digit Hollerith

number, 44673, was tattooed on his forearm. Eventually, during the summer of 1943, all non-Germans at Auschwitz were similarly tattooed.

Codes• Political Prisoner 1 • Bible Researcher 2 • Homosexual

3 • Dishonorable Military Discharge

4 • Clergy 5 • Communist Spaniard

6 • Foreign Civilian Worker

7 • Jew

8 • Asocial 9 • Habitual Criminal 10 • Major Felons

11 • Gypsy 12 • Prisoner of War 13 • Covert Prisoner 14 • Hard Labor Detainee

15 • Diplomatic Consul 16

• Death by natural causes C-3 • Execution D-4 • Suicide E-5 • Special Treatment F-6

Allied Response• 17 Dec 1942, Allies declare there would be “war

crime” trials and punishment for all involved with genocide

• The Allies’ declaration of war crimes for genocide broadcast and published as top news item in more than 23 languages across the world.

“Never once was a word of restraint uttered by Watson about Dehomag’s indispensable activities in support of Jewish persecution. No brakes. No cautions. Indeed, to protest Germany’s crusade against Jewish existence would be nothing less than criticizing the company’s number two customer. Despite the innumerable opportunities to disengage or decline to escalate in the war against the Jews, IBM never backed away.” Black, 115

Questions?

• I won’t ever run somewhere like IBM. What difference can one person make anyway?

Netherlands – Jacobus Lentz• Holland surrendered 15 May ’40• Nazis needed statistician to deal

with Jews• Inspector of Population Registries

Lentz their man• Not a Nazi, but on a crusade to

catalogue people• 1936: “Theoretically the

collection of data for each person can be so abundant and complete, that we can finally speak of information representing the natural human. ”

Lentz• 3-7-40: ID’d 20,000 Jewish refugees in Amsterdam • 17-8-40: Introduced tamper-proof ID cards• 10-1-41: All Jews to register• Lentz reassured Nazis that, thanks to Hollerith

technology, he could cope with Jewish census.• 14-6-41: Lentz offered first draft survey to Nazis• 16-6-41: Lentz almost complete. Did Nazis want him

to concentrate on particular groups (e.g. artists or dentists)?

• 5-9-41: 159,806 Jews identified

France – Rene Carmille• France had not asked about

religion in a census since 1872

• September ’40, census ordered

• Decentralised architecture led to a mess. No use of technology, but typewriters

• Carmille offered his services• Had kept Holleriths from

before war• 14-11-40 started

Demographic Service

Carmille

• March ’41 informed Central Office of Jewish Affairs in France that their statistics were wrong

• Readying for July ’41 census of all French citizens. Q11 asked for Jews to identify themselves by religion and grandparents.

• Existing French systems couldn’t cope with census. Gave information to Carmille on 11-10-41, who formed the National Statistical Service.

Carmille

• 2-12-41: Census of 140,000 persons handed to Carmille

• Carmille charged 400,000 francs for services• 4-5-42: Carmille complains 30,000 records

missing• July ’42: Eichmann commands deportation of

Jews, but information insufficient• Nazis reliant on Carmille. No duplicates of

information

Carmille

• 8-11-42: Allies land in Algeria, supported by French Resistance.

• 5-12-42: French forces seize NSS office in Algiers. Use Holleriths to mobilize thousands of French fighters by 17-1-43.

• Late January ’43: Nazis discover Carmille working for French Resistance

Carmille

• Worked in counter-intelligence since 1911• Developed mobilization database of 800,000 soldiers• Holes never punched for census Question 11• 100,000 cards of Jews unprocessed in his office• Carmille’s use of Holleriths still important to Nazis• Finally arrested on 3-2-44• Died in Dachau on 25-1-45

Lentz vs. Carmille• Holland• 11-6-42: Germany wanted 15,000 Jews• 22-6-42: quota raised to 40,000• So efficient that too many Jews arrived at transports to

concentration camps• Of 140,000 Jews, 107,000 deported, 102,000 murdered (73%)

• France• 11-6-42: Germany wanted 100,000 Jews• 22-6-42: quota lowered to 40,000• Of 300,000-350,000 Jews, 85,000 deported, 82,000 murdered

(25%)

How much difference can one person make?

Questions?

• What can we learn from this?• What responsibility did proto-computer

scientists have to the Holocaust?• Is the computer scientist morally neutral?

IBM Refuses to Comment

• Brad Pitt film reference?