IBM involvement w/ Germany during WWII (was Re: Christie's auction...)

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Sun Feb 20 13:00:07 2005

James Cosper wrote:
> Basically it's saying that IBM had contracts with the US Gov for
> advanced computing equipment during the war.
>
> That they leased the same or similar equipment to Germany, and to each
> country that Germany took over, specifically for doing the Census,
> Banking, controlling industrial inventory and computing train schedules.

So the US Government allowed IBM to lease equipment and sell cards
to the Axis powers during the war? This seems hard to believe.
I wouldn't have thought that the US would have exported *anything* to
the Axis (other than munitions), even things as mundane as pencils or
paperclips.

Since IBM Deutchland manufactured equipment locally, I would have
thought that it was operating autonomously during the war, without
support from IBM headquarters.

Eric
Received on Sun Feb 20 2005 - 13:00:07 GMT