12. Thomas J. Watson, IBM’s Visionary CEO
Thomas J. Watson, IBM’s CEO from 1914 to 1956, oversaw its growth into an international giant. He also put his company’s cutting-edge technology at the Nazis’ disposal, to facilitate the Holocaust. In 1933, soon after Hitler took power, Watson traveled to Germany to oversee the building of an IBM factory, and the establishment of a local subsidiary. After Germany’s conquest of Poland, Watson personally approved a request to supply Germany with specialized machines to help exploit that country and deport Polish Jews. Exterminating Europe’s Jews was administratively complex, involving the management and cross-referencing of huge databases of financial records, criminal files, and what interested the Nazis the most, Jews.
The was only doable with a complicated punch card system, similar to that used in libraries until relatively recently. IBM was the leader in punch card and data management technology. Even after America joined the war in 1941, archival records reveal secret correspondence of IBM higher-ups to set up a Dutch subsidiary, through which the company could continue supplying the Nazis. By then, it was clear how the Nazis were using IBM’s technology, but the company continued supplying them with the capabilities to easily identify Jews and other undesirables.
