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sabotabby ([personal profile] sabotabby) wrote2008-01-11 07:41 am
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Today's discussion questions

It's another one of those long days at school and I won't be around, so here are two discussion questions for you. Fight talk amongst yourselves.

1. What do we think of this news story? There's a lot in there, so let's pick it to pieces.

2. Speaking of genocide, the Toronto District School Board has a new history course dealing with the subject. It officially recognizes three genocides: Armenia, the Holocaust, and Rwanda. What's missing, and why do you think they chose to exclude the genocide that happened in the country where the course will be taught.

Have a happy Friday!
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[identity profile] auralarua.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"IBM and the Holocaust is a book written by Edwin Black published in 2001 which chronicles the alliance between International Business Machines Corporation and Nazi Germany.
The book quotes extensively from numerous IBM and government memos and letters that describe how IBM in New York, IBM's Geneva office and Dehomag, its German subsidiary, were intimately involved in supporting Nazi oppression. The book also includes IBM's internal reports that admit that these machines made the Nazis much more efficient in their efforts. Several C-SPAN broadcasts and a 2003 documentary film "The Corporation" showed close-ups of several documents including IBM code sheets for concentration camps taken from the files of the National Archives. Prisoner Code 8 was Jew, Code 11 was Gypsy. Camp Code 001 was Auschwitz, Code 002 was Buchenwald. Status Code 5 was executed by order, code 6 was gas chamber."
What about this? I don't know *anything* about foreign business policy but shouldn't IBM's involvement have been taken seriously? PRETTY EFFED UP IMO.

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not quite what it appears. IBM, before the war, was a leader in IT for national censuses. They marketed aggresively to the German and Austrian governments among others. That technology was used in the Holocaust. The technology was supported by IBM Germany during the war but by then Armonk had no contact or control over IBM Germany.

I'm no fan of IBM. I usedf to work for them and hated it. But let's look at a modern parallel. Let's say Microsoft sold SQL Server to the government of Israel which then used that software to track Palestinians it wanted to rub out would you really say that Microsoft was responsible?

[identity profile] auralarua.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
The technology was supported by IBM Germany during the war but by then Armonk had no contact or control over IBM Germany.
That's everyone's excuse for their involvement in the Holocaust! Okay though.

that is . . .

[identity profile] auralarua.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
had no contact or control over *insert company here* Germany

[identity profile] chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
That's everyone's excuse for their involvement in the Holocaust!

But it's true. I mean you wouldn't blame a German chemical company for the bombing of Dresden because their pre-war US subsidiary made explosives for the US Air Force. Or would you?

[identity profile] auralarua.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I'm going to need some more analogies.
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