Swiss court allows Gypsies to sue IBM over alleged Holocaust link

[Judi Lynn]

Swiss court allows Gypsies to sue IBM over alleged Holocaust link


By JONATHAN FOWLER
The Associated Press
6/22/04 2:50 PM


GENEVA (AP) -- A Swiss court has cleared the way for Gypsies to sue IBM over published allegations that the computer company's punch-card machines helped the Nazis commit mass murder more efficiently, the plaintiffs' lawyer said Tuesday.

The Geneva appeals court disagreed with a lower court that refused to hear the case last year on grounds it lacked jurisdiction, said the Gypsies' lawyer, Henri-Philippe Sambuc.

A Gypsy group filed the lawsuit in Geneva because IBM's wartime European headquarters were in the city. They claim the office was IBM's hub for trade with the Nazis.
(snip)

In its June 2003 ruling, the lower court said IBM only had an "antenna" in the Swiss city. City archives, however, show that in 1936 IBM opened an office under the name "International Business Machines Corporation New York, European Headquarters."
(snip/...)

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?f0161_BC_Switzerland-IBM-Nazis&&news&newsflash-financial

[stevedeshazer]

1. Incredible

If you have not read Edwin Black's book, "IBM and the Holocaust", this story may not make that much sense to you. It's an astounding book. I will never be the same after having read it.

Prescott Bush played a big role (Grandpappy Bush.)

[Solon]

2. Good, add Ford Motor, Exxon(Standard Oil), Du Pont...

JP Morgan Banks, GM, Bank of America, Bush family and many others for providing material aid to Fascists' rise to power in the 20's, 30's, and 40's.

[Laughing Mirror]

3. I wonder how this worked

Did IBM design these systems around the needs and wishes of its client, the Nazis? Or did IBM design these systems for seemingly innocuous uses, such as census-taking or something along those lines?

Did IBM know to what purposes their machines were put to use or did they not want to know?

[Solon]

4. My understanding is that...

IBM's founder went to Europe and met with Nazi officials, also many companies in the United States most likely knew about the 'Final Solution'. Hell, GM's own Vice President wrote a book called "America and the New World Order" that was inspired by Hitler's "Mein Kiempf", which was itself based on Henry Ford's "The International Jew". Who the hell do you think supplied Hitler with the Gas to use against Jews, the Du Pont's of all people!

[Retired AF Dem]

6. Correct me if I'm wrong

I thought IG Farben supplied the gas to use against the Jews. Was IG Farben owned by Du Pont? or were they a part of the IG Farben consortium?

[Solon]

7. Here's the Link between them...

Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. had been chairman of the finance committee of the Du Pont Corporation (1930-40). In 1933, Carpenter oversaw Du Pont's purchase of Remington Arms from Sam Pryor and the Rockefellers, and led Du Pont into partnership with the Nazi I.G. Farben Company for the manufacture of explosives. Carpenter became Du Pont's president in 1940. His cartel with the Nazis was broken up by the U.S. government. Nevertheless, Carpenter remained Du Pont's president as the company's technicians participated massively in the Manhattan Project to produce the first atomic bomb. He was chairman of Du Pont from 1948 to 1962, retaining high-level access to U.S. strategic activities.

[Retired AF Dem]

8. Thanks

[Solon]

9. If you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes...

Check this link:

http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/sutton_wall_street/chapter_02.htm

and this one:

http://www.unclenicks.net/Canvas/du_pont.html

Check out the connection between Carpenter and Prescott Bush, verry interesting...

[AP]

5. You know those numbers on holocaust victims' arms?

They corresponded to numbers on IBM punch cards. Which were processed by IBM manchines. Which IBM employeess serviced on a monthly basis.

Even thought IBM separated it's German subsidiary, researchers have found contracts between the Nazi government and IBM's NY office. And allegedly, all the money made in Germany by the subsidiary was remitted to the home office after the war.

[Laughing Mirror]

10. Also, the money to pay for such "services" came from the victims

themselves, through confiscation of their homes, property and other valuables, did it not?

[AP]

12. And from their Swiss bank accounts.

The Gyspsies, however, had nothing. The Nazis killed them with very little financial motivation. Just pure hatred (or, hatred of impurity).

IIRC, they killed 1 million Gypsies.

[bobthedrummer]

11. IBM and Auschwitz tattoos, it was all a part of helping the Nazis stream-

line the Holocaust from Big Blue.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0241/black.php

Here's a primer on the many US Third Reich partners. There were hundreds of them!
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/waryearsp5.html

[Judi Lynn]

14. Good links, bobthedrummer. Worth the time reading, for sure.

It's staggering knowing how vast that system really was, how complex, and developed in a relatively short period of time, it would seem.

According the the first link. IBM still hasn't found it necessary to apopologize for its pivotal place in that war, on Germany's side.

Very sad to know people can simply be bought, and will gladly forget their responsibility toward their fellow man.

At times like this you have to wonder if there has been any progress at all within the human race, as in the inner dimension. I'm not seeing much evidence pointing toward hope, yet.

[Judi Lynn]

13. AP, you've revealed something I've never heard in this post.

It really takes one's breath when one can actually see how much ORGANIZATION there actually was. I think most of us simply never gave it much thought.

Those people were dead serious, weren't they? ALL the information needs to come out now, more than ever, as we stand at a precipice, in my view, completely capable of going in a similar dark direction.

[AP]

17. I didn't put this together until I saw the doc "The Corporation."

They have a segment on IBM. They don't come right out and say it, but after explaining the codes the Nazis used, and showing the contracts, and talking to experts, the last thing they show in the IBM segment is a bunch of concentration camp prisoners holding out their tatooed arms for the camera.

It was a very powerful moment and quite sickening.

[moondust]

15. Hey, don't forget the Bushes!

They helped the Nazis, too, and made a lot of money at it!

[seemslikeadream]

16. I think Blacks' next book will be even more interesting

Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict
Edwin Black


September 2004

New York Times and international bestselling author Edwin Black uncovers Iraq’s hidden economy and the companies that profit from its upheaval
Big business and global warfare have long been fiery and symbiotic forces in Iraq. Banking on Baghdad tells the dramatic and tragic history of a land long the center of world commerce–and documents the many ways Iraq’s recent history mirrors its tumultuous past. Tracing the involvement

of Western governments and militaries, as well as oil, banking, and other corporate interests in Iraq, Black shows that today, just as yesterday, the world needs Iraq’s resources–and is always willing to fight and invade in order to acquire and protect them.

While demonstrating that Iraq itself is partially to blame for its current state of turmoil, Black does not shy away from the uncomfortable truth that war and profit have also played an equal part in creating the Iraq we know today. Just as he did in IBM and the Holocaust, Black exposes the hidden associations between leading corporations, war, and oil–such as the astonishing connections between Nazi Germany, Iraq, and the Holocaust.

He exposes the war and race-based profiteering by some of the world’s most prestigious corporations, as well as the political and economic ties between the Bush administration and the companies that gain handsomely from its foreign policy. Just as he did in War Against the Weak, Black offers a compelling blend of history and contemporary investigative journalism that spans a century and eschews easy answers for complicated questions.



more
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047167186X.html


Tracing the involvement





The Wind That Shakes The Barley
I sat within a valley green
I sat me with my true love
My sad heart strove the two between
The old love and the new love
The old for her, the new
That made me think on Ireland dearly
When soft the wind blew down the glen
And it shook the golden barley

'Twas hard the woeful words to frame
'Twas worse the tie that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, "The mountain glen
I'll seek it morning early
And join the bold United Men
While soft wind shakes the barley"

While sad I kissed away her tears
My fond arms around her flinging
The foeman's shot burst on our ears
From out the wild wood ringing
The bullet pierced my true love's side
In life's young spring so early
And on my breast in blood she died
While soft wind shakes the barley

Then blood for blood without remorse
I've taken to Oulard Hollow
I laid my true love's clay cold corpse
Where I full soon will follow
And 'round her grave I wander here
Now night and morning early
With a breaking heart whene'er I hear
The wind that shakes the barley

The Wind That Shakes the Barley, one of the vocals, a traditional song about one of the various Irish political conflicts, in this case, the 1798 United Irishmen's uprising