IBM and the Holocaust (75 page)
On November 17, 1943, Antonescu again reviewed census data with his generals. "According to the latest statistics we have now in Transnistria a little over 50,000 Jews," said Antonescu. Adding 10,000 Jews from the Dorohoi area and others, Antonescu tallied "70,000 to 80,000." General Constantin Vasilu objected, "There was some mistake. We have talked with Colonel Radulescu, who has carried out a census. There are now exactly 61,000."
31
By the end of the war, after a bloody series of Romanian-German executions and deprivations, more than 270,000 Jews had been brutally killed or starved. Hundreds of thousands more died in bordering regions under Romania's jurisdiction.
32
IBM's subsidiary in Bucharest was incorporated on March 4, 1938, as Compania Electrocontabila Watson with approximately $240,000 in equipment, punch cards, and leaseable machines. Quickly, the unit became profitable. The subsidiary's main clients were the Communications Ministry, census bureaus, statistical offices, and railroads. Watson's decision to incorporate coincided with Romania embarking on an enhanced war footing. This martial program would include massive orders of Hollerith equipment and punch cards. IBM Europe was unable to fill all the leases requested by Bucharest, but it ramped up production to meet the need. IBM NY was kept apprised of the progress.
33
Company executives had worked with Romanian military committees early in the war to scrutinize each commercial installation in the country, identifying which could be requisitioned by the Ministry of War. These machines were to be relocated to secure sites in the countryside when fighting broke out. Special arrangements with the Romanian Ministry of War exempted IBM supervisors and engineers from the draft to assure continuity of service.
34
A few months after Lier arranged the shipment of seventeen additional machines from Poland to Bucharest, America declared war. Shortly thereafter, Romania was deemed enemy territory under General Ruling 11. But IBM needed to finalize commissions owed to the Italian bank in Bucharest that covered delivery guarantees. Writing on corporate letterhead co-equally displaying the name of IBM in New York and IBM Europe in Geneva, on June 18, 1942, Lier tried to secure from the American Commercial Attache in Bern a special license to pay the bank commissions. Lier wrote, "In the middle of last year, our Romanian company contracted a large order with the Romanian census authorities for the execution of the census of the population of Romania. Prior to giving that order to our Romanian company, the Romanian Government required a bank guarantee to be filed with the Banque Commerciale Italienne et Roumaine in Bucharest to cover the delivery of the equipment foreseen by the order . . . May we therefore request you to issue a license which would authorize us to cover the amount of Lei 111,348 by remitting this amount in Swiss Francs to the Societe de Banque Suisse in Geneva."
35
The American legation denied Lier's request and suggested he contact the Treasury Department in America. Lier asked IBM NY to handle the matter directly with Washington.
36
As late as January 1944, Schotte in New York acknowledged to Department of Justice investigator Harold Carter that he knew that punch cards at the Central Institute of Statistics contained information on census, population trends, and "special studies of all minority groups in Romania." Schotte also confirmed that Romania's railroads maintained "a large installation of machines" located at the Ministry for Communications. The railroad's Statistical Department alone utilized as many as 1.7 million cards annually, and its Traction Department 3.34 million more. Those cards were printed on IBM's Swift Press in its busy Bucharest facility, which was functioning at its absolute capacity of 20 million cards per year.
37
Romania was liberated from domination by Russian occupiers in late August 1944. On September 2, 1944, IBM Bucharest cabled a report to IBM Geneva: "Company in working order. Cable instructions for changed circumstances. Arrange urgently protection of property and personnel." A second brief report was cabled on October 5. General Ruling 11 had not yet been lifted, so IBM could not reply. Lier, on September 18, petitioned the American Legation in Geneva for permission to respond. IBM was in fact the first corporation to ask permission to resume normal business. America's Commercial Attache ruled, "Romania is still enemy territory under General Ruling Number 11. . . . Until such time as General Ruling Number 11 is specifically revoked or amended for Romania, the International Business Machines Co. may not communicate with that country without license."
38
Eventually, Lier's request was routed to the State Department through the American Embassy in London. When a response was finally permitted, IBM, in its very first communication, answered, "Your telegram of the 12th October seems to indicate that your present situation is normal and that you are proceeding with your work as best you can."
39
The company then asked for a comprehensive eleven-point report on all financial statements, including profit or loss, and rental revenues by customer, for the years 1942, 1943, and 1944. In addition, the company also wanted an immediate estimate of future prospects in war-ravaged Romania, broken down by machines that could be rented, personnel needed, and spare parts required. New York also wanted to know if Romania had made its quota: asking for "points installed and uninstalled to date." This way, the Romanian subsidiary could take its rightful place in IBM's Hundred Percent Club for outstanding performance.
40
Romania was liable for war reparations, including $20 million to pay American claims, PS10 million in Britain for its claims, and approximately $300 million for Russian claims.
41
By late July 1945, IBM had lodged its own compensation claims for war damage. The total of $151,383.73 included $37,946.41 for damaged Hollerith machines. It also called on State Department intermediaries to secure its bank accounts in Romania.
42
For IBM Romania, the war was over.
BULGARIA RELUCTANTLY
joined the Axis bloc in March 1941. In exchange, it received German military support for its territorial ambitions in the Balkans. The Bulgarian military occupied Thrace and Macedonia in neighboring Greece. But Bulgarian society—from its churches to its government—overwhelmingly rejected German anti-Semitism for the nation's 48,000 well- integrated Jews. Under extreme pressure from Germany, the country half-heartedly issued anti-Jewish legislation, but deliberately laced the professional exclusions and property confiscations with many exceptions, including conversion.
43
Bulgaria did everything it could to frustrate German plans for Bulgarian Jewry. At one point, when German-pressured regulations called for Jews to wear an identifying Star of David, senior Bulgarian church officials thwarted the move. Sermonizing that no man had the right to torture Jews, the Metropolitan of Sofia arranged for all so-called baptized Jews to be freed from the obligation. When that measure was not enough, the government cut off electricity to the factory producing the stars, claiming it was a power shortage.
44
Eichmann's office wanted the Jews deported from the beginning. But the Bulgarian people were so opposed to the deportation plans that farmers had threatened to throw their bodies across the railroad tracks to stop any trains. Nonetheless, by late November 1941, German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, in a conference with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Popov, declared it the "unalterable decision of
der Fuhrer
" that all Jews would be removed from Europe. As an "intermediate step," Bulgaria was instructed, the nation's 48,000 Jews would be concentrated in Poland. The method: deportation by train.
45
IBM's subsidiary in Sofia, formed on March 17, 1938, was Watson Business Machines Corporation, Ltd. Its single most important customer was the Bulgarian Railroads. As with virtually all railroads since the turn of the century, punch cards made it possible to efficiently schedule trains, locate rolling stock, and deploy boxcars. Without Holleriths, it could take any European railway company up to two weeks to locate its boxcars in peacetime. In wartime, fast deployment was even more difficult. Using Holleriths at every major stop, train authorities could schedule within forty-eight hours. For this reason, whatever part of the war or the genocide that ran on track and rail was vitally dependent on IBM.
46
Punch cards cost money. In spring 1942, just as the Bulgarian government had cut electricity off from the factory making Stars of David, the authorities also froze the railroad's payments to IBM, forcing the money into a blocked account. By spring, Watson Business Machines Corporation of Sofia was on the verge of bankruptcy. Unless that money was quickly released, the company would be compelled to close its doors. Bulgarian Railroads would then not receive its punch cards nor any further parts and service for its machines.
47
On May 2, 1942, the IBM manager in Sofia, Pavel A. Datsoff, contacted Lier at IBM Geneva. "As you are informed," wrote Datsoff, "we have to receive from the railways the rent for the current 1942 year, but until now this amount is not paid due to the newly created conditions, and will be locked up in the National Bank. . . . As we have money which will be able to cover our expenses only for another four months, and if in the meantime we do not succeed to arrange . . . rent from the Railways, we shall be left with no money for our rent, salaries and other expenses. . . . I beg you . . . to open a current account through Bank Suisse for us in the Italian Bank, as it was in the past . . . to cover our expenses to the end of the current year. Otherwise, remaining with no money, it will be necessary to inform the personnel to look for other jobs and according [to] the law, we must notify them three months ahead."
48
But IBM NY could not fund its Bulgarian operations without violating General Ruling 11. Lier sent Datsoff's letter to the American consulate: "From this letter," appealed Lier, "you will see that the situation of our Bulgarian company is jeopardized by the fact that the Bulgarian Government will not release any money paid by the Bulgarian Railroads which has been placed into a blocked account with the National Bank, and that this money served in the past for financing the operations of the Bulgarian company . . . Do you think that there is any chance of obtaining a special license to provide the Bulgarian company with funds . . . in order to avoid its complete bankruptcy?"
49
The American legation rejected Lier's entreaty, explaining that monies could be funneled into "enemy territory through the Swiss Government only to cover the minimum subsistence requirements of American citizens who are entitled to receive such relief payments." Even still, the legation said it would transmit Lier's request on to the State Department, in case Washington wanted to forward the correspondence to IBM NY.
50
However, on June 22, 1942, the Geneva legation went further, sending Lier's request to Washington, and actually suggesting that copies of both Lier's letter and Datsoff's financial distress call be passed to IBM NY.
51
Unwilling to wait for a Treasury license, Lier in early July 1942 urgently asked the Geneva legation if somehow American diplomats might convince the Swiss government to appeal to Bulgarian officials to "deblock the account." Lier was again refused.
52
The record is unclear exactly how funds were funneled to the Bulgarian company. But IBM Bulgaria was indeed funded and continued to supply punch card services to Bulgarian Railroads. In fact, more than a year later, Schotte told Carter that an extensively utilized range of IBM equipment was still in operation in Sofia, including a vital installation serving Bulgarian Railroads.
53
On September 15, 1942, the Reich Foreign Office elected to delay the move to deport Bulgarian Jewry. Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop scribbled the words "wait some more" on a report summarizing the Bulgarian situation. By the end of September 1942, however, he suddenly told Eichmann's people to proceed.
54
Bulgaria was unwilling to sacrifice its Jews. But in January 1943, Eichmann's representative arrived from France, demanding at least 20,000. So Bulgaria painfully agreed to a terrible choice. It consented to the deportation not of its own Jews, but the 14,000 Jews in the territories occupied by the Bulgarian army—Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgarian Jewry was saved. Greek Jews would go to their death. Soon, the trains would roll.
55