Research Paper

I am going to write my research paper on how far corporations will go to make money. My main focus will be on the IBM computers in the Nazi concentration camps. I will also talk about how massively organizing information on people today could lead to the same horrible consequences that happened sixty years ago. Today IBM is funding one of the newest technologies Verichip, which could lead to a national identification system.

Some main points of my argument will be as follows: IBM knew what the Dehomag Hollerith punch card machines where being used for, but kept their months shut because Germany was their second largest profit. The machines took a census of all the people living in the Third Reich, which labeled them as being Jewish or of a Jewish blood line. Not only did the machines tell Hitler who was a "Jew", it also kept track of the prisoners in the concentration camps. The famous tattoo on the arms of concentration camp survivors was the Hollerith number of the prisoners punch card. Even after the war was over, IBM used its machines to put Germany back together, even though they where the ones who tore it apart. They did anything to make a profit.

I will be using the book "IBM and The Holocaust" written by Edwin Black as my main source of information. I also found a few scholarly journal book reviews and a review essay on his book I will be using. Lastly, I will be using some some magazine and journal articles I found on Verichip to show how this horrible event could happen again today if we are not careful.