When I was in grade school and in high school and in college I read a lot. I read many, many history books and many biographies. Too much reading is not always healthy. Many of the books about history and the books about famous people told very, very different stories than the history books used in schools. Sometimes it will drive you crazy, when the stories in biographies and books about history are so much different from the history taught in schools.
In schools the capains of industry and finance are pictured as hard working men with high morals. They’re often said to be patriots In history classes, you’ll be told that Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Prescott Bush and Thomas Watson worked hard to earn thier fortunes and were all great Americans.
In books I read, I learned that Andrew Carnegie stepped down as the operating manager of his steel company because he expected many steelworker strikes. He didn’t want to be viewed as a strikebreaker, but he intended to use strikebreakers and police force to crush those strikes. So he hired someone to be operating manager and ordered that guy to bust the strikes using whatever it takes. Andrew Carnegie is praised in school history books because he donated many libraries, theaters, etc. I’m not sure how noble a man was who used all available force to break strikes, keeping the wages of his employees artificially low, and then put his wealth in foundations, so he didn’t have to pay any income taxes.
John D. Rockefeller, I read, put his wealth in foundations, so he didn’t have to pay income taxes. His foundations built many medical schools, but only Rockefeller aproved books could be used in those medical schools. So although it was worthy to build medical schools, the medical books allowed for usage in those schools favored use of drugs, many of which were manufactured by companies owned by Rockefeller’s foundations. Rockefeller wasn’t the philanthropist history books make him out to have been.
Henry Ford was a big supporter of Adolf Hitler, I read. Ford’s wife even advised him to refrain from praising Hitler publically. Henry Ford’s plants in Germany built trucks before and during WWII for the German Wehrmacht. So Henry Ford actually produced motor vehicles used on both sides of WWII. How big of a US patriot could Henry Ford have been?
Prescott Bush, the father of the first President Bush and the grandfather of George W. Bush, was also a big fan of Adolf Hitler, I read. Bush’s bank gave the National Socialist Party in Germany loans that kept the party alive before the Nazis took power. If Mr. Bush had not approved several large loans, the Nazis would never have come to power.
I read that Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, was also a big supporter of Adolf Hitler. Watson owned several companies in Germany that built machines that enabled the Third Reich to catalog every citizen’s race. In other words, the holocaust was possible because of the technology provided by Thomas Watson’s companies in Germany. Did you ever learn that in a history class in school?
As data protection professionals, you and I, so we were aware of the issue with IBM, but the roles of other named individuals and companies and their actions were completely new to me.
Here some further investigation and background - hope I do not bore you with such thoughts!!
Yes, IBM's involvement in the Holocaust is well-documented through historical research, particularly in Edwin Black's book IBM and the Holocaust (2001).
Hence this played a BIG ROLE on the development of German data protection law!
The role of IBM and its German daughter / subsidiary Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft (Dehomag), provided punch card systems and machines used by the Nazis to conduct censuses (e.g., in 1933 and 1939).
This technology enabled the efficient collection and analysis of (today known a sensitive) data, which was used, among other things, to identify, isolate, and deport Jews, Sinti, Roma, and other "undesirable groups".
According to Edwin Black, IBM, particularly through its then-CEO Thomas J. Watson, was actively involved in business dealings with the Nazi regime. The company supplied customized punch cards, maintained the machines, and supported logistics, even in concentration camps. Although IBM claims it had no detailed knowledge of how the technology was used, documents show that cooperation continued through European subsidiaries even after the war began.
In 2001, a lawsuit was filed against IBM but was dropped to avoid delaying compensation payments to Holocaust victims. IBM paid $3 million into a compensation fund without admitting liability.
IBM's involvement and the use of data collection technologies by Nazis had a lasting impact on the development of German data protection law, particularly through heightened awareness of the dangers of data misuse.
The experiences of the German Nazi era, during which personal data (e.g., from censuses and registries) were used to persecute and exterminate people, shaped the understanding very much that data collection can be (an IS) dangerous. This awareness was further reinforced by surveillance in the German Democratic Republic (GDR /DDR).
In 1970, Hessen introduced the world's first data protection law, followed by the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) in 1977. These laws emerged from the recognition that the state must protect citizens from data misuse. The "father of data protection," Professor Spiros Simitis, emphasized the need to strictly regulate access to personal data.
Influence on the GDPR: Germany's stringent data protection standards influenced the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) of 2018, which established a high level of protection for personal data across the EU. The EU-GDPR mandates principles such as consent for data processing, the right to access and delete data, and protection against misuse . Those principles rooted in historical sensitivity to data abuse.
The historical experience led to a particularly cautious stance in Germany (as we have seen in our work together when it came to UK/US project... ;-) ) toward data protection. This is evident in skepticism toward large technology companies and a strong emphasis on individual rights to informational self-determination.
Hope it makes sense and is somehow interesting.
Again thanks a lot James for making me think about all this and learning so many new things about very wealthy CEOs/Company owners that are both bespoken in school history books and books by researchers.
Best regards, Sergej