Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but why would they even need a machine to count the prisoners? If they didn’t feed their victims and were planning to murder them anyways I’m having trouble understanding why they wouldn’t be okay with just a loose head count. Was it really just for counting?
I hope I’m not coming across as insensitive, I’ve just never heard about this and it sounds so ominous.
Black reports that every Nazi concentration camp maintained its own Hollerith-Abteilung (Hollerith Department), assigned with keeping tabs on inmates through use of IBM’s punchcard technology.[2]: 351 In his book, Black charges that “without IBM’s machinery, continuing upkeep and service, as well as the supply of punch cards, whether located on-site or off-site, Hitler’s camps could have never managed the numbers they did.”[2]: 352
Dear God, they used a punch card like it was just another day on the job? I hope they didn’t make the “prisoners” do it. I don’t know why this is so chilling but something about having to count yourself like an object makes me feel sick.
I know I’m way over simplifying but starvation was one of many cruelties inflicted on victims during the holocaust. I don’t understand why Nazis would want to count people they intended to murder, but I think it’s important to try to understand as much as we can so we don’t let it happen again. Which is why I asked.
Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but why would they even need a machine to count the prisoners? If they didn’t feed their victims and were planning to murder them anyways I’m having trouble understanding why they wouldn’t be okay with just a loose head count. Was it really just for counting?
I hope I’m not coming across as insensitive, I’ve just never heard about this and it sounds so ominous.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
Dear God, they used a punch card like it was just another day on the job? I hope they didn’t make the “prisoners” do it. I don’t know why this is so chilling but something about having to count yourself like an object makes me feel sick.
What makes you think they didn’t feed them?
I know I’m way over simplifying but starvation was one of many cruelties inflicted on victims during the holocaust. I don’t understand why Nazis would want to count people they intended to murder, but I think it’s important to try to understand as much as we can so we don’t let it happen again. Which is why I asked.