The Holocaust is recognized as the as the most horrible and grisly demonstration of the brutality of genocide, and it is shocking to learn that businesses at the time actually profited because of the genocide. Over the years, many American, German, and other foreign countries trying to do business have caused controversy because of their ties in the Holocaust (Greenspan, 2008). The Ford Motor Company, IBM, and IG Farben, a German company, are at the top of the list of companies that played a role in the Holocaust.
Although, Hitler hated outgroup religions for centuries, but it was Henry Ford on behalf of the Ford Motor Company who played a role in transforming this hatred into a new political anti-Semitism in the 20th century. It was Ford who convinced Hitler, through the fake Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that Jews were planning to take over the world by manipulating global economic systems, governments, and newspapers (Black, 2009). Through mass production, Ford managed to sell five hundred thousand copies of the Protocol, furthering the hatred for the Jews. Using the assets of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford established political anti-Semitism in the United States for the first time. It was Henry Ford who led Hitler towards the Holocaust. Hitler idolized Ford, and no wonder awarded him with a German Eagle medal in an extravagant Berlin ceremony. Moreover, there is also proof that the Ford Motor Company along with other companies helped in financing the Nazis (Sutton, 1976), even during the Holocaust. It is also unpleasantly surprising that Ford was manufacturing jeeps, tanks, trucks, and other vehicles for both the Germans and Americans (Dobbs, 1998).
The multinational American corporation IBM also played a pivotal role in the Holocaust. IBM was in allegiance with the Nazi German Third Reich for 12 years (Black, 2008). Before the Germans could embark on the genocide, they needed to identify the Jews and since there were no computers at the time, this was a problem. Fortunately for the Germans, IBM provided the solution in the form of its Hollerith punch card technology (Black, 2008). With the help of IBM and its Hollerith systems, the Germans were able to identify Jews quite effortlessly and carry out all six phases of the Holocaust within 12 years. Since IBM cards were being used in every bank and financial institution at the time, IBM also helped in the confiscation of Jewish assets. The final blow that IBM helped Germans was the industrial and systematic murder of the Jews. IBM helped in establishing codes for the different classifications of prisoners in concentration camps that designated how they would be killed and allowed the Reich to keep track of how many Jews they were killing.
IG Farben, the German conglomerate of various chemical companies, was founded after the Germans were defeated in the First World War. IG Farben and its subsidiary companies also played a major role in the Holocaust. IG Farben was in collaboration with the Nazi Germans long before the Holocaust. During the Holocaust IG Farben was running its own concentration camp at Auschwitz. The workforce at the new IG Farben plant in Auschwitz comprised of almost three hundred thousand slaves, out of which almost thirty thousand died in the camp, and many others were deported to the gas chambers to be murdered. To quite an extent, IG Farben is also responsible for the millions of Jews, Gypsies, and others who lost their lives the German gas chambers. Degesch, a subsidiary company of IG Farben, was responsible for the manufacturing and supplying of poisonous Zyklon B pesticide to the Nazi Germans, who used in the gas chambers.
There were numerous other corporations that either played a role in the Holocaust or profited from the genocide that occurred in one way or the other. It is up to the people to decide whether these corporations deserve to be forgiven or should be patronized (Greenspan, 2008).
References
Black, E. (2008). Ibm and the holocaust : The strategic alliance between nazi germany and america's most powerful corporation. (1st ed.). Dialog Press.
Black, E. (2009). Nazi nexus: America's corporate connections to hitler's holocaust. (1st ed.). Dialog Press.
Dobbs, M. (1998, Nov 30). Ford and gm scrutinized for alleged nazi collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm
Greenspan, S. (2008, Sep 11). 11 companies that surprisingly collaborated with the nazis. Retrieved from http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/11_Companies_That_Surprisingly_Collaborated_With_the_Nazis
Sutton, A. C. (1976). Wall street & the rise of hitler. G S G & Associates Pub.
