this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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[–] Zacpod@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago (6 children)

IBM sold "inmate" counting machines to Nazi Germany. Like, sent techs there to the camps to size up the requirements and everything. It should NOT come as a surprise that they're back on X - they've never had an issue with Fascism (or any other ism) as long as they had money to spend on overpriced iron.

[–] PagingDoctorLove@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (5 children)

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.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

What makes you think they didn't feed them?

[–] PagingDoctorLove@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Well, if you're that curious, there is a book about it. The Wikipedia article goes into some detail about what the systems were used for.

They didn't just truck people into the camps and immediately kill them, so they had to at least track capacity.

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