On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, las wrote:
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > The news is that IBM found out what those purposes were yet continued to deal
> > with the Third Reich. If that turns out to be true, you have to acknowledge
> > that it makes a difference.
>
> Let's forget about the details of what the Nazis did and just for the moment
> acknowledge that we were at war with them and that they did very bad things. If
> what IBM did is true, they helped an enemy that we were at war with!!!
Bunk. Read the articles, again. It was IBM-Germany. And the US refused
to join the war until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, after all. "We" were not at
war with anyone at the time, and it was the German arm of IBM who was
selling the Nazis their machines.
> This is a very serious situation. If it is true, it is no different than if IBM
> was making bobs for them to use on us.
Bull...the equipment, if I read the markings on the one in the DC
Holocaust Museum, was built and sold right in Germany. It wasn't even
being exported.
And, as I noted above, the equipment's sale and use far predates the US
involvement in the war. If I sold you a gun, and then a year later, you
started shooting everyone in sight, and then, 6 months into your rampage,
I try to stop you and you shoot me instead, is that still my fault?
> I'm not sure that I understood Burger's e mail. Is he defending them? If it
> turns out not to be true, that is one thing. But if it is true, this is very
> serious.
I wasn't going to dignify that one with a response, but since I'm already
here...
Defending them? Who...IBM or the Nazis? I would never defend the
Nazis...being of German/Austrian/Hungarian/Russian descent, I'm quite sure
that I lost relatives during the Holocaust. The fact that I don't know
who they might be, not withstanding. I'm also Jewish. The fact that more
than 6 million of "my kind" died during the Holocaust, not withstanding.
What I'm saying is that before people go getting all verklempt over the
Nazis' use of machines, some of which the government undoubtedly owned
prior to their parade of "undesirables" to the camps, does not make
IBM...the German arm or the parent company...complicit in Hitler's plans
or actions.
> I don't what to get even further off topic, but there are two factions of Germans
> (I'm not saying that there are only two, so don't misunderstand my statement and
> start slamming me as to how I could make such stupid generalizations).
>
> One believes that the worst thing Hitler did was fail. The other are ashamed of
> what their grandfathers did. It's not their fault. But imagine knowing that you
> grandfather was a vicious serial killer who got please out of what he did.
That's fine. Germany should forever remain mindful of what Hitler
(who, incidentally, was Austrian, not German) and the Nazis did. Should
future German generations continue to be punished for it?
Nor should a tool maker be punished for the methods that a customer used
to employ the tool.
> Besides, IBM hasn't done anything to help promote the Mini Disc.
True. They haven't done anything to help promote OS/2, either. <G>
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