Holocaust victims sue IBM

IBM is facing accusations that it helped the Nazis carry out the Holocaust.

Five survivors have filed a lawsuit against the computer giant, which has warned its employees that a new book will show that it sold equipment to the Nazis.

Five concentration camp survivors from the US, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine yesterday filed a class action lawsuit against IBM on behalf of all other survivors, says Michael Hausfeld, a partner in the law firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll.

Mr Hausfeld was co-lead counsel in the recent case against the Swiss Banks that resulted in a settlement by the banks for $1.25 billion and one of the principal architects in the recent slave labor lawsuit settlement for $5 billion.

This latest lawsuit, filed in federal court for the Eastern District of New York, targets IBM for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity and violations of human rights.

Plaintiffs assert that IBM provided the technology, products and services that catalogued concentration camp victims and substantially aided the persecution, suffering and genocide experienced in the camps before and during World War II.

They also say information about Jews and others was recorded, tabulated and sorted by IBM equipment for purposes of perpetuating slave labor and extermination.

The five also assert that not only did the company profit from this conduct, it has refused to permit historians and others access to archival records evidencing its complicit role in the Holocaust.

The lawsuit asks that IBM USA admit to their violation of human rights, that they open their corporate archives and business records to historians, and that they disgorge all profits made from their service to the Nazis during WWII to a Holocaust relief fund.

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that IBM told staff via its internal web site that a forthcoming book will highlight the fact IBM sold equipment to the Nazi regime during the second world war.

The item on IBM's internal website confirms that the Nazis used Hollerith tabulating machines made by the company's former German subsidiary Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen, the paper said.

IBM, however, says Nazi use of the equipment has been known for decades.