But Watson would not desist. He sent formal lithographed resolutions to the State Department hoping to rally its support for an international conference of business executives to parcel out the world’s resources. One State Department assistant secretary could not help but comment on the similarity of Watson’s suggestion to the Axis’ own warlike demands. “This is, of course, a political question of major world importance,” wrote the assistant secretary, “and one upon which we have been hearing much from Germany, Italy and Japan. It occurs to me that it is most unfortunate that Mr. Thomas J. Watson, as an American serving as the president of the International Chamber of Commerce, should have sponsored a resolution of this character. It may well be that this resolution will return to plague us at some future date.” That comment was written on October 5, 1939.37 By then it was unnecessary to reply further.
Poland had already been invaded. World War II had begun.
HOURS BEFORE dawn on September 1, 1939, SS Officer Alfred Naujocks was preparing to launch World War II. For days, Naujocks’ detachment of German soldiers had been waiting. Sometime before 5:40 a.m., he received the code word from Berlin. Working methodically and according to plan, Naujocks’ men donned Polish uniforms and staged a fake attack against a German radio station. Drugged concentration camp inmates were dragged into position and smeared with blood to become the “German casualties.” This sham provided Hitler with the pretext to launch Operation Case White—the invasion of Poland.38
Germany’s assault was the fiercest and fastest in history. Hundreds of airplanes mounted a sustained bombardment of Poland’s railroads, storage facilities, troop encampments, and cities. Six divisions of coordinated troops, tanks, and artillery ravished Warsaw. Within days, the New York Times and other newspapers reported that three-fourths of much of the fire bombed and shell-battered capital was reduced to smoking rubble. So unique was this attack, it was dubbed Blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Britain and France declared war just days later.39
Poland, essentially unarmored and in many cases deploying horse cavalry, held out for twenty-seven fierce days before its complete capitulation. News of barbarous massacres, rapes, inflicted starvation, systematic deportations, and the resulting unchecked epidemics made headlines around the world. In one incident in Nasielek, some 1,600 Jews were whipped all night in what was termed a “whipping orgy.” Two Jewish sisters were dragged from their beds in the night and taken to a cemetery; one was raped and the other given five zlotys and told to wait until next time. Shortly after the war began, a New York Times article headlined “250,000 Jews listed As Dead in Poland.”40
Polish Jewry numbered more than 3 million persons—10 percent of the Polish population. Atrocities, rapes, and massacres could not wipe them all away. Deportation to labor camps was underway. But something more drastic was needed. A German military review of specific actions in Poland declared, “It is a mistake to massacre some 10,000 Jews and Poles, as is being done at present… this will not eradicate the idea of a Polish state, nor will the Jews be exterminated.”41
On September 13, the New York Times reported the Reich’s dilemma with a headline declaring, “Nazis Hint Purge of Jews in Poland,” with a subhead, “3,000,000 Population Involved.” The article quoted the German government as declaring it wanted “removal of the Polish Jewish population from the European domain.” The New York Times then added, “How… the ‘removal’ of Jews from Poland [can be achieved] without their extermination… is not explained.”42
SEPTEMBER 9, 1939
Mr. Thomas J. Watson, President
International Business Machines Corporation
590 Madison Ave.
New York NY USA
Dear Mr. Watson:
During your last visit in Berlin at the beginning of July, you made the kind offer to me that you might be willing to furnish the German company machines from Endicott in order to shorten our long delivery terms. I … asked you to leave with us for study purposes one alphabetic tabulating machine and a collator out of the American machines at present in Germany. You have complied with this request, for which I thank you very much, and have added that in cases of urgent need, I may make use of other American machines….
You will understand that under today’s conditions, a certain need has arisen for such machines, which we do not build as yet in Germany. Therefore, I should like to make use of your kind offer and ask you to leave with the German company for the time being the alphabetic tabulating machines which are at present still in the former Austria….
Regarding the payment, I cannot make any concrete proposals at the moment, however, I should ask you to be convinced that I shall see to it that a fair reimbursement for the machines left with us will be made when there will be a possibility….
…[A]t the time that the German production of these machines renders it possible, we shall place at your disposal … a German machine for each American machine left with us.
This offer, made orally by you, dear Mr. Watson … will undoubtedly be greatly appreciated in many and especially responsible circles…. We should thank you if you would ask your Geneva organization, at the same time, to furnish us the necessary repair parts for the maintenance of the machines….
cc: Mr. F. W. Nichol, New York
cc: IBM Geneva43
IBM’s alphabetizer, principally its model 405, was introduced in 1934, but it did not become widely used until it was perfected in conjunction with the Social Security Administration. The elaborate alphabetizer was the pride of IBM. Sleek and more encased than earlier Holleriths, the complex 405 integrated several punch card mechanisms into a single, high-speed device. A summary punch cable connector at its bottom facilitated the summarizing of voluminous tabulated results onto a single summary card. A short card feed and adjacent stacker at the machine’s top was attached to a typewriter-style printing unit equipped with an automatic carriage to print out the alphabetized results. Numerous switches, dials, reset keys, a control panel, and even an attached reading table, made the 405 a very expensive and versatile device. By 1939, the squat 405 was IBM’s dominant machine in the United States. However, the complex statistical instrument was simply too expensive for the European market. Indeed, in 1935, the company was still exhibiting it at business shows.44 Because the 405 required so many raw materials, including rationed metals that Dehomag could not obtain, IBM’s alphabetizer was simply out of reach for the Nazi Reich.
But the 405 was of prime importance to Germany for its critical ability to create alphabetized lists and its speed for general tabulation. The 405 could calculate 1.2 million implicit multiplications in just 42 hours. By comparison, the slightly older model 601 would need 800 hours for the same task—fundamentally an impossible assignment.45
More than 1,000 405s were operating in American government bureaus and corporate offices, constituting one of the company’s most profitable inventions. But few of the expensive devices were anywhere in Europe. Previously, Dehomag was only able to provide such machines to key governmental agencies directly from America or through its other European subsidiaries—a costly financial foreign exchange transaction, which also required the specific permission of Watson. Germany had taken over Poland and war had been declared in Europe. Such imports from America were no longer possible. But Dehomag wanted the precious alphabetizing equipment still in Austria: five variously configured alphabetical punches, two alphabetical interpreters, and six alphabetical printing tabulators, as well as one collator. However, these valuable assets were still owned and controlled by the prior IBM subsidiary.46