WW2 has been over for decades. Over 50 years. Everyone is aware of the horror of the Holocaust and of the efforts and successes of those who hunt for the surviving commanders of the death camps. Sometimes, it seems that the Jewish organizations who do this get somewhat fanatical.
According to articles in the link above, they are now suing IBM for providing Hitler with the technology to figure out how many Jews to kill. IBM admitted that their technology was there, in German owned subsidiary companies, but when those companies were taken over by the Nazis, they basically lost control of what they did. There is a book published which implicates IBM, though it apparently does so on much supposition.
It seems a lot of American companies are or have been sued by former Nazi slaves, claiming the technologies of these companies assisted Hitler.
Now, until Pearl Harbor, America was a neutral company. It did business world wide. We all know how business works: potential buyers = profits, especially during squabbles. Right or wrong, American companies, as well as many foreign ones, sold goods not only to Hitler, but Japan, the British, Italians, French and so on, until Pearl Harbor.
You think some of our allies were not selling the North Koreans arms, materials and goods when we were fighting them? It wasn’t their war. Business has no morals.
You think Switzerland wasn’t getting rich during WW2 off of both sides?
I can understand the rage of the holocaust survivors and their thirst for revenge and justice, but going after everyone or everything that might have unknowingly been involved in assisting the mass murders is ridiculous. Many of the companies which have been sued have successfully defended themselves by pointing out that once the Nazis took control of their factories, what they did with the machinery and technology was out of their hands.
What’s next, to sound cruel, will they go after the companies who made the cans for the rations German Guards ate? Will they go after the Red Cross whose packages were stolen by the concentration camp guards for their own use? What if some of the barbed wire used was sold to Italy from America, and when the ‘Duche’ (Mussolini) allied with Hitler, it was shipped to concentration camps. Will the American maker be brought up on charges of assisting Hitler?
We should never forget what happened, because if we do, it could happen again, but when is going for retribution going too far?
The American army held Gen. Patton up from going into a besieged Italian city until Montgomery could catch up, for political reasons. During that time, the Nazis were busily killing the citizens. Should the survivors file suite against the US Army for allowing this and including the British Army in the action or insisting on it?
What about allied soldiers who, in the heat of battle, accidentally blew each other up? Should their survivors sue their respective militaries for giving them guns?
When is enough, enough?