I have finished reading Edwin Black's book IBM and the Holocaust:The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation. It gave me an idea for a what if secenario. The German company, Deutsche Hollerith Machinen Gesellschaft or DEHOMAG, was established in 1910 by Willy Heidinger, who had acquired the license to Hollerith's patents for his punch card invention. However, the superinflation of the early 1920s in Germany meant Heidinger and DEHOMAG could not make the necessary royalty payments to the U.S. and came close to bankruptcy. Thomas Watson, Sr, convinced Heidinger to transfer 90% of his stock in his company to Watson's CTR(Computing -Tabulating-Recording Company), the business which would become IBM. But what if Heidinger had refused Watson's offer and DEHOMAG had suffered the equivalent of Chapter 7 bankruptcy instead? What would that mean for the Third Reich, and specifically, the Holocaust?
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