Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked STORY AT-A-GLANCE
* Former Clinton adviser and author Naomi Wolf warns that mandatory COVID-19 passports will spell the “end of human liberty in the West.”
* IBM has partnered with COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna to develop a digital Health Pass system that ties our biometric IDs to our health data through its smartphone app and shares data between governments, health care providers, life science organizations, individuals, food supply chains and global financial systems.
* IBM aided the Nazi regime in its efforts to eradicate Jews. Without its information technology, Hitler would not have been able to accomplish this genocide at the scale he was able to.
* At the time of Hitler’s rise to power, the world was unaware that massively organized information capabilities had emerged to become a means of social control and weapon of war. Today, we cannot be accused of not understanding that massive data collection can be used to manipulate societies across the globe, and must look to history to see how personal data can be misused.
* It would be naïve to think that digital vaccine certicates, tied to our biometric IDs, banking, credit histories, health and food allocation data could not end up being used as a tool for social control and the destruction of certain groups of people.
This article was previously published by Dr. Mercola on April 8, 2021, and has been updated with new information.
In a March 28, 2021 interview with Fox News’ Steve Hilton, former Clinton adviser and author Naomi Wolf warned that mandatory Covid-19 passports will spell the “end of human liberty in the West.”
‘Vaccine passport’ sounds like a new thing if you don’t understand what those platforms can do. I’m the CEO of a tech company. I understand what these platforms can do. It is not about the vaccine, it’s not about the virus, it’s about your data. Once this rolls out, you don’t have a choice about being part of the system. What people have to understand is that any other functionality can be loaded onto that platform with no problem at all. It can be merged with your Paypal account, with your digital currency. Microsoft is already talking about merging it with payment plans. Your network can be sucked up. It geolocates you everywhere you go. Your credit history can be included. All of your medical and health history can be included. This has already happened in Israel, and six months later, we’re hearing from activists that it’s a two-tiered society and that basically, activists are ostracized and surveilled continually. It is the end of civil society, and they are trying to roll it our around the world. It is absolutely so much more than a vaccine pass. . .I cannot stress enough that it has the power to turn off your life, or to turn on your life, to let you engage in society or be marginalized.
Naomi Wolf
The Forgotten History of IBM
Wolf also points out the horric history of IBM (3) whose Digital Health Pass will tie our biometric IDs to our health data through its smartphone app. This “health pass” will then grant or deny us access to public spaces and events, based on our vaccination status. This is essentially the modern-day version of the punch card system — the forerunner to digital entry on computers — that IBM developed for the Nazi regime, which allowed them to create a census of Jews and other undesirables, who could then be identified, tracked and sorted into groups slated for incarceration or extermination.
In no uncertain terms, IBM’s technology facilitated the Third Reich’s genocide of the Jewish nation, and IBM leadership aided and abetted the Nazi’s reign of terror with full knowledge of what it was doing. While it’s hard to understand how a company playing such an integral role in genocide was allowed to survive past the end of the war, it’s even harder to fathom why it would be entrusted to create the same kind of system decades later.
You don’t need a tinfoil hat to wonder whether IBM might have been purposely chosen for the task of creating a “health pass” system, for the simple reason that the purpose of the system itself is near-identical to that deployed in Nazi Germany. IBM also has a relationship with the CIA (4) which has a history of mind control abuses and assassination programs (5).
IBM Played Strategic Role in the Holocaust
IBM’s connection to the Third Reich is no secret, and IBM has never denied even the most incriminating details of its involvement in the holocaust. In 2001, Edwin Black, a historian and investigative author, published the book “IBM and the Holocaust,” (6) in which he detailed the company’s pivotal role in this criminal tragedy. The book was based on documentation obtained from archives in seven different countries. In 2012, Black obtained another cache of correspondence that revealed just how much IBM knew about what was going on in the Nazi concentration camps. In a February 2012 article in HuffPost, Black wrote (7) “Newly-released documents expose more explicitly the details of IBM’s pivotal role in the Holocaust — all six phases: identification, expulsion from society, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination.
Moreover, the documents portray with crystal clarity the personal involvement and micro-management of IBM president Thomas J. Watson in the company’s co-planning and co-organizing of Hitler’s campaign to destroy the Jews …” The fact that Watson received a 1% commission on all business profits made from the company’s business with the Nazis may help explain his eagerness to take on such a hands-on role in this gruesome business. Black continues: “The new ‘expanded edition’ [of ‘IBM and the Holocaust’] contains 32 pages of never-before-published internal IBM correspondence, State Department and Justice Department memos, and concentration camp documents that graphically chronicle IBM’s actions and what they knew during the 12-year Hitler regime … Among the newly-released documents and archival materials are secret 1941 correspondence setting up the Dutch subsidiary of IBM to work in tandem with the Nazis, company President Thomas Watson’s personal approval for the 1939 release of special IBM alphabetizing machines to help organize … the deportation of Polish Jews, as well as the IBM Concentration Camp Codes including IBM’s code for death by Gas Chamber. Among the newly published photos of the punch cards is the one developed for the statistician who reported directly to Himmler and Eichmann.”
IBM Guilty of Genocide
As explained by Black, the population census and identification of Jews were managed by IBM directly, first at its New York headquarters, and later through subsidiaries in Germany, Poland, Holland, France, Switzerland and other European countries. IBM headquarters also directed the activities of a Dutch subsidiary charged with identifying and liquidating Jews in Holland. “Particularly powerful are the newly-released copies of the IBM concentration camp codes,” Black writes (8). “IBM maintained a customer site … in virtually every concentration camp to sort or process punch cards and track prisoners.
The codes show IBM’s numerical designation for various camps … Various prisoner types were reduced to IBM numbers, with 3 signifying homosexual, 9 for anti-social, and 12 for Gypsy. The IBM number 8 designated a Jew. Inmate death was also reduced to an IBM digit: 3 represented death by natural causes, 4 by execution, 5 by suicide, and code 6 designated ‘special treatment’ in gas chambers. IBM engineers had to create Hollerith codes to differentiate between a Jew who had been worked to death and one who had been gassed, then print the cards, conjure the machines, train the staff, and continuously maintain the fragile systems every two weeks on site in the concentration camps.”
A particularly noteworthy memo came from the U.S. Justice Department, which post- war launched a federal investigation into IBM’s relationship with the Hitler regime. The memo, written by Howard J. Carter, the chief investigator of the Economic Warfare Section to his superiors, read: “What Hitler has done to us through his economic warfare, one of our own American corporations has also done … Hence IBM is in a class with the Nazis … The entire world citizenry is hampered by an international monster.” Black adds (9) “It is important to remember that Thomas Watson and his corporate behemoth were guilty of genocide. The Treaty on Genocide, Article 2, defines genocide as ‘acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.’ In Article 3, the treaty states that among the ‘acts [that] shall be punishable,’ are the ones in subsection (e), that is ‘complicity in genocide.’ As for who shall be punished, the Treaty species the perpetrators in Article 4: ‘Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials, or private individuals.’ International Business Machines, and its president Thomas J. Watson, committed genocide by any standard.”
Massively Organized Information as a Means of Social Control
As noted in Black’s introduction to his book, “IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation,” (10) at the time of Hitler’s rise to power, the world was unaware that “massively organized information” had “emerged to become a means of social control, a weapon of war, and a roadmap for group destruction.”
Today, we cannot be accused of not understanding that massive data collection can be and is being used to manipulate societies across the globe. Therefore, it would be insanely naïve to think that digital vaccine certicates, tied to our biometric IDs, banking, credit histories and health data would not end up being used as a tool for social control and a weapon for group destruction. As Black points out, were it not for IBM and its information technology, Hitler, like other tyrants before him, would not have been nearly as successful in his plan to eradicate the Jews. Hitler also received help from other unexpected quarters: “In the upside-down world of the Holocaust, dignified professionals were Hitler’s advance troops. Police officials disregarded their duty in favor of protecting villains and persecuting victims. Lawyers perverted concepts of justice to create anti-Jewish laws. Doctors deleted the art of medicine to perpetrate ghastly experiments and even choose who was healthy enough to be worked to death — and who could be cost- effectively sent to the gas chamber,” Black writes (11). “Scientists and engineers debased their higher calling to devise the instruments and rationales of destruction. And statisticians used their little known but powerful discipline to identify the victims, project and rationalize the benets of their destruction, organize their persecution, and even audit the effciency of genocide.”
Will You Allow Yourself to Be Turned into a Monster?
Eighteenth-century Irish philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” (12). Put another way, good people need to gather their wherewithal and refuse to follow instructions they suspect to be harmful or know will lead to evil ends.
Unfortunately, as demonstrated in the 1962 Milgram Experiment, featured in an internet blog titled “Will You Obey the Criminal Authorities?” most people simply follow orders when given by a perceived authority. “I was just following orders” was indeed a hallmark excuse during the Nuremberg Trials that followed the end of World War II. That excuse won’t excuse this time around, so just about everyone, at this point, probably needs to engage in some preemptive internal reaction to orient their ethical compass in preparation for what might come next. I have no doubt that the months and years ahead will test your ethics and humanity, and having a clear picture of recent history – how the greatest genocide in modern history was actually implemented and carried out using information technology – can be a valuable guide that can help you sidestep serious mistakes in judgment.
The Central Role of Information Technology in the Holocaust
In his book introduction, Black summarizes the key role of IBM’s information technology in the holocaust (13). “When Hitler came to power, a central Nazi goal was to identify and destroy Germany’s 600,000 Jews. To Nazis, Jews were not just those who practiced Judaism, but those of Jewish blood, regardless of their assimilation, intermarriage, religious activity, or even conversion to Christianity.
Only after Jews were identified could they be targeted for asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and ultimately extermination. To search generations of communal, church, and governmental records all across Germany – and later throughout Europe – was a cross-indexing task so monumental, it called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed. When the Reich needed to mount a systematic campaign of Jewish economic disenfranchisement and later began the massive movement of European Jews out of their homes and into ghettos, once again, the task was so prodigious it called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed. When the Final Solution sought to efficiently transport Jews out of European ghettos along railroad lines and into death camps, with timing so precise the victims were able to walk right out of the boxcar and into a waiting gas chamber, the coordination was so complex a task, this too called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed. However, another invention did exist: the IBM punch card and card sorting system – a precursor to the computer.
IBM, primarily through its German subsidiary, made Hitler’s program of Jewish destruction a technologic mission the company pursued with chilling success. IBM Germany, using its own staff and equipment, designed, executed, and supplied the indispensable technologic assistance Hitler’s Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before – the automation of human destruction. . . I was haunted by a question whose answer has long eluded historians. The Germans always had the lists of Jewish names. Suddenly, a squadron of grim faced SS would burst into a city square and post a notice demanding those listed assemble the next day at the train station for deportation to the East.
But how did the Nazis get the lists? For decades, no one has known. Few have asked. The answer: IBM Germany’s census operations and similar advanced people counting and registration technologies. IBM was founded in 1898 by German inventor Herman Hollerith as a census tabulating company. Census was its business. But when IBM Germany formed its philosophical and technologic alliance with Nazi Germany, census and registration took on a new mission.
IBM Germany invented the racial census – listing not just religion affiliation, but bloodline going back generations. This was the Nazi data lust. Not just count the Jews – but to identify them. People and asset registration was only one of the many uses Nazi Germany found for high-speed data sorters. Food allocation was organized around databases, allowing Germany to starve the Jews.
Slave labor was identified, tracked, and managed largely through punch cards. Punch cards even made the trains run on time and catalogued their human cargo. German Railway. . . dealt directly with senior management in Berlin. Dehomag maintained punch card installations at train despots across Germany, and eventually across all Europe. Using a mere 2,000 precomputed automatic tabulators, the Third Reich was able to efficiently identify, sort, track and catch Jews of every stripe in multiple countries.
Now fast-forward to today, where virtually every person on the planet has had their personal data siphoned off, hour by hour, day by day, year by year. Decades’ worth of data are catalogued and cross-tabulated in ways we probably cannot even imagine. How efficient do you reckon a modern-day holocaust by would-be dictators might be, using the technologies of today? I’ll leave that for you to ponder.
IG Farben, Another Genocide Enabler
So far, no Big Tech company has vowed to ban their technologies from being used in an attempt to repeat the Holocaust, and that includes IBM, which played a central role in it. In a 2002 Village Voice article (14) Black addressed this shortcoming, pointing out that while IBM has refused to discuss its role in Hitler’s regime, other companies, such as the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann and Ford Motor have at least had the couth to correct their company histories, admitting to (and apologizing for) sponsoring Hitler.
While technology played a determining role in the Holocaust, leaders in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry were also working with Hitler. One of the most prominent ones was the German chemical and drug company IG Farben, which had a factory complex near Monowitz (the slave labor camp at Auschwitz) and actually housed the IBM facilities there. IG Farben used slave labor from the Monowitz camp and IBM’s technology to keep track of them. “The Monowitz systems were customized for the specific coding Farben needed to process the thousands of slave workers who labored and died there,” Black explains (15). Auschwitz archivist Piotr Setkiewicz further told Black (16). “The Hollerith, once at IG Farben in Monowitz used the IBM machines as a system of computerization of civil and slave labor resources. This gave Farben the opportunity to identify people with certain skills, primarily skills needed for the construction of certain buildings in Monowitz.”
Of course, IG Farben was also in the business of pharmaceuticals, and prisoners from Auschwitz were used for horrific medical experiments at the company’s facility (17). While IG Farben executives were put on trial after the war, their sentences were light. As just one example, Fritz Ter Meer, a high-ranking executive charged with slavery and mass medical murder, served just three of his seven-year sentence, and after release became chairman of Bayer’s advisory board.
Some have speculated (18) that the reason they got off so lightly was because of their connections to other powerful gurus, such as John Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil and one of the masterminds behind the creation of Big Pharma (19). (There was actually a Standard Oil IG Farben company. Without the fossil fuels of Standard Oil, IG Farben couldn’t have made synthetic fertilizers or fuels.)
As noted by Jon Rappoport (20) “You could say that, after the War, the emerging global pharmaceutical colossus was a reincarnation of the Farben pattern: Profit before safety; lethal medical experimentation beyond any legal limit; the use of drugs/vaccines as a means of control.”
IBM Partners With Moderna
IBM has now partnered with Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna and, together, they are producing digital covid-19 vaccine passes to track vaccinated individuals in real time. A pilot program has already been rolled out in the state of New York (21, 22, 23, 24). IBM and Moderna will “explore technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and hybrid cloud” to “support smarter covid-19 vaccine management,” according to a press release (25). In short, the partnership is aimed at facilitating data sharing between “governments, health care providers, life science organizations and individuals,” but this data is not restricted to health data.
As reported by Raul Diego in a March 10, 2021, Mint Press New article, (26) other “multiple blockchain ledger applications” being leveraged include IBM’s Blockchain Transparent Supply and Food Trust services, which shares food sourcing and supply-chain data, and its Blockchain World Wire cross-border payment processing service. Considering how similar kinds of data (but far less voluminous) were used to carry out Hitler’s genocide, we really need to start thinking about how all of this data collecting and sharing today might be misused. While not discussed much, the collection of genetic data is part and parcel of this program as well, (27, 28) which opens all sorts of unpleasant possibilities.
IBM is a Powerful Presence in Law Enforcement as Well
Already, in Israel, the requirement of vaccine certificates has resulted in the creation of a two-tier society where unvaccinated individuals are ostracized and forbidden from entering certain public venues such as bars, restaurants, hotels and public exercise facilities. Although right now in the U.S., vaccine passports are voluntary on a federal level, several counties and states have already either rolled out their own regional vaccine passports, or are considering them. IBM is also looking at its health pass as a model for what it predicts will be mandatory in the future.
According to IBM’s U.S. public and federal market leader, Steve LaFleche, the passes will cease to be voluntary “once government guidelines and regulations force the private sector to enforce their implementation.” (29) As noted by Diego (30) “Conveniently, IBM’s strong presence in the law enforcement space, as one of the largest providers of digital profiting technologies and AI policing systems in the world, may also help with any obstacles Moderna may face among vaccine-hesitant populations.”
When you look at the big picture, IBM is the best and worst candidate for the job of creating vaccine passports. It shows a history of enabling genocide by misusing census data (which was its original business) and creating technologies to identify, track and capture individuals based on specific parameters such as bloodlines and religious affiliation. They also used their technology to identify areas of food production where Jews lived in order to starve them, and now they’re planning to leverage their Blockchain Transparent Supply and Food Trust services that shared food sourcing and supply-chain data, and its Blockchain World Wire cross-border payment processing service. How might all of that be misused?
Only through exposing and examining what really occurred can be world of technology finally adopt the well-worn motto: Never Again.
To get an idea, simply look at the services they rendered to Nazi Germany. When you dissect IBM’s history and compare it to it’s current role in the covid-19 pandemic, it’s virtually impossible to now reach the conclusion that they’re perfectly equipped to carry out a lawless repeat of the Holocaust, but at an unimaginable scale, and with unfathomable efficiency. The only difference is they would not be helping to hunt a specific national, religious or racial profile. To start, they’ll hunt down vaccine dissenters. After that, there’s no telling what the target group might be. But whatever it is, they’ll be able to identify and track them down with near-effortless ease. As noted by Black in the introduction of his book, “Only through exposing and examining what really occurred and the world of technology adopt the well-worn motto: Never Again.”(31)
We need to do that, and come to a global consensus that we’re simply not going to allow a repeat of history. One small bright spot amid all this darkness is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who on March 29, 2021, announced (32) he will issue an executive order forbidding local governments and businesses from requiring vaccine certificates. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply participate in normal society,” he said. Although a federal judge blocked DeSantis’ executive order in August 2021, he’s calling on the state legislature to create a measure that will allow him to sign it into law. Hopefully, such laws will be put into place, and other states will follow suit.
IBM and Bill Gates
In case you are unaware, Bill Gates in the early ’80’s was responsible for providing IBM with the DOS operation system for its then-new personal computers, which heralded in the massive explosion of computer technology. I remember it quite well. I got my first IBM clone PC around 1985. The reason why this is important is that, eventually, computer hardware became a commodity and computer software became the source of most of the technology revenues. Gates’ nefarious strategies eventually led him to become the richest man in the world. That mantle now shifts between Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors. However, the current market cap of IBM is $110 billion while the market cap of Microsoft is 10 times that at over $1 trillion. So, while IBM has a clearly sordid history going back to World War II, the likely more serious threat is Gates himself, who is largely responsible for engineering and profiting from this entire covid wealth transfer play through his strategic partnering with the World Health Organization, as we have carefully articulated in previous articles. It is interesting that IBM is repeating its egregious contribution to the extermination of millions of Jews in Germany, but that may pale to the likely unintended consequences of Gates’ plans, which will probably far exceed the lives lost in Nazi Germany.
We need o do everything we can to make sure he doesn’t succeed. Too harsh? Then I suggest you review Gary Barnett’s article on Lew Rockwell, where he states (33) “The extermination of societies through genocide and democide is achieved in many ways, from war, forced starvation, psychological destruction, mass imprisonment, and sterilization; from chemical agents, bombs, nuclear weapons, and now the killing will be due to ‘vaccination.” Surely I jest you say, as the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of millions or billions of people around the world at the hands of the powerful is sought. Some call it population control, some call it depopulation, but it is simply planned mass murder to benefit the agenda of the few. The tool being used to accomplish this goal is the untested, experimental, mind-altering, gene-changing, toxic poison called the covid-19 ‘vaccine,’ and it is the newest weapon of mass destruction.
Many are having horrible effects due to these injections, and many others are dying. Some are dying immediately after taking this shot, some are dying after a few hours or days, others after a few weeks, and the long-term effects at this point are virtually unknown. (In nearly every case the media denies the association.) It is as if people are deaf, dumb, and blind when it comes to logic, as this falsely claimed fiction called covid that supposedly has a survival rate of 99.98%, is being treated as a deadly pandemic, and the ‘cure’ recommended is a ‘vaccine’ that kills many more than the purposely created fake virus scam.”
Sources and References: 1 Real Clear Politics, March 29,2021; 2 The Epoch Times, March 29, 2021; 3 Mic.com, May 9,2016; 4 Nextgov.com, November 20, 2020; 5 FFF.org, August 13, 2020; 6, 10, 11, 13, 31 New York Times Books, IBM and the Holocaust (Archived); 7, 8, 9 HuffPost, February 27, 2012; 12 Open Culture Quote; 14, 15, 16 Village Voice, October 8, 2002; 17, 18, 20 No More Fake News, January 4, 2021; 19 History of the Pharma Cartel, May 10, 2007; 21, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 Mint Press News, March 10, 2021; 22, 25 IBM News Room, March 3, 2021; 32 Bay News 9, March 29, 2021; 13 Lew Rockwell, March 31, 2021