'Watson'—The Story Behind the Play by James Grippando: You'll 'LIKE' It
IBM (the parent) denies any complicity in the actions of its German subsidiary (Dehomag). Nonetheless, historians have been critical of IBM's first CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr. "His optimism and his sense of accomplishment blinded him to any downside," wrote one biographer.
December 13, 2019 at 11:15 AM
4 minute read
The tech world's joke about the data-mining business model—"if the product is free, you are the product"—is more true than funny. Yet, most people simply accept one data breach after another, continuing to shovel personal information into the insatiable maw of social media.
They "LIKE" it.
Maybe they would feel differently if they knew something about the world's first personal information catastrophe.
We are approaching the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the most notorious of Nazi death camps, Auschwitz (Jan. 27, 1945), Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Buchenwald and others (April 1945). Historians have since documented "punch card" systems—precursors to computer technology—which the Nazis used to impressive and horrifying effect, not only in the war against the Allies, but in the genocidal campaign against Jews and other minorities. Punch-card systems were the technology behind the holocaust, the electro-mechanical machines that Hitler's Third Reich needed to accomplish what had never been done before—the automation of genocide. These punch cards were created from personal information (religion, Jewish ancestry) that millions of Jewish "heads of household" provided voluntarily in censuses conducted by the Third Reich in the 1930s.
In 21st century parlance, they "LIKED" it.
IBM (the parent) denies any complicity in the actions of its German subsidiary (Dehomag). Nonetheless, historians have been critical of IBM's first CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr. "His optimism and his sense of accomplishment blinded him to any downside," wrote one biographer. "Watson didn't see the Nazis for what they were. He saw them for he wanted them to be," see Maney, Kevin, "The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and the Making of IBM," at p. 207 (2007).
In June 1937, Watson became president of the International Chamber of Commerce, urging "world peace through world trade." At the same ICC congress, held in Berlin, Watson became the first American to receive the Merit Cross, the highest honor Adolph Hitler had (up until that point) ever bestowed on a non-German. (Only Henry Ford received a higher honor). The following year, Kristallnacht turned Nazi violence against Jews into worldwide news. By the end of 1939, Poland had fallen, France and England were at war with Germany. By April 1940, Polish Jews were being herded into ghettos for eventual transport to concentration camps, and by May 1940, British troops were literally running for their lives on the beaches of Dunkirk. Finally, in June 1940—almost three years after the award and only at the urging of friends and demand of prominent Jewish Americans—Watson returned the Merit Cross to Hitler.
But why? Business reasons? Social pressures? Or was it truly an act of courage and conscience? Historians continue to debate those questions with no clear answer. What is clear, however, is the enduring relevance of the loss of personal information at the hands of powerful corporations and government.
I first heard about the Nazi's use of punch card technology in 2001, when a class action lawsuit was filed against IBM (Grossman v. IBM). I was already an established novelist, but I never considered writing on the subject until Joe Adler, long-time producing artistic director at GableStage, asked me to write a play about it. After a year-and-a-half of extensive research and script rewrites, "Watson" makes its world premiere at GableStage. Watson is the first-ever dramatization of this historic collision between morality and capitalism, brought to life through Watson's explosive relationship with his son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., who followed in his father's footsteps to become, in the words of Fortune magazine, "the greatest capitalist who ever lived."
I hope you will see it. I'm not sure how I will feel if you "LIKE" it.
James Grippando is Counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, where he focuses his practice on commercial litigation and entertainment law, representing Broadway producers and winners of more than 40 Tony Awards. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of 28 novels of suspense and the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction. "Watson" is his first play.
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