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PGP Leads Corporate Efforts To Save Bletchley Park
blake182 writes "CNET reports that PGP, together with IBM and other technology firms, is mounting a fundraising effort to benefit the ailing Bletchley Park, home of the Station X codebreaking efforts in World War II. 'We're calling attention (to the fact that) Bletchley is falling into disrepair, and that, probably, the world owes a debt of gratitude to that place,' said Phil Dunkelberger, chief executive of PGP."
IBM was merrily outfitting the Nazis with equipment to help them manage their concentration camps (completely ignorant of their application, naturally) while Bletchley park was breaking Nazi codes.
It was also manufacturing M1 rifles for the Allies. (Along with such companies as Rockola - the jukebox maker - and Saginaw Steering Gear. It's handy to convert a factory to guns when it already has equipment for drilling holes the long way down several feet of steel rod and other machines for building small and complicated devices composed of mechanical moving parts.)
(Back when I was buying an old M1 carbine for participating in the Civilian Marksmanship Program training I picked an IBM-branded one just out of nostalgia. The rangemaster was impressed when I qualified with a carbine, rather than a full-length M1, on the first try. Shorter barrels make for less accuracy. B-) But I could have used a Field Engineer: While the steel parts worked fine, the wooden barrel cover kept popping off during recoil. B-( )
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I'll also add that it's a national disgrace that such an important site can be ignored in favour of arts projects.
Bletchley Park not only paved the way for computing and helped win WW2 but also helped the telecoms industry in the hands of the Post Office, which became Post Office telephones, which became British Telecom. Thousands of engineers who built the UK's telephone network trained there.
There is no music - home taping killed it.
Today when two countries are fighting it is most certain that Coca-Cola is present on both sides. Somehow nobody has a problem with that - it's not common sense that selling soft-drinks to the enemy is going to hurt anyone.
Nevertheless I agree that IBM's role in WWII is not particularly evil. Hollerith punch cards were on the market since 1928 and were used for all kinds of legitimate administrative purposes. Since the public on both sides fighting was mostly unaware of the holocaust until around '43 (in Germany sometimes even '45) it is not very realistic to assume that IBM was knowing about the purpose of orders from nazi-Germany before the US entered the war. And after the US joined the war they can't be held accountable because the German subsidiary DEHOMAG got expropriated.
Given the unique efficiency and cruelty of this genocide I even doubt they could have foreseen it.
I don't read replies by ACs.
Perhaps they're still embarrassed by the Alan Turing fiasco, and don't want to ever bring it up again?
Seriously, there's no reason to ignore this chapter in their history. It was certainly one of Britain's finest, and this from a country that prides themselves on their many fine contributions to history.
John