IBM escapes Holocaust suit

Class action dropped

By Drew Cullen • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 30th March 2001 12:51 GMT

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Cohen, Milfield, Hausfeld and Toll, the attack dog of the class action world, has voluntarily dismissed its Holocaust lawsuit against IBM.

The Washington DC-based law firm says it is dropping the class action (in which it argued that IBM equipment helped the Nazis in World War 2) to speed up restitution to Nazi victims to be made by German industry through a foundation called "Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future".

Cohen Milfield filed a class action suit against IBM last month, following the publication of a book which detailed the use of the company's Hollerith counting machines in tallying numbers of concentration victims.

But the case threw a huge spanner in the works with the Holocaust restitution agreed by German industrialists, who thought they were signing up to a full and final settlement. The IBM lawsuit caused aniety that they could be looking at double bubble - being hit for claims a second time in the US court.

Michael Hausfeld, senior partner with Cohen, Milstein ( and the 'most feared lawyer in Washington DC', according to an article posted on the firm's web site) rejected these fears in a statement:

"Even though the German Foundation does not cover claims against U.S. parent companies, such as IBM, for actions unrelated to their German affiliates and the German affiliates' involvement in National Socialist injustice, Mr. Hausfeld believes this is a necessary step in order to eliminate any obstacles German industry believes would hinder such payments to victims of the Holocaust." ®