The culpability of accounting in perpetuating the Holocaust. Accounting History

The Holocaust was an event unprecedented in the history of man. Never before had a people been systematically and deliberately hunted and gathered, from many different countries, by one country for the sole pur-pose to annihilate a people. This article considers the Holocaust, specif-ically slave labor operations managed by German corporations and Nazi state run entities, and identifies accounting information and common financial analyses used to assist management in operation of these facili-ties. The article reviews the role of accountants and the information they prepared in perpetrating the injustices experienced by concentration camp victims during the Holocaust. The history of the German account-ing profession and the changes to the profession during the war years are considered as a means to explain accountant behavior. Finally, the culp-ability of accountants for the Holocaust is considered, using slave trad-ing literature as well as the standard of responsibility introduced during the International Military Tribunals