| Edwin
Black has put together an impressive array of facts
which result in a shocking conclusion never realized
before: IBM collaborated with the Third Reich. IBM
and the Holocaust should be read by everyone interested
in the "hidden history" of the Second World
War. |
Simon
Wiesenthal, Director
Jewish Documentation Center
Vienna, Austria |
IBM and the Holocaust is a tremendous, timely work.
Neglected for more than 50 years, the sordid records
disclosing IBM's collaboration with the Nazi regime,
in pursuit of market monopoly, have now been exhumed
by Edwin Black. His comprehensive and detailed account
shows how the blessings of punch card technology can
become a curse to human rights, as it did in enabling
the Holocaust. |
Robert
Wolfe, Former Chief
National Archives expert for captured German records
and Nuremberg documentation |
Edwin Black's groundbreaking book, IBM and the Holocaust,
made a great impression on me. It documents, for the
first time that an American company, IBM, bears a good
deal of the moral responsibility for the preparation
of the persecution of the Nazi victims. IBM and the
Holocaust confirms the belief that the Holocaust
was not only a cruel, unprecedented crime, but also
an enormous bureaucratic undertaking. |
Franciszek
Piper, Historian
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |
This is an astonishing journalistic scoop and a piercing
historical account: full of unknown details and amazing
revelations. IBM and the Holocaust shows how
the Nazi regime was able to draw immense benefit from
what was the latest achievement in punch card technology
by establishing a strictly business relationship with
the leading company in this field. Black's central thesis
that the registration and ensuing deportation of Jews
was considerably facilitated by the use of Hollerith
machines deserves our close attention. Perhaps the Nazis
would have achieved their terrible goal "just as
well with a piece of paper and a pen," as Raul
Hilberg says, but no one should doubt that the availability
of data information based on modern technology has--as
the case of the Netherlands convincingly proves--contributed
significantly to the amount of persecution and destruction
of European Jews. |
Gerhard
Hirschfeld, Director
Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart
President of the International Committee for the History
of the Second World War |
Edwin Black's research has produced an impressive study.
All of us interested in secret, heretofore unknown records
on WWII, should learn from Black's work how much more
could be revealed. IBM and the Holocaust shows
us how little we were informed about aspects of the
Holocaust we thought we knew everything about--and how
far human beings on the Allied side could go to make
a profit. |
Shlomo
Aronson, Professor of Political Science
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Former scholar-in-residence, Library of Congress
Author of "Beginnings of the Gestapo System" |
Black’s study extensively and in great detail proves
that IBM is a true master of elimination, deception,
and cover-up action. . . . Even if at the present time,
Edwin Black is the only one with an overview of these
relevant and specific sources, one has to come to the
conclusion that his argumentation and reasoning is convincing.
He has written an extraordinarily instructive and reliable
book. |
Volkhard
Knigge, Director
Buchenwald Camp Memorial |
Black's study…contains a wealth of unknown or little-known
details. The author convincingly shows the relentless
efforts made by IBM to maximize profit by selling its
machines and its punch cards to a country whose criminal
record would soon be widely recognized. Indeed, Black
demonstrates with great precision that the godlike owner
of the corporation, Thomas Watson, was impervious to
the moral dimension of his dealings with Hitler's Germany
and for years even had a soft spot for the Nazi regime.
… He didn't desist even when it became clear that IBM's
tabulation system was helping the regime to register
its victims. |
Saul
Friedlander
Author of "Nazi Germany and the Jews" |
Edwin Black's book supplies revelations about how the
world's foremost computer corporation paved the way
for the modern technique of data processing. For many
people, the shocking truth of IBM and the Holocaust
will be hard to accept. Understandably, the average
reader, to whom this book is addressed, may not be able
to absorb such huge doses of frightening information
presented in so overwhelming a treatment. Yet all analyses
are dedicated to a single theme: the destruction of
the European Jews. In more than 500 pages, the author
tracks IBM's clean and strict commercial cooperation
with Nazi Germany. Clearly, IBM's history joined with
the politics of Third Reich at a crucial juncture. New
technologies produced by IBM were especially suited
to the needs of Germany--not just its industrial and
financial circles, but also its anti-Jewish campaign.
The author never advances the thesis that IBM is responsible
for the Holocaust, only that IBM has facilitated and
accelerated that tragedy to a great extent. IBM and
the Holocaust is an amazing book, one which will touch,
move and change everyone's point of view on questions
that ultimately concern everyone. |
Marek
Orski, senior historian
Stutthof Concentration Camp Museum
|
Edwin Black has given Holocaust history an extraordinary
new dimension. Clearly, the destruction of six million
Jewish lives, and countless non-Jews, could not have
been possible without IBM's Hollerith machines. Nor
could the Third Reich have perfected the roundup of
Jews throughout Europe, their deportation to concentration
camps, and the statistics that measured their agonies
in the Final Solution without custom-designed IBM equipment.
Black has crafted a monumental history. |
Abraham
Peck, Director of Research
American Jewish Historical Society |
In this carefully researched, yet chilling book, Edwin
Black relates how the corporate and technological zeal
of IBM, and its CEO, Thomas J. Watson, contributed step-by-step
to Nazi power, and advanced the Holocaust. One can only
wonder how different the number of Holocaust deaths
might have been throughout Europe had Hitler not enjoyed
the strategic services of IBM and its punch card technology.
This book is an awesome warning for the future. |
William
Seltzer, Former Director
U.N. Statistics Division
Author of "Population Statistics and the Holocaust" |
Edwin Black's book, IBM and the Holocaust, is
a well-researched and thrilling study of an entire company's
connection to the perverted Nazi process. With a great
dramatic outline, Black does not shy away from what
has been until now the sketchiest details of the evolution
of the Third Reich and its race politics. At the same
time, Black documents the tragedy of an IBM management...
placing the technical means and methods at the disposal
of the Nazi leadership and its bureaucracy, supporting
the blitzkrieg and massive annihilation of individuals
by hard labor and outright murder. Black's last chapter
makes clear that after the war, IBM's corporate identity
was unfazed despite the dealings of the American management
and its European subsidiaries with the Third Reich.
Certainly, many questions must now be answered. |
Siegfried
Büttner, Vice-president
Bundesarchiv |
Black has pointed out with splendid documentation that
the implementation of certain technologies and procedures
enabled the Nazis to more effectively execute the genocide.
…this aspect has indeed been underexposed in the past |
Klaus
Hildebrand
Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Author of "The Third Reich" |
I am appalled. The sordid details of the Holocaust seem
never to end. Edwin Black has now provided us with evidence
of yet more complicity by the giants of industry--this
time International Business Machines. Not only did this
mighty organization unhesitatingly place monetary gain
above human life and dignity, but the technology it
provided made the very machinery of Nazism, and the
genocide of millions of Jews, Roma and others, possible.
The horrors of the Third Reich continue to haunt us
into the twenty-first century. Edwin Black is to be
thoroughly commended for bringing this new information
to the world's attention in his book, IBM and the
Holocaust. I wait now with interest to see how IBM
will respond to these facts-which it has clearly wished
to conceal. |
Ian
F. Hancock, Director
The Romani Archives and Documentation Center, U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Council |
A Roman Emperor defended the imperial monopoly on public
toilets with the observation that 'gold doesn't stink.'
Edwin Black's book, IBM and the Holocaust demonstrates
that a company with its own imperial ambitions, IBM,
fully shared this sentiment. Even as the shadows of
political and racial persecution, and imminent war loomed
over Germany, IBM remained an enthusiastic business
partner of the Reich. Even more, IBM provided the technology
which made possible many of the worst excesses of the
Third Reich. Many of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust
owed their fate to the punch cards and tabulating machines
which the company willingly supplied the Nazi regime.
At the end of the war, IBM could honestly declare, in
the words of many a guilty German, 'we were only following
orders.' |
John
Klier, Professor of Modern Jewish History
University College London |
There has been a long-time need for scholars and journalists
to take a hard, detailed, and fair look at the relationship
between American corporations and the Nazis. Edwin Black
has done this for one major American corporation--IBM.
Piece of evidence by piece of evidence, Black pulls
together information from disparate archival sources
to weave his story of the Nazis relying on IBM to assist
them in a variety of ways, including implementing the
Final Solution. The story is both fascinating and frightening
and raises questions about corporate profits at the
expense of moral decision-making. The book also helps
us better understand the mechanics of the Holocaust
and reminds us the machinery of death oftentimes involves
machinery itself. |
Greg
Bradsher
Holocaust-Era Assets expert
Author of "Managing Archives and Archival Institutions" |
Better than the prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trials,
Edwin Black constructs a thoroughly documented incontrovertible
case against IBM's participation in making the Holocaust
happen. The long suppressed story is now out, but the
danger to all of us has amplified geometrically. If
the primitive computers of the 1940s could serve as
vital weapons in the Nazi's war against the Allies and
against the Jews, what are today's computers capable
of doing? Black's startling revelations of the past
have a poignant message for the present and the future. |
Byron
L. Sherwin, Dean and Vice President
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies |
IBM and the Holocaust is a compelling story based
on exhaustive research which exposes the dealings of
a major US corporation with Nazi Germany. This study
will undoubtedly add a whole new dimension to discussions
about economic relations between supposed enemies, and
raise further questions about the wartime activities
of capitalist enterprises, their pursuit of profit at
all costs and their involvement in the criminal activities
of the Third Reich. |
Bob
Moore
University of Sheffield
Author of "Victims and Survivors: The Nazi Persecution
of the Jews in the Netherlands, 1940-1945" |
Black clearly demonstrates that Nazi Germany employed
IBM Hollerith punch-card machines to perform critical
tasks in carrying out the Holocaust and the German war
effort. He goes on to document that IBM managed to profit
from Hitler's state throughout its existence. ...Black
establishes beyond dispute that IBM Hollerith machines
significantly advanced Nazi efforts to exterminate Jewry.
... IBM and the Holocaust is a valuable contribution
to our understanding of the Holocaust. |
Christopher
Simpson, Associate Professor
School of Communication, American University
Author of "The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law
and Genocide in the 20th Century" |
IBM and the Holocaust is a bewildering, startling
and appalling historical document. Edwin Black meticulously
unravels the role IBM, modern technology and data registration
played in the history of the Holocaust-until now, an
unknown history. IBM and its subsidiaries knowingly
made a substantial contribution to realize Hitler's
inconceivable goal of destroying the Jewish people.
Cooperation in realizing a perfect registration in wartime,
such as in occupied Netherlands, or carrying out a census,
had far-reaching consequences. Hence, Black's book presents
not just an unknown and shocking side of how the destruction
of the Jews took place, it also shows the more than
objectionable economic collaboration of a multinational
that is everywhere a respected company. This book is
an eye-opener that will make people think. Edwin Black
is not just a gifted researcher and writer, but above
all a good investigator of history. |
Erik
Somers, Historian
Netherlands Institute for War Documentation |
Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust is a meticulously
researched indictment of corporate greed. His ability
to synthesize scattered bits of data buried in archives
and repositories on both sides of the Atlantic, and
bring them into a unified focus, makes this masterful
study a new standard for Holocaust scholarship. Indeed,
this bone-chilling account, which reads like a murder
mystery, has raised the bar for what will be expected
in the future for this kind of research. IBM will be
dogged by this book for as long as it remains a corporate
presence. IBM and the Holocaust documents a classic
case study of corporate social irresponsibility, and
reckless pursuit of profits with no regard for human
consequences. Edwin Black has given us cause to speculate
whether or not the most egregious war criminals were
indeed ever prosecuted. |
Robert
Urekew, Lecturer
Business Ethics
University of Louisville |
Black’s portrayal deserves to be taken seriously…. Obviously,
Black does not imply that the Holocaust would not have
happened without Hollerith. Instead, his book points
out a hardly discussed aspect of this crime against
humanity: he shows that this had been an immensely diverse
organizational task assisted to a great degree by IBM’s
technological possibilities. |
Norbert
Frei
University of Bochum
Author of "National Socialist Rule in Germany:
The Führer State, 1933-1945" |
IBM and the Holocaust is an important book not just
because it uncovers a long-hidden aspect of the Holocaust--the
information technology and corporate connections that
made it possible for the Nazis to identify and murder
Jews--but also as a reminder to everyone who works with
computers today that technology can be, and has been,
put to evil ends. No one who reads Edwin Black's book
will be able to forget that technological prowess and
corporate loyalty must always be accompanied by constant
concern for ethics and social responsibility. |
Steven
Lubar, Chair
Division of the History of Technology
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Author of "Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate--A
Cultural History of the Punch Card" |
IBM and the Holocaust breaks new ground by uncovering
the active assistance U.S. companies gave to Hitler's
henchmen. Edwin Black's revelations about IBM's role
in providing the technical resources to make the Final
Solution possible are explosive and illustrate how money
triumphed over morality in WWII. |
Mitchell
Bard, Editor
"The Complete History of the Holocaust" |
IBM and the Holocaust is an important and path-breaking
book. Edwin Black is the first to recount the full scope
of IBM's many entanglements with the Nazi regime: its
efforts to remain in Hitler's good graces despite his
escalating persecutions of German Jews; IBM's efforts
to retain control over its German subsidiary, Dehomag;
and the corporation's campaign to preserve a near-monopoly
over tabulation technology in Europe well after the
outbreak of war in 1939. Just as important, Black exposes
the many ways in which Nazi authorities abused Hollerith
technology to facilitate the destruction of European
Jewry-from the tabulation of racial census data to the
exploitation of concentration camp prisoners and "Extermination
through Work." |
David
M. Luebke, Associate Professor of History
University of Oregon
Co-author with Sybil Milton of "Locating the Victim:
An Overview of Census-Taking, Tabulation Technology,
and Persecution in Nazi Germany." |
Edwin Black has written a masterpiece in IBM and
the Holocaust. His superbly documented investigation
uncovers one of the most tragic examples in history
of placing profit above morality-supplying Hitler with
data services for the Holocaust. If this had been known
during the Nuremberg trials, it would have been referred
for consideration as a corporate war crime prosecution. |
Fred
Thieberger, Former Research Analyst
Office of Chief of Counsel, Nuremberg War Crimes |
In meticulous and thoughtful detail, Edwin Black has
once again accomplished an incredible job of researching
an important and unexplored dimension of the Holocaust.
IBM and the Holocaust exposes a whole new facet
never before considered which will fundamentally change
and determine our perception of how the Holocaust occurred,
and how it was executed. The overwhelming attention
paid to detail is what makes this book so credible.
It is the very readable story of how technology and
business interests, devoid of any sense of morality
or decency, combined with a sinister political regime
to annihilate the Jewish people. Black's work is an
extraordinary contribution that will make other Holocaust
investigations pale in comparison. |
Stuart
Weinblatt, Adjunct Professor of Jewish History
Wesley Theological Seminary |
Edwin Black renders a remarkable service by documenting
in extraordinary detail the cynical and venal actions
of IBM in placing punch card technology, the precursor
of computers, in the service of the Nazis. Motivated
by greed and profit, with no consideration of the moral
implications, IBM in effect contributed to the successes
of the other victims. These significant issues should
have been raised during the war crimes proceedings. |
Werner
E. Michel, Col. U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former Intelligence Officer in Germany, 1945 |
Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust is a thoroughly
researched, meticulously documented history of the relationship
of a corporate giant and the advanced technology it
sold to the Third Reich, its war effort, and its plan
to exterminate the Jews. The author's decision to explore
as well IBM's contribution to the US war effort and
the story of the recovery of IBM assets in the aftermath
of the war insures the objectivity of the work. Black's
volume raises serious questions about the role of large
international corporations in making possible, whether
intentionally or unintentionally, the Holocaust and
the destruction of Europe in World War II. The ethical
question this book raises will spark heated debate,
and it is sure to lead to a spate of volumes on those
American owned businesses that indirectly did business
with the Axis powers. |
Lawrence
H. Schiffman, Chair
Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University |
Edwin Black … was moved to write this important book
to answer questions that have eluded historians of the
Nazi genocide. … how are we to account for the methodical
manner in which the Nazis were able to implement the
Holocaust? … Edwin Black's account of the complicity
of IBM in the "Final Solution" provides us with a perspective
on the Nazi genocide that departs from most other accounts
of the Holocaust. Whereas much of the scholarship on
the Holocaust focuses on anti-Semitism and the role
that Nazi racist ideology played in bringing about the
slaughter of the Jews, Black argues that the efficient
manner in which Hitler's Germany was able to bring about
the Holocaust was due to technical support provided
by IBM. This work of prodigious research helps us to
understand a previously ignored factor in comprehending
the Holocaust, the profit motive. |
Jack
Fischel
chairman of the history department
Millersville University and editor of
American Jewish Congress Monthly |
Black's book adds some new chilling cases to the already
bulging gallery of amoral technicians who willingly
served Hitler's murderous regime, apparently without
suffering any pangs of conscience. |
Steven
Welsh, Senior Lecturer
Modern German History
University of Melbourne |
IBM's 2000 Annual Report has on its cover page the following
statement: "You're one-page away from the no-holds-barred
story of one year in the life of a company. It's the
story of big battles, stinging defeats, and gritty comebacks.
Unexpected alliances, daring forays, and game-changing
discoveries." Although those who came up with those
lines surely would not have linked them to any scholarly
work remotely critical of IBM, they fit, most ironically,
Edwin Black's IBM and the Holocaust. His book should
be required reading not only for all Holocaust scholars
but also for those contemporary celebrants of computerized
access to information as a virtue in itself, little
short of technological utopia. |
Howard
Segal
Bird & Bird Professor of History
University of Maine |
Edwin Black has written the first in-depth study of
a serious and important topic, exploring the connections
between IBM and the Third Reich. In a well-written and
thought-provoking study, he opens new and old historical
debates regarding cooperation and collaboration with
Hitler and the Nazi bureaucracy. In doing so, he delivers
a significant historical and moral message to his readers,
while exposing fertile ground for further research regarding
the role played by international corporations and information
technology during the entire Nazi era. |
Judith
Baumel
Author of "Double Jeopardy: Gender and the Holocaust"
|
