Black, Edwin. IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between
Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation. New York:
Crown Publishers, 2001. 519 pages.
Washington-based writer Edwin Black is the son of Polish survivors,
and on rare occasions a bit of axe-grinding pops out of his prose. More
importantly, the research in this book is thorough, the documentation is
solid, and the level of detail is amazing. It describes how IBM, then
dominated by Thomas Watson, conspired to keep the Nazis supplied with the
punch-cards and machines that made efficiency possible. Nazi use of this
technology allowed the comprehensive census-taking that identified Jews,
fed the infrastructure that supplied the military and kept the trains
running, and even organized slave labor in the camps and factories.
Thomas Watson received a medal from Hitler in 1937, which he returned
in 1940. He wasn't pro-Nazi -- he was merely a globalist who increased
profits at every opportunity. Throughout the war IBM did business with
Germany, although it was soon done discreetly through IBM employees in
Switzerland. At every point, Watson was in charge. This book raises issues
that are still relevant today, as new technology and new transnationals
make a mockery of borders, and remain immune to nations or populations that
are adversely affected by these corporations. It's a classic tale of money
power vs. people power, in which big money still has the advantage.
ISBN 0-609-60799-5
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