Nazi germany beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that hitler came to power. Ibm dealt directly with holocaust organisers world. Nazis invaded poland, black wrote in the jerusalem post, ibm new york. Lawsuit, book say ibm helped nazis jewish telegraphic agency. The strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most. Ibm and the holocaust guide books acm digital library. As the third reich embarked upon its plan of conquest and genocide, ibm and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, stepbystep, from the identification and. Ibm, microsoft, eugenics and the nazi control agenda. It has been known for decades that the nazis used hollerith equipment and that ibms german subsidiary during the 1930s deutsche hollerith maschinen gmbh dehomag supplied hollerith equipment. The strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most powerful corporation, raises startling questions about the technology giants involvement with nazi government officials and throws the companys wartime ethics into.
Any allusion to any card file or statistical compilation whatsoever seems to count for black as solid evidence that the nazis had deployed ibmhollerith machines. The memo read that chauncey expressed anxiety that his company may some day be blamed for cooperating with the germans. Ibm recently sent a memo to its employees alerting them about blacks book and its accusations that the company provided dataprocessing technology to the nazis. The claims that ancestors of the company we know today as ibm helped nazis identify and round up jews by designing computer programs to assist. The newest blazetv real history documentary friday builds off edwin blacks book ibm and the holocaust, that chronicles what he believes to be the evidence that shows ibm was complicit in the holocaust.
Ibm dealt directly with holocaust organisers world news the. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Ibm and the holocaust is the stunning story of ibms strategic alliance with nazi germany beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that hitler came to power and continuing well into world war ii. Why do you think he adopts this stance so particularly.
In the introduction to the novel, black warns us that, skipping around in this book will only lead to flawed and erroneous conclusions. When the fabric of reality comes apart, which can be found here. Ibm was a lucrative trading partner with the nazis, black told jta. The trains running to auschwitz were tracked by a specially guarded ibm customer site facility at 22 pawia in krakow. In his introduction to ibm and the holocaust, edwin black makes much of the fact that every sentence in the book can be backed up by hardcopy documentationat a moments notice, and that he quotes very exactly the words from telegrams, letters, and telephone transcripts.
Ibm recently sent a memo to its employees alerting them about blacks book and its. Nazi germany beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that. Newly uncovered naziera documents shed light on the alleged role ibm played in helping hitler to carry out the holocaust in poland, according to the author of a. Was ibm, the solutions company, partly responsible for the final solution. Indeed, during the mid20th century, the software companys punchedcard technology helped the nazis carry out the genocide of millions.
But by then, watsons open involvement in dehomag had been cut off by the nazis, who were increasingly suspicious of any american presence in the firm, and he was visiting berlin solely as the head of an international chamber of commerce convention. On the heels of a new book detailing ibms cooperation with the third reich, five holocaust victims file suit against big blue. As the nazis wrested dehomag from ibms control, it became more and more a pawn of the reich. Ibm ny always understoodfrom the outset in 1933that it was courting and doing business with the upper echelon of the nazi party. His ibm and the holocaust drops the bombshell of a revelation that the nazis, in pursuing the destruction of european jewry, were assisted in decisive ways by a leading american corporation. Ibm and the holocaust is the stunning story of ibms strategic alliance with nazi germanybeginning in 1933 in the first weeks that hitler. Ibm tells employees book will call it a nazi supplier wsj. Buy a cheap copy of ibm and the holocaust book by edwin black. The strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most powerful corporation is a book by investigative journalist edwin. The company leveraged its nazi party connections to continuously enhance its business relationship with hitlers reich, in germany and throughout nazidominated europe.
The strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most powerful corporation. The book interweaves two stories in alternating chapters. If this book points to new and verifiable information that advances understanding of this tragic era, ibm will examine it and ask that appropriate scholars and historians do the same. Black wrote that ibm headquarters in new york knew all about its german subsidiary designing and supplying indispensable technological equipment that allowed the nazis to achieve what had never. Ibms role in the holocaust what the new documents reveal. Ibm technology aided holocaust, author alleges the. A shocking account of ibms complicity with the nazis is a reminder that people. Ibm and the holocaust is the stunning story of ibms strategic alliance with nazi germanybeginning in 1933 in the first weeks that hitler came to power and continuing well into world war ii. Ibms pivotal role in helping the nazis arutz sheva. Edwin black is the author of ibm and the holocaust, the strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most powerful corporation, newly released in the expanded edition.
Thats the question raised by edwin blacks ibm and the holocaust, the most. It documents, for the first time, that an american company, ibm, bears a. Beyond questions of morality, the holocaust presented a number of logistical hurdles to the nazis, and ibm offered them a perfectly legal solution. Ibms twelveyear alliance with the third reich was first revealed in my book ibm and the holocaust, published simultaneously in 40 countries in february 2001. Ibm has a deep eugenics background cold springs harbor, jamaica study, the holocaust, and it was instrumental in setting. In a controversial new book, author edwin black says information technology supplied by big blue provided the nazis with a critical tool in dispatching millions to. Given the case black makes against ibm, his book has faced rather critical reception. Ibms top attorney, harrison chauncey, had visited the state department to discuss ibms involvement with the nazis. While americans rightly condemn the nazis as monstrous people. This book will be profoundly uncomfortable to read. Black reminds us that much of the money paid out by the nazis to ibm was plundered from jewish household and bank. The decisive antisemitic book i was reading and the book that influenced my comrades was that book by henry ford, the international jew. Ibm has told its employees that a forthcoming book will say its former german unit licensed equipment used by the nazis during world war ii.
The crucial technology was a precursor to the computer, the ibm hollerith punch card machine, which black glimpsed on exhibit at the u. Hitlers willing business partners a shocking account of ibms complicity with the nazis is a reminder that people bear moral responsibility for the. Ibm press room a recently published book, as well as a recently filed lawsuit against the company, speculate on the uses of hollerith. It tells the story of ibms conscious involvementdirectly and through its subsidiariesin the holocaust, as well as its involvement in the nazi war machine that murdered millions of others throughout europe. The american researchers controversial new volume, ibm and the holocaust. Ibm press room a recently published book, as well as a recently filed lawsuit against the company, speculate on the uses of hollerith equipment by.
It was based on some 20,000 documents drawn from archives in seven countries. Ibm had almost singlehandedly brought modern warfare into the information age and virtually put the blitz in the krieg. Stimulated by his parents awful experiences at the hands of the nazis during world war ii, edwin black has sifted through an enormous pile of documents to investigate the role of ibm in the progress of the war and the attempted genocide of the jews. Newly discovered documents from hitlers germany prove that ibm directly supplied the nazis with technology which was used to help transport millions of people to their deaths in the concentration.
Germany leased ibms punch card tabulation machines ancestors of the computer, and used them in its war against france. Ibms twelveyear alliance with the third reich was first revealed in my book ibm and the holocaust, published simultaneously in 40 countries. Ibm and the holocaust is the awardwinning, new york times bestselling shockera million copies in printdetailing ibms conscious coplanning and coorganizing of the holocaust for the nazis, all micromanaged by its president thomas j watson from new york and paris. Ibm and nazi germany newly uncovered naziera documents shed light on the alleged role ibm played in helping hitler to carry out the holocaust in poland, according to the author of a controversial. The strategic alliance between nazi germany and americas most powerful corporation is a book by investigative journalist edwin black which details the business dealings of the americanbased multinational corporation international business machines ibm and its german and other european subsidiaries with the government of adolf hitler during the 1930s and the years of world war ii. Edwin blacks groundbreaking book, ibm and the holocaust, made a great impres sion on me. In an ibm statement on naziera book and lawsuit, ibm responded in february 2001 that. In 1941, one of ibms most profitable customers was the german government. Ibm subsidiaries trained the nazi officers and their surrogates throughout europe, set up branch offices. Ibm and the holocaust, written by edwin black, author of nazi nexus, the farhud, and many other books about the holocaust, the nazis, hitler and the third. This book is incredibly important as the first comprehensive work on the subject of ibm and its unfortunate involvement in the holocaust.
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