Reviews
"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 final agonies in the Final Solution without custom-designed IBM equipment. These revelations are troubling enough, but Black has crafted a monumental history that goes beyond such horrific revelations. He has discovered the enormous corruptive power of an international enterprise that saw itself above the laws of man and God." -- Abraham Peck, director of research, American Jewish Historical Society "IBM and the Holocaustis a tremendous, timely work. Neglected for more than 50 years, the sordid records disclosing the global conglomerate 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 "In this carefully researched, yet chilling book, Edwin Black relates step-by-step how the corporate and technological zeal of IBM, and its CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr., contributed to Nazi power and advanced the Holocaust. This book is an awesome warning for the future." -- William Seltzer, author of Population Statistics and the Holocaust, and former director, UN Office of Statistics, "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 final agonies in the Final Solution without custom-designed IBM equipment. These revelations are troubling enough, but Black has crafted a monumental history that goes beyond such horrific revelations. He has discovered the enormous corruptive power of an international enterprise that saw itself above the laws of man and God." -- Abraham Peck, director of research, American Jewish Historical Society "IBM and the Holocaust is a tremendous, timely work. Neglected for more than 50 years, the sordid records disclosing the global conglomerate 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 "In this carefully researched, yet chilling book, Edwin Black relates step-by-step how the corporate and technological zeal of IBM, and its CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr., contributed to Nazi power and advanced the Holocaust. This book is an awesome warning for the future." -- William Seltzer, author of Population Statistics and the Holocaust, and former director, UN Office of Statistics
