Customer Reviews

IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST : The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation

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This book is the most important new work on the Nazi era in the last two decades. The book is even more significant for the questions it raises about what the purpose of a corporation is and should be, what role companies and governments should play in directing cutting edge technology, and the danger that misuses of advanced information technology bring to individuals.

The core of the story is how a key IBM technology, the Hollerith-based card tabulating machines, became available for the Nazi war and Holocaust efforts. Although the details are murky (and may remain so), it is fairly clear that the use of this technology was sustained during the war years in part by shipments of customized (for each end user) tabulating cards from IBM in neutral countries for everything from blitzkriegs to slave camp scheduling to transportation to the death camps. There was not enough paper capacity to make the cards in Europe (that the Nazi and IBM records show were used), and there is no evidence that Nazis created substitutes for these essential supplies.

As Mr. Black warns, "This book will be profoundly uncomfortable to read." I agree. My sleep will not be the same for some time after experiencing this powerful story.

Mr. Black makes an even stronger statement. "So if you intend to skim, or rely on selected sections, do not read the book at all." I took him at his word, and did not even read the book quickly. I also arranged to read it in several sittings, so I could think about what I had read in between. I recommend that you do the same.

The reason for my recommendation is that your thinking will change very fundamentally through reading the book. Having read dozens of books by fine historians about the Nazi period, and knowing a great deal about the history of data processing, I assumed that there would be little new to the story here. But the title intrigued me. By the fourth time I saw the book, I could no longer resist it.

What I found inside the book surprised, shocked, and amazed me.

First, many authors claim that it was not clear in the United States that Jews were losing their lives in Europe during the Nazi years until just before the end of the war. This book documents many articles that appeared in the New York Times that certainly seemed to be saying that this systematic killing was going on from very near the time when it began. Anyone who ignored these reports just didn't want to know.

Second, the book makes many connections between Thomas Watson, Sr. and Nazi Germany. Many things surprised me about this. One, he was there once or twice a year until just before World War II began. The horrible human abuses were probably observed first hand by him then. Two, he had friends who were victimized by the Nazis. Three, he accepted a very prestigious medal from Hitler in 1937 (which he returned in June 1940). Four, he spoke in favor of making U.S. policy pro-German until just before the United States entered World War II. Five, it appeared that he had a lot more concern about IBM's profits and machines in Europe than about any people there.

Third, although I was very familiar with the improvements in industrial and transportation effectiveness in Germany during the Nazi years, I did not realize that IBM's design of Hollerith machines for card tabulation was a breakthrough technology that enabled this progress.

Fourth, I had always been amazed that the Nazis had such detailed records of the geneologies of European Jews. What I did not realize was that much of this information was provided by Jewish citizens in government censuses, and was quickly processed into records used by oppressors on Hollerith machines leased from IBM or its subsidiaries.

In France, where the use of these machines was subverted by the Resistance, the percentage rate of Jewish deaths was one-third of what occurred in Holland where this technology was well applied. It is hard to avoid the feeling that millions of people died because these machines were available and kept supplied with parts and punch cards for the Nazis.

One cannot help but draw the comparison between this historical example and the companies and countries (including, apparently, the United States) that have more recently allowed critical nuclear, rocket, and satellite technology to become available to repressive regimes. It seems that by not asking questions about IBM and the Holocaust, we may be continuing to make many of the same mistakes today.

I salute the incredible imagination and back-breaking effort that went into assembling this astonishing set of documents and perspectives. I hope that many people will read the book, that scholars will look for more information to expand our understanding, and that the fundamental questions raised by this book will be debated wherever free people live.

Remember: Your freedom is only as good as that of the least free person, who is most vulnerable.

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

I did not want to read this book.

My grandfather worked for International Time Recording (ITR) in Endicott, NY before IBM was formed and Mr. Watson came on board. My father's first job, at the age of seventeen, was caretaker of the Watson Homestead. My family has had a hand in virtually every product that issued from the IBM manufacturing effort since its inception in 1924. I have deep affection for the company my family labored to build.

I approached "IBM and the Holocaust" with a high degree of skepticism. The book sat on my nightstand for two months before I opened it. Finally picked it up for the sake of completing my 14-book IBM historical reading cycle.

This book is astounding. It is impeccably researched, artfully written, highly detailed, painstakingly documented, remarkably objective and thoroughly engaging.

"IBM and the Holocaust" has finally exposed the undeniable truth: IBM became the world's most powerful corporation largely because it assisted in identifying, cataloging and exterminating millions of innocent people for Hitler. The evil that lurks in IBM history was not exposed previously only because IBM management was smart enough and powerful enough to "hide its tracks" in Nuremburg. No investigator has ever dug deeper into IBM history than Edwin Black.

A close reading of the book makes it absolutely clear that Mr. Watson (IBM CEO) knew the exact purpose, goal and expected outcome of the IBM solution in Europe. The book details the fact that unlike previous IBM engagements for the Third Reich that were completed by Dehomag (IBM's German subsidiary), the engagement in Romania (1941) was conducted directly under the management of IBM New York. That engagement resulted in the swift identification, transportation and extermination of hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews. All in the name of "IBM."

As a result of reading "IBM and the Holocaust", I no longer view Mr. Watson as the glamorous benevolent industrial icon depicted in hollywoood newsreels. Though the affectionate "shop talk" tossed through the air when I was young still captures my imagination, Mr. Watson is no longer the focus of my unqualified admiration.

Watson, for me, now stands beside Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Mellon, Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay and all the other American Industrialists throughout history who had many fine qualities yet are outrageously flawed--so good yet so very, very bad.

This book is remarkable. Have since read "Internal Combustion", Banking on Baghdad" and "War Against the Weak."

Edwin Black is "the bomb."

If you have an interest in history, corporations, corruption, good, bad, evil or fine nonfiction; you will appreciate the works of Edwin Black.

NancyRae Kjelgaard

Tallahassee, FL

December 7, 2006

I just came upon this book this past week, but I have read research on the Holocaust for over 30 years and always wondered how the Nazis could be so efficient in rounding up people, how they could exactly know so much as they took over Poland and France, etc., etc., Now I think I know and the knowledge is most disturbing.
Reading this book made me stop and think about where technology is going today in our world where all the bits of information about everybody are carefully stored, collated, and applied to "appropriate" use. I think there is a warning from the book about having too much data about individuals. I for one will never answer census questions completely again, certainly not the petty questions that inquire into the specifics of my personal life.
A few months ago, I watched the HBO Movie Conspiracy which was an exact dramatization of the Wannesee Conference in 1942 in Berlin. The script was based on the sole transcript of that meeting found after the war and belonging to one of the attendees. As I was watching the movie and later when I poured over the actual transcript which I found on the net, I wondered, "How did they have such exact figures for each country and group? So exact that the numbers were down to the single digits. How did they find these people?" It puzzled me. In reading IBM and the Holocaust, I found my answer.
History has an ostentatous way of rationalizing what actually happened to fit current viewpoints that are acceptable to people and institutions. We don't want to think that a company like IBM could be so dreadful for profit or that our Government refused to bomb camps or take in refugees when they knew horror was happening. There was a rationalization that there " must have been other circumstances", mitigating circumstances, and today simply bad historical recollection. It is much easier to go forward and forget and rationalize and look for "reasonable" solutions, that is, until it all happens again and we have to say once more, "but that simply couldn't be possible."
A n important and courageous book that every young person especially should read as the years pass and the witnesses of that time leave us.

Thomas Watson (IBM's president during Nazi Germany) was both a personal confidant to FDR and decorated with the highest Nazi medal possible to a non-German (though after proudly accepting the award, several years later he returned it). He had personal correspondence with Hitler, and IBM America controlled 90% (i.e. had complete control) of the German subsidiary, Dehomag, and in fact exported to the German subsidiary much of the supplies needed during the first year or two of Nazi leadership (~1933-35). IBM produced practially ALL of the tools needed for Nazi efficiency in any type of statistical manner, and IBM was responsible (though no directly) for finding the names of Jews, their anscestry, etc. The list goes on, and the author has IBM and other documents to prove it, all in a well written and organized, intriguing book.

As a side, it's funny to read other reviews (denying IBM's involvement) who either 1) didn't read the book, or 2) don't want to believe the truth when it's in front of their face. I question wether the person who said the author being an OS/2 advocate is the reason he wrote this book even read the preface. The author's parents are both Holocaust survivors, and he is himself a Jew, which is a far more logical reason to write this book than having a personal vendetta against IBM. I also question another reviewer's knowledge of this book when the person said "the premise that IBM knew at any point in the 30s that the Holocaust was going on is simply not true." There are many quotations of contemporary news papers (i.e. The New York Times) in this book, which show contemporaries were perfectly aware of the atmosphere in Germany, and of the Nazi agenda to "cleanse" Germany of the Jews. Hitler didn't hide his agenda, but broadcast it loud and clear for all to know. Wether knowledge of specific concentration camps was known is totally irrelevant. IBM was still creating specialized statistical devices to determine the "Jewry" of each German citizen, knowing full well what the information was for.

As the son of an ICBM rocket designer, I have been concerned with ethics, economics and technological issues of power and progress all my life. This book will probably be subject to much criticism and vilification for the uncomfortable truths it reveals. Everyone concerned with human rights, racism government invasion of privacy and control should read this and in the motto of the book's main culprit Thomas J. Watson THINK. If we ever needed a clear example of the absolute political importance of privacy of personal information and limitations on the role of state intrusion into private lives this book may prove historically to be an important beacon for future generations. The very fact that this horrifying aspect has taken so long to emerge is added warning of the need for active vigilance in every one of us. I had only just finished reading James Bacque's 'Crimes and Mercies' which presents another mirror into a distorted past, the two books together are enough to make thinking people question many so called truths which they may have grown up with. Tell eveyone about this book. It doesn't matter how embarrassed IBM may be about its criminal past. This is an issue for everyone concerned with the use of powerful new technologies for profit beyond control.

Who would have anticipated that a speedy card-sorter, the Hollerith machine, would evolve into a tool of one of the most evil schemes of all time? Yet, this patented machine, devised by a little-known man of German descent, made it possible to conduct a census in a short time period, and turned counting into a tool useful on a mass scale. Black's book is a page-burner, containing information that will surprise the reader paragraph by paragraph. In my generation, the "Do Not Spindle, Fold, or Mutilate" written on each IBM punchcard was the introduction to the computer and information age (and often the butt of jokes). A scant 25 to 30 years earlier, similar punch cards became the currency on which the Holocaust was based. A truly groundbreaking piece of research that, fortunately, has already appeared in German translation. In the days where vast amounts of personal information are being reduced to a series of ones and zeros carried electronically and stored digitally, this saga may be the harbinger of horrors much worse than were conceived by the progenitors of the 1000-year Reich. We should pay close attention to the uses of such personal information, lest humans lose complete control of their humanity. Here we find a true fable (that's an oxymoron) with much more to teach than Aesop could have imagined.

As a serious academic scholar of the Holocaust, I find thatBlack's book posts many potential problems for IBM. True, IBM was notat the Wannsee conference that organized the Final Solution, but theHollerith machines did exist at the camps, with the Germansubsidiaries name printed on the electronic punchcard. At Mauthausen,they were called 'Haeftlingkarten', or prisoner cards. IBM main triedto buy out Dehomag because they were making money hand over fist, butthat is not the crime. The crime exists when Dehomag WENT TO THE CAMPSTO SERVICE THE MACHINES AND DELIVER MORE PUNCHCARDS. There is no waynot to know what is going on in a concentration camp that is fullyoperational. The stench of burning bodies is a bit difficult tomiss. No, IBM is probably not criminally liable for participating inthe murder of Jews and others, but like other companies that workedwith the German government (such as Ford, Bayer, Krupp, Daimler-Benzand Volkswagen)that used forced labor they surely profited off of thetreatment of enemies of the Reich. Yes, IBM knew what was going on,but they were making too much money, yet they didnt want to causetrouble with the Americans or the Nazis by saying something. It wassimply convenient for them to continue to sell millions of punchcardsto the German government, and not ask what they were used for, knowingfully well what they used them for when they saw the same cards whenthe technicians serviced the Hollerith machines at the camps. Blackgoes a bit far in trying to prove that IBM was a willing participantin the murder of the Jews. We can not look back and say that IBM knewwhat would happen when they introduced this technology. But they didproduce it for the German government in fast order, and they chose tobe silent when they found out what it was being used for....because itwas financially worth it to be silent. IBM did not create the gun, butthey created the better ammunition that helped to make a system ofkilling more efficient. If you doubt this, research IBM in Europe from1900-present, as virtually every book that discusses it does not talkat all about the war years.....IBM has done well in wiping out thatpart of its history. Black has documented his information thoroughly,but IBM is not as guilty of murder, but they are accomplices to thecrime.... For those that chalk this up to the Holocaust industry, staywith your accounting job, and leave history to the historians.

This book is a must-read. Edwin Black and his team spent years combing archives and the Internet to gather data for this book, and the results must have IBM execs shaking in their shoes. The book is well-written AND documented to a fare-thee-well (61 pages of notes for 420 pages of text), and proves that IBM knew what their automation was being used for when they assisted the Nazi regime. IBM President Thomas J. Watson received a medal from Hitler for his services to the Reich.

IBM employees designed and implemented systems that enabled the Reich to relentlessly slaughter human beings even in the midst of a two-front war. IBM's employees designed census forms which were entered onto Hollerith punchcards and processed to find Jews. Concentration camp prisoners were tracked relentlessly using Hollerith punchcards, which tracked everything from a prisoner's birth date and occupation to which physical punishments and tortures had been meted out. Hollerith punchcard systems were essential to the Reich's war machine and to keeping the machinery of death moving smoothly.

At that time, IBM had a virtual stranglehold on punchcard technology. The machines were leased from IBM, and the cards could only be purchased from IBM. The cards for each job had to be custom-designed - by IBM. IBM profited handsomely from the deaths of millions. By using Watson's influence with Government officials judiciously and becoming as indispensable to the Allies as they were to the Germans, IBM got to keep the millions it made in Nazi-controlled Europe during the war.

I've heard that there are lawsuits against IBM pending. If the IBM lawyers are smart, they'll settle. No amount of money can bring the dead back to life, but reparations are in order. IBM made millions making the Holocaust work, and simple justice demands that they forfeit that money, with punitive interest.

An exceptional book!!! Hidden profits, endless patent infringement litigation, inappropriate dealings with government officials, and ultimate re-assimilation of subsidiaries and their blood-tainted earnings from blocked accounts all combine to portray a company that not only destroyed its competition, but actively assisted the Nazis in automating their establishments (census bureaus, railroads, SS offices, and concentration camps, to name a few) which colluded in the extermination of millions of Jews, gypsies, and social undesirables. Moreover, unlike such companies as Ford and Standard Oil that simply sold a product, IBM leased its Holleriths and had a vested interest in keeping the equipment functioning and the royalties flowing, providing the Nazis with on-site service and maintenance visits as well as specially-tailored punch card supplies throughout much of the war. A must read for anyone who is interested in the tragic consequences that occur when corporate and national self-interest collide.

The Exhibits in the German Historical Museum, which opened in Berlin last week, are indicative that many ordinary Germans had often celebrated Hitler; they enabled him to carry out his military objectives and the extermination of Jews and others. The German people nurtured and empowered Hitler. Viewing the compelling exhibits at the Museum, Germans will no longer be comfortable to say "We didn't know." In fact is that the mainstream of German people indeed became co-criminals in the implementation of the Holocaust. We see in many documentaries cheering crowds, marching students and other demonstrations of popular support; images of young and old adoring Hitler. Young Germans who have seen the museum's exhibits wonder why their parents and grandparents had not rejected Hitler. In the book IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST we see how IBM, a prestigious American company, had helped Hitler. Read this book and you will understand how the Nazis tracked down generations back of the Jews in Germany proper and in the occupied lands. The answers are as illuminating but disturbing to compassionate people.

The author, Edwin Black, knew that IBM's punch cards - directly and through its subsidiaries - enabled implementation of the 1933 census which identified and located Jews living in Germany. During a visit, with his parents, Holocaust survivors, to the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C, he questioned his parents how Germans obtained their names. He got no satisfying explanation from them; neither from the exhibits. So, he promised them that he would find out. He did indeed. Every author acknowledges the help rendered by others to write his or her work. The nature of Black's work necessitated help from many resources. Evidently Black succeeded to get the cooperation from archives, in Britain, Frances, Germany, Israel, Poland and other countries. Historians, Holocausts survivors, volunteers and others rendered continuing assistance testifying, researching, verifying and translating captured Nazi documents pertaining to the strategic alliance between Germany and IBM "Big Blue." Black's untiring efforts deserve our appreciation for his important historical work. His book is very comprehensive and well written.

Germans have a reputation to be very efficient. As a victim in Nazi occupied Poland and in Nazi concentration camp, I can attest that Germany's efficiency had been a vital factor in their military strength and brutal oppression. The Germans utilized the cutting edge of IBM's technology to identify, incarcerate, and eventually exterminate the Jews. It became a powerful weapon in the Nazis' war. While IBM profits were swelling the Holocaust victims were emaciating. Mr. Watson, IBM president, did not care. Ironically, there is a silver lining here. IBM equipment enabled the Nazis to keep files on their victims. Those archives streamlined the processing of Holocaust survivors' claims for reparations Wiedergutmchung.

Advanced technology is a blessing to society. However, an unconscientiously society will endow the human race with the ability to destroy itself. Without a moral foundation all the energies, talents and ideas might do more harm than good. It is the conscience that separates civilization from madness, the ability to think about right and wrong. "Science without a conscience is the ruin of the soul". (Rabelais, French humanist 1490-1553)