Customer Reviews

Nazi Nexus: America's Corporate Connections to Hitler's Holocaust

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Edwin Black's book clearly shows the awful lows to which man can stoop in pursuit of money, power and influence. It also tells us that although the holocaust was a horror committed by the Nazi's, it was also facilitated by others, including those far too close to home.

But this book also shows us that it is a mistake to believe that money was the only motivating force to this business, as some of those involved obviously shared in their anti-semitic hatred.
The anti-semitism given full expression in the holocaust is not something which begins and ends with the Nazi's, but has spanned generations, and borders.

A very valuable work that will only add to your understanding of the path to Holocaust.

This book should be required reading for many programs (business, medicine, social sciences, etc...). Dr. Black has done an amazing job of summarizing several of his books. After reading Nazi Nexus, you will want to obtain and read some of his books that are more comprehensive. On the emotional side of things, I would also warn professors using this book to spend a little time with students examining the shock many will feel while they read this. My own area is criminal justice and this book would work in many courses, e.g. organized crime, white-collar crime, etc...Dr. Black combines history, sociology, criminology, and economics into an integrated approach that has major implications for future policy. I will be reading War Against the Weak next.

Excellent book. Author has spent years researching how Hitler received help from Americans as well as American corporations. It has taken many years for the truth to be known. Jews living in Europe didn't have a chance.The Nazis had so much help from IBM,Ford, GM and other corporations that its a miracle that more Jews weren't murdered in cold blood.

That's what Adolph was probably singing as he invaded Poland. His friends? Ford, GM, IBM to name a few.

The book may be short, but it is long on information on American businesses involved with Hitler's Germany. I was amazed at how U.S. businesses and Foundations actually made the Nazi war machine not only viable, but also more efficient.

It is truly pathetic how greed trumps ethics. And what is worse is that these corporations like Ford, G.M. and I.B.M. and their CEOs were already wealthy beyond anything imaginable at that time.

One section covers the Nation City Lines conspiracy. It doesn't actually connect to the Nazi nexus, but it just shows how unscrupulous these big U.S. businesses were.

I was not expecting the ending, and it totally took me by surprise. Great book!

This pamphlet should be required reading in all high schools across American. Black brings to the fore the responsibility and complicity of such American icons as Henry Ford and Thomas Watson in what was to become manufactured Hell on earth. Henry Ford in particular is exposed to be the true philosophical father of Nazism just as Thomas Watson is exposed as the architect and engineer of the mass murder factories of the SS. Would the systematic murder of over 10 million Jews, Gypsies, Communists, homosexuals, mentally infirm, and other political and social pariahs have occurred without these two individuals? You be the judge. But one point is indisputable: Ford attempted to vilify and destroy the Jewish race with as mush vehemence as any fanatically National Socialist while Watson stoically provided the technical infrastructure to make mass murder an efficient and, for him, highly profitable enterprise.

This book is a compilation of Edwin Black's investigative journalism and books. It is a must read for anyone looking to become more informed about the inner workings of how the Holocaust was allowed to go on with the assistance of large American corporations and philanthropists who are still industry leaders today. It is all to easy to see the similarities of how we could slip into another situation like this again, regardless of the targeted group. It is a fairly quick read and very informative. You will definitely want to read more...

NAZI NEXUS examines the significant role of iconic American corporations and organizations in both Nazi Germany's build-up for, and execution of, World War II and the Third Reich's systematic murder of so-called "undesirables". It's a topic in which I was interested, but I wasn't sure I wanted to wade through 1500+ pages, which is what it would take to read just 3 of this author's books on which NAZI NEXUS is based. 192 pages was much more like it.

Mr. Black's analysis begins with Henry Ford, the totemic drum major of institutionalized anti-Semiticism. Ford's genius in racism, as well as in business, made him a much-revered figure in Germany where his innovations were given a warm welcome, and his anti-Semitic "gospel" flourished. The next American entity to come under Mr. Black's scrutiny is General Motors, and to a lesser extent, Standard Oil. He illustrates the crucial role of GM in the build-up and maintenance of the Nazi war machine, both in the years leading up to, and during, World War II.

Eugenics is the next target. Early on in its history the sham-science was exported from America to Germany. Even after eugenic pseudo-science was debunked in America and the political-powers-that-be beat a quick retreat, it thrived in the fertile ground of Nazi Germany. NAZI NEXUS examines the intellectual and financial support provided to Germany's eugenics program before and during the war by two of America's most revered philanthropic institutions: the Carnegie Institute and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Lastly, Mr. Black examines IBM's complicity in Hitler's Holocaust. Through every meticulous step of the Final Solution, the Reich came to IBM with its "wish list" and IBM, with no questions asked, delivered a solution that was lethal in its efficiency. Find the undesirables, deprive them of their rights, take their property, isolate them to facilitate moving them out of society, enslave those able to work, and exterminate the rest. IBM engineered, manufactured, trained, and operated, the information technology systems that made it all possible.

The information contained in NAZI NEXUS is of extreme import, but there are significant problems in its presentation. It left me in a quandary on how to rate it: the quality of the information is worthy of at least 4 stars, if not 5, but the quality of the writing and editing is so poor it barely qualifies for 2. I settled on 3 stars as a compromise. The author's tone is often too strident and tends toward bombast. It detracts from the information, and makes the author seem less than objective. Editing is non-existent: typos, formatting errors like "IrĀ©nĀ©e", and terrible grammar, abound. More than 3 (Kindle) pages are repeated verbatim in two different locations. The innuendo and speculation on vast conspiracies makes it too easy to dismiss the book as the ravings of a "tinfoil hatter". The solid information contained in the book merits wider attention and scrutiny. It deserves more than to be waved away in casual dismissal as just another conspiracy theorist's manifesto, but unfortunately the poor quality of writing and editing lend itself to just such a dismissal.

Sarai

If you have not read any books by Edwin Black , and find that his
area of expertise interests you, Nazi Nexus , provides short glimpses into the content of many of his works , and will probably make you decide to read many of them.

If you are interested in investigative reporting at its finest,
Mr Black will provide you with many interesting works to chose from ,that are lightly touched on in this book.

A core topic is always the United States corporate involvement
in many areas which upon their revelation may make us seem , a little less proud to wave the flag , but at the same time realize
the American Corporate power and might is what made the country what is is today.

Money is usually the motivation to most good and evil ;
corporate America is the engine that runs the worlds' economy.

Read this book and you will read more of his works.

This book is crazy and rantful. Accusing Henry Ford of Hating Jews and trying to hold them down in the US. I stopped reading there and used this book as firewood. Don't buy this waste of time.