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A review by feeona
IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black
4.0
This book was recommended to me back at university from my teacher in corporate history. I already knew from our lecture some of the key facts and was really interested as IBM has become such a big company and I also know that they were the ones building the first simultaneous translation units and providing them for free for the Nuremberg Trials. So how can it be that a company involved in the holocaust helps to sentence others for their crimes instead of being in the dock themselves?
“IBM and the Holocaust” gives a very detailed answer to this question. You can tell by his emphasizing that the author has a personal interest in this topic. He did a lot of research and gives a wide overview of how IBM was managing their subsidiaries in Europe – with focus on Germany and occupied territories. Sometimes it’s êven a bit too detailed, e.g. when the amount of various machines is listed.
I was more than onces “shocked” about how unscrupulous IBM leader Watson was, but not like he was a bad person (maybe he was anyway, can’t judge) – but so ecomically focused, so efficient. Kind of impressive. But only from economical perspective. Even though they called themselves the “IBM family”, humanity was only important when it helped the company.
I recommend this book to everyone interested in corporate history and /or accounting of the holocaust.
“IBM and the Holocaust” gives a very detailed answer to this question. You can tell by his emphasizing that the author has a personal interest in this topic. He did a lot of research and gives a wide overview of how IBM was managing their subsidiaries in Europe – with focus on Germany and occupied territories. Sometimes it’s êven a bit too detailed, e.g. when the amount of various machines is listed.
I was more than onces “shocked” about how unscrupulous IBM leader Watson was, but not like he was a bad person (maybe he was anyway, can’t judge) – but so ecomically focused, so efficient. Kind of impressive. But only from economical perspective. Even though they called themselves the “IBM family”, humanity was only important when it helped the company.
I recommend this book to everyone interested in corporate history and /or accounting of the holocaust.