IBM and the Holocaust is the stunning story of IBM's strategic alliance with Nazi Germany -- beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continuing well into World War II. As the Third Reich embarked upon its plan of conquest and genocide, IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step-by-step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s.

Only after Jews were identified -- a massive and complex task that Hitler wanted done immediately -- could they be targeted for efficient asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, enslaved labor, and, ultimately, annihilation. It was a cross-tabulation and organizational challenge so monumental, it called for a computer. Of course, in the 1930s no computer existed.

But IBM's Hollerith punch card technology did exist. Aided by the company's custom-designed and constantly updated Hollerith systems, Hitler was able to automate his persecution of the Jews. Historians have always been amazed at the speed and accuracy with which the Nazis were able to identify and locate European Jewry. Until now, the pieces of this puzzle have never been fully assembled. The fact is, IBM technology was used to organize nearly everything in Germany and then Nazi Europe, from the identification of the Jews in censuses, registrations, and ancestral tracing programs to the running of railroads and organizing of concentration camp slave labor.

IBM and its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions, one by one, anticipating the Reich's needs. They did not merely sell the machines and walk away. Instead, IBM leased these machines for high fees and became the sole source of the billions of punch cards Hitler needed.

IBM and the Holocaust takes you through the carefully crafted corporate collusion with the Third Reich, as well as the structured deniability of oral agreements, undated letters, and the Geneva intermediaries -- all undertaken as the newspapers blazed with accounts of persecution and destruction.

Just as compelling is the human drama of one of our century's greatest minds, IBM founder Thomas Watson, who cooperated with the Nazis for the sake of profit.

Only with IBM's technologic assistance was Hitler able to achieve the staggering numbers of the Holocaust. Edwin Black has now uncovered one of the last great mysteries of Germany's war against the Jews -- how did Hitler get the names?

埃德温·布莱克（Edwin Black）

‧ 16次普利策奖提名作家

‧《纽约时报》调查记者、畅销书作家

‧ 纪录片和好莱坞电影的内容提供者

为找寻纳粹如何获取了他父母的身份信息，美籍犹太记者埃德温·布莱克受美国大屠杀纪念馆一台霍尔瑞斯机器的指引，开始在世界范围内调查IBM与纳粹的关联。很快，埋藏几十年的罪证被他一一串联起来。

布莱克主要研究大屠杀、公司的罪行和贪污现象、政府的失职、学术造假和历史等。他的获奖畅销作品包括《反弱者战争》、《纳粹联结》、《转让协议》）等，在100多个国家以20种语言出版了200个版本。他已获16次普利策奖提名，曾接受奥普拉·温弗瑞、CNN、今日秀、NBC Dateline等知名节目的专访。近几年，他又获得了一系列卓越编辑奖。此外，他的作品经常被改编为纪录片，另有多部著作的电影版权已被好莱坞买断，其中一部即《IBM与纳粹》。