Christie's auction and other computer history events

[David H. Barr]

I found that book to be tedious, repetitive, sensationalist, and
mildly informative. There is probably truth that some Hollerith-style
machines were sold to Germany by Dehomag, and there is a good
probability that some of these machines were used for what can now, in
hindsight, be broadly colored as nefarious purposes.

Repeatedly painting Thomas Watson as a fascist and IBM as an
intentional Nazi colluder / sympathizer does not help Mr. Black's
credibility. After you've read the first third of the book, you've got
everything he has to reveal. I recommend you check this book out from
a library, read a third of it, then never think about it again. It's
worth the one or two nuggets of historical fact, and it might bring
some "ethics in computing" type reminders up.

-dhbarr.


On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:46:09 -0500 (EST), William Donzelli
<aw288 at osfn.org> wrote:
> > I recently read a book about IBM's Involvement with Germany during WWII:
> >
> > IBM and the Holocaust - The Strategic Alliance between nazi Germany and
> > America's most powerful corporation.  By Edwin Black Copyright 2001
> > ISBN: 0-609-60799-5
> 
> Keep in mind that basically every historian has dismissed this book as
> sensationalist drivel. Lots of holes and flaws in it.
> 
> Mr. Black laughed all the way to the bank...
> 
> William Donzelli
> aw288 at osfn.org
> 
>