What am I listening to now? An audiobook review.

Q:  What am I listening to now?

A:  The audio book version of IBM and the Holocaust  by Edwin Black (2001)

 

Each summer, I try to check out some decent non-fiction audio books while I cut the grass or in the car.  I did not imagine this title would be a light read and was prepared for its dark tone.  Aside from the movie Life is Beautiful (which admittedly made me uncomfortable on some level) its simply impossible to, I think, to have anything of substance about the Jewish Holocaust that is an easy read.  Humanity at its worst does not make for happy reading.

 

That caveat aside, I've been very pleased and impressed with this audio book.  The story of the ways in which IBM punch card technology was used by Nazi Germany with the support of IBM is sobering and fascinating.  Punch cards are the analogue pre-cursor to the computer mainframe data storage.   It sounds quaint, but punch card data brought an ability for governments, militaries, and industry to maintain, manipulate, sort, analyze, and manage records and data.  It was a world-wide technology that became essential by the inter-war years.  The Nazis were among the first people to utilize information technology in such a widespread and co-ordinated way. 

 

Basically, Black's main points are that:

1)  IBM technology was essential for the orderly and effective pursuit of the extermination of European Jews, from census work identify jews to shipping inmates to the death camps,

2)  IBM knew of Nazi anti-Semitism, militarism and this didn't stop them from using their German subsidiary to make obscene amounts of money, and

3)  Furthermore IBM, put extensive effort into covering up this involvement including the ways in which they knew just how indispensable they had been to the Nazi war effort and the SS's work to exterminate Jews and  other groups.

 

Given how "heavy" this material is, I'm impressed that work itself is highly entertaining and even compelling.  The author himself is the reader and I think this may be tied to his passion for the subject.  At first, I wasn't sure what to think of his reading (he has a slight lisp, as do I) but I now think that an actor's reading would have reduced its impact. 

 

"The dawn of the information age began at the sunset of human decency."

IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black

 

Highly recommended (and available at the library),

 

B.