The author of this book is a revisionist and distortionist.

BACKGROUND.
Dehomag was a German company during WW2 although It was 90% owned by IBM of the US, however IBM ceeded full control to German management in an agreement that prevented the German governemnt seizing the company during the war. IBM did its best to retain influence over Dehomag for good business reasons.

Herman Hollerith invented the machines that used punched cards for tabulating and counting. He did so for the 1890 census but it was Powers-Samas (later owned by Remmington Rand) that produced the machines for the 1910 census. Hollerith was of German origin. By the 1930s, unit record equipment was already 50 years old and there were several companies around the world that produced variants of them. The machines came to be known as Unit Record equipment.

By the 1930s the Germans understood them well and knew how to use them. Dehomag was one supplier to the German govt.

EDWIN BLACK's BOOK.
It is palpable bullshit for Edwin Black, 60-70 years after the war to blame IBM (USA) who only in the late 1940s resumed control of Dehomag, as responsible for the use of Hollerith machines from Dehomag by the Nazis, during the war.

This author comes across as a bastard who is playing on a time warp and distorted perceptions of :- what was what, who owned what, & who was capable of doing what back in 1940s. He is an oportunist. part of his tactic is honing in on the fact that IBM maintained limited contact with Dehomag during the war. He is guilty of blaming IBM through guilt by association.

Dehomag needed *nothing* from IBM US to produce its hollerith machines, the cards and to program the unit record machine's wire panels.

Dehomag would have told IBM in no uncertain terms, to go and royaly get f***ed if IBM US had ever dared say to them (a German company) not to sell hollerith machines to their own govt during the war. A war that ended up including Germany and the USA as adversaries. Edwin Black's case is both ludicrous and preposterous.

Black tries to imply that Dehomag could not have produced or used the machines & wire panel programs without IBM USA. If this is the best case he can argue, he has no case. To me it is a bit like arguing that Linus couldn't possibly have produced Linux Kernel on his own. Of course! the Germans knew how to manufacture hollerith unit record equipment & they were also amongst the smartest users of them.

The other distortion implies that IBM personel were present at, & advisors to use of, nazi installations of Dehomag hollerith machines during the war. This argument is so naive as to be plainly stupid, even for those who can't see the lie. This implies that Dehomag (a German company) employees had an overriding loyalty to the USA's IBM during a war with America - what utter contemptible garbage!. Dehomag was the only one who knew what work its employees were involved in and much of that was wartime secrecy not passed on to the US.

Dehomag was *not* the only punched card equipment supplier in Germany at the time and Dehomag did design, and was quite capable of designing, their own unique versions of unit record equipment. Black tries to imply that every thing that Dehomag did during the war, was controlled by IBM USA. This is simply not true and no evidence has ever been put forward that it was in anyway likely.

Black also tries to associate the later electronic computer (a world changing device) and IBM's later success, with the pre WW2 unit record hollerith era as if both were the same leading edge 'black art' technology. This is another weakness of his case. Hollerith technology was not complex nor unique as it was already 50 years old. The 'black art' electronic computer came after the war & had f**k all to do with rounding up and categorizing Jews.

Black wants us to believe that IBM in 1930s & early 40s was the great 'black art' technology company it became later & that the later wizardry of electronic computers was applicable in the war era. This is simply distorted crap!.

By Black's logic, National Cash Register is also guilty of partaking in the holocaust. They had a German subsidiary & the Nazis used some NCR designed cash registers & accounting machines to tally the stolen wealth of the holocaust victims (this comparison is about as logical as Black's).

I would dearly love to meet Black in a debate (but I might be tempted to deck the bastard for his written deviousness and the dishonesty in his book).

He to me is just another AdeTI Ken Brown (aka Linus stole Minix).


Cheers
Doug Marker

Hollerith technology was invented 50 years before WW2.
[link|http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhollerith.htm|http://inventors.abo...s/blhollerith.htm]

1905 saw the beginings of ICT company (later to become ICL).
[link|http://129.11.152.25/iclarch/archdesc.html|http://129.11.152.25...rch/archdesc.html]

Powers-Samas & Remington Rand - pre 1910
[link|http://www.computerhistory.org/VirtualVisibleStorage/artifact_main.php?tax_id=01.02.03.00|http://www.computerh...ax_id=01.02.03.00]

#2 added more detail & refined comments

#3 Added additional historical links & added further comments

I was a branch spcialist (as a very very very) young man, on the gear in question.

IBM 011 hand card punch

IBM 024, 026, 029 punch (029 was post war gear)
IBM 056, 059 Verifier (059 was post war gear)
IBM 047 Paper tape to Card punch

I also worked with guys who were the specialist on 083 sorters 421 accounting tabulators 088s etc: etc:

I had seen much of the other equipment (Power-Sama - ICT). I later became a System/360 engineer then a software engineer then a systems engineer then a systems programmer then a ................

Cheers Doug
(so long ago)