Summary Analysis

Summary Analysis

Nazi Nexus by Edwin Black

Edwin Black, the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Nazi oppression, is an award-winning journalist who has written a number of revealing nonfiction books examining connections between Nazi Germany and some unlikely allies ranging from Jewish businessmen in Palestine to American corporations. It is for his nonfiction that Black has garnered the most attention and honors, including a Carl Sandburg Award and several Pulitzer Prize nominations.

With his first book, The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine, Black relates the true story of an agreement made in 1933 between Zionists in Palestine and officials of German Chancellor Adolf Hitler's government. The pact allowed for the release of fifty thousand German Jews from Germany so that they could escape to Palestine, as well as transfer some of their assets to the Middle East (Black, 2009, pp. 95-160). In exchange, Jewish businesses agreed to purchase exports from Germany that allowed the German economy to survive at the same time many other nations were boycotting Hitler's regime. The agreement also helped to establish Jewish settlements in Palestine and make them economically viable. Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Gladwin Hill praised the book, especially for its research. The author, commented Hill, "has meticulously documented this obscure but important slice of world history ... [and] the book outlines brilliantly the historic roots of German anti-Semitism, the German economic plight that aggravated it, and the resulting contention among world Jewry that still reverberates (Black, 2009, pp. 95-160)."

Another link between Hitler and other parties that were apparently allied against the German dictator is revealed in Black's IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation. According to Black's research, the American corporation International Business Machines (IBM) provided Hitler's regime with a punch-card system that helped the Nazis run everything from transportation systems to death camps. The system was also used to keep track of people characterized into different ethnic or religious groups, thus making it easier to target them for arrest. While Black believes that IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson, Sr., admired the Nazis, Black also states that Watson allowed the company to play both sides of the war. For instance, Black states that IBM helped the U.S. military build factories and training facilities, and it created a system that helped England break an important Axis code. IBM and the Holocaust was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and according to Sunday Times reviewer Tom Rhodes, Holocaust scholar Simon Wiesenthal praised Black for putting "together an impressive array of facts which result in a shocking conclusion never realised before (Black, 2009, pp. 95-160)."

Another connection between the United States and Nazi Germany is examined in Black's 2003 book, War against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race. Although it is commonly known that one of the motivations behind the Holocaust was Hitler's desire to breed a master race based on the burgeoning science ...