Fw: Special Issue of PW Daily (February 12, 2001)

[Bruce Appelbaum]

end

Regards

Bruce Appelbaum
Yorktown Heights, New York


----- Original Message -----
From: "PW Daily" <pwdaily at lists.cahners1.com>
To: "Bruce Appelbaum" <brucea at bestweb.net>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 11:14 AM
Subject: Special Issue of PW Daily (February 12, 2001)


> Special Issue of PW Daily for Booksellers
> http://www.publishersweekly.com
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Contents for the special issue sent Monday, February 12, 2001:
>
> Embargoed Crown Title Linking IBM and Nazis Published Today
>
> [Note: The regular edition of PW Daily for Booksellers will be published
> later today.]
>
> A Crown Books title linking IBM and the Nazis--IBM and the Holocaust: The
> Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful
> Corporation by Edwin Black--was released today.
>
> The publisher had planned to break news of the embargoed title in
> yesterday's Washington Post and with the first serial in the London Sunday
> Times. But Saturday's Wall Street Journal Web edition broke the story,
> which was picked up by other news organizations. Also, yesterday the New
> York Times reported that a lawsuit was filed on Friday in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
> against IBM on behalf of victims of the Holocaust--with which Crown was
not
> involved. Later this week, stories will run in Newsweek and on Dateline.
>
> The book retails for $27.50. Audible.com has an exclusive e-audio edition
> of the book available for digital download or streaming at its Web site.
>
> The following article by Bridget Kinsella about the book appears in
today's
> issue of Publishers Weekly:
>
>
> Under a shroud of secrecy, today Crown published IBM and the Holocaust:
The
> Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful
> Corporation by Edwin Black. It is the first book to connect IBM's
technical
> ingenuity with the infamous efficiency of Hitler's Final Solution. "There
> have been czars and tyrants before him. But for the first time in history,
> an anti-Semite had automation on his side," writes Black.
>
> According to Black, not only did the company's punch-card system help the
> Nazis keep track of large groups of people, but with the knowledge of top
> IBM management in America, the corporation's European subsidiaries
actually
> perfected the means for the Nazis quickly to collect census data and use
it
> to carry out their goals. Black does not claim that the Holocaust would
not
> have happened without IBM, but makes the case that the best IBM technology
> at the time certainly increased the number of victims. The book asserts
> that Hitler awarded IBM chairman Thomas Watson a medal for his company's
> work and explores Watson's motivation and the company's efforts to work
> with the Nazis without attracting public or government scrutiny.
>
> While other books and scholars have discussed connections between American
> companies and Nazi Germany, Crown editorial director Steve Ross explained,
> "He points out that supplying the Nazis with wool or oil is quite
different
> from playing a critical role in the success of the Reich's mission, by
> allowing Hitler to automate his grand plan."
>
> The level of secrecy surrounding IBM and the Holocaust is astounding.
> Black, author of The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact
> Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine, began the project five years
> ago, after he visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.,
> with his Holocaust survivor parents and spotted a punch card device
bearing
> an IBM logo. He enlisted the help of 100 researchers, all sworn to
> secrecy.
>
> Two years ago, agent Lynne Rabinoff started shopping around Black's very
> brief and sketchy proposal, which did not name the company. It made the
> rounds of the major houses, and "everyone signed non-disclosure
> agreements," Rabinoff told PW Daily. "So many people have been respectful
> to the integrity of the project, and it has not leaked." Eight foreign
> editions are being released simultaneously today.
>
> Ross said the U.S. edition has a 100,000 first printing. Since it didn't
> want news of the book to leak out, Crown guarded in-house knowledge of the
> project, involving department heads only when necessary. And they all
> signed confidentiality agreements. "The sales force sold the book to their
> accounts without knowing what it was, only that it was called--until
> publication date--'Crown Special Publication,'" explained Ross. "They knew
> that it was about the Holocaust, and that it would go on sale
> simultaneously in 10 languages in 40 countries around the world."
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> PW Daily for Booksellers
>
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>
> Associate Editor: Edward Nawotka (enawotka at cahners.com or 212-463-6854)
>
>
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