Historical - Book Report/Review Example

ncies being used to spy on American Citizens. Martin Luther King and John Lennon were subject to similar investigations by the FBI only on mere suspicions. Subtitled "Hidden Truths that Challenged the Past and Changed the World," this book exposes several personalities with squeaky-clean images including several presidents of the US and other powerful politicians in the Whitehouse and the defense agencies of the US. IBM, considered the prime example of American supremacy in advanced technology will never enjoy such a positive image among the US public and world at large after the expose of their connection with the Nazis.

For money, the IBM management sold technology to help the Nazis locate and hunt down their helpless prey. The fact that the corporate whims and fancies control the truth is evident from the cover-up of the link between smoking and cancer. A lot of uncomfortable questions are answered by these investigative accounts of real world events. The public has the right to know what happened in these events to understand the mistakes and blunders committed by their own elected leaders and officials and react if they find that such errors are getting repeated.

"When Hitler came to power, a central Nazi goal was to identify and destroy Germany's 600000-member Jewish community. To Nazis, Jews were not just those who practiced Judaism, but those of Jewish blood, regardless of their assimilation, intermarriage, religious activity, or even conversion to Christianity. Only after Jews were identified could they be targeted for asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and ultimately extermination. To search generations of communal, church, and governmental records all across Germany--and later throughout Europe--was a cross-indexing task so monumental, it called for a computer.

But in 1933, no computer existed." (p.18) This was the problem that IBM got involved in and solved for the Nazis using all their state-of-the-art technology intelligence and design prowess of those times. Knowing fully well that their machines were being used for the annihilation of jews, IBM supplied thousands of them to Nazi operations all over Europe. They made a fortune in those turbulent times by aligning with the evil. It took almost half-a-century for the truth in the involvement of IBM in the holocaust to come out into the public.

When the author Edwin Black investigated into the matter and found out to his dismay that there are documents in the official basements of the US Governments that points to thousands of such hidden events which the public knows little or plainly just what they have been told. Its amazing how such a seemingly open company with thousands of employees could decide and implement assistance to one of histories most heinous criminals, the nazis without exposing it for such a long time. It just goes to show that if we choose to ignore something, we can't see it.

"Florida is the only state that pays a private company that promises to provide lists for "cleansing" voter rolls" (p.505). Greg Palast