Edwin Black is the SeniorSite expert on historical / holocaust / World War II issues for seniors.

Edwin Black is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling investigative author of IBM and the Holocaust (Crown Publishing and others worldwide 2001), The Transfer Agreement (Macmillan 1984 and Carroll-Graff 2001), and a novel, Format C: (Dialog Press and others worldwide 1999). His latest book is War Against the Weak (Four Walls Eight Windows and others worldwide September 2003).

Black's enterprise writing has also appeared in numerous newspapers across the United States and Europe, from the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and Los Angeles Times to Sunday Times (England), Frankfurter Zeitung (Germany) and Jerusalem Post (Israel). The world's leading magazines have also carried his work, from Playboy and Reform Judaism to Der Spiegel and L'Express.

He is the winner of the American Society of Journalists and Authors prizes for the best nonfiction book of 2002 for IBM and the Holocaust, as well as best investigative article of 2002 for his piece on IBM at Auschwitz that appeared in the Village Voice. He has also won the Carl Sandburg Award for the best nonfiction book of 1984 for The Transfer Agreement, two Folio Awards, and a Computer Press Association Award for publishing excellence. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize five times.  Visit Edwin's website at www.featuregroup.com

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Edwin Black Background Information
Edwin Black is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling investigative author of IBM and the Holocaust (Crown Publishing and others worldwide 2001), The Transfer Agreement (Macmillan 1984 and Carroll-Graff 2001), and a novel, Format C: (Dialog Press and others worldwide 1999). His latest book is War Against the Weak (Four Walls Eight Windows and others worldwide September 2003).

Black's enterprise writing has also appeared in numerous newspapers across the United States and Europe, from the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and Los Angeles Times to Sunday Times (England), Frankfurter Zeitung (Germany) and Jerusalem Post (Israel). The world's leading magazines have also carried his work, from Playboy and Reform Judaism to Der Spiegel and L'Express. He is the winner of the American Society of Journalists and Authors prizes for the best nonfiction book of 2002 for IBM and the Holocaust, as well as best investigative article of 2002 for his piece on IBM at Auschwitz that appeared in the Village Voice. He has also won the Carl Sandburg Award for the best nonfiction book of 1984 for The Transfer Agreement, two Folio Awards, and a Computer Press Association Award for publishing excellence. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize five times.

Black's latest work, War Against the Weak, chronicles the gripping story of America's decades-long campaign to create a white, Nordic master race through a sham science called eugenics. Some 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized in eugenic campaigns organized by American corporate philanthropic organizations such as the Carnegie Institution and the Rockefeller Foundation. The program was then transplanted to Germany where the Rockefeller Foundation and American eugenicists founded and funded Nazi eugenics. To assemble War Against the Weak, Black headed a team of some 50 researchers, working in dozens of archives in four countries, and accumulating some 50,000 documents. Hailed as a "gripping account" by historian Paul Weindling and "astonishing" by Abraham Foxman, War Against the Weak launches September 7, 2003. More information on the book can be found at www.waragainsttheweak.com.

Edwin Black is best known for IBM and the Holocaust, an international bestseller documenting the previously unknown twelve-year strategic relationship between IBM and Hitler's Third Reich. IBM developed custom-made data processing programs, using punch cards, to organize and accelerate all six phases of the Holocaust, from identification, expulsion and confiscation to ghettoization, deportation and extermination. IBM and the Holocaust was simultaneously released in 40 countries in nine languages on February 11, 2001 to international acclaim and worldwide headlines. It immediately became a bestseller on New York Times list as well as those in many other nations such as Canada, Germany, Italy, and Brazil. The work is now available in 60 countries in 13 languages and 27 editions, and it has been optioned for film. Black has lectured and toured on the topic, from the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles to the Royal War Museum in London to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. The author's writing on the subject has appeared in publications from the Los Angeles Times to Der Spiegel to the Jerusalem Post. His interviews for the book have included scores of network TV and radio shows from NBC's Today Show, Dateline, and NPR to England's BBC, Germany's ZDF, and France's TF-1. In May 2003, IBM and the Holocaust received the American Society of Journalists and Authors top two awards: best nonfiction book of the year; plus an excerpt with additional information about IBM in Auschwitz appearing in the Village Voice received the award as the best newspaper investigative article of the year. The book also received a Pulitzer nomination from Crown Publishing. More information on the book can be found at www.ibmandtheholocaust.com.

The Transfer Agreement, originally published in 1984, was Edwin Black's first book. It documents the dramatic story of the pact between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine in which the Zionist Organization agreed to break the worldwide, Jewish-led anti-Nazi boycott in exchange for the transfer of some 60,000 Jews to Palestine along with millions in their assets converted into German merchandise. The Transfer Agreement, operating from 1933 to 1939, helped seed the Jewish State. In April 1998, Black was honored by Spertus Institute at a special ceremony in Chicago for donating the 35,000 archival documents gathered in the original research. Republished continuously, the latest edition was released in 2001 by Carroll & Graf with a special introduction by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Black has written about the Transfer Agreement for a diverse group of publications, from the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune to Reform Judaism and B'nai B'rith Monthly. He has lectured on the topic extensively around the United States. He was interviewed on numerous television shows such as the CBS Morning News and was the subject of a half-hour NBC documentary. The Transfer Agreement won the Carl Sandburg Award for the best nonfiction book of 1984 and was nominated by Macmillan for a Pulitzer; it has been recently optioned for film. More information on the book can be found at www.transferagreement.com.

Edwin Black's first novel, Format C:, a kabalistic, technological thriller with echoes from the Holocaust, was met with critical acclaim. The Cleveland Plain Dealer called Format C: a "gripping, fanciful, fast-paced tale." Kirkus Reviews wrote: "Massively conceived, neatly chiseled....Black throughout shows great smarts and at times displays virtuoso rhetoric." Bookbrowser called the novel "a brilliant allegorical thriller." In 1999, the author toured twenty cities and lectured to groups and appeared on media throughout as the millennium approached. More information on the book can be found at www.formatnovel.com

Edwin Black began his career as an aggressive enterprise and investigative reporter and editor in the competitive Chicago journalism scene of the late seventies and early eighties. He was editor of the award-winning investigative magazine Chicago Monthly and wrote extensively for all four daily newspapers of the day: Chicago Tribune, Chicago Today, Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times, as well as the weekly Chicago Reader and Chicago Magazine. Nationally, he wrote for leading magazines and newspapers, such as the Washington Post, Playboy, Journal of the American Bar Association, and Sports Illustrated. An avid movie music reviewer, he has written on soundtracks and music for Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Downbeat, International Musician, and many other publications in America and Europe; he has interviewed such leading composers as Dimitri Shostakovich, Aaron Copland, Jerry Goldsmith and Hans Zimmer.

In 1984, Black began "The Cutting Edge," a weekly enterprise column syndicated to newspapers in 50 cities, first from Chicago and Washington D.C. and then as a foreign correspondent in Jerusalem. "The Cutting Edge" was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. His hard-hitting enterprise articles include exclusive interviews with Minister Louis Farrakhan, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. The column was noted for breaking stories on the Skinheads, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Black Hebrews, and Israeli religious strife. Black was the only non-Israeli print journalist to accompany Shimon Peres to his surprise February 1987 summit in Cairo. For the column, Black also accompanied the South Lebanese Army on patrol in Lebanon, and the Jerusalem Bomb Squad during an outbreak of terror bombings.

As an investigative journalist, Black has investigated HMOs, the homeless, the Jonathan Pollard spy scandal, corporate misconduct, Microsoft antitrust activities, hate crimes, the infamous Kathy Webb rape case, and the abduction of journalist Terry Anderson. His exclusive investigation of the worldwide Bramson insurance empire led to numerous arrests and convictions as a direct result of his disclosures. His investigation of Minnesota's powerful Senator David Durenberger ultimately led to his indictment. Black often worked undercover. For his articles, he has appeared on Oprah, America's Most Wanted and numerous other shows.

Edwin Black is represented worldwide by Lynne Rabinoff Associates and B'nai B'rith Lecture Bureau.

Awards

1. American Society of Journalists and Authors, 2003, best nonfiction book of the year for paperback edition of IBM and the Holocaust.
2. American Society of Journalists and Authors, 2003, best article of investigative journalism on IBM at Auschwitz, entitled "Final Solutions," in the Village Voice.
3. AOFAS Roger Mann Award, 1996, honorable mention for best article on healthcare.
4. Folio Award, 1995 for publishing excellence.
5. Folio Award, 1995, for an undercover story on the homeless.
6. Computer Press Association, 1994, best new computer magazine.
7. Rockower Award, 1988, excellence in Jewish commentary for a turning point commentary on the Jonathan Pollard Affair.
8. Smolar Award, 1987, excellence in public affairs journalism for an
9. article on Jews and Hispanics in B'nai B'rith Monthly, the Chicago Tribune
10. Sunday Magazine and then syndicated via the "Cutting Edge."
11. Carl Sandburg Award, 1984, best nonfiction book, The Transfer Agreement.
12. Eagle Award, 1978, excellence in editing.
13. The Chicago Award, 1978, best feature article in the Chicago Reader for exclusive interview with Jewish attorney representing Nazis seeking to March through Skokie.

Past Nominations

• Pulitzer Prize-five times: Once by Macmillan in 1984 for the Transfer Agreement; twice between 1986 and 1987 by various Jewish newspapers for investigations of terrorism and interviews with Louis Farrakhan; once in 1990 by the American Jewish World in Minneapolis for the investigation of Senator David Durenberger which led to his indictment; once in 2002 by Crown Publishing for IBM and the Holocaust.
   
• SDX Service Awards--twice: once by Playboy in 1987 for the investigation of the Gary Dotson-Kathy Webb rape case; once by the American Bar Association Journal in 1994 for investigating attorneys associated with a global malpractice insurance scam.
   
• IRE Award--once: by Staff Publications for the Bramson insurance investigation.