Edwin Black | |
|---|---|
 Edwin Black in March 2014 | |
| Born | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, journalist, historian, talk show host |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Notable awards | American Society of Journalists and Authors Best Nonfiction Investigative Book of the year forIBM and the Holocaust, 2003 |
Edwin Black (born February 27, 1950) is an American historian and author, as well as asyndicated columnist, investigativejournalist, and weekly talk show host on The Edwin Black Show. He specializes inhuman rights, the historical interplay between economics and politics in theMiddle East, petroleum policy, academic fraud, corporate criminality and abuse, and the financial underpinnings ofNazi Germany.
Black is the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland. His mother, Ethel "Edjya" Katz, fromBiałystok, told of narrowly escaping death during theHolocaust by escaping aboxcar en route to theTreblinka extermination camp as a 13-year old in August 1943. After escaping, she was shot by militiamen and then rescued by a Polish Jewish fighter whom she later married.[1] Black's father described escaping death by fleeing to the woods from a long march to an isolated "shooting pit" and subsequently fighting the Nazis as aBetarpartisan. The pair survivedWorld War II by hiding in the forests ofPoland for two years, emerging only after the end of the conflict and emigrating to the United States.[1][2]
Of his own origins, Black has written: "I was born inChicago, raised in Jewish neighborhoods, and my parents never tried to speak of their experience again."[2] In his bookThe Transfer Agreement, Black notes that following in the beliefs of his parents, he was from his earliest days a supporter of the State ofIsrael.[2] As a young man he spent time on akibbutz, visited Israel on several other occasions, and gave earnest consideration to permanent residency there.[2]
Black started working as a professional journalist while still in high school, later attending university where he further developed the craft. He also was a frequentfreelance contributor to the four major Chicago newspapers of the day, theTribune, theDaily News, theSun-Times, andChicago Today, as well as such weeklies asChicago Reader andChicago Magazine.[citation needed] In the late 1970s, he was the editor ofChicago Monthly.
One of Black's first forays into investigative journalism began in 1970 with a commission fromAtlantic Monthly. He was tasked with finding out about an alleged plot to assassinatePresident Kennedy in Chicago on November 2, 1963. For Black it was a long and difficult assignment that finally resulted in his November 1975 article inChicago Independent magazine.[3] He noted in the article how he became the subject of government harassment. His apartment was broken into and his files "were obviously and clumsily searched."[3] He described his many months of scrutinizing documents, following hundreds of leads, and conducting dozens of interviews. But he wrote that his main source of information was a Secret Service agent on duty at the time of the events in Chicago.[3] Although Black did not name this agent, it is strongly believed to have been Secret Service whistleblowerAbraham Bolden.[4]
In 1978, Black interviewed theAmerican Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represented members of theAmerican Nazi Party, which had marched provocatively through the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb ofSkokie.[5] In preparing himself for that interview, Black's interest was piqued by the hidden history of relations between the government ofAdolf Hitler andGerman-JewishZionists during the initial years of the Nazi regime. Five years of research followed, ending in the 1984 publication of his first book,The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine.[6]
In the early 1990s, Black served as the editor-in-chief forOS/2 Professional magazine andOS/2 Week,[7][8] and reported on OS/2 users and technology. Black's books have typically made use of networks of volunteer and professional researchers assembled for each project. Three years before completion of his 2001 book,IBM and the Holocaust, Black began to put together what would ultimately become a team of more than 100 researchers, translators, and assistants to work on discovery and analysis ofprimary source documents written in German, French, and Polish.[citation needed] In all, more than 20,000 documents from some 50 different libraries, archives, museums, and other collections were assembled and analyzed in the writing of the book.[9]
In 2006, Black wrote an article on Iran and the Holocaust, claiming that there was an "Iran-Nazi alliance" during World War Two, thatReza Shah was inspired to rename his country from Persia to Iran by Nazi agents, and that "Iran and its leaders were not only aware of the Holocaust, they played both sides" because Jewish refugees passing through Iran had to pay exorbitant fees.[10] The article was criticized by the Iranian historianAbbas Milani, who instead argued that Iran did not charge any money at all, that Nazi agents had no role in Reza Shah's renaming decision, and that there was no Iran-Nazi alliance.[11][12][13]
In the fall of 2012, it was reported thatPlan B, the production company owned by actorBrad Pitt, had taken an option on a cinematic adaptation of Black'sIBM and the Holocaust.[14] Marcus Hinchey, co-writer of the 2010 filmAll Good Things, was tapped for script-writing responsibilities.[14] Black has written on topics beyond that of 1933–1945 German history, including books on the issue of oil dependence, the history ofIraq, andalternative energy. He is presently a syndicated columnist in publications in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere. Black has also occasionally written on the subject of film and television music, contributing opinion pieces and composer interviews to various print and online publications.[15] An aficionado ofmusical soundtracks, Black regularly credits specific works which have provided "musical inspiration that propelled the writing" in the introductory notes to each book.[16]
In 2010, in his bookThe Farhud, Black resurrected the "Forgotten Pogrom", the bloody June 1–2, 1941, pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad, known as theFarhud, sometimes called the Iraqi Kristallnacht. In 2015, Black founded the annual commemoration, International Farhud Day, which he proclaimed at the United Nations in a live globally-streamed event in 2015. The remembrance has been recognized and observed in many countries and in 2021, it was reported in the media that 10,000 people in numerous countries lit candles. He originated theYom HaGirush commemoration, November 30, commemorating the expulsion of 850,000 Jews from Arab countries after the State of Israel was declared its independence, in a broadcast of the Edwin Black Show in 2021.[17][18][19][20]
Black has coined or popularized certain words and terms. These include: "petropolitical" in lectures during the1973 Arab Oil Embargo; "digital ghetto" and/or "algorithm ghetto" in 2001 during lectures on the bookIBM and the Holocaust, and again at the 2018 Michigan Holocaust Day Commemoration.[citation needed]
Black has written an article critical of Wikipedia, "Wikipedia—The Dumbing Down of World Knowledge".[21]
In February and March 2014, Black embarked upon a "Parliamentary Tour" in which he appeared at four parliaments in a four-week period, including theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom in London, theEuropean Parliament in Brussels, theKnesset in Jerusalem, and the Foreign Affairs Committee of theUnited States House of Representatives in Washington D.C.[22]
In November and December 2014, Black went on a 45-event "Human Rights Tour". In North Carolina, Black reportedly appeared nine times in three days speaking out against thepersecution of Yazidis,Shia Muslims, andChristians in Iraq, racial injustice in the United States, and its impact on the November elections, as well as environmental injustice arising out of oil addiction,journalistic ethics in covering human rights, bias against Jews in Israel, and a health care crisis in the Middle East.[23]
From May 31 to June 3, 2016, Black embarked upon a 100-hour, four-city, three-country commemoration book tour to observe International Farhud Day on the 75th anniversary of the Farhud. Black originated International Farhud Day the year before. The tour began on May 31 in the morning in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., then shifted to the Edmond J. Safra Congregation in New York the evening that same day. On June 2, he led the book and commemoration ceremony in London with the Israeli Embassy at the Lauderdale Rd Synagogue. On June 3, he arrived in Israel for a series of Farhud book and commemoration events that ended with a ceremony in the Knesset.[citation needed]
Black's ten works ofnon-fiction have been translated into an array of non-English languages, includingFrench,Polish,Hungarian,Dutch,German,Spanish,Japanese,Portuguese, andHebrew.[24]
Crucial to his [Black's] article was the firsthand information provided at great risk by an unidentified Secret Service agent—Abraham Bolden.
Edwin Black talked about his book The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine (Dialog Press; 25th anniversary ed. August 25, 2009). He pieced together the story of an agreement made between Hitler's government and a group of Zionist leaders in 1933. The agreement called for the transfer of 55,000 Jews and $100 million to Palestine in exchange for calling off a planned economic boycott of Nazi Germany by Jewish organizations. For his only planned presentation on the release of the 25th anniversary edition of his controversial volume Edwin Black was interviewed by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt. He also responded to questions from members of the audience and those submitted in advance electronically. Mitchell Bard moderated. This event at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Rockville, Maryland, at 2:30 p.m. Friday, October 30, 2009, was sponsored by the History News Network and cosponsored by Jewish Virtual Library, State of California Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Institute for Religion and Public Policy, Binghamton Social Justice Fund, Spero News, The Auto Channel, Energy Publisher, The Cutting Edge News and Dialog Press
Media related toEdwin Black at Wikimedia Commons
