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There have been other books and articles that mentioned IBM's complicity with Hitler's Third Reich. But the whole story — from 1933 until the end of the war — has never been documented as it is in Edwin Black's new book, "IBM and the Holocaust."

What we learn from Black is that IBM saw a chance to make some big bucks and took it. Executives were motivated by the idea that IBM should be the world leader in calculating and sorting, and they wanted to be sure that no other company could gain a foothold on that business in Europe.

So IBM simply ignored the fact that its equipment and punch cards would be used to exterminate an entire group of people. After all, business is business.

Black points out that the Holocaust would have happened without IBM's help. But IBM increased the Nazis' efficiency, accelerating Hitler's Final Solution.

Some people may wonder why writers such as Black are still looking backward at events that are 60 years old. Certainly, those who ran corporations like IBM in the '30s are long gone.

But there's a lesson to be learned here for our new global economy in which corporations have a multinational presence.

And that lesson is that people's lives are more important than the almighty dollar. Corporations have to be responsible citizens.

The reason there are lawsuits against insurance companies and other businesses that helped the Nazis is not solely to collect reparations. Rather, it's to discourage other companies from making the same mistake in the future.

Corporations need to recognize that they can't hide their dirty laundry. They will suffer monetarily, and their images will be tarnished if they value financial gain over people's lives.

Black's book is now drawing major media attention. With the number of actual survivors diminishing every day, we need books like this to serve as a reminder, to ensure that the phrase "Never again" is not forgotten.