Investigative author and reporter Edwin Black will be in the Bay Area Feb. 7 to 11 as part of a multicity tour for his new book, “The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust.”
His schedule includes appearances at seven Bay Area locations, starting with a speaking event and book-signing Feb. 7 at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. He also will be interviewed Feb. 8 from 10:05 to 11 p.m. by radio host John Rothmann on KGO 810 AM.
Black has written 10 nonfiction books and numerous articles and essays, all supported by exhaustive research. Two of his better-known books are “IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation” (2001) and “Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives” (2006).
His latest book chronicles the shoulder-to-shoulder battlefield alliance of Nazis, Muslims and Arabs during World War II. The alliance created the Muslim-Catholic murder regime in Croatia known as the Ustasha, the most heinous killers of the Holocaust, according to Black.
Here is a rundown on Black’s local public appearances, according to www.edwinblack.com. The main topic for all but the last engagement is his new book:
• Feb. 7, Oshman Family JCC, Palo Alto, 7:30 to 9 p.m. RSVP to [email protected].
• Feb. 8, S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, 8:15 to 9:45 a.m. RSVP to [email protected]; required for entry.
• Feb. 8, Congregation Sherith Israel, San Francisco, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
• Feb. 9, Congregation Kol Shofar, Tiburon, 7:30 to 9 p.m. RSVP to [email protected].
• Feb. 11, Ohlone College, Fremont, 7:30 p.m. Speaking on the “war against the weak and the eugenic assault against the deaf.”
• In addition, on Feb. 10 Black is slated to give lectures at Sonoma State University at 7 p.m. and at a to-be-determined time earlier in the day at San Jose State University. He also is scheduled to give a breakfast briefing to leadership of the American Jewish Committee.
The Feb. 7, 8 and 9 events are sponsored by the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council in collaboration with the ADL, Consulate General of Israel of the Pacific Northwest, Israel Center of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) and StandWithUs. Kol Shofar is a co-sponsor of its event.
Black, whose parents are Holocaust survivors from Poland, is a native of Chicago who now lives in Washington, D.C. He keeps a mountain of physical evidence filed away at his 1,500-square-foot home office, and every document is subjected to a team of fact-checkers.
“I document defensively,” Black told the Cleveland Jewish News. Only by “instantaneous rebuttal with unshakeable facts” can he defeat those who would challenge or spin his efforts, he contended.
“My role is to uncover the truth,” he added. “I find justice in an unjust world, where truth is a weapon.”