Media Response to the Holocaust
Perhaps the most significant influence the media in the United States had upon the knowledge of the citizens is the lack of. Newspapers and reporters failed to relay detailed and accurate information about the Holocaust to the American people. The media treated the Holocaust as an event lacking importance, therefore, not very many Americans even knew about the Holocaust. Journalists wrote reports from scattered information that made the genocide carried out by the Nazis sound like an event usual during war times. Newspaper companies knew about the Final Solution, or the plan to eliminate the rest of the European Jewish population, and failed to feed that information to the public. The overall attitude of the United States during this time was that WWII victims could be saved through a victory over the Axis Powers. The media focused on making Germany look bad to raise war support.
The picture on the left shows what the majority of Holocaust articles in the newspapers looked like. They often didn't make the front page and wouldn't be found until several pages in. When articles regarding the Holocaust were actually published, they were not very long and were very vague.
The picture on the left shows what the majority of Holocaust articles in the newspapers looked like. They often didn't make the front page and wouldn't be found until several pages in. When articles regarding the Holocaust were actually published, they were not very long and were very vague.
The New York Times is highly criticized for their lack of information delivered to the American people during the Holocaust. The lack of information published in their newspaper led to a lack of information in other newspapers because of the influence they had upon the other companies. Between 1934 and 1945 events of the Holocaust made only 26 out of 240,000 front page stories. They had more information about the Holocaust than any other newspaper company, yet they chose not to share it. Often times the number of deaths was inconclusive and represented by a wide range. The causes of death were reported as abuse and malnutrition in the Nazi concentration camps. The Chicago Tribune dedicated eleven lines on page six of a newspaper to the event while the Los Angeles Times dedicated two paragraphs on page three. |
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To the right is a very interesting New York Times article published after the conclusion of WWII. It is a great contrast to the little information that was given in articles published during the Holocaust.
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The information in this telegram is a good example of the kind of information the media had, but didn't report. They knew there was going to be an attack and they knew what was going on during the Holocaust. Instead of informing the American people of the ongoing events they left them unaware.
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