Why do I never cease to be shocked? Probably for the same reason that no one else is, either.
I open the Intermountain Jewish News from 1935 — three years before Kristallnacht (the countrywide Nazi pogrom in Germany) and four years before the beginning of the Nazi mass murder of Jews (the Einsatzgruppen).
The headlines scream.
Believe it or not, historians debate just how much Hitler himself knew about the extent of the mass murder of the Jews because direct orders of genocide cannot be traced to Hitler.
This fit perfectly with the Nazi modus operandi. Nazism was built on deception. Jews were herded into ghettos supposedly as preparation for deportation to a better place elsewhere. Jews were herded into rail cars supposedly on the way to these better places. Hitler knew, Hitler communicated his intent, Germans and their collaborators understood it. If the deception seems impossible to credit — that’s 20/20 hindsight.
Deception fueled the genocide.
But introduce another factor: geography. Jews had no options. They were brutalized by the Nazis and abandoned by the world — no relaxed borders elsewhere, as there are for Ukrainians today; no massive humanitarian aid, as there is for Ukrainians today; no supply of weapons by friendly countries to fight back, as there is for Ukrainians today.
Still another factor: disbelief or indifference, take your pick. News about the Jews reached the world.
The news did not “filter out.” It screamed.
Go back to the headlines in the IJN from 1935.
I need not quote from more than the first half of the year to prove the point: deception governed the victims of the genocide, but not onlookers.
Headlines scream one after the other, week after week.
“France Orders Refugee Visas Be Cancelled — Mass Expulsion of Jewish Exiles is Expected as Result” — IJN, Jan. 4, 1935
Paris. “The extension of transit visas held by thousands of Jewish refugees from Germany was forbidden today by the French Foreign Office. As a result, the mass expulsion of such refugees is momentarily expected to begin. . . . ”
“Polish Jewry Near Collapse, Leaders State” — IJN, Jan. 11, 1935
Warsaw. “An appeal to the Jews of the world for ‘brotherly help’ for Polish Jewry in the ‘most fatal epic of its history’ was issued here by the extraordinary conference of Jewish leaders. . . . ”
“Jews of Saar Plan Exodus” — IJN, Jan. 18, 1935
Saarbrucken. “Four thousand Jews in the Saar were making plans to leave before the territory is formally turned over to Germany, the result of the voting in Sunday’s plebiscite. Jews who had been vigorous in campaigning against the Nazis prior to the election had escaped over the border or had been placed under arrest by Nazis. . . . ”
“Prison for Saar Jewry, Is Warning. Concentration Camps Are Planned, Declares Frenchman” — IJN, Feb. 1, 1935
“Danzig Jewry Heartened by Lester Report. League [of Nations’] Commissioner Will Safeguard Rights in Nazi Stronghold” — IJN, Feb. 8, 1935
“Doctors of Germany Protest. [Julius] Streicher’s Propaganda Against Jewish Medicine” — IJN, Feb. 22, 1935
Berlin. “A strongly worded complaint has been lodged with Adolf Hitler against Julius Streicher, notorious Nazi Jew-baiter, for his public demands that medical inventions by Jews not be used in Germany.”
“Austria Will Not Expel Jews, Says Chancellor” — IJN, March 8, 1935
London. “The Chancellor [Dr. Kurt Schuschnigg] denied that the measures which are now being taken by the Austrian government and affect the Jewish population are aimed chiefly against the Jews. ‘All measures taken have no reference to religion at all. They are necessitated by political and economic reasons only.’ . . . ”
“New Campaign Against Jews Being Planned” — IJN, March 15, 1935
London. “A fresh drive against the Jews in Germany is to be expected in the very near future, the London Times predicts in a cable from the Berlin correspondent. . . . ”
“Reich Plans To Clarify Jewish Status — New Law to Definitely Bar Them From Service in German Army” — IJN, March 29, 1935
“Nazis Force Jews to Sell Their Arms” — IJN, April 19, 1935
London. “Jewish employees are being dismissed from firms under the pretext that their presence hurts the interests of the employers. . . . Falsehoods, no matter how grotesque, are being employed in the calumny and slander campaign against the Jews.”
Berlin. “The hanging of the fifty richest Jews and Masons is advocated by the ‘Judenkenner,’ an anti-Semitic publication here . . . ”
“Reich Strips Many Jews of Citizenship — Children in Schools To Be Segregated — Continue Repressions” — IJN, April 26, 1935
“Jewish [News]Papers Banned By New Nazi Command — German Publishing Industry Under Direct Control of Hitler Aide” — IJN, May 3, 1935
“The Jewish Tragedy In Europe” — IJN, June 14, 1935
Map of Europe with 18 captions, synopsizing recent anti-Jewish measures in nine European countries and anti-Jewish measures in Germany.
Captions read, for example:
“4,000 Jews in legal profession ousted” [Germany];
“90,000 Jewish merchants compelled to seek economic aid from Zentral Ausschuss”[Germany];
“1,000,000 Jews dependent on charity” [Poland];
“Nazi influence menacing economic existence of its 175,000 Jews” [Austria].
Return to just one of these headlines: “Danzig Jewry Heartened by Lester Report. League [of Nations’] Commissioner Will Safeguard Rights in Nazi Stronghold.”
We know how that worked out.
Copyright © 2023 by the Intermountain Jewish News
