The American Newspapers Reporting on Events Taking Place in Europe During the Holocaust - Research Paper Example

As a result, a total of six million Jews were killed in the period of World War 11 under Adolf's Leadership (Berman).

According to Wyman (1968), various events were described in the New York Times and other newspapers. Among the detailed events mentioned include the death of thousands in labor camps and ghettos due to starvation and disease, mass gassings in Maidanek, Auschwitz, and Treblinka; mass executions in Nazi-occupied Russia as well as the propagation of anti-Semitic rules in German allied nations. According to the indications in the articles, these were part of the planned campaign to murder the Jews in Europe and not the isolated happenings.

However, after the end of World War II, Americans alleged that they did not know of the Holocaust as it took place. There are reasons for the big question as to why and how it was possible for the public to be ignorant with such detailed information provided in the mass media. The American Media, especially the New York Times, handled the Holocaust as a significant story in the news. For instance, from the beginning to the end of the war in Europe for almost six years, the Holocaust story only made twenty-six times out of twenty-four thousand front-page stories. Apart from that, the victims in the stories were termed in the articles as persecuted minorities or refugees. The story did not even take the lead in the newspapers as seen in the right-hand column reserved for the most important news of the day (Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust,1941-1945).

A number of reasons kept American journalists from realizing the importance of the killings of six million people. Full news coverage was contributed by the Roosevelt Administration's determination to overlook the news. There were also fake atrocity reports in the previous world war. Despite this, the media had sufficient information to handle the Jews' extermination news significantly. The New York Times indicated an important part as to why it did not. None of the American news organizations was in a better position to describe the Holocaust than the New York Times. It was in a position to acquire and publish more news on what was happening to the Jews than other newspapers since it had substantial Jewish readers. It had a longtime commitment to international matters and rather than articles in the face of a newsprint crunch, it was willing to sacrifice advertisement. Since the New York Times was afraid to be accused of dual loyalties, it hesitated to publish the news and probably dismiss its importance though it was less likely to miss out on the events that happened to Jews as compared to other news organizations.

In conclusion, it is obvious that the American public did not have access to the full coverage of the Holocaust happenings until extermination and concentration camps were liberated by the Allied Armies (Berman).