A Tiny Fraction of the Truth: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the New York Times, and the London Times on Majdanek and the Operation Reinhard Death Camps, 1940-1944

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The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the New York Times, and

the London Times on Majdanek and the Operation

Reinhard Death Camps, 1940-1944

Andrew Shaffer

Master’s thesis in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

University of Amsterdam, June 2015

Supervisor and First Reader: Dr. Karel Berkhoff (NIOD)

Second Reader: Prof. Dr. Johannes Houwink ten Cate (NIOD)

University of Amsterdam

Graduate School of Humanities

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Acknowledgements

One of the benefits of the technological age has been the advancement of online archiving. Undoubtedly, without the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), the New York Times (NYT), and The London Times (The Times) online archives, this thesis would not be possible. In addition, the wonderful staff at the University of Amsterdam’s library were quick to answer my questions, as I sought access to the NYT and The Times archives. Two other places that have benefited the thesis, throughout its duration, were the NIOD library and the Science Park Study Center and Library. The NIOD offered an array of literature for perusal, and an incredible place to work. The Science Park Study Center and Library bore the entirety of my printing needs, which were seemingly limitless to my peers. I thank their staff for their patience and assistance throughout the process.

I would also like to thank my professors from this past academic year for their advice and suggestions that helped me better myself as a researcher, writer, student, and person. Thank you Dr. Nanci Adler, Dr. Kjell Anderson, Dr. Karel Berkhoff, Prof. Dr. Johannes Houwink ten Cate, and Dr. Uğur Ümit Üngör for your support, guidance, and aid throughout this past year. Your guidance meant more than you could ever truly know, and added to the great depth of knowledge you presented to me. I am grateful to call myself your student, as the education you have provided me was rich, abundant, and created a strong foundation to pursue my academic career further.

I also thank those whom served on the Board of the Amsterdam Excellence Scholarship (AES), and elected to put their trust in me in the form of the AES Scholarship. Without this scholarship, I would not have had the good fortune to attend one of the most stimulating

universities in the world. Thank you for the great honor of this prestigious grant that enabled me to pursue my dreams at your excellent institution.

Prior to my studies at the University of Amsterdam, I had the joy of undertaking my undergraduate degree at West Texas A&M University, and Jagiellonian University. I thank Drs: Bruce Brasington, Jim Calvi, Paul Clark, Anand Commissiong, Marty Kuhlman, Jessica Mallard, Keith Price, Wade Shaffer, Dwight Vick, Bryan Vizzini, and Reed Welch from West Texas A&M. I also thank my former mentors. First, Dr. Elizabeth Morrow Clark, one of the finest professors a

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student could ever ask for. She taught me invaluable lessons during my time at West Texas A&M: 1) a cluttered desk is a sign of a functioning intellectual, 2) passion and emotion are central to finding yourself as a researcher, writer, and historian - when used correctly, you can produce something amazing, 3) she pushed me to take risks, and to never settle for the mundane, 4) she helped me find my voice not only as a writer, but in the classroom as well, and finally, 5) for never giving up on me as a student, writer, and friend. You remain an invaluable part of who I am today, and who I hope to be tomorrow. Another mentor along my journey was Dr. Annamaria Orla-Bukowska of Jagiellonian University. When I attended Jagiellonian University, I believed I would end up studying European history - specifically, the rise and use of nationalism. Luckily, Dr. Elizabeth Clark knew Dr. Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, saw that she was teaching a class on the Holocaust and its Cultural Meanings, and recommended it immediately. It was this class that sparked my interest in Holocaust and genocide studies. Her class was always stirring, vivid, engrossing, and invaluable. It influenced me so greatly, that for the remainder of my courses, I made sure to write papers that reflected both the course and the Holocaust. Her passion and knowledge were vast, and she was kind enough to meet with me to suggest future universities to apply to and attend. For her support, caring spirit, and vibrant lectures, she is thanked profusely. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and my family. To my Dutch peers, I thank you for the constant reminder that you can always make time to relax. I especially thank my closest friends: Koen Sinke, Robbin Looye, Jos Ruijter, Mark Spill, Chung Dang, Pedro Jordana, Gerben Post, Tessa Bouwman, Danielle Schalkwijk, Tim van Noord, and Marieke Verweij for their constant support, hospitality, and reminders to enjoy this beautiful city with friends over a beer or a party.

Finally, I would not be half the man I am today, nor student for that matter, without the unwavering support of my family. No matter what changes I made in my life, or what adventures I sought to go on, my parents always supported my choice. Be it fiscally, physically, emotionally, or psychologically, they have always been there for me. I thank them for this, as my life to date would not be possible without them. From birth to late night Skype calls, they never failed to answer. For all the times that they said they were proud of me, they believed in me, and that they

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loved me, I thank them. And it is far past time to say, that I am proud to call you my Mother and Father. I love you both, and believe in you too.

Before turning to the chapters themselves, I want to dedicate this work to my grandmother. She passed away in October, after her battle with dementia, depression, and multiple injurious falls. In my life, nothing hurt more than the day I received the news, and not being able to return home for her funeral. She was a wonderful woman, and her spirit lives on in us. Not a day goes by where I do not miss her, especially this past spring. She taught me: 1) the difference between being a child and a man meant: being respectful, helping others, and not starting conflicts, 2) that time with family is to be cherished and treasured, as life makes no guarantees, and 3) always bleed blue when supporting anyone, anything, or any team because loyalty is important throughout life. Undoubtedly, she would have loved watching our Kentucky Wildcats basketball team play and chase history. She would have loved to see her grandkids graduate with two receiving Master’s degrees, and one a Bachelor’s degree. She would have loved to see us today, and been proud of us for every step we have taken since childhood. In honor of her life, love, and lessons, I dedicate this work to my grandmother.

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Introduction

One of the most important sources that has provided information to society has been the media. Broadly, the media can be understood to mean newspapers, radio broadcasts, television and television reporting, Internet news, and podcasts. During the Holocaust, of these

aforementioned methods, the newspaper was the predominant means to keep informed.

Surprisingly, only a select few works have dealt with journalism and the Holocaust. As a result, this thesis was intended to contribute to the scant literature on this subject. Unlike most extant studies, this work does not deal with a single newspaper, or the Holocaust as a whole. Instead, this thesis utilized two newspapers, one news agency, one main time period, the Operation Reinhard camps, and Majdanek; similar in many ways to the Operation Reinhard camps.

It should be clarified here, that the term Operation Reinhard camps applies to Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. This term will be used throughout the thesis to combine these camps under a single phrase, as it has become a widely-used moniker for them. Thus, when it is used within the analyses of the articles, it is my own use of the term; not the article’s or journalist’s.

Historical Nature of this Study

Between 1940 and 1944, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were constructed, and functioned as killing centers for the Nazis. Whether they ended in 1943 or 1944, they all ended the same way. They were all liberated by the Red Army, and neither the US nor the British saw them - until of course, correspondents were allowed to visit the camps in 1944 and 1945. It 1

was then that journalists like W.H. Lawrence, Konstantin Simonov, and Vasily Grossman saw the horrific sites that would make up their wartime reports. In this thesis, only the works of

Lawrence and Simonov were found; regrettably, the search for articles produced none of Grossman’s pieces, or even references to them. As these men wrote, it was apparent that

Majdanek and the Operation Reinhard camps were meant to kill. It was these four camps, along with Chelmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau, that “marked the culmination of the killing process.

Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (New York: Basic Books, 2010), xiv.

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They were not separate from the Nazi German war for race and space but were an integral part of it. In all, an estimated 3 million Jews were murdered in the six killing centers outlined here.” 2

As for the estimated death total of the camps analyzed in this thesis, disparities were found. In Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands, he stated that: “In all, Operation Reinhard claimed the lives of some 1.3 million Polish Jews,” and by camp, “(more than 700,000 at Treblinka, roughly 3

400,000 at Belzec, 150,000 at Sobibor, and 50,000 at Majdanek).” On the other hand, the United 4

States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) stated that the Operation Reinhard camps claimed the lives of 1.7 million Jews, and an unknown number of gypsies, POWs, and Poles. 5

However, these estimates only represented a ‘drop in the bucket.’ Sadly, they were just a small portion of the Jewish lives claimed by the Holocaust. Overall, “Between five and six million Jews had been killed, among them almost a million and a half under the age of

fourteen.” A created range showed that 4,300,000 to 5,870,000 Jews died outside of Majdanek 6

and the Operation Reinhard camps. Their deaths can be attributed to disease, executions, mass shootings, and suicide.

However, it was the Operation Reinhard camps, Majdanek, and the use of Zyklon B that proved to be a faster and more efficient way for the Nazis to commit this genocide. That

provided a reason to conduct this thesis, as these camps were critical to the Nazis because of their capabilities even if their deceased total only represented roughly 22% to 28% of the Jewish deaths during the Holocaust. The historical significance of this study came from personal 7

interests in finding out what some of the world knew about these camps as the Holocaust

Doris L. Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (New York: Rowman and Littlefield

2 Publishers, Inc., 2009), 190. Snyder, Bloodlands, 273. 3 Ibid., 275. 4

“Operation Reinhard (Einsatz Reinhard),” last modified June 20, 2014, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?

5

ModuleId=10005195.

Saul Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York: Harper Perennial, 2009), 422.

6

To reach this number, I divided 1.3 million into both 5 and 6 million, and 1.7 million into both 5 and 6 million -

7

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occurred, and how that information compares to what we now know about them. To date, no such study has been conducted.

Goals and Aims

This multi-faceted approach was taken in order to convey what the articles wrote about the camps and how accurate that information was, to find any themes in the reporting, and to produce coverage trends (i.e. when did camps get mentioned most). When combined, these analyses should provide a new outlook on the role print media played during the Holocaust. As previously mentioned, this thesis utilized multiple sources and camps. This variety enabled the thesis to approach the topic of Holocaust journalism on a micro-level. Thus, this thesis aimed to eschew monocausal research by focusing on multiple news agencies and camps and their unique histories; discover what the press said about the, now, better known death camps; and see how coverage on the camps evolved as the years of operation passed. The goals were to produce a thesis that showed what role the media played in discussing the Operation Reinhard camps, and Majdanek, and to compare the accuracy of the reports to our current historical knowledge. It also strives to eliminate hindsight bias while discussing any flaws in the coverage and to take a more comparative approach by analyzing and comparing multiple camps, years, themes of reports, and news outlets, to a subject often reduced to a single variable. Hopefully, this thesis then filled some of the gaps left behind by previous works.

The Sources and the Historiography

This thesis relied heavily on newspaper articles, and bulletins. As a result, the most important sources were the online archives of the JTA, NYT, and The Times. These sources provided 119 articles about Majdanek and the Operation Reinhard Camps from 1940 to 1944. 8

These particular news outlets were chosen for a plethora of reasons.

The JTA was a source that Dr. Karel Berkhoff recommended looking into, as previous students had found it useful for their works. Upon searching for the camps by name, any alternate spellings, or location, it became apparent that the JTA had a vast amount of bulletins

See Appendix 1.

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that would be useful for the thesis. As a result, it quickly became the main source of the thesis. That being said, one archive was not enough, so other newspapers came to mind. Immediately, the addition of the NYT seemed suitable because it has been heavily discussed in the

historiography, and it was one of the more important American newspapers at that time. The

Times was chosen as another source because it was one of Britain’s major newspapers based out

of London, which was where many of the JTA’s bulletins came from.

It was important that these three primary sources provided articles in English; were subjects of secondary literature; and had online archives to conduct the required research. It was incredibly fortunate that they produced varying degrees of coverage, which made drawing comparisons between them significantly easier. Due to these factors, the JTA, NYT, and The

Times became the main sources over any alternative sources. However, this thesis would not

have been accomplished without secondary literature that provided important insight into newspaper operations, and why articles were presented in certain ways.

The most crucial secondary sources utilized were Deborah Lipstadt’s Beyond Belief: The

American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945 (1993), a volume of essays edited

by Robert Moses Shapiro, Why Didn’t the Press Shout? American and International Journalism

during the Holocaust (2003), Laurel Leff’s Buried by The Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper (2005), and Yosef Gorny’s The Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1939-1945: Palestine, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union (2012).

Deborah Lipstadt wrote the seminal work, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the

Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945. Her work starts with the rise to power of the Nazi Party and

Hitler, and follows with chapters about pre-war Germany, the Kristallnacht pogrom, and the American refusal to allow refugees into the country.

In part two of her work, she addresses topics such as the deportation of Jews to

extermination camps, and public response to the published reports. The most relevant chapters are chapters seven and eight. Here Lipstadt relies on accounts of reporters who were on location and watched as deportations and resettlements began, or heard about the horrors being

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exercised control over the pieces. Nevertheless, Lipstadt stated, “an astonishing amount of 9

information was available long before the end of the war. There was practically no aspect of the Nazi horrors which was not publicly known in some detail long before the camps were opened in 1945.” Lipstadt meticulously strung together the narrative in a way that suggested that the press 10

did not fully live up to its duties to provide the facts, or instigate a call to action via the public and the US government. These particular notions made her study an important contribution to the field.

In Why Didn’t the Press Shout? American and International Journalism during the

Holocaust, editor Robert Moses Shapiro worked to combine various writings on regional

newspaper coverage of the Holocaust. The genesis of Shapiro’s work was a 1995 conference held at Yeshiva University, which looked at contemporaneous primary sources. Of the studies 11

evaluated so far, this collection was the first that demonstrated how international Holocaust journalism truly was. Besides British and American journalism, Shapiro collected and edited works on Soviet, German, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian, French, Greek and Hebrew journalism.

In the American journalism chapters, the most important chapters to the thesis were Ron Hollander’s “We Knew: America’s Newspapers Report the Holocaust;” Laurel Leff’s “When the Facts Didn’t Speak for Themselves: The Holocaust in the New York Times, 1939-1945;” and Max Frankel’s “Turning Away From the Holocaust: The New York Times.” The Hollander essay is crucial as it analyzes articles from 1941 to 1944, a period that included the construction, function, and height of Majdanek and the Operation Reinhard camps.

Leff contributes an article about the shortcomings of the New York Times to the book, which carries over to her own monograph. Frankel’s article provides an unseen perspective in the literature examined so far, in that Frankel was a former editor of the New York Times. His unique

Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust 1933-1945 (New York:

9

Touchstone, 1993), Kindle edition. Lipstadt, Beyond Belief.

10

Robert Moses Shapiro, ed., Why Didn’t the Press Shout?” American and International Journalism During the

11

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perspective was insightful as the New York Times and their coverage of the Holocaust was assessed. 12

On British Journalism, Colin Shindler’s “The “Thunderer” and the Coming of the Shoah: 1933-1942” was the most useful article, for it looks at the articles of The Times. While it does not dive deeply into Majdanek and the Operation Reinhard camps, it evaluates one of the most well-known newspapers of London. It helps to understand the articles collected from the archives of

The Times, and why The Times proceeded as it did during the Holocaust.

Another important work in the canon of Holocaust journalism was Laurel Leff’s Buried

by the Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper. In it, Leff took on the

Western world’s journalism; specifically, the New York Times. Her work was critical of the NYT and its published articles representation of the Holocaust. This criticism stemmed from the fact that Leff believed that, “No American newspaper was better positioned to highlight the

Holocaust than the Times, and no American newspaper so influenced public discourse by its failure to do so. The first reason makes the Times’ failure more puzzling, the second more devastating.” Ultimately, the monograph provided the reader with the understanding that, “The 13

Times never treated the news of the Holocaust as important - or at least as important as, say,

informing motorists to visit the Office of Price Administration if they did not have their automobile registration number and state written on their gasoline ration coupons.” Such 14

scathing rhetoric and examples permeated her work, and left the reader to wonder what more the paper could have done to get the news on the front pages. This monograph provided much needed insight into the way the NYT operated during the Holocaust.

Lastly, Yosef Gorny’s The Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1939-1945: Palestine,

Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, provides a discourse on Jewish press on an

international scale. The book fills a gap because it specifically compares Jewish papers from a

Shapiro, Why Didn’t the Press Shout?, xiv.

12

Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper (New York:

13

Cambridge University Press, 2005), Kindle edition. Leff, Buried by the Times.

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number of nations, instead of one paper from one nation. Further, his work is one of the few 15

that did not seem to have an inherent level of disdain for the press, or an anti-press agenda. Instead, Gorny truly believes that the press played a pivotal role in raising awareness about the plight of European Jewry. As Gorny states, “This awareness also influenced the way overt Jewish public action for the rescue of European Jewry was assessed in state diplomatic echelons and at the grassroots political level…and at the level of public morality.” 16

Importance

This thesis evaluated multiple articles from one of the most important sources of

information of that time period - print journalism. Importance also came from the research focus on four of the most notorious Nazi death camps, and what the outside world knew about them. When trends were found and established, it became possible to weave a narrative about the knowledge the international citizenry had of these camps. Further, one can potentially use this research in the oft-debated topic of international bystanders (i.e. if the articles were well-circulated, why did the bystanders not act to destroy rail lines to death camps, or bomb death camps themselves?). Finally, the thesis added to the topic of Holocaust-related journalism and the idea of knowing about the Holocaust. As prominent Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer wrote, “As far as the actual information was concerned, there can be no doubt at all that whoever read the papers, listened to the radio, or read the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s daily reports could have had all the information about Europe’s Jews that was needed to establish the facts about the mass murder. We already know that information did not mean knowledge, but the information at any rate was there.” It was this information that will be assessed throughout this thesis. 17

Yosef Gorny, The Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1939-1945: Palestine, Britain, the United States, and the

15

Soviet Union (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), Kindle edition. Gorny, The Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1939-1945.

16

Yehuda Bauer, The Holocaust in Historical Perspective (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978), 19.

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1 Majdanek

A Historical Overview

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which started World War II. Two days later, both Britain and France declared war with Germany. It was the German invasion of the 18

Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa, that escalated both the war and the persecution of the Jews. Doris L. Bergen, historian at the University of Toronto said, “From the beginning of war with the Soviet Union, the German leadership advocated unprecedented, ruthless

measures…With the invasion of the Soviet Union the Nazi leadership would move to full implementation of their ideas of race and space on a massive scale…Most noticeably they crossed the line from persecution and killing of Jews to a systematic attempt at total destruction.” 19

For total destruction of their enemies, the Nazis relied on a vast network of camps. That network included six death camps, four of which were analyzed for this thesis. The first death camp, Chelmno, was in operation in 1941. Four of the other death camps were constructed after the Wannsee Conference of 1942. They included the Operation Reinhard camps, named after 20

Reinhard Heydrich, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Key facts on Majdanek will be presented in this section, and represent what we now know about the camp, whereas the articles portrayed what was known then.

Majdanek, the Nazi labor and death camp, was located in the Majdan Tatarski suburb of the city of Lublin, and it was built as a prisoners of war (POW) camp in the winter of

Bergen, War and Genocide, 136.

18

Ibid., 153-154.

19

Ibid., 183.

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1940-1941. The Nazis referred to the camp as a POW camp in order to avoid scrutiny, anger, 21

and local government disagreements in Lublin, which may have occurred if they referred to it as a concentration camp. The camp, originally known as Waffen-SS Prisoner of War Camp Lublin, came from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s 1941 decision to create a major concentration camp outside the Reich, and in Lublin. For Himmler, establishing such a camp was integral to his ultimate plan in making Lublin an SS-military industrial complex. It was on July 20-21, 1941 that Himmler charged SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of Lublin, Odilo Globocnik, to build a camp for 25,000-50,000 prisoners. As a result, the so-called ‘Other Auschwitz,’ was constructed by 22

Polish-Jewish POWs interned in the area in October 1941, and its gas chambers were added a year later. Prior to the gas chambers being functional, alternative methods to kill prisoners 23

included: shooting, torture, starvation, and death vans. The gas was primarily used on Jews, who usually went straight to the gas chambers upon arrival. 24

It was only on February 16, 1943 that the camp was called a concentration camp, and Globocnik used it to meet three goals of Operation Reinhard: to exploit Jewish labor, expropriate Jewish belongings, and murder Jews. Majdanek was often used as a camp to concentrate Jews that were being sent to work for the SS; however, mass extermination was used to get rid of overflowing prisoners that came from Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. From April 29, 1942 to November 3, 1943 Jewish internees made up the majority of prisoners at Majdanek, with roughly 78.45% of the camp populace being Jewish in mid-October 1942. That population statistic changed drastically with the event that transpired on November 3, 1943. 25

Bergen, War and Genocide, 188, and Elizabeth White, “Lublin Main Camp [AKA Majdanek],” in The United

21

States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Volume I: Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA), Part B, ed. Geoffrey P. Megargee (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 876.

White, “Lublin Main Camp [AKA Majdanek],” 876.

22

Bergen, War and Genocide, 188, and “Timeline of Events: Liberation of Lublin-Majdanek,” United States

23

Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed May 29, 2015, http://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/ liberation-of-lublin-majdanek.

Bergen, War and Genocide, 187-188.

24

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On that day, the “guards at Majdanek mowed down some seventeen thousand prisoners with machine gun fire and forced the few left alive to conceal the evidence.” Saul Friedlander, 26

Holocaust historian at UCLA, wrote about this event, now referred to as Operation Harvest Festival. He suggested that its death total was 18,400, and he added that they were shot with music blared to prevent the killings from being heard. Operation Harvest Festival devastated 27

the Jewish prisoner population, which was reduced to a mere 71 Jews of 6,562 registered

prisoners at the end of 1943, or approximately 1.08% of the internees at Majdanek. That number increased to 834 Jews imprisoned at Majdanek in mid-March 1944, when prisoners were brought from Majdanek’s sub-camps to the main camp; an unknown number were gassed, while the rest were sent to Auschwitz or Krakau-Plaszow. 28

With the exception of 500 disabled Soviet POWs, and 1,000 peasants, Majdanek was completely evacuated on July 22, 1944. One day later, the Red Army arrived and liberated the camp. Timothy Snyder, historian at Yale, added that Majdanek was liberated on July 24, 1944, 29

suggesting that either the day remains disputed, or that it took two days for the Red Army to liberate the camp. The liberation of Majdanek was important because it was the first Nazi 30

concentration camp to be liberated, the first liberated by the Red Army, and the first to allow journalists to visit the camp and write about it. 31

During its period of operation Majdanek interned a minimum of 240,000-250,000 registered prisoners, and more were likely interned; however, many of the records were destroyed by the Nazis before the arrival of the Red Army. Of that estimate, the USHMM has established that a minimum of 80,000-110,000 victims died at Majdanek’s main camp. 32

26

Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 378.

27

28

Ibid.

29

Snyder, Bloodlands, 278.

30

“Timeline of Events: Liberation of Lublin-Majdanek,” and White, “Lublin Main Camp [AKA Majdanek],” 879.

31

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Whereas, Bergen has said that Majdanek claimed the lives of “two hundred thousand people… About 75,000 were gentiles; the other 125,000 were Jews,” a number that may have included 33

death totals from Majdanek’s sub-camps. These estimates have been debated as some sources suggested 350,000 died, and others believed that 235,000 was more accurate. Ultimately, some 34

facts still remain contested to this day, which suggests that Holocaust information may never be complete.

Majdanek: The Article Collection

Between 1940 and 1944, the JTA produced thirty pieces on Majdanek, from June 26, 1942 to December 26, 1944. Meanwhile, the NYT wrote eighteen articles on Majdanek, from July 2, 1942 to December 16, 1944. During the same period, The Times published only seven articles about Majdanek, from January 28, 1943 to October 27, 1944. In total, Majdanek was mentioned in fifty-five articles evaluated in this chapter.

The JTA on Majdanek

On June 26, 1942, the first report to mention Majdanek, as a city and barracks, was produced. This JTA bulletin came from London, and included numerous reports that covered the atrocities and killings of Jews. The article said, “3,000 Jews from Lublin are now being held in barracks at Majdanek-Tatarowy, a Lublin suburb.” It also stated that over 2,000 Jews had been 35

killed in Lublin, and that 25,000 had been deported to an unknown destination. 36

The second piece was released over half a year later, on January 28, 1943 and also came from London. It was a note from the Polish Government that hoped to call others to act and stop the atrocities in Poland. In it, General Sikorski spoke of the deportation of Jews from Warsaw

33

“Majdanek: Inside Majdanek,” Jewish Virtual Library, accessed May 31, 2015, https://

34

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Majdanek1.html.

“25,000 Jews ‘Disappear’ from Lublin; Warsaw Jews Shot in Streets,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 26, 1942,

35

2.

“25,000 Jews ‘Disappear’ from Lublin,” 2.

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and asserted that in the span of four days, January 16-20, the Nazis had deported 35,000 Jews from the city. Some of those Jews were sent to Majdanek, and others to “so-called ‘Jewish

extermination camps.’” Of particular interest was the fact that it did not refer to Majdanek as an 37

extermination camp, and that it referred to death camps in a questionable manner (so-called). The third report was published on March 23. This London report labelled Majdanek as a Jewish concentration camp that claimed the lives of 200 Jews a day. It stated that the sanitary conditions at the camp were atrocious and led to typhus. Two Jewish deputies of the Polish 38

National Council, Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbart and Samuel Zygelboim, called for actions to save Jews. They warned that the Nazis could achieve their goal to “exterminate all the Jews in Poland if nothing is done to check him (Hitler).” The article that followed added significant details 39

about the organization of Majdanek.

On May 12, 1943, another report from London was published by the JTA. It was based on a broadcast made by SWIT, an underground Polish radio station. The broadcast mentioned that the former premier of France, Leon Blum, was “in the newly established concentration camp at Majdanek in central Poland.” In addition to Blum, Jews that fled the Warsaw ghetto, and 40

Jewish politicians were incarcerated there. The story then detailed the camp as follows:

The new camp holds about 15,000 prisoners, divided into five sections the broadcast said. The first is for Jews; the second for Jews and Poles who have been sentenced to death; the third for prisoners transferred from Pawiak prison in Warsaw; the fourth for victims of street roundups; the fifth being reserved for women. Under command of S.S. troops, the warders are both Germans and Ukrainians. The barracks are said to be unheated and

“Polish Government Addresses New Note on Nazi Atrocities to United Nations,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

37

January 28, 1943, 1.

“200 Jews Dying Daily in Concentration Camp in Poland; Jewish Deputies Appeal for Aid,” Jewish Telegraphic

38

Agency, March 23, 1943, 1.

“200 Jews Dying Daily in Concentration Camp in Poland,” 1, parenthetical added.

39

“Warsaw Ghetto Finally Liquidated Despite Heroic Resistance, Secret Polish Radio Says,” Jewish Telegraphic

40

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full of vermin, with daily rations consisting of 300 grams of bread and a half pint of soup. 41

The next report was from May 28, 1943, and came from Zurich. It established that Majdanek was expanded “to hold 80,000 internees.” Further, it was no longer a new camp, but 42

a “notorious concentration camp.” The last lines of the reports emphasized that the victims 43

were both Jews and Poles. It went on to say, “Most of the victims are treated with such brutality that they do not live long in detention. The mortality rate at the camp is termed ‘horrible.’” 44

The JTA continued its reports on Majdanek on July 23, 1943, with a bulletin from London. It first discussed the liquidation of Polish ghettos, and then Majdanek. It said that Majdanek, the town, was home to both a camp and a ghetto for Jews. According to the report, based on a newspaper article from Dziennik Polski, “about 3,000 Jews died from lack of food and mistreatment and their clothes were stripped from them for use by the Germans.” 45

The next bulletin came from London on November 22, 1943, and it discussed the liquidation of Majdanek. The Polish Government passed on the news that at the end of October, the Germans had massacred 15,000 Jews at Majdanek. Any survivors were sent to Krakow as forced laborers. 46

On December 6, 1943, an article from London listed camps established in Poland. The

camps were located at “Belezec, Starogard, Potulice, Sobibor, Kosow-Podlaski, Treblinka, Trawniki, Poniechowek, and also one between Chelo and Wlodawa(sic).” Majdanek was 47

“Warsaw Ghetto Finally Liquidated Despite Heroic Resistance, Secret Polish Radio Says,” 2.

41

“Nazis ‘Clearing’ Upper Silesia of Last Groups of Jews,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 28, 1943, 3.

42

“Nazis ‘Clearing’ Upper Silesia of Last Group of Jews,” 3.

43

Ibid.

44

“Polish Government Paper Publishes Eye-Witness Accounts of Liquidation of Ghettos,” Jewish Telegraphic

45

Agency, July 23, 1943, 3.

“Gestapo Massacres 15,000 Jews in Majdanek Camp; Award for Denouncing Jews Announced,” Jewish

46

Telegraphic Agency, November 22, 1943, 1.

“Germans Have Established Nine Separate Concentration Camps for Polish Jews,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

47

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mentioned as a camp that confined Jews whereas the others were labelled as Jewish camps (Belzec and Sobibor), or death camps (Treblinka). The bulletin mentioned that one hundred 48

camps of nine different categories existed in Poland: “Segregation camps, where Poles and Jews are sent for a short period after immediately being arrested, concentration camps proper, forced labor camps, camps for priests, camps for women (non-Jewish), camps for Jews, ‘racial

improvement’ camps, corrective camps for young Poles, and children’s camps.” 49

The article that appeared six days later discussed technical problems at Majdanek.

According to this bulletin that came from London, the incinerator malfunctioned at the camp and was non-functional for days. As a result, “hundreds of bodies of executed Jews piled up in the fields adjoining the camp until it became necessary for sanitary reasons for the Germans to build a huge pyre on the spot where the bodies lay.” It was the last report from 1943. 50

The majority of the JTA’s reports on Majdanek were published in 1944. The first bulletin of that year dealt with the number of Jews sent to extermination camps. It was published on January 6, and came from Jerusalem. It stated that “1,071,600 doomed Jews were transported to Treblinka, Belzetz and other ‘extermination camps’ during the year beginning April 1, 1942 and ending March 31, 1943.” According to Dr. Isaac Gruenbaum, an executive in the Jewish 51

Agency, that number was not complete because Jews sent to Sobibor, Majdanek, and Malkinia were not included. This was worsened by the fact that in those camps, “few Jewish internees were left alive.” 52

On May 29, 1944, a Zurich based report was made about death totals, and the elimination of evidence that the Nazis had committed. The elimination of evidence required bodies to be dug up from mass graves and burnt. Another form of evidence destruction was killing, as camps were

“Germans Have Established Nine Separate Concentration Camps for Polish Jews,” 4.

48

Ibid.

49

“Germans Build Huge Funeral Pyre to Incinerate Polish Jews, Underground Reports,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

50

December 12, 1943, 3.

“German Data Reveals 1,071,600 Polish Jews Transported to Extermination Camps,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

51

January 6, 1944, 3.

“German Data Reveals 1,071,600 Polish Jews Transported to Extermination Camps,” 3.

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ordered to liquidate their internees. The report said that: “50,000 Jews have been murdered by 53

the Germans in the camps at Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatow.” 54

The next relevant item was primarily about property restoration. Dated July 25, 1944, and compiled in London, it was based on the work of the Polish Committee of National Liberation. This committee assured Polish Jews that their property would be returned to them. The report then turned to the committee’s manifesto, which urged Poles to participate in the war with Germany. The incentive was that, “the hour of revenge against the Germans has struck - revenge for the burnt villages, destroyed cities, ruined churches, slave labor, concentration camps, the executions at Majdanek, Treblinka, and Oswieicim, and the massacres in the ghettos.” This 55

particular report started a trend, as several 1944 articles dealt with the concept of justice, and how to attain it.

On August 17, 1944, the JTA published an article from Moscow correspondents that discussed the Nazis’ destruction of the death camps. The item chiefly dealt with Treblinka, which it said was completely razed to the ground. The correspondents found survivors to detail what happened in Treblinka. Similar methods were said to be used to destroy evidence at Sobibor, Trawniki, Poniatow and Majdanek, all of which were now held by the Red Army. 56

Another JTA report from Moscow, on August 21, discussed the discovery by Soviet investigators of a list of Jews killed at Majdanek. As the publication stated, the list primarily included 600 names of French Jews and it was the only book made available to journalists. However, the report emphasized that books with thousands of names existed, and they just needed to be interpreted. 57

“Germans Eradicate Traces of their Mass-Executions of Jews in Poland; Burn Bodies,” Jewish Telegraphic

53

Agency, May 29, 1944, 1.

“Germans Eradicate Traces of Their Mass-Executions of Jews in Poland,” 1.

54

“Restoration of Looted Property, Full Rights, Promised Polish Jews by New Committee,” Jewish Telegraphic

55

Agency, July 25, 1944, 1.

“Germans Raze All Traces of the ‘Jewish Extermination Camps’ Before Leaving Poland,” Jewish Telegraphic

56

Agency, August 17, 1944, 1.

“Moscow Releases Names of French Jews Killed by Gestapo in ‘Death Camp’ in Poland,” Jewish Telegraphic

57

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On August 31, multiple pieces were published by a JTA correspondent in Lublin. The first stated that as many as 1.5 million men, women and children were killed in Majdanek. Of those 1.5 million, two-thirds were Jewish victims. The reporter found around 1,000 Jewish survivors of the camp. The reports on the situation in Lublin continued via a bulletin that gave former 58

prisoners a voice. Those who survived, and spoke to the correspondent, wanted revenge for what happened. The report said, “Revenge is a common word among the Jews in Lublin. It is also a common word among non-Jews here who are horrified at the annihilation by the Germans of 1,500,000 people at Majdanek.” 59

After the correspondent discussed revenge, the report covered what American and British reporters saw when they visited the camp. It discussed the gas chambers, storage facilities for victims’ possessions, and the arrival routine (i.e. bath ruse that led to gas chambers). The

correspondent also spoke to German POWs and officers who “were associated with the camp.” 60

The German POWs told the correspondent that children had been killed at Majdanek, and one admitted that he was responsible for sending valuable items, stripped from the victims, to Germany. 61

On September 1, the JTA published many reports about Majdanek. One came from Lublin, another from London, and the last one from New York. The first report dealt with the trauma Majdanek survivors faced. Survivors in Lublin were “too shaken today to write down the addresses of their relatives in the United States.” The correspondent was there to try to 62

establish communication between survivors and their friends or family. Unfortunately, the trauma ran so deeply, that victims had forgotten the names of the cities where their family members

“JTA Correspondent Reports 1,000,000 Jews Exterminated at Majdanek; Finds 1,000 Survivors,” Jewish

58

Telegraphic Agency, August 31, 1944, 1.

“Jews in Lublin Clamor for Revenge; Majdanek Horrors Described,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 31,

59

1944, 2.

“Jews in Lublin Clamor for Revenge,” 2.

60

Ibid.

61

“Surviving Jews in Lublin Still Suffering from Effects of German Terror,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, September

62

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lived. The item ended with a personal letter from a survivor that said no friends or family had survived the German occupation. 63

The bulletins from London and New York, also released on September 1, were primarily about the pursuit of justice. In London, the News-Chronicle produced a report that demanded “rigorous punishment of those directly responsible for the extermination of 1,500,000 persons - mainly Jews - at the Majdanek camp in Poland and taxes the entire German nation with

acquiescence in ‘these crimes against civilization.’” It also said, “it is hard to imagine any 64

crime which could outstrip Majdanek in scope or the degradation to which its planners

descended.” Additionally, “the editorial suggests that the horrors of the camp should be filmed 65

by the Allies and every German should be forced to see them.” 66

The succinct JTA report from New York dealt with the American call to justice. It

reiterated that 1,5000,000 victims died at Majdanek, and then presented two editorials: one from the Herald-Tribune, and the other from the New York Times. The Herald-Tribune called for the annihilation of the Nazi regime and no leniency for the German populace, for “a people who would support this regime hasn’t the remotest excuse for any expectation of leniency in the terms of surrender.” On the other hand, the New York Times hoped that the lessons from Majdanek 67

would create a bond among humanity that included “all groups, all factions, all free nations together.” 68

Multiple writings on Majdanek were part of the September 5, 1944 bulletin. One came from New York and dealt with justice, and the other came from Lublin and discussed Greek Jews. In the first report, the American Jewish Committee asked for a United Nations (UN)

“Surviving Jews in Lublin Still Suffering from Effects of German Terror,” 1.

63

“London Press Demands Vigorous Punishment of Majdanek Camp Officials,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

64

September 1, 1944, 2.

“London Press Demands Vigorous Punishment of Majdanek Camp Officials,” 2.

65

Ibid.

66

“American Press Says No Leniency Must Be Shown to Germans for Majdanek,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

67

“American Press Says No Leniency Must Be Shown to Germans for Majdanek,” 2.

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commission to investigate Majdanek. The committee sent their request to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and UN representatives in the US. Their letter quoted Joseph M. Proskauer, 69

President of the American Jewish Committee, who called for justice to be served to those that broke both moral and legal laws. If justice was not pursued and served, future peace in the world would be hampered. Proskauer urged Secretary of State Hull to make the US the leaders of the 70

UN commission. He also wanted the commission to visit the camp “at once, in order that the incredible evidence might be viewed first hand. The findings of such a body would be

unimpeachable.” The last words of the report mentioned that Jewish victimhood ran up to three 71

million people, and Majdanek served as evidence “of our worst fears.” To Proskauer, the entire 72

world was “stunned by this latest proof of Nazi inhumanity to man.” 73

The second report from September 5, came from Lublin, and it discussed the fate of Greek Jews in Majdanek. Several thousand Greek Jews were deported in 1943, and “1,200 of those deportees were executed at the Majdanek camp. It is likely that many others were also murdered.” The work then talked about the main difficulty behind death estimates: “The names 74

of most of the 1,000,000 Jews exterminated at Majdanek and other camps will probably never be known, since it has been definitely ascertained that the Germans kept no list of their Jewish victims, lists were kept only of the executed non-Jews. A few score names are available from the pitiful possessions of the dead Jews found piled up in Majdanek storehouses awaiting shipment to Germany.” The correspondent suggested a thorough inspection of the property in the 75

storehouses, so some of the dead could be calculated. As for the Greek Jews, other Majdanek

“American Jewish Committee Urges Punishment of Nazis Responsible for Majdanek Massacre,” Jewish

69

Telegraphic Agency, September 5, 1944, 2.

“American Jewish Committee Urges Punishment of Nazis Responsible for Majdanek Massacre,” 2.

70 Ibid. 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid. 73

“Mystery of Fate of Athens Jews Solved with Discovery they Executed at Majdanek,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

74

“Mystery of Fate of Athens Jews Solved with Discovery they Executed at Majdanek,” 2.

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survivors said they were not gassed but “systematically beaten to death over a period of several weeks.” 76

On September 7, a report from Lublin discussed the decimation of Jewish children. Of the 1,000 Jewish survivors in and around Lublin, only ten were children, and six of them were found in the Majdanek camp. The birth rate of Jewish children was also discussed, as only one 77

child was born after the war started. This fact, and the ages of survivors and their possible emigration were seen as “the chief obstacles to the eventual development of revived Jewish life in Poland.” 78

A brief article that discussed the gas used at death camps was presented on September 14, 1944. The article was from London, and it was about former German-Jewish chemist, Dr. Martin Schauf. Schauf explained that cyclone gas (Zyklon B) was originally created to be an insecticide/ disinfectant; however, it was being used by Nazis to kill Jews within Majdanek’s gas chambers. Schauf had worked for one of the companies that produced the gas. His testimony was that the gas he experimented with caused the deaths of his brother and friends at Majdanek, and that he was eventually fired for being Jewish. 79

An article from London, published on October 17, discussed Hungarian Jews. The work first talked about Nazi troops in Hungary with orders to kill the 300,000 Jews left in the country. However, reports from Switzerland suggested that two transports of 150,000 Jews each were being prepared. The report then turned to Jewish POWs noting that the Polish Government-in-Exile stated that the Germans had taken 2,000 Jewish POWs to Majdanek, and killed them via

“Mystery of Fate of Athens Jews Solved with Discovery they Executed at Majdanek,” 2.

76

“Germans Left Practically No Jewish Children in Poland, J.T.A. Correspondent Finds,” Jewish Telegraphic

77

Agency, September 7, 1944, 1.

“Germans Left Practically No Jewish Children in Poland,” 1.

78

“German-Jewish Refugee Chemist in England Helped Develop Majdanek ‘Death Gas,’” Jewish Telegraphic

79

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gas. The Poles also stated that, “last February 2,000 Jewish forced laborers from Hungary were 80

also brought to Majdanek ‘apparently for extermination.’” 81

Another report from London, dated November 3, focused on atrocity photography. The exhibition, “Germany - The Evidence,” was created by the United Nations Information

Organization. There were pictures of anti-Jewish riots, Jewish roundups, and Majdanek. This 82

was followed by a piece on the dark side of arts in camp life.

On November 26, 1944, a particularly morbid report came from Washington on the torture of Jewish inmates at Majdanek. The torture was referred to as concert parties, and took place after the day’s work ended. The inmates stood for hours and sung along with a Jewish orchestra and its conductor. 83

A report that came from Atlantic City on November 30, 1944 called for the creation of Jewish organizations in Jerusalem and Moscow. These proposals were shortly discussed before emotional speeches were made about the atrocities that were committed against the Jews. Eliezer Szcupakewich, a member of the Representation of Polish Jewry in America, said:

This hall should be draped in black. Instead of speeches we should be reading the chapters inscribed in cold blood from the records of the death camps of Maidanek and Tremblinka[sic]. We should consider ourselves guilty of the passivity with which we have allowed all the miserable events to occur. We are all criminals and any Jew who returns to Germany will deserve a curse upon his head. Our hands are covered with blood. The blood of our brothers and sisters. 84

“Gestapo Division Arrives in Hungary with Orders to Exterminate All Remaining Jews,” Jewish Telegraphic

80

Agency, October 17, 1944, 1.

“Gestapo Division Arrives in Hungary with Orders to Exterminate All Remaining Jews,” 1.

81

“Nazi Atrocities Against Jews Pictured at United Nations Exhibit in London,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

82

November 3, 1944, 4.

“‘Concert Parties’ Conducted to Torture Jewish Inmates,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 26, 1944, 4.

83

“Considers Establishment of Special Bureau in Moscow and Jerusalem,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November

84

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In addition, Dr. Nahum Goldmann said that American Jews had failed to help European Jewry, or to get the government to help.

On December 5, 1944 two items appeared - one from Washington, and one from

Moscow. The Washington report evaluated how Soviet Russia had responded to anti-Semitism. First, they no longer considered it a “purely internal affair of the country where it is practiced.” 85

Professor Komarov, president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, was quoted throughout the bulletin. He quoted Joseph Stalin, who said anti-Semitism was dangerous, and a punishable offense because it was “inimical to the Soviet system.” Komarov said the killings at Majdanek, 86

stemmed from “stupid anti-Semitic jokes in the beer halls of Munich.” To Komarov, this 87

explained why racial attitudes in the Soviet Union had changed from ignoring vile acts of persecution to trying to prevent and end persecution permanently. He also said that forgive and forget should not be accepted, as “any leniency that will be shown to the Germans for Maidanek will only ‘pave the way for new fascist pogroms.’” Thus, they believed anti-Semitism should 88

be removed from society because of its inherent dangers.

The article on anti-Semitism was followed by a short piece on a trial in Lublin of five Majdanek officials. Evidence was supplied by the American War Refugee Board; however, it only discussed Auschwitz - but it was still admitted. Ultimately, the trial ended on December 4, 1944, “when the executioners were sentenced to hang.” On December 6, the JTA reported from 89

Moscow that the men “were hanged on Monday in the presence of 20,000 persons.” 90

The final report produced by the JTA came from Geneva on December 26, 1944. It focused on the dire situation of Jews in Hungary. According to the article, Premier Ferenc

“Russia Will No Longer Consider Anti-Semitism an Internal Affair of Each Country,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

85

December 5, 1944, 3.

“Russia Will No Longer Consider Anti-Semitism an Internal Affair of Each Country,” 3.

86

Ibid.

87

Ibid.

88

“War Refugee Board Evidence Used in Trial of Maidanek Executioners; Five to Be Hanged,” Jewish Telegraphic

89

Agency, December 5, 1944, 3.

“Five Maidanek Executioners Hanged in Lublin Square Before 20,000 Witnesses,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

90

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Szalasy wanted to kill the Jews left in the city before the Red Army arrived. At the beginning of December, “no more than 75,000 Jews remained in Budapest…following the ‘death march’ of 100,000 Budapest Jews to the Austrian frontier.” He promised no mercy to the Jews and had 91

anti-Semitic Arrow Cross units watch the ghetto, prepared to act. The report went on to say that the regime intended to leave no Jews alive, which the Germans supported. It boldly stated, “Only the tortures of Jews in the Maidanek and Oswiecim camps can be compared with the martyrdom of the Jews in Hungary today.” 92

The New York Times on Majdanek

On July 2, 1942, the first report, which came from London, was published. It urged the Allies to help Poland protect their population. It also said punishment would come to the Germans for their crimes, which included the murder of 700,000 Jews. The report mainly focused on killing, and it said that Jews were being shot after they dug their own graves. The writing also said that the young, the old, and women were being killed in the streets. It then displayed death figures for various cities, before discussing how Jews were being gassed in death camps. It talked about the gassings at Chelmno before it mentioned the Jews of Lublin and 93

Majdanek. The report said that 25,000 Jews had been deported to an unknown location in Lublin, and, “Nothing has been heard of them since. A few were detained in the suburb of Majdanek; the others disappeared. No Jews were left in Lublin.” 94

Milton Bracker wrote the next report, which appeared in the NYT over a year later, on July 27, 1943. His report was based on government reports from Wladsylaw Banaczyk, Polish Minister of Home Affairs. The death toll was “estimated at 3,200,000 including 1,800,000 Jews,

“Last 75,000 Jews in Budapest in Danger of Being Massacred, Alarming Message Warns,” Jewish Telegraphic

91

Agency, December 26, 1944, 1.

“Last 75,000 Jews in Budapest in Danger of Being Massacred, Alarming Message Warns,” 1.

92

“Allies are Urged to Execute Nazis: Report on Slaughter of Jews in Poland Asks Like Treatment for Germans;

93

Curb on Reich is Sought, ‘Only Way to Save Millions from Certain Destructions,’ Says the Appeal,” New York Times, July 2, 1942, 6.

“Allies are Urged to Execute Nazis,” 6.

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as of May 1.” The report so alarmed a British correspondent, that he questioned the minister. It 95

was then that Banaczyk detailed how he got the data from the Polish underground, and then discussed the horrors committed at death camps. His facts on Majdanek included: 1) the type of victims - children, women, and the elderly, 2) where they were killed - “death chambers,” and 3) the speed and efficiency with which the camp operated. The speed was evidenced by two 96

transports, with 30 freight cars filled by 100 people per car, being liquidated within a “few hours…in gas chambers. Such executions are taking place every day.” 97

One more year later, on August 30, 1944, W.H. Lawrence wrote an article about his visit to Majdanek. His opening words were memorable, “I have just seen the most terrible place on the face of the earth - the German concentration camp at Maidanek, which was a veritable River Rouge for the production of death, in which it is estimated by Soviet and Polish authorities that as many as 1,500,000 persons from nearly every country in Europe were killed in the last three years.” His work detailed what he saw: the gas chambers, crematoriums, skeletons of the 98

deceased, and ashes of the dead. He also saw the exhumation of mass graves, and the storehouses of expropriated Jewish property. His report, which started on page 1 and continued on page 9, was vivid with details. But it was his quote on evidence that stood out, “This is a place that must be seen to be believed. I have been present at numerous atrocity investigations in the Soviet Union, but never have I been confronted with such complete evidence, clearly establishing every allegation made by those investigating German crimes. After inspection of Maidanek, I am now prepared to believe any story of German atrocities, no matter how savage, cruel, and

depraved.” 99

Milton Bracker, “Polish Executions Put at 3,200,000: Wladyslaw Banaczyk Draws Gruesome Picture of Nazis’

95

Extermination Methods, Children Kicked to Death, Minister Details Gassing of Adults - Sees Reich Aim at Ethnographic Defense Line,” New York Times, July 27, 1943, 9.

Bracker, “Polish Executions Put at 3,200,000,” 9.

96

Ibid.

97

W.H. Lawrence, “Nazi Mass Killing Laid Bare in Camp: Victims Put at 1,500,000 in Huge Death Factory of Gas

98

Chambers and Crematories,” New York Times, August 30, 1944, 1. Lawrence, “Nazi Mass Killing Laid Bare in Camp,” 9.

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He then listed criminals that would be charged for their roles in Majdanek, and told a first person narrative about the killings which he heard from a German prisoner. After that, he led his readers through the camp grounds and its layout. He talked about how the gas chambers

functioned, the specific gas used, and how quickly the operations ran. His report ended with the fact that Majdanek would be maintained as a place of evidence, and that Poles in the area thought those responsible for Majdanek should be killed within the camp. This was one of the most 100

thorough and descriptive articles found.

The next day’s report reiterated much of Lawrence’s work. The first paragraph of the report called to our attention the rift between the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Polish Committee of National Liberation in Lublin. The correspondent then said that the failed mergers should be overshadowed by what Lawrence wrote about Majdanek. The writer let us know that Lawrence had his job because he was thorough and accurate, and showed that with his piece on Majdanek. The article stated that punishment needed to be handed out, and that such a power 101

(as the Nazis) should be prevented from rising again. As it said, “It is civilization itself that is at stake. Over the graves of the Maidanek dead the common bond of humanity should surely draw all groups, all factions, all free nations together.” 102

Punishment was also the theme of a letter written by Henry Waldman, published in the

NYT on September 3, 1944. Waldman’s letter responded to both Lawrence’s piece and the August

31 writing. He was convinced that those responsible for Nazi atrocities would be punished, but he also called for the nation of Germany to be punished as well. As Waldman put it, “Germany as a sovereign entity must cease to exist. It has committed premeditated homicides.” He noted 103

that a government and nation cannot be subjected to a death penalty, suggesting instead that

Lawrence, “Nazi Mass Killing Laid Bare in Camp,” 9.

100

“The Maidanek Horror,” New York Times, August 31, 1944, 16.

101

“The Maidanek Horror,” 16.

102

Henry Waldman, “Letters to The Times: Dismemberment Urged - Abolition of Germany as Country Suggested as

103

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Germany be split into the twenty-six states that it was prior to 1871. Lastly, he urged that Prussia be split into multiple states, and that none of them be allowed to merge again. 104

The theme of justice continued when a report from Moscow made the paper on September 4. The Red Army had captured a former German commander, Lieut. Gen. Milmar Moser of the 372d Feldkommandatur, in Lublin. Moser “denounced the infamous Maidanek ‘murder factory’ and called on all soldiers who were under his command to testify ‘about the unheard of crimes which occurred in the extermination camp of which they have knowledge.’” 105

He also knew that “‘hundreds of thousands’ of persons had been killed” because he was 106

stationed at Lublin; however, the article did not establish his exact role in the camp.

Also on September 4, an escapee talked about his experiences in a Nazi death camp. The story mentioned Majdanek twice in comparison to Sobibor - spelled Sobibur in the report. It said that Sobibor was smaller than Majdanek, and that both camps were close to Lublin. As the 107

report was primarily about Sobibor, it will be fully discussed in the Sobibor chapter.

Blair Taylor, a concerned reader of the NYT, had a letter he sent to them published on September 6, 1944. In it, Taylor lamented about the departure from prototypical NYT works. As he put it, “Usually you are an enviable example of lucidity and balanced judgement,” however, 108

“The Maidanek Horror” piece “begs several questions which are still moot, and lumps together matters which have no common meaning.” Those matters included who should have control 109

over Poland, and Taylor decried the fact that the Poles ought to accept Russian dominion because it was the Germans who had committed the atrocities in Poland. Taylor aptly stated that either way, the Poles faced death somehow - via torture and the camps by Germans, or no support provided by the nearby Red Army during uprisings against the Germans (i.e. Warsaw). Taylor

Waldman, “Letters to The Times: Dismemberment Urged,” 8.

104

“Nazi Admits Maidanek Horror,” New York Times, September 4, 1944, 9.

105

“Nazi Admits Maidanek Horror,” 9.

106

“Young Pole’s Tale Bares Death Camp: Another Horror Site Reported Near Lublin - Thousands of Victims

107

Cremated,” New York Times, September 4, 1944, 9.

Blair Taylor, “Letters to The Times: Question to Be Settled,” New York Times, September 6, 1944, 18.

108

Taylor, “Letters to The Times: Question to Be Settled,” 18.

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curtly replied that sovereignty, and borders mattered; if they did not, then we would soon find that Warsaw was no different than Prague in 1938. 110

On October 6, 1944, W.H. Lawrence wrote another piece on Nazi death camps. This time

Lawrence and other correspondents visited Klooga labor camp in Estonia. Much like his earlier piece on Majdanek, Lawrence led the readers through the camp and showed them the destruction he saw. Within the article, Lawrence mentioned Majdanek as a point of comparison to Klooga. 111

Lawrence referred to Majdanek as an “organized production-line death camp.” Further, 112

“Maidanek at least had the virtue of being preconceived, calculated and carefully organized.” 113

Klooga seemed to be an act of desperation before an enemy reached the territory, as Lawrence argued in his piece. Thus, Lawrence showed us two different articles: 1) the meticulously planned death camp, and 2) the last act of a dying regime.

What followed the expose was a rather unique article about an award granted by the Polish Government-in-Exile. On October 20, 1944, an article appeared about Reverend (Rev.) Robert I. Gannon. Gannon, then the president of Fordham University, was awarded the Grand Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restitua by President Wladyslaw Raszkiewicz. During the occupation of Poland, the Germans shut down the University of 114

Lublin, which was “the only Catholic university in the country - situated near the infamous Maidanek death camp.” In 1943, Rev. Gannon “dedicated ‘Lublin Room’ in Keating Hall, on 115

the university campus, as the wartime home of the Polish university.” The Poles saw this as a 116

Taylor, “Letters to The Times: Question to Be Settled,” 18.

110

W.H. Lawrence, “Nazi Death Camp A Scene of Horror: Story of Massacre of 3,000 in Estonia Evident in Piles of

111

Burned Bodies, Babies Among Victims, Correspondents Inspect Site of German Mass Atrocity During Baltic Retreat,” New York Times, October 6, 1944, 6.

Lawrence, “Nazi Death Camp A Scene of Horror,” 6.

112

Ibid.

113

“Gannon is Honored by Poles in Exile: Gets One of Nation’s Highest Awards for ‘Adoption’ of Its Catholic

114

University,” New York Times, October 20, 1944, 6. “Gannon is Honored by Poles in Exile,” 6.

115

Ibid.

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defense of the Polish nation, by maintaining its survival via culture and education. In stark 117

contrast to a celebratory honor, the next article published focused on justice; a November 4, 1944 report from Moscow discussed the trial of six Germans that worked at Majdanek. They were to be tried for their roles in the camp that claimed the lives of 1.5 million people. The remainder 118

of the article discussed a Pole, Mouselsky, who was given a death sentence for leading a camp in Lublin. That camp sent forced laborers to Germany, and he received the job because he said he was German. 119

A report from Stockholm published in the NYT on November 7, 1944 told the story of a young Jewish man who had escaped the grasp of the Nazis. The young man first escaped from Warsaw in 1942, and then he worked as an arms smuggler for the resistance. In 1943, he was arrested and sent to Pawiak before being sent to Majdanek. He saw “5,000 Jews exposed to the cruelest tortures” at Majdanek. He escaped the camp as he hid under a truck that went to 120

Lublin, and he later returned to Warsaw with false papers. The young man was then sent to Finland to work before he escaped to Helsinki, and then Sweden - this escape was necessary because he was accused of sabotage. 121

The article that followed the escape tale was about musical performances. The work appeared on November 19, 1944, and listed multiple new musical events in New York. One of the musical pieces, a violin sonata, had been found in Majdanek on top of a pile of trash, and was believed to be composed by Ernst Weil of Prague. As for the composer, not much was known 122

“Gannon is Honored by Poles in Exile,” 6.

117

“Pole Doomed to Die For Death Camp Role,” New York Times, November 4, 1944, 4.

118

“Pole Doomed to Die For Death Camp Role,” 4.

119

“Foils Gestapo 4 Years: Pole Reaches Sweden Via Lublin, Maidanek and Helsinki,” New York Times, November

120

7, 1944, 16.

“Foils Gestapo 4 Years,” 16.

121

“Events in the World of Music: New Friends Organizer Defines Significance of Current Series,” New York Times,

122

A Tiny Fraction of the Truth: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the New York Times, and the London Times on Majdanek and the Operation Reinhard Death Camps, 1940-1944

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the New York Times, and

the London Times on Majdanek and the Operation

Reinhard Death Camps, 1940-1944

Andrew Shaffer

Master’s thesis in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

University of Amsterdam, June 2015

Supervisor and First Reader: Dr. Karel Berkhoff (NIOD)

Second Reader: Prof. Dr. Johannes Houwink ten Cate (NIOD)

University of Amsterdam

Graduate School of Humanities

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1

Majdanek