Historians Seek Out Local U.S. Coverage of the Holocaust

By Courtney Suciu

Rebecca Erbelding is a historian, archivist and curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. She specializes in the study of America reactions to the Holocaust and she and her colleagues coordinated an ongoing crowd-sourced project which examines how local U.S. newspapers covered the Holocaust.

We recently spoke with Erbelding to learn about this project and why local newspapers are so valuable for understanding what Americans knew about the events unfolding in Europe leading up to World War II – and how that shaped and reflected the perspectives of the American people.

历史展开 - 公民历史学家项目

Erbelding’s research interests center around what Americans did about the persecution of European Jews during the Holocaust. But to understand how Americans acted, she explained, she had to ask what Americans knew about the persecution of Jews beginning with Hitler’s rise to chancellor in 1933.

为了了解，Erbelding和她的同事直接转向美国人在20世纪30年代和40年代 - 当地报纸上依赖的信息来源。目标是表面如何在美国的每个地区覆盖大屠杀时期的关键事件。并将所有这些信息yobet真人vip组织到可供未来学者使用的数据库中 - 这起初似乎是一个不可逾越的前景。

“We knew there was no way we could research every U.S. paper over a ten-year period [1933-1943] by ourselves,” Erbelding said. And that’s where the idea came to solicit the public for help.

该呼吁去了学生，教师，历史Buff和所有“终身学习者”，以追踪自己当地报纸的副本。

As of June 20, 2019, 3,614 participants across the country have submitted more than 26,100 pieces of content from local newspapers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This content includes not only news articles, but editorials, letters to the editor, political cartoons and advertisements to reveal how the influence of then-current events rippled throughout American culture – a unique perspective not as discernible in any other media source.

虽然该项目的目的是为大屠杀研究的研究人员聚集历史新闻的全面目录，但是参与者的利益良好。在策划这种内容的过程中，学生和业余历史学家正在培养对熟发的了解，这往往违背了普遍的信念，了解美国人如何应对正在欧洲正在进行的事件。yobet真人vip

What newspapers reveal about mainstream America and the Holocaust

Erbelding shared with us some observations historians have made in researching local U.S. news coverage of the Holocaust era.

对于背景，她解释说，在1933年希特勒成为德国总理之后，在德国制定了法律，使犹太人是犹太二级公民。Erbeling说，“犹太人无法担任政府就业机会，在公立学校教授，或作为非犹太人的律师或医生工作。

“And in 1935,” she added, “German Jews had their citizenship taken away.”

During this time, students and leading members of the Nazi Party carried out massive book burnings to destroy any publication that contradicted Nazi ideologies or were otherwise considered “un-German.” Bonfires broke out all over Germany and huge crowds gathered to witness works by prominent scientists, artists and intellectuals, many of whom were Jewish, were turned to ash.

Erbelding said accounts of these events were featured prominently in both major and local American newspapers. Journalists and their readers were shocked and outraged by such attacks on German intellectual freedom, and against the Jewish population. But, while activists in the U.S rallied against Nazi censorship, many people in the U.S. “weren’t clear on what could be done to help the Jews,” Erbelding said.

Antisemitism was rampant in the U.S. during the 1930s, and following the devastation of World War I, local newspapers reveal how most Americans took an isolationist view of international affairs. According to Erbelding, “these factors fed into a lack of tangible action to help Jews.”

在不同地区的覆盖范围内的变化

This disinterest wasn’t entirely a matter of apathy, however. News about domestic issues took precedence as the U.S. was coming out of the Great Depression in the mid-to-late 1930s and Americans were preoccupied with changes brought about by FDR’s New Deal programs and policies. How would they impact and benefit small towns and communities? These stories were the ones emblazoned on the front pages of the nation’s local newspapers.

直到美国进入第一次世界大战，大多数美国人到处都是避免战争的首要任务。在德国入侵波兰和第二次世界大战开始后，对贫民区和集中营的报告恶性，这种情绪会加剧犬儒主义。美国的许多人被驳回了犹太人压迫的索赔作为宣传，将美国煽动战争。这些故事往往被埋葬在当地报纸上，如果他们出版。

When local newspapers did carry stories about events in Europe, they were generally the same reports from major news agencies. But, content in local newspapers reveal subtle differences that are invaluable to researchers. For example, even as news from Europe didn’t vary much from newspaper to newspaper, local community and newspapers wrote their own headlines for these articles.

这个看似微不足道的区别可能甲型肝炎e a major influence on how a story might have been interpreted by a reader, whether it presented a story from a sympathetic or antagonistic angle. Such a detail might disclose the sympathies of an editor, publisher or specific community, especially when considered with other content unique to a specific paper, including its editorials, cartoons and letters. These could be fascinating research topics for students and scholars.

少数民族人口的独特视角

Another compelling avenue of research is in comparing mainstream press coverage with coverage in Black and Jewish newspapers during the Holocaust era.

For example, local African American publications, especially in the South, often couched content related to the persecution of Jews in the language of Jim Crow, Erbelding said. American populations impacted by the inequities brought about by segregation could see similarities between their plight and the treatment of Jews in Europe as the Nazis seized power.

From this perspective, Erbelding noted how some Black editors and newspaper contributors were sympathetic and advocated for solidarity with European Jews. In other cases, however, newspaper editorials and letters documented more isolationist sentiments. African Americans wondered why they should be concerned with the oppression of a population across the Atlantic when they were suffering injustices themselves, in their own neighborhoods.

Erbelding补充说，与大多数主流出版物不同，犹太美国报刊在详细信息中编验了欧洲在欧洲展开的事件，随着迫切性和预感而展开。yobet真人vip犹太美国报纸还主张对欧洲犹太人的困境的更积极主动。在这些本地出版物的页面上，犹太活动家呼吁德国货物的抵制，并表达了对美国干预的可怕需求，敦促美国对逃离欧洲难民的浮雕边界。

Once the war broke out in 1939 and the press had limited access to report from Nazi-occupied Europe, Jewish papers also carried accounts of atrocities as relayed by family and friends who witnessed them first-hand. Mainstream American newspapers and the mainstream American public largely ignored or dismissed the pleas and accounts documented in Jewish publications, but such coverage provoked activists in Jewish communities to organize relief efforts for European Jews.

For further research

本地报纸对于了解美国人在全国各地的美国人的心灵和思想中，从内地到海岸，在农村地区和城市中心的内心是必不可少的。这使报纸成为研究人员的宝贵。

能够比较不同地区的本地覆盖使学生和研究人员能够仔细看看出现的模式。例如，Antiemitic字母与一个区域中的另一个反义体活动之间有关系吗？欧洲事件的覆盖如何在黑色和主流本地报纸之yobet真人vip间变化？对犹太难民表达更加同情的地方出版物有更高的犹太人群体吗？社区中的人口统计数据是什么，其中报纸主动旨在处理欧洲犹太人的迫害？

这些只是学生和学者使用当地新闻的研究机会。

Learn how you can participate in the History Unfolded project from the American Holocaust Memorial Museum. Efforts are on-going to collect newspaper content related to American responses to the Holocaust.Read more要了解如何帮助。

Researchers can also explore our comprehensive collection of ProQuest Historical Newspapers to discover the value of local, regional, and international coverage of historical events.Learn more.

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Courtney Suciu is ProQuest’s lead blog writer. Her loves include libraries, literacy and researching extraordinary stories related to the arts and humanities. She has a Master’s Degree in English literature and a background in teaching, journalism and marketing. Follow her @QuirkySuciu