THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM NEWS COVERAGE OF JEWISH PERSECUTION IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE AUDREY SAKHNOVSKY SPRING 2019 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in Journalism and English with honors in Journalism Reviewed and approved* by the following: Boaz Dvir Assistant Professor of Journalism Thesis Supervisor Russell Frank Associate Professor of Journalism Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT This thesis is a critical assessment of the journalistic practices taken by the Chicago Tribune in their coverage of Jewish persecution in the years leading up to and during U.S. involvement in World War II. Key events in Nazi Germany’s political moves, signs of progression in the Final Solution, and survival efforts on behalf of European Jews are examined through historic articles. Close textual analysis shows the Chicago Tribune was swayed by nationalist and isolationist sentiment in post-WWI America. The newspaper kept U.S. citizens unaware of the terrors abroad. Moving forward, the paper should liken itself to other news organizations such as the New York Times or the Associated Press and issue an apology for their reportage on Jewish persecution. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Tribune ........................................................................ 3 The Print News Landscape .............................................................................................. 4 The Associated Press and the New York Times’ Transparency ....................................... 5 The Paper Under Editor Robert McCormick ................................................................... 7 Isolationism and Anti-Refugee Sentiment in U.S. following WWI ................................ 8 Foreign Correspondents ................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 The Évian Conference ................................................................................. 12 Roosevelt.......................................................................................................................... 12 “Help for Jews Fleeing Europe is Asked of U.S.” ........................................................... 14 “Cash of Jewish Refugees Tied Up By Germany” .......................................................... 16 Event Coverage: “Poland Eyes U.S. As a Haven for Jews” ............................................ 18 “U.S. Sends Envoy to Germany for Refugee Probe”....................................................... 21 Chapter 3 Kristallnacht ................................................................................................ 24 Herschel Grynszpan ......................................................................................................... 24 Growing Resentment ....................................................................................................... 25 “Germans Attack Jews to Avenge Paris Shooting” ......................................................... 26 “Mobs Wreck Jewish Stores in Berlin” ........................................................................... 28 “Hitler Seizes 20,000 Jews” ............................................................................................. 29 “Germany Puts Hundreds of Jews in Camps” ................................................................. 31 Chapter 4 A Woman to Inform the Masses ................................................................. 32 Chapter 5 A Stress for Understanding ......................................................................... 35 “Let Persecuted Jews into U.S., Ford Advocates” ........................................................... 35 “Hitler’s Ghetto Decree Revives Medieval Days” .......................................................... 37 “Maverick Urges Jews to Battle for Democracy”............................................................ 38 Chapter 6 The M.S. St. Louis ...................................................................................... 40 “Mass Suicides of Jews Feared on Refugee Ship” .......................................................... 41 “Haven—for Cash: Cuba May Alter Laws to Allow Jews to Enter” .............................. 43 “Ship Sails Back with 907 Jews Who Fled Nazis” .......................................................... 44 The Outcome of the Failed Voyage ................................................................................. 45 Chapter 7 Post-Pearl Harbor Coverage ........................................................................ 47 “Claim Thousands of Jews Killed in Nazi Held Lands”.................................................. 47 “Charge Germans Make Poland a Jewish Abattoir” ........................................................ 48 iii “Report Nazis Plan to Wipeout All Jews” ....................................................................... 49 Chapter 8 Piecing it Together ...................................................................................... 51 Chapter 9 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 53 Works Cited ................................................................................................................. 54 1 Introduction In the years following World War I, the United States entered a period of isolationism. Many of the newspapers and large media conglomerates of the time period were in tune with the government and citizens’ wish to abstain from foreign conflict. During the years before the start of World War II news outlets were hesitant to tell the full story of issues developing abroad. This led to an American citizenry uninformed about German atrocities. It is only after the United States’ victory that American leaders and the American people would come to terms with the scale of the persecution and murder committed against European Jews. To determine which news outlet’s press coverage I should analyze during this time period, I visited the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Seeing the museum’s Exhibit of Historic Newspapers, I went to the 1930s and noticed the plaque above the section: “The Holocaust Downplayed.” The information was startling: Although he was warned that Jews and others were being enslaved and executed in Nazi- occupied Europe, Chicago Tribune publisher Robert McCormick ignored the reports. Such “sensational” stories, he feared, would involve the United States in the war. New York Times publisher Arthur H. Sulzberger, who was Jewish, worried that giving prominent coverage to the murder of Jews would label the Times as a Jewish publication. He ran most stories on inside pages. –Courtesy The Associated Press I continued my research on the American newspapers of the time period and decided to closely examine The Chicago Tribune under Robert McCormick. The New York Times, Penn State History Librarian Eric Novotny told me, has been scrutinized for its coverage long before any of my research started. After finding the book Buried by the Times by Laurel Leff, I knew the ground had already been well surveyed. 2 The New York Times’ treatment of the news reflects the fear felt by American Jews. The Chicago Tribune’s coverage reflects the owner’s involvement with a post-WWI Republican party’s nationalism and isolationism. The following evaluation of the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of Jewish persecution abroad is not comprehensive, but done to the best of my ability with research made possible through Penn State-accessible databases and archives. 3 Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Tribune When viewing the U.S. reactions to the Holocaust when the camps were liberated, one may think “how could American citizens not have known?” In actuality, the information was stowed away in the very news pages that were rifled through by readers across the country. To find the clues that were there all along, the research began with simple searches for the words “JEW” and “NAZI,” but they turned up alongside more horrifying words like “abattoir” and “thousands dead.” There was no cover-up of information in the Chicago Daily Tribune. The reporting was there, but it was inconsistent, segmented and pushed deeper and deeper into the paper. Rather than lying through omission, the Tribune allowed its readers to be skeptical of the news they were delivering. The articles discussed and analyzed in this report will be examined chronologically to follow the Third Reich’s steps toward the “Final Solution” and the U.S.’s timid approach to involvement in the war. Articles examined center on major events regarding Jewish persecution and America’s concern in European political affairs, including the Evian Conference (1938), Kristallnacht (1938), the voyage of the MS St. Louis ship (1939), and Pearl Harbor (1941). Sigrid Schultz, the Tribune’s Berlin correspondent, will be a closely studied figure due to her news coverage and her persistence in revealing truth. Through her social connections to some of the top-ranking SS officers, Schultz was pivotal in news of the German atrocities reaching the pages of the Chicago Daily Tribune. 4 The Print News Landscape Although radio news coverage was popular in the 1930s and 1940s, print news would continue to be a staple in the American household for decades to