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Belsen, Dachau, 1945: Newspapers and the First Draft of History

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Belsen, Dachau, 1945: Newspapers and the First Draft of History Belsen, Dachau, 1945: Newspapers and the First Draft of History by Sarah Coates BA (Hons.) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University March 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the opportunities Deakin University has provided me over the past eight years; not least the opportunity to undertake my Ph.D. Travel grants were especially integral to my research and assistance through a scholarship was also greatly appreciated. The Deakin University administrative staff and specifically the Higher Degree by Research staff provided essential support during my candidacy. I also wish to acknowledge the Library staff, especially Marion Churkovich and Lorraine Driscoll and the interlibrary loans department, and sincerely thank Dr Murray Noonan for copy-editing this thesis. The collections accessed as part of an International Justice Research fellowship undertaken in 2014 at the Thomas J Dodd Centre made a positive contribution to my archival research. I would like to thank Lisa Laplante, interim director of the Dodd Research Center, for overseeing my stay at the University of Connecticut and Graham Stinnett, Curator of Human Rights Collections, for help in accessing the Dodd Papers. I also would like to acknowledge the staff at the Bergen-Belsen Gedenkstätte and Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial who assisted me during research visits. My heartfelt gratitude is offered to those who helped me in various ways during overseas travel. Rick Gretsch welcomed me on my first day in New York and put a first-time traveller at ease. Patty Foley’s hospitality and warmth made my stay in Connecticut so very memorable. The kindness and generosity shown to me by the Parker family in Salzburg, Austria was remarkable. Thankyou Emma for making this trip truly special. This thesis would not have been possible without the ongoing support, patience, and dedication of my supervisors Professor David Lowe, Dr Tony Joel and Pam Maclean. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to David Lowe for bringing a different perspective to my thesis and offering excellent advice during the writing process, and Pam Maclean for providing invaluable insights and demonstrating such enthusiasm for my research. A special thank you goes to Tony Joel who has guided and mentored me over the past five years. Tony saw potential in a quiet girl from Colac who had an interest in the Holocaust and inspired me to challenge myself academically. I would not have dreamt that this was possible without him. I appreciated the green pen and the meticulous attention to detail just as much as the anecdotes and “quick chats”. I was lucky to have had flexible and enjoyable employment throughout the duration of my Ph.D. To my work colleagues, in particular Kerry Symonds and Peter Lucas, who made work a positive place and offered timely words of assurance. To David and Helen Baulch, thank you for your generosity and for providing me with ongoing employment. I am incredibly grateful also to my close group of friends and fellow HDR students. You were my cheerleaders and for this I thank you. Rebecca Gaylard and Gemma Simpson your care and understanding were especially fabulous. I shared the highs and lows of this crazy ride with Mathew Turner. A valued friend and confidant, Mat made me realise how important it is just to “endure”. Special thanks also to Lisa Couacaud for comforting me in times of great stress and for reading over final drafts. I hope to return the favour in the future. To Maddison Crabbe and Phil Wishart, my second family, our standing Tuesday night dinners were more important than you knew. Thank you, for always being there. Most importantly, I am indebted to my family who have been on this Ph.D. journey from the beginning and have experienced the ups and downs along the way. I am fortunate to have a caring and supportive extended family. Especially dear to me is my Granny, Dorothy O’Dowd, who always believed in me and offered words of encouragement. My beloved grandparents, William O’Dowd and Patricia and Norman Coates, were also great sources of support. I want to acknowledge Maree Coates who provided words of wisdom and read over final drafts. I offer my heartfelt thanks to Chris and Emma Coates who have been constant sources of support and have given me a great joy in Maggie. My greatest debt of gratitude is to my parents, Leanne and Michael Coates, whose love and encouragement has been overwhelming. I cannot thank you enough. Know that you are responsible for all my best qualities. Mum, your unwavering belief in me has helped me achieve something of which I am immensely proud. This thesis is as much for you as it is for me. TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES viii ABSTRACT x INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION ONE: Correspondent and Photographers 43 Chapter 1 Correspondents and Photographers in the Second World War 45 Chapter 2 Setting the Parameters for Understanding Press Coverage of Belsen and Dachau: Correspondents’ and Photographers’ Initial Responses 73 Chapter 3 Allied Soldiers, the Second World War and the “Us versus Them” Narrative 98 Chapter 4 Questions of Punishment, Responsibility, Guilt, and the Re-education and Denazification of Germany 121 SECTION TWO: Victims 143 Chapter 5 Classifying Victims by Nationality and the Absence of Jewish Identity 144 Chapter 6 Voiceless Victims and “Privileged” Prisoners 171 Chapter 7 Dehumanised Victims 199 SECTION THREE: Perpetrators 220 Chapter 8 Nazi Concentration Camp Doctors and Medical Atrocities: Fritz Klein and Klaus Schilling 222 Chapter 9 German Monstrousness, Martin Weiss and the “Beast of Belsen” Josef Kramer 245 Chapter 10 Female Criminality and the Quintessential Female Perpetrator Irma Grese 275 CONCLUSION 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY 306 viii FIGURES Figure 2.1 Bodies await burial at Belsen, April 1945 87 Figure 3.1 Dachau inmates after liberation 102 Figure 3.2 British soldiers play with children at Belsen 105 Figure 3.3 Liberated Dachau inmates 106 Figure 4.1 Female SS guards burying Belsen victims in a mass grave 133 Figure 4.2 German civilians load dead bodies onto a truck at Belsen 134 Figure 5.1 Corpses found in a train car at Dachau 146 Figure 5.2 Dachau Survivors 147 Figure 5.3 Ada Bimko 167 Figure 6.1 Louis Bonerguer 188 Figure 6.2 Harold Le Druillenec 189 Figure 7.1 A mass grave at Belsen 213 Figure 7.2 Corpses strewn across Belsen 214 Figure 7.3 Female survivors cook in a makeshift kitchen at Belsen 215 Figure 7.4 Female survivors washing at Belsen 216 Figure 7.5 Liberated inmates inside a hut at Belsen 217 Figure 8.1 Fritz Klein, under British guard, stands next to a mass grave at Belsen 231 Figure 8.2 Fritz Klein stands in a mass grave at Belsen 232 Figure 8.3 Klaus Schilling 240 ix Figure 9.1 Defendants at the Belsen Trial, including Josef Kramer (no. 1) and Fritz Klein (no. 2) 254 Figure 9.2 Defendants at the Belsen Trial, including Irma Grese (no. 9) 255 Figure 9.3 Josef Kramer following his arrest 266 Figure 9.4 Josef Kramer during the Belsen proceedings 269 Figure 9.5 Cartoon of Josef Kramer of Belsen 271 Figure 9.6 Cartoon of Josef Kramer in court 273 Figure 10.1 Female personnel captured at Belsen 280 Figure 10.2 Female camp guards at Belsen following liberation 283 Figure 10.3 Irma Grese following liberation 287 Figure 10.4 Belsen defendants in the dock, including Irma Grese (no. 9) 289 * All illustrations appeared in newspapers in 1945 but quality was, in most cases, too poor to use. Electronic copies have been sourced from the internet. x ABSTRACT This thesis examines how Nazi concentration camps were first presented to the British and American general public. It focuses on the nature of press coverage in 1945, identifying themes that emerged in British and American newspaper reportage of two Nazi concentration camps, Belsen and Dachau, in the immediate aftermath of liberation and during the subsequent trials of camp personnel. In examining the two historically critical events of liberation and military trials and focusing on two major Nazi camps, this thesis grapples with the links between early reporting and ongoing misunderstandings about the concentration camp system. Recognising the pivotal role journalists play in forming the “first rough draft” of concentration camp history, it is argued that the way liberation is remembered today and what concentration camps are seen to represent is linked closely to the contemporary framing of camps. The thesis identifies how the press portrayed key themes in the camps and structured these to create, in some cases, a highly problematic discourse reflective of the values of correspondents and photographers, the conventions of the time, and national ideals and desires. Through close analysis of reports and the presentation of photographic images, relationships and trends in newspaper reportage are probed. Section One, “Correspondents and Photographers”, considers the contexts that shaped reportage of concentration camps in 1945 and explores correspondents’ and photographers’ initial responses to Belsen and Dachau. Section Two, “Victims”, analyses descriptions of camp inmates and draws attention to the image of victims that developed in the press. Focusing on the dominance of camp personnel, Section Three, “Perpetrators”, examines four individual perpetrators who were singled out and demonised. Thus, this thesis determines the tropes that proliferated in reportage and determines early representations of victims and perpetrators. INTRODUCTION On 21 April 1945, American war correspondent William Frye’s account of Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp encountered by British forces, appeared in a number of American newspapers.1 The British had liberated the camp, commonly referred to simply as Belsen, on 15 April 1945 and Frye entered several days later.2 Frye concluded: What I saw and heard at Belsen is something never seen or heard of in the world before the Nazis created concentration camps of their own bestial, incomprehensible kind… here in Belsen there was a deliberate, calculated effort, in most cases successful, to force mankind down the ladder up which he climbed painfully through millenniums.
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