History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust

Headline: Half of Jews in Nazi-Europe Ordered Killed, Report Shows

Publication Date: Wednesday, November 25, 1942
Historical Event: Nazi Plan to Kill All Jews Confirmed
This database includes 932 articles about this event
Tags: Gannett full page downloadable; Deportation and Mass Murder
Article Type: News Article
Newspaper: The Palladium-Item and Sun-Telegram
Location: Richmond, Indiana
Page Section and Number: 2
Author/Byline: AP
Article Text: WASHINGTON. — (AP) — Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the World Jewish congress, said Tuesday night that he had learned through sources confirmed by the State department that approximately half the estimated 4,000,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe had been slain in an "extermination campaign."

Dr. Wise, who also is president of the American Jewish congress and chairman of a committee composed of representatives of leading Jewish organizations in America, said these sources also disclosed:

Orders Extermination
1. That Hitler has ordered, the extermination of all Jews in Nazi-ruled Europe in 1942.

2. That the Jewish population of Warsaw, Poland, already has been reduced from 500,000 to about 100,000 Jews.

3. That when chief Nazis speak of "exterminating" Jews in Poland, they speak of "four-fifths of the Jewish population in Hitler-ruled Europe," since that percentage population either now is in Poland or en route there under a Nazi grouping plan.

4. That Nazis have established a price of 50 reichsmarks for each corpse, mostly Jewish, Dr. Wise indicated, and are reclaiming bodies of slain civilians to be "processed into such war-vital commodities as soap fats and fertilizer."

"He (Hitler) is even exhuming the dead for the value of the corpses," Dr. Wise said during a press conference shortly after he had conferred with State department officials.

He stressed the fact that most of his information came from various sources other than the State department, but said those sources had been confirmed as authentic by the department.

In addition, he quoted a "representative of President Roosevelt recently returned from Europe "as saying that the "worst you (Dr. Wise) have thought is true."

Stressing that State department confirmation of both sources and rumors from Europe had come at the request of the Jewish committee, Dr. Wise said that the committee had deliberately awaited such confirmation before making public any report on its investigations since it was organized last Labor day.

Confirm Stories
"The State department finally made available Tuesday the documents which have confirmed the stories and rumors of Jewish extermination in all Hitler-ruled Europe," he said.

"Various methods are being used in the campaign," he said, "and the Nazi doctors have found that one of the simplest and cheapest methods is to inject air bubbles into the veins of the victim.

"One Nazi physician can handle more than 100 men an hour by this method," he added.

"Not only has Hitler ordered the extermination of all Jews in Nazi-ruled Europe in 1942, but he recently expressed his wrath at the Nazis' failure to complete the extermination immediately," Dr. Wise said.
History Unfolded Contributor: Linda O.
Location of Research: Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)