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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides

Article, "Dr. Wise Cites Jew Murders"

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Wise was among the Jewish leaders who spoke out against Nazism shortly after Hitler came to power. In March 1933, the American Jewish Congress organized a mass meeting in New York City's Madison Square Garden where Wise called for an immediate end to the antisemitism of the Third Reich. The Nazis responded by announcing further restrictions against the Jews, claiming these were ordered because of the "atrocity propaganda" by Jews in America. Rather than opening its doors to Jews from Europe, the U.S. had tightened its immigration procedures.  

Dr. Wise Cites
Jew Murders

Leader Declared Nazis Process Corpses for
Soap Fats

Washington (AP) - Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the World Jewish Congress, said last 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
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 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."

Wise Cites Jew Murders

Page 2 of "The Pawtucket Times," Vol. CCXXII, No. 46, November 25, 1942. 

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the document, what was one way Stephen Wise and other Jewish leaders responded to the rise of Nazi antisemitism and the Holocaust?   

2. How effective were Wise’s attempts to raise awareness about the scale of Nazi atrocities, and what was the reaction to his calls for action? 

Sources

Associated Press. (1942, November 25). Dr. Wise Cites Jew Murders [Review of Dr. Wise Cites Jew Murders]. The Pawtucket Times, 2. https://pawtucket.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?t=33923&i=t&by=1942&bdd=1940&bm=11&bd=25&d=11251942-11251942&fn=pawtucket_times_usa_rhode_island_pawtucket_19421125_english_2&df=1&dt=10