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https://theconversation.com/i-saw-the-horrors-how-australian-journalists-bore-witness-to-the-holocaust-271732>
"In the dying days of World War II, startling news about “horror camps” in
Germany began to emerge, as Western war correspondents accompanied British and
American forces advancing towards Berlin. During the liberation of the camps,
soldiers and journalists, including 15 Australian journalists and two artists,
encountered thousands of dead. Some victims were in locked rail cars; others
were piled in mounds or tossed into pits. Traumatised survivors wandered about
the camps, while those too weak to walk remained in stifling huts as their Nazi
captors fled.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is the anniversary of the Soviet
liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp on
January 27 1945. It is timely, as we commemorate, to reflect on what was known
and believed at the time.
As living memory of the Holocaust fades, we need to continue to strive for an
accurate reckoning of what took place and account for how it was reported. This
obligation is perhaps all the more compelling in the wake of Israel’s
relentless and remorseless destruction of Gaza in response to Hamas’ horrific
attacks on October 7 2023, which has complicated and perhaps clouded cultural
memory of the Holocaust.
Understanding how the press covered the Holocaust illuminates the role of
journalism and its contemporary importance. It is not only about looking back.
The Australian press offers a unique dimension to our understanding of the
Holocaust. It reveals things about journalism’s complicated engagement with the
Nazi’s campaign of extermination, the political and cultural context of the
1930s and 1940s, the comforting myth that emerged after the war that the press
“did not know”, and how the Holocaust has influenced modern journalism.
Personal stories were treated as credible. The idea of objectivity was
challenged. The importance of visual evidence became widely accepted."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
