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AMERICAN PRESS IN ENEMY
TERRITORY
A U.S. navy ship burns in Pearl
Harbor. |
December 8,
1941: The American press is completely focused on the Japanese surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the war. When
the United States declares war on Germany on December 10th,
American reporters still working in Germany are FORCED TO LEAVE
the country. That very same week, at a secret extermination camp
outside the polish village of Chelmno, the Nazis test a new method
of mass murder. They kill more than 2,000 Jews in specially equipped
gas vans. As they transport Jews to the camp, the Nazis pipe deadly
engine exhaust fumes into the vans’sealed interior compartments.
This story does not make the front pages because it is carried out
entirely in secret.
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How
are American reporters treated before the United States declares
War on Germany?
American
reporters working in Germany must write under strict Nazi
censorship. Some reporters are silenced for writing detailed
reports of Jewish persecution or critical reports of Nazi
rule. In March 1941, UP reporter Richard C. Hottelet is rounded
up by the Gestapo, imprisoned, and expelled.
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