August 1942: Gerhardt Reigner of the World Jewish Congress sends a telegram to Rabbi Stephen Wise, America’s most influential Jewish leader. The telegram says that in the Fuhrer’s headquarters there is a plan under discussion to murder all of Europe’s Jews. Wartime secrecy requires the telegram to go through government channels, and it is sent to the State Department. The agency deliberately WITHHOLDS the telegram for three months before officially handing it over to Wise, who immediately takes the story to the press. The story does not get front page exposure in many papers, and the New York Times runs the story on page 10. A few weeks later, the Allies officially condemn the Nazi "war on the Jews," and only now does the "Final Solution" hit the front page of the New York Times. The allied declaration should have marked a turning point in knowledge of the Holocaust, but many papers fail to give the story the significance its due. The Los Angeles Times prints it on page four, The Washington Post on page ten.

 

Why does the State Department withhold the telegram? During World War II, the Roosevelt administration has a strict policy that restricts Jewish immigration. The State Department, notoriously anti-Semitic, has the most power over the immigration policy. Assistant Secretary of State Breckenridge Long openly opposes the entry of Jews into the United States.