As is known, on April 12, 1943, the German (Nazi) press reported on a major atrocity story-namely, the discovery of the bodies of what they claimed were 10,000 Polish officers in mass graves in the Katyn forest in Russia. In fact, 4,000 officers were missing and 1,700 bodies were found. Longerich however claims in the interview that this would have switched away now from their (previous) anti-Semitic rhetoric (even “der Bolschewismus nicht mehr als Form des Jüdischen-Ja, genau.”), something we checked up on, and found evidence that this is to be entirely untrue, rather the opposite!

The Katyn story became the occasion for the most virulent public anti-Semitic campaign ever. The Nazi Press Office directive asserted that the murders were evidence that "the extermination of the peoples of Europe" was now a "Jewish war aim." For evidence see VldRMVP (Vertrauliche Informationen des Reichsministeriums fur Volksmeinung und Propaganda) 94/43, plus also 109/42, and also BAK (Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Sammlung Oberheitmann), SO. Plus see also "Tagesparole des Reichspressechefs," April 13, 1943, cited in Sundermann, Tagesparolen, p. 246.

On April 14, 1943, the press directive played up the anti-Semitic dimension of the propaganda campaign. "The sensational testimony about the fact that murder commandos of the GPU were composed of Jewish commissars should be featured on the front pages of the newspapers and should be accompanied by sharp words." The Katyn murders and "the fact that they were carried out by Jews is nothing other than a confirmation of this Jewish hymn of hatred." Germany would see to it, the public should be assured: "It will be the Jews themselves who will one day be brought to account and that then finally it will be not Europe but rather Jewry that will succumb to extermination." (Joseph Goebbels, ""Tagesparole des Reichspressechefs," April 14, 1943, quoted in Sundermann, Tagesparolen, p. 253. For Sundermann's book see also:

Here is a direct quote from The Word of the Day directive of April 16 exemplifying what is referred to: In several cases, the treatment of the Jewish-Bolshevik crime in Katyn is not yet accompanied by the necessary clarity about Jewish world criminality. Jewry's powerful position, which makes it possible for it to dominate Bolshevism as well as capitalism, must at every appropriate opportunity be stressed as clearly as possible to the world. This applies above all to the formulation and the headlining of news reports as well. The Jewish world conspiracy, which plotted and hatched this war and which inflamed and sowed the seeds of hatred among nations, must emerge more powerfully in the consciousness of world public opinion. Here is the point at which we must explain to the world our compelling arguments through continual emphasis. (VldRMVP 96/43, April 14, 1943, ZSg. 109/42, BAK, SO.)

Titles of the lead front page story of the most read newspaper in Germany at the time “Der Volkische Beobachter “are no less clear. For example: April 16 Katyn an Example of Jewry's Blow at Europe”; ApriI. 30, "Katyn Again Reveals World Jewry.”

The VB article of April 16, repeated the fundamental Nazi accusation. Juda had unleashed the war "to take revenge on the people who had stood in the way of its plans to enslave the world and who recognized Jewry as the greatest danger of our time." Fortunately, the German army was protecting Europe, in accordance with Hitler's announcement that "in this war the Jews would disappear from Europe and that it would be the Jews, not the nations of the West, that would be destroyed."

In fact Nazi propaganda in contrast to Longerich’s claim, used Katyn even to attack the USA, Goebbels interpreted the Katyn story as further evidence of: "One can really describe the USA as a Jewish state." (Goebbels, entry for April 17, 1943, The Diaries of J.Goebbels, TBJG, vol. II/8, pp. 115, 124.)

The Periodical Service (told the German press how to present its stories) included an essay entitled simply, “Juda Wants to Murder the Peoples of Europe." The murder of the Polish officers in Katyn was "not a unique outbreak of the Jews' hatred against Poland" but "an intentional continuation of Jewish policy against all non-Jews." The mass murder in Katyn showed that "Jewish plans for extermination ... of all non-Jews was not a fantasy of enemies of the Jews. Rather, they [the plans] actually exist. The Nazi press thus was to stress that "Jewry” of “the whole world” is responsible for the crime in Katyn." For good measure, the directive also instructed the editors that "Jewish ritual murder" was not a "fairy tale of opponents of the Jews" but a "hard, provable reality." ("Der Judische Ritualmord," Zeitschriften-Dienst 207/76, no. 8713, April 22, 1943.)

And especially in the aftermath  of April 19,1943, when the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto launched an armed resistance, Katyn was brought up to now claim for example  on May 6, that the USA and England both controlled by Jews admit their complicacy with Jewish-bolshevism;  "USA. und England unter dem Befehl des Weltjudentums, Plutokraten identifizieren sich mit den judisch-bolschewistischen Mordern." (VB, May 6, 1943, p. 1.)

That same day, the New York Times ran a story on the ghetto uprising, reporting that according to Polish sources, that the battle had been raging "for seventeen days," yet nothing about this, appeared in the German press. ("Battle Is Reported in Warsaw's Ghetto," New York Times, May 7, 1943, p.7.)

Reich press chief Otto Dietrich made it very clear that he saw an "infinitely great opportunity" to "present the true character of the Jews." There was "not a single line in the paper where this would not be possible." It was, he stressed again, "the duty of the entire German press to participate in the above-depicted anti-Semitic operation." For plenty of evidence see, VIdRMVP 106/43 (1. Erg.), April 29,1943, ZSg. 109/42, BAK, SO; VIdRMVP 106/43 (Erg.), April 29, 1943, in War Crimes Records Collection, U.S. Nuerenberg War Crimes Trials, United States of America v. Ernst von Weizsacker et al., case 11, November 4, 1947, in NARA, RG 238, War Crimes Records Collection, M 897, roll 34, doc. 4705, prosecution exhibit 1270. Copy from "Oberheitmann Material," NG 3800, vol. 12, pp. 67-68. For a further directive that stressed the Jewish links to the Katyn massacres, see VIdRMVP, V. I. 109/43, May 3,1943, ZSg. 109/42, BAK, SO.

From Dietrich's perspective (reflecting Hitler's), was that the Jews were the cause of the war against Germany. As noted earlier, the core accusation against Jews was not one about physical appearance, sexual appetites, or the Jewish body (although such assaults could be found in the relatively small non-party, newspaper of Julius Streicher, Der Sturmer) rather, it remained the primarily political accusation that held "international Jewry" responsible for World War I and II, and thus served as the key justification for mass murder of the Jewish "enemy."

"No one in Europe will be deceived any longer by the Jewish wire pullers, whether their marionettes are in Moscow or in London and Washington." The May 1, 1943, issue of Die Judenfrage joined in with a lead article about Katyn. ("Judisch-bolschewistische Blutschuld," Die Judenfrage 7, no. 9, May 1,1943, p. 1-2.)

Again, in contrast to Longerich’s claim; on May 5, 1943, the party's Reich Propaganda Directorate sent another directive through the extensive organizational web of Gau-, Kreis-, and Ortsgruppenleiteler, the regional and local Nazi party leaders and orators. "The Jewish Question as a Domestic and Foreign Policy Weapon," asserted that it was "dangerous and false" to allow the Jewish question to disappear from public consciousness after that issue had been "solved selves appear as power holders, they have bought personalities in public life who, as dependent and servile tools, do the Jews' business; that the Jews profit from the war and thus have an interest in a long war. "The Jewish Question as a Domestic and Foreign Policy Weapon" concluded by drawing the recipients' attention to Goebbels's essay "The War and the Jews" and informing them that copies would be made available to "all speakers" by the Reichspropagandaleitung.

On May 6, the VB led on page 1 with "USA and England under the Command of World Jewry, Plutocrats Identify with Jewish-Bolshevik Murderers." The Americans and the British all "stand under the dictatorship of world Jewry" and are involved in the same crimes. ("USA. und England unter dem Befehl des Weltjudentums, Plutokraten identifizieren sich mit den judisch-bolschewistischen Mordern," VB, May 6, 1943, p.1.)

It was as a result of the Katyn campaign in fact, that Goebbels had begun work on one of his most important anti-Semitic essays and radio address of the entire war. As he noted in his diary, he was writing "The War and the Jews," to "effectively explain the horrific role that the Jews played in this war's beginning and in its further continuation." (Goebbels, diary entry for April 27, 1943, TBJC, Hl8, p. 173.)

On May 17, the Reich Press Office then, ordered that the cultural-political sections of the papers should be more strongly defined than in the past by an anti-Semitic outlook.1 It instructed editors that, apart from reporting on daily events, it was important to offer arguments about "the meaning and mission of the war." These lay first of all in "the war guilt of international Jewry, which via its Bolshevik and plutocratic satellites forces the nations and peoples into war in order to destroy their life force and thereby establish its international domination." Conversely, the war aims of the Axis powers were to establish peace and economic development in Europe and the world, once the economic failure of "international powers"-namely, the Allies and the Jews-was set aside. (VIdRMVP 117/43, May 17, 1943, ZSg. 109/42, BAK, SO.)

To conclude, Longerich a few days ago claimed that,” Nach der Öffnung der Gräber von Katyn- die These, dass Deutschland gegen die jüdische Weltverschwörung kämpft, die von Moskau über London bis Washington reicht, für die NS-Führung nicht mehr funktional ist.”

This is in stark contrast with the evidence, for example Reich press chief Otto Dietrich On May 21, 1943, sent a "Special Issue against the Jews: The Goal: An Anti-Jewish Periodical Press" to editors at newspapers and periodicals.

The directive even included that articles in periodicals could reach foreign audiences if they were shared with professional colleagues, friends, and family members or included in letters from Germany to recipients abroad. "For many, what their father, brother, or friend writes to the French, Belgians, Danes, Norwegians, and Ukrainians is the truth itself." Such opinions can make their way into the foreign press and foster anti-Semitism there. Anti-Jewish propaganda would be effective only if "all German newspapers and periodicals together and simultaneously for a period of several months stress from every perspective the uncovering of the Jewish danger and the need to remove it." The directive reminded journalists of two previous issues of the Periodical Service and the Deutscher Wochendienst (German Weekly Service), which addressed these topics, respectively: "Jews are criminals," and "Jewry wants to murder Europe's peoples." The special issue contained "the most important anti-Jewish themes" that had been presented previously, as well as references to "anti Jewish writings" that, the editors assumed, could be found "in every German district library." The tone of this directive was urgent. The special anti-Jewish issue "cannot forever disappear into your safe after a one-time perusal. Rather, in the coming months the editor in chief must take it out every day. It should constantly influence his thinking about planning the next issue. We must reach a point in the coming months where there is not a single periodical page that does not in some way or another refer to the Jewish problem." Editors were to draw readers' attention to Jewish political leaders, economists, scientists, artists, bankers, and entrepreneurs, as well as firms and banks owned by Jews. ("Anti- Juden-Sondernummer: Das Ziel Eine antijüdische Zeitschriftenpresse," Deutscher Wochendienst, May 21, 1943, nos. 8838-8846, War Crimes Records Collection, U.S. Nuerenberg War Crimes Trials, United States of America v. Ernst von Weizsacher et al., case II, in NARA, RG 238, War Crimes Records Collection, M 897, roll 34, NG 4716, prosecution exhibit 1276, pp. 1-13. The issue was introduced in evidence for the prosecution at Otto Dietrich's trial in Nuremberg.)

Also Joseph Goebbels during his famous speech in the Berlin Sportpalast, on June 5, 1943, asked referring once more to the “Öffnung der Gräber von Katyn” how it was possible to explain the unity between advocates of freedom and executioners of Polish officers; religious advocates and atheists; and Bolsheviks and capitalists (the USA), other than by pointing to a "band of swindlers and cheaters who are striving for world domination and also want to subject Europe to this Jewish striving for world power."

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