Historical research has surprisingly until now largely ignored the activities of accredited foreign correspondents in Berlin during the ‘Third Reich’. Instead it has focused almost exclusively on ‘the other side’ of journalism, the state public relations and propaganda apparatus. This is even more surprising taking into consideration that foreign correspondents working in Berlin contributed to the international image of National Socialist Germany.
By researching foreign correspondents working in the ‘Third Reich’ we can discover numerous new insights into the transnational perception of National Socialist Germany; not only through the extremes of rejection and approval the regime received internationally, but also fundamentally through the significance given in journalistic everyday life to news and commentary from National Socialist Germany.
To date only a few individual biographies on foreign correspondents working at that time exist, although many of them wrote memoires soon after they were foreign correspondents and a surprising number of bequests have been preserved. Alongside these, classic state documents and records have been passed on. By interpreting these records of state propaganda attempts from a critical distance and comparing them with the testimonials of foreign correspondents especially from the United States, Great Britain and France, it is possible to create a comprehensive analysis of their work. It will cover their investigations, often using the assistance of local informants and stringers, their text production and the reception of printed articles and radio broadcasts in their home countries and worldwide.
Until its downfall the ‘Third Reich’ wooed, persuaded, deceived and threatened its foreign correspondents. If all means of ‘direction’, ‘prescribed terminology’ and ‘press control’ failed, the regime did not hesitate to isolate, imprison and expel foreign journalists. Nevertheless, they remained a power which the National Socialist regime from a media historical perspective took account of in a modern way until the very end: different from the public spheres of the Allies it never formally introduced pre-censorship, except for radio broadcasts. This is yet another reason to focus on foreign correspondents in the ‘Third Reich’ as independent creators of and actors in media events.
Editorial
S:I.M.O.N. is an e-journal of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). It appears twice a year in English and German language. S:I.M.O.N. aims at both a transnational and comparative history of the Holocaust and Jewish Studies in Central and Eastern Europe within the broader contexts of the European history of the 20th and 21st century, including its prehistory, consequences and legacies as well as the history of memory.
S:I.M.O.N. serves as a forum for discussion of various methodological approaches. The journal especially wishes to strengthen the exchange between researchers from different scientific communities and to integrate both the Jewish history and the history of the Holocaust into the different “national” narratives. It also lays a special emphasis on memory studies and the analysis of politics of memory. S:I.M.O.N. uses a double-blind review system, which means that both the reviewer’s and the author’s identities are concealed from each other hroughout the review process.
Shoah: The journal deals with the history of the Shoah from multidisciplinary, transnational and comparative perspectives. It seeks to integrate studies on Jews as well as on other groups of victims of the Holocaust, especially on Roma, and of so far less researched regions of (East) Central and (South) Eastern Europe.
Intervention. The journal reports on research projects and their transmission into public events. It also informs about current educational and remembrance programs.
Methods. The journal serves as a forum for the discussion of methodological approaches as, for instance, the everyday history, oral history, gender history, the history of violence, anti-Semitism and racism and the theory of memory and memory politics.
DocumentatiON. The journal contributes to critical approaches on using and interpreting archival materials in the 21st century.
Download the current issue S:I.M.O.N. 2017/2.
Articles
Patrice G. Poutrus
Die antisemitischen Ausschreitungen im Berliner Scheunenviertel 1923. Zur Berichterstattung der Wiener Tagespresse
This contribution uses a case study in order to establish the fundamental theses for a research project on the mass media representation of migration in Vienna and Berlin during the interwar period. What knowledge about migratory movement and experiences was spread in the public spheres of both metropolises via the daily press? The institutionalised production and distribution of knowledge made the press a decisive contributor to what was socially accepted to express and visible, to the definition of topics and therefore the collective perception of social contrasts: the media did no merely reflect, but also produced social realities. The case study refers to strongly antisemitic excesses in the Scheunenviertel in Berlin, a district that was largely inhabited by migrants, in early November 1923. It investigates the depiction and interpretation of these events in the Viennese press against a two-fold backdrop and context: the Danubian city's role as the destiny of a massive migration movement that had developed since the collapse of the Habsburg empire and partly even before, as well as Vienna's predominant antisemitism.
SWL-Reader
Omer Bartov's presentation addressed the way in which Ukrainians, Poles and Jews remember the Holocaust in the formerly multi-ethnic town of Buczacz, where Simon Wiesenthal was born (as was Omer Bartov's mother). Buczacz is located in what used to be the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, then became part of Poland's eastern lands and is now part of the Western Ukraine. For centuries, it was marked by its population's ethnic and religious diversity. During the time of the Second World War, the Nazis murdered the entire Jewish population; the Polish inhabitants fell victim to ethnic cleansing by Ukrainian nationalists and Soviet authorities. Omer Bartov used written and oral reports by victims and survivors in order to investigate the relationship between memory and history, between individual fates and grand historical processes of change. He argued for the healing effect of remembrance and coming to terms with the past. The presentation was accompanied by a wealth of pictures of Buczacz and of Omer Bartov's research activities in that city.
Events
Miloslav Szabó
Ein ‚antislowakischer' Oscar-Film? Zur Darstellung des Holocaust im tschechoslowakischen Film Obchod na korze
During the clerical-fascist Slovak State, "Tóno" Brtko, a docile and poor carpenter, is offered the possibility to 'aryanise' the small Main Street sewing accessories shop of Rozália Lautmannová. Torn between his good-natured principles and his greedy wife Evelyna, he finally agrees to take over the shop by making the deaf and senile lady believe he is her nephew arriving to help her out. Yet he then discovers that the business is bankrupt, and Ms. Lautmannová is only relying on donations from the Jewish community. While letting his wife believe he is making money from the shop, he gradually becomes a supporter of the old lady. More and more, a cordial relationship between the two evolves. When the Slovak authorities finally decide to deport the Jewish population of the small town, Tóno, in a deep conflict with himself and his values, finally opts for hiding Ms. Lautmannová – a decision which turns into tragedy. Obchod na korze won the 'Oscar' for Best Foreign Language Film in 1966. The film was presented on the occasion of a VWI-Visuals presentation on 29 January 2015 in Vienna's Admiralkino.
Norman Domeier: Zwischen investigativer Recherche und Kollaboration. Ausländische Journalisten im ,Dritten Reich‘
„... zu lesen, wenn alles vorüber ist“
Rita Maria Rockenbauer, Briefe 1938 –1942
Wien 2014
Partituren der Erinnerung.
Der Holocaust in der Musik
Scores of Commemoration.
The Holocaust in Music
Wien 2015
Before the Holocaust Had Its Name. Early Confrontations of the Nazi Mass Murder of the Jews
Wien 2016
Akademisches Milieu, Juden und Antisemitismus an den Universitäten Europas zwischen 1918 und 1939
Academic Milieu, Jews and Antisemitism at European Universities between 1918 and 1939
Wien 2016