Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, once said, “All it takes for evil to flourish is good men to stand by and do nothing.” The media can also be included in this statement because it’s their job to report on what’s happening in the world so people can take action. The lack of attention of what became known as the Holocaust enabled the Nazis to carry out their plan. Reasons that reporters didn’t cover the Holocaust is they assumed the American public didn’t care, it wasn’t a “hot selling war story” like heroism and they had information about the Holocaust from secondary sources but not any firsthand knowledge.

With the exception of the Jewish Telegraph Agency, which was aimed at a Jewish American audience, very little was said about Jews being killed in Europe. Their reports showed that there was some knowledge of events but few beyond the Jewish community cared. It was likely that most non-Jewish people were uninterested in this aspect of the war. There was many other things going on that captured their action. Some data shows that Americans were anti-Semitic at this time.

One of the primary jobs of a newspaper is to make money. Many newspapers are used by the government to spread propaganda. During the war, newspapers were able to achieve both objectives. People enjoyed reading about their heroes and victories on different battles. It gave them a sense that the good guys were winning and capitalism was defeating fascism. The good was beating evil. These are easy to follow themes that people enjoy reading about. These pleasant stories also helped the government to keep the people supporting the war.

The little bit of reporting that was done on the Holocaust came from European governments reports and Jewish organizations. While this information was useful, it did not have the same impact as a reporter seeing it first hand. First hand knowledge empowers a story and makes it believable and provides an emotional connection with an audience. Newspapers appeared to do their job to provide information but fell far short of using this knowledge to generate any meaningful action.

Crimes similar to those seen in the Holocaust still occur today despite major advances in mass media and news reporting. However some of the same challenges faced back then still exist. People still fail to respond adequately to stories they have no connection to. However, now a days first hand knowledge from reporters on sight do generate world outrage and responses. So while these events still occur, it is unlikely that they will reach the scale of the Holocaust.