The Media, Zionism and the Holocaust

While the problem of displaced persons affected many people across the European continent after the end of World War II, the Jewish community felt the effects possibly more than any. Adolf Hitler had just taken out millions of their people across Germany, what would make them want to stay there? They no longer felt as if this place could be there home after the carnage that had occurred. Some were left without families, a place to live; the destruction was limitless. During the war period and immediately following it, a Zionist Movement was taking place in Palestine. As a result of the Holocaust, many Jews took advantage of the invite from Palestine and relocated from their homes. Zionism, as I was not aware of until recently, is the idea of the Jews having their own state. Being Jewish does not create a national identity. They would try and create their own.

This began to happen as soon as Hitler became the chancellor of Germany. In Tom Segev’s “The Streets Are Paved with Money,” Segev tells readers that a daily newspaper called the Haaretz predicted Hitler and how he would differentiate after he rose to power. The paper described Hitler as anti-Semitic and as some one who would tear Jews out by their roots (Segev, 17). Jews had gradually wanted to move to their promise land, but some held reservations on leaving the only place they had ever called home. However, after Hitler took reign of Germany, that made the decision a little easier for some. Some however, still wanted to remain at home (Segev, 20). After some talks between Germany and Palestine, the haavara agreement came to the forefront. Haarva, is a Hebrew term that stands for transfer. The agreement seemed to benefit both sides of the deal. The Nazis wanted the Jews out while the Zionists were going to welcome them into Palestine with open arms (Segev, 20). As with a majority of things in life, nothing can ever be as easy as it seems. Some Jewish Germans became divided on the issue, quite simply as those who wanted to go and those who wanted to stay. The conflicts did not end there. Jews who moved to Palestine created their nation state within Israel. Whether it was conversation between President Harry Truman and the United Nations on how the two would be seen/divided, whether it was the should I stay or should I go mindset, or even recently with conflicts in Israel, it seems as if there has always been someone who has been disgruntled. Aside from that, all Jewish people wanted was to land on their feet. Israel was what they saw to be this. A main theme for us so far has been the topic of nationalism. How would these folks obtain a sense of nationalism in a country they were not born and raised in? It was only viewed as its own entity by the United Nations. With a majority of the Jewish migrating being young people that were one thing I thought would stick out in being able to help form a nationalist feel towards that of Israel.

David Shneer’s “Picturing Grief: Soviet Holocaust Photography at the Intersection of History and Memory,” made many good points when it came to the Holocaust and even to the Soviet Union’s involvement. I thought it was very interesting in his first paragraph when he mentioned that historians did not study the photos from the Holocaust as closely as some journalists have throughout time. It made me think of a remark I made in an earlier blog about the media being the fourth branch of government. Photos from World War II and the Holocaust were not easily accessible in the first few years after the war. The line a picture says a thousand words is absolutely correct when it comes to this study of the Holocaust and its pictures. If it were not for some of these pictures taken by someone you most likely wouldn’t guess, would we know as much as we do about the Holocaust? Having pictures of this time frame is huge for our understanding of the topic. Would you have thought a German soldier would take pictures for a Soviet Union newspaper? I know I wouldn’t have (Shneer, 32). Media plays a very big role in our society today—now more than ever. Early on though, we see how it could be portrayed as the fourth branch of government. Getting the word out to the people, and at that time portraying it however you want to. Different countries portrayed the war in different ways. That makes all the sense in the world after I began to think of it. While the majority of the world can probably put the Holocaust as the first thing that comes to mind when people all over the world. People in Japan probably think of the dropping of the H-bomb immediately. United States citizens may also think of that, as well as the bombing of Pearl Harbor. However, based on how the event played out for your country is how you were eventually going to view it—a lot of that came from how the media covered it. Without the photographs during the Holocaust, it would be hard to tell how little we would know about the tragedy. Shneer does a great job explaining the use of the mediums, and how they greatly impacted our understanding of the war then and now. There is even mention of where the Soviet Union was covering the Holocaust right out of the gate. This is where the coverage began, however, when they came up on the losing side, the coverage took a turn and there was not as much of it. The media truly does shape our views on different topics. It has also been one of the greatest tools of our modern time. A picture can take you somewhere you have never been before and teach you things you may have never known unless you saw it. That was the case with the Holocaust.

The actions of Hitler and Nazi Germany resulted in many different things. Whether it was the annihilation of Jews, the creation of a Jewish state in Israel, or the media bringing us things we would have never known…even if there may be a twist at times. The event that was the Holocaust still leaves a large thumbprint on the world 70 plus years later.