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Nov. 9, 2012
Media failed in Shoah
David Halton gives Kristallnacht lecture.
PAT JOHNSON
Throughout the 1930s, media in democratic countries consistently downplayed the threat presented by Adolf Hitler, failing to sound the alarm over impending genocide and sometimes actively championing the fascist line. Nazism’s obsessive antisemitism in particular was treated as a “side show” to the larger story of looming war. In retrospect, there is plenty of blame to go around – shared by journalists who whitewashed atrocities, their bosses, who were motivated by competing influences, and the general public, which was resistant to realities that might lead to another world war and also ambivalent to stories of Jewish suffering.
This is the scenario painted by David Halton Sunday night at the community’s annual Kristallnacht commemoration. For decades, Halton was a familiar face to Canadian television viewers. He joined the CBC in 1965, and served as a foreign correspondent around the world, covering the uprisings in France in 1968, reporting from the Soviet Union during the Cold War, covering conflicts in the Middle East and the Vietnam War. In 1978, he was named the CBC’s chief political correspondent and, at the time of his retirement in 2006, was chief correspondent in Washington, D.C.
Halton’s insights into the media treatment of Nazism emerged from his research into a biography he is writing about his late father, Matthew Halton, who was perhaps Canada’s best-known war correspondent. As the Toronto Star’s correspondent headquartered in London, the elder Halton reported extensively on the rise of Hitler and the spiral toward war and genocide.
Matthew Halton was in Berlin in March 1933, on the eve of the Reichstag elections, where he witnessed thousands of marching Stormtroopers cheered on by throngs of citizens making Nazi salutes.
“For Matt, it’s a truly chilling experience,” his son said Sunday. Children bearing swastikas were shouting, “Jews must be destroyed.”
Matthew Halton became more outspoken about the threat of Nazism than almost any other journalist of his time, according to his son. What was disturbing, said David Halton, was the reaction in Canada – or lack of it.
The Toronto Globe condemned Halton’s dispatches as sensationalist and accused the Star of bias against the German regime. In contrast, a multi-piece series published in both the Toronto Globe and the Montreal Gazette painted a bright picture of life in Germany in 1933, declaring that “order, peace and hope have been restored” and describing Hitler as “strong and fearless” and “a leader who stands for peace.” In 1935, shortly after the Nuremburg Laws were enacted, the Gazette ran a story under the headline: “Plight of the Jews not so bad.”
In late 1933, Matthew Halton returned to Germany for two months, during which time he wrote a 30-part series on the situation there, warning of “toxic antisemitism” taking hold. Where other reporters depicted antisemitism as a less important issue on the fringes of the new Germany, Halton viewed it as central to the Nazi ideology.
In his research, David Halton has analyzed news coverage in Canada, the United States and Britain. The media’s approach to Nazism, he said, was a reaction to a combination of factors. Catholics in Europe and abroad often viewed Hitler as a bulwark against atheistic communism. Indeed, he said, after the publication of his father’s series of anti-Nazi articles, the archbishop of Toronto urged parishioners to stop buying the Toronto Star.
Isolationist sentiment was also strong in North America, and Matthew Halton was condemned as a warmonger by Canadians whose memories of the horrors of the Great War were still fresh.
Further, there was a degree of self-censorship among the journalists reporting events in Germany. Of the 110 permanent or semi-permanent foreign correspondents in Germany, 19 were expelled between 1933 and 1937. Some well-respected journalists acknowledged after the fact that they had softened their reporting to avoid offending the regime and in order to keep their posts. Those who remained in the government’s good graces were treated like celebrities and could exchange their salaries into German currency at three or four times the going rate.
Above all this, there was reasonable skepticism at home about “atrocity stories,” David Halton said. During the First World War, fabrications of extreme behavior among the enemy had inured readers to propaganda. When it came to the Holocaust, Halton said, “its vast horror seemed beyond belief.”
While there was also a failure to see antisemitism as central to the Nazi philosophy – according to one contemporary commentator, at least, antisemitism was a “side show” to the larger issues of the European war and the Nazi agenda – stories of antisemitism abroad were met with a certain nonchalance by readers in Toronto at a time when city beaches had signs declaring “Jews keep out.” While reading a story penned by his father, Halton noted an adjacent story of doctors at Montreal’s Notre Dame Hospital going on strike because a Jewish intern had been hired.
Canada’s prime minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King, enjoyed what appeared to be a convivial meeting with Hitler, after which he reported in his diary (released decades later) that Hitler was “one who truly loves his fellow man” and that he had been charmed by the little dictator’s “sweet smile.” King, according to Halton, helped to fatally weaken the League of Nations by preventing sanctions against Italy and consistently urged “conciliation, rather than coercion” in dealing with Hitler up until the beginning of the war.
Political realities at home were among a confluence of factors Halton cited that led to a dismal record of media in democratic countries whitewashing Nazi atrocities. Dominant ideological strains and common prejudices were reflected in the reporting of the time.
Halton’s biography of his father should be released next fall.
The 29th annual Kristallnacht commemoration lecture was presented by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre in partnership with Congregation Beth Israel, with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
After Halton’s presentation, Catherine Epstein, BI president, thanked Temple Sholom for hosting the event while the synagogue undergoes renovations.
Prof. Chris Friedrichs, of the University of British Columbia’s department of history, made the opening remarks. Ed Lewin, president of the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society, introduced six Holocaust survivors – Rita Akselrod, Serge Haber, Pola Hister, Chaim Kornfeld, Lillian Boraks-Nemetz and Malka Pishanitskaya – who lit six candles, accompanied by students from Hillel. Rabbi Philip Bregman chanted El Moleh Rachamim, the prayer for the souls of the departed. Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang read a proclamation from the city. Rabbi Jonathan Infeld thanked Halton and reflected on the courage of individuals who diverge from the prevailing views of their time.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. writer. He can be reached at [email protected].
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