Newspapers

DRESDNER NACHRICHTEN

The city of Dresden is the capital of Sachsen in Eastern Germany. During World War II, Dresden suffered heavy bombardment by the Allies. The Russian Army overran the city and it remained within the East German regime until reunification.

The Dresdner Nachrichten, the main city newspaper, was founded in 1856. It was printed in an old Gothic font called "Fraktur". Initially, Fraktur was considered to be the most "German" font, but it was later prohibited in a 1943 decree by Hitler for being "Schwabacher Jewish lettering". That same year the paper ceased publication.

Dresdner Nachrichten was not a Nazi newspaper, but following Hitler's ascent to power in 1933, it began to publish official news and legal announcements from the Nazi government. German newspapers became increasingly antisemitic in tone.

The John and Molly Pollock Holocaust Collection acquired a few issues of the newspaper from 1938. During this period stories about Jews were given a prominent place in the paper, often in the headlines. The German public was encouraged to believe that the chief source of Germany's problems lay with its Jewish population.

JUDISCHE RUNDSCHAU

Judische Rundschau, the Zionist newspaper in Germany, played a major part in increased Zionist activities during the Nazi period. It was published in Berlin from 1902 until 1938. The single issue in our collection is dated October 28, 1938. After 41 years in publication, the paper was forced to close down after "Kristallnacht" in November 1938.

To read the articles, select a date from the menu at the left. The first page will appear. The bar across the top allows for easy browsing between the pages. Clicking on a section of the page shows a larger image of the selected article in a new window. Clicking the
"Download PDF" button downloads a PDF version of the selected article for printing
and offline reading.

For a quick look at the period, go to:
Historical Events under Selected Materials and click on the Timeline.

With the Nazis firmly entrenched and their anti semitic program advancing quickly, they used every means at their disposal to saturate the public with news of their progress and propel them to greater depths of hatred. These translated stories from 1938 editions of the Dresdner Nachrichten, or Dresden News, show the degree to which the Nazis controlled the public agenda through the media.

The complete content of the German newspapers were scanned and prepared for the website by Shahaff Idan from the Student Web Team, and Shane Tregaskis, Web Designer.

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Successful police raid on the Kurfuerstendamm This lead story from the front page of the June 1 edition describes police raids on two cafes that resulted in 339 people being arrested, including 317 Jews. In typical style, the story disputes anti-Nazi reports that Jews are oppressed. It suggests instead that they are thriving in criminal nests, and that the public needs to be protected from them.

Exchange criminals 99.9 per cent Jews This story, also from the front page of the June 1 edition, quotes the police chief in Vienna saying that crime had flourished in Austria before it had been absorbed into Germany. Virtually all of the financial cases his department was investigating involved crime by Jews.

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Mass rallies throughout Dresden This group of stories from March 6, 1938 describes packed rallies where cheering crowds hailed senior Nazi speakers. The speakers' endlessly repeated theme was familiar: Germans had to work harder to weed out the Jews who had destroyed other great civilizations.

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