The Sentinel: American-Jewish Weekly Coverage in Chicago of Nazi Persecution of European Jewry and the Holocaust, 1930-1947

Abstract

With a qualitative, historical analysis of each issue between 1930 and 1947, this dissertation examines how the Sentinel, an Anglo-Jewish weekly out of Chicago, Illinois, covered the rise of Nazism, Nazi persecution of European Jewry, the Holocaust, and its immediate aftermath. Prior to this dissertation, the Sentinel, despite being one of the major Anglo-Jewish weeklies in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, and being published in Chicago, the American city with the second largest Jewish population after New York during the time examined in this dissertation, had never been studied in depth. The Sentinel prided itself on covering all essential Jewish news from Chicago, the United States, and the world. Through essays, editorials, and articles via wire services, the Sentinel followed the rise of Hitler and Nazism and provided detailed information about the increasing persecution of German Jewry under Nazi rule through the 1930s. With the outbreak of the Second World War, persecution transitioned to the systematic extermination of European Jewry and the Sentinel continued to offer comprehensive reports as Nazi control spread throughout Europe. Even as the entrance of the United States into the war impacted information coming out of Europe, the coverage of Nazi atrocities toward European Jews remained a priority to the Sentinel. Within the pages of the Sentinel, the major topics of Nazi persecution of European Jewry and the Holocaust can be found as they happened and in immense detail. Following the end of the Second World War in Europe, the Sentinel followed the trials of Nazi criminals and reported on new information learned in the years immediately after the war.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

First Advisor

Timothy Demy

Date of Award

1-1-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS