Issue of the newspaper “Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung” dated December 14, 1939 – An antisemitic libel about Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto hiding weapons near the bodies of Polish soldiers, disrespecting the bodies in the cemetery near the ghetto, before the Germans’ arrival: “Security Service officers repeatedly encounter graves in which ghetto residents have hidden weapons, disrespecting the corpses.”
The newspaper reports on the progress of the German army on the Eastern Front. A full page (p. 3) is dedicated to an antisemitic libel reporting on Jews who hid weapons alongside corpses in graves in the Warsaw Ghetto. The page’s headline reads:
“Weapons Hidden in Graves: German Security Service Raids the Warsaw Ghetto.” Interestingly, the writer uses the term “Warsaw Ghetto” referring to the Jewish-populated area, months before the establishment of the ghetto walls and the actual closure of the Warsaw Ghetto.
This page features photographs documenting how Nazi soldiers chase the Jews suspected of hiding weapons, capturing them, and as a last resort, leading them to the graves where the weapons were hidden alongside corpses: “A Polish night patrol alerted Security Service officers to hidden weapons. He points to the exact house in the ghetto on the map where suspected Jews lived together.” Also: “Raid in the ghetto following the trails of the criminals. The Security Service intervenes quickly: In a Jewish store. Six men who had just met there are arrested. The 44 men immediately search the Jews for weapons (left picture). Then it moves on to interrogation.” In one of the photographs, SS soldiers are seen in a synagogue where Jews were captured (large pictures of prominent Jewish figures can be seen on the wall), with the description: “In the Jewish place of worship: the first interrogation – the detainees are systematically questioned, with a member of the Jewish Council of Elders (right) serving as interpreter. The discovery of weapons is already based during the takeover.” Next to a photograph showing weapons in graves, it reads: “Heavy and light machine guns, automatic pistols, cartridge boxes are laid next to a corpse. What the Jews buried in Warsaw before the Germans entered Warsaw will now be dug out from the ground under the supervision of the Security Service. Shortly after, those caught appear before German judges.” Next to another photograph showing Jews near a grave, it reads: “The Jews of Warsaw stored weapons in the graves of Polish soldiers. The grave where he and his aides hid the weapons. Security Service officers repeatedly encounter graves in which ghetto residents have hidden weapons, disrespecting the corpses.”
Also in this issue: an antisemitic story about the Jew Bernstein, an antisemitic story accompanied by cartoons “The Adventures of the Five Horror Centurions, ” a photograph of Hermann Göring with his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, photographs of Wehrmacht soldiers in battle in the forests of Warsaw, and more.
Between 1939-1941, the German press published articles with photographs from ghettos in occupied Poland. These articles regularly conveyed antisemitic messages, with the photographs being the central component.
The
Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung newspaper was founded in 1891 by Leopold Ullstein and was, in fact, Germany’s first mass newspaper. During the Nazi period, all previous publishers were dismissed, and the newspaper became a tool of Nazi propaganda until the end of the war. It was published twice a month with regular reports on the new Germany, German conquests, antisemitic articles depicting Jews in the ghettos as unproductive and criminal, and false propaganda consistently reporting pro-Nazi news, using convincing visuals with political messages to influence public opinion and promote Nazi ideology.
The same issue also appears in the permanent exhibition at the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem. See also: Flashes of Memory, Photography During the Holocaust. Yad Vashem Publications, 2018, p. 99.
Complete issue. [32 pages – continuous page numbering from previous issues]. 37 cm. Good condition.
