A chilling read.
Horrifying. Imagine the effect of stories like this on Polish-Americans. Especially those with family still in the old country. I wonder if politicians who had been hewing to the strict isolationist position began to "nuance" their reasoning because of these revelations. Maybe it depends on the ethnic make-up of their constituencies.
I wonder if any effort to nuance happened at all. One of the most disturbing accounts I’ve read was that prior to the German occupation of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian government tried to get the allies to take several thousand Jews they had in the country. The allies refused to even attempt to ship these people to Palestine. FDR was of the opinion that though he knew of the atrocities being committed in German occupied Europe, the only way to help them was to win the war. No other methods were attempted or promoted by the administration as far as I can find.
At this point the Germans are only getting warmed up. At this point there are no death camps and the mass shootings are pretty much confined to the special SS units in Poland. The Wehrmacht is still being treated with kid gloves by Himmler for fear of their reaction so the killing of women and children are being kept at a minimum and the police battalions have yet to enter the fray.
I am really interested in the scope of knowledge that trickled to the press and public as things escalate in the Holocaust. This article also hits me a bit because this would be about the time that a 5 year old girl was separated from her father for no other reason than the fact that they were Poles. He died in a concentration camp, and I only had the pleasure of meeting the girl last year as an older, but nicest woman I think I have ever met.