A newly-published six-volume edition of the “Illustrated World History,” edited by Sir John Hammerton and Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes and prominently advertised for sale at a low price, was revealed on examination today to contain sections apparently calculated to gloss over Germany’s actions and alienate American sympathy for the Allies. The set is published by William Wise & Co., a long-established and reputable firm.
The last section of the chronological history, added to cover events up to March, 1940, stresses Franco-British “oppression” of Germany as the fundamental cause of the war, warns the United States against seeing the war as one of right against wrong, declares that Hitler has no aims against the world, terms Polish mobilization the immediate cause of the invasion of Poland, without specific mention of German mobilization; omits mentioning bombing of civilians and refugees in Poland and touches only lightly on unsavory aspects of Hitler’s rise to power, failing completely to mention such subjects as the Reichstag fire, Nazi terrorism against political opponents, concentration camps, conflicts with religious groups, book-burning, repression of intellectual life, Nazi pogroms, expulsion of the Jews and the refugee problem. References to Nazi anti-Semitism are few and indirect.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
