Gustav Riegner, who is credited by Henry Mornthau Jr., with bringing the first word of the Nazi plot to murder all Jews in ##rope, revealed today that his first message warning of the German designs was sup##cssed by the State Department, and only reached Dr. Wise through Sidney Silverman, and of the World Jewish Congcess branch in London, who had-received an identical ##asage through the Foreign Officc.
Riegner disclosed at a press conference that he had obtained the informaon from an anti-Nazi Gernan industrialist who came to Switzerland in the closing ##s of July, 1942, to report to Allied so##ces that detailed plans had already been afted for murdering the Jews. The Jewish Congress representative conveyed the in##ation to the British and American consulates in Geneva, with the request that it transmitted to Mr. Silverman and Dr. Wise. On Aug. 24 he was informed that the ##ate Department had cabled the Geneva consulate that it was “disinclined to deliver ## nessage in view of the apparently unsubstantiated character of the information ##ich forms its main theme.”
At a later press conference today, Dr. Wise, commenting on the Morgenthau ##ticles, said that the least the governments of the world can do now is extend full ##tice to the survivors of the catastrophe. He suggested that the State Department ## to secure rapid approval of partition by the U.N., that steps be taken to make ailable for Jewish rehabilitation looted and heirless Jewish property, that the ## act to outlaw genocide and protect human rights and that Congress vote to admit’s to the United States. Dr. Wise paid tribute to the offorts of President Rooselt, Sumner Welles, Mr. Morgenthau and then Brig. Gen. William O’Dwyer for both ##eir sympathy and for their activities on behalf of the Jews of Europe.
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.
