1945 – Old Magazine Articles

Anti-Nisei Bigotry in Two States Compared
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

In the wake of the SCOTUS opinion, Korematsu v. U.S., some talk could be heard about the return of the Japanese Americans to the previous homes. This article examines the anti-Nisei attitudes in two Western states, California and Oregon. It was the conclusion that the former had become a bit more tolerant and the later a bit worse (sadly the last paragraphs, printed on brittle brown paper, withered away in our hand.)

A Great Cheer from Coast to Coast
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

An anonymous reporter relays all that came across his desk in the way of wild victory celebrations on VJ Day. Spread out over 14 paragraphs are eyewitness accounts of the pandemonium that spread across the nation when the news arrived that the war was over.

”Death Camp for Children”
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

As if Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Nordhausen and Bergen-Belsen weren’t bad enough – in late April, 1945, advancing Soviet infantry reported that:

“The Red Army had found a concentration camp for children at Konstantinov, beyond Lodz in central Poland…There were 862 children in the camp, all Russian, White Russian and Ukrainian.”

Ravensbrück
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Here is an eyewitness account of the daily life at Ravensbrück concentration camp. Ravensbrück was the largest concentration camp for women in Germany. The Germans gassed between 5,000 and 6,000 prisoners at Ravensbrück before Soviet troops liberated the camp in the April of 1945.

Arab Population Growth as Israel is Reborn
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“It is in Palestine where the Jews are building a national home, that the Arab enjoys higher standards of living and of health than anywhere in the Middle East… The Arab population of Palestine has risen from 600,000 to 1,200,00.”

The Death of General Rose
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Having surrendered to the Nazis during the closing weeks of the war, General Maurice Rose of the Third Armored Division, was shot dead by a German tank commander.

Bergen-Belsen Survivor Speaks
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Abigail Spannjard was an American citizen of Jewish heritage who was incarcerated in Bergen-Belsen with her husband and teen-age son. They were released early in 1945 as part of a prisoner-swap, and the account she gives of the abuses they endured is chilling.

Memories of Bergen-Belsen
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Here are the observations of Patrick Gordon Walker (1907 – 1980), a broadcast journalist with the BBC who was present with the British Army when they liberated the Bergen-Belsen Death Camp on April 15, 1945.

“Men were hung for hours at a time, suspended by their arms, hands tied behind their back in Belsen. Beatings in workshops were continuous, and there were many deaths there. Just before I left the camp, a crematorium was discovered.”

Japanese Home Front Radio Admits Damage
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“Radio Tokyo indicated inadvertently yesterday that out Superfort offensive aimed at the destruction of Japanese war production had attained a considerable measure of success.”

New Yorkers See the Films
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“New Yorkers sat in stunned silence yesterday as they watched the incontrovertible proof of the unbelievable – the U.S. Army Signal Corps motion pictures of Nazi horror camps and charnel houses… People came out of the theaters shaking their heads, or gazing blankly off into space, or cursing them under their breaths. They produced mixed reactions – a mixture of horror, of grief, of anger, of hate.”

“We should reduce Germany to dust. The Germans can’t be trusted, and we have to watch Argentina and Spain.”

VJ-Day on New York City
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“Seven million New Yorkers let down their hair last night in the wildest, loudest, gayest, drunkest kissingest, hell-for-leather celebration the big town has ever seen.”

Click here to read about VE-Day in New York City…

POWs at Fort Dix
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“German prisoners of war are not coddled at the Fort Dix camp. The PWs are not mistreated, but neither is any kindness shown them. The officers supervising them are not cruel or lenient; they adhere strictly to the letter of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners.”

PM reporter Jack Shafer knew all this to have been true, because he went to Fort Dix and saw for himself.

Dr. Jung on Germany’s Hangover
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) had much to say as to how the German people could come to terms with all the dreadful acts that were committed in their name during the previous 12 years.

“[The German] will try frantically to rehabilitate himself in the face of the world’s accusations and hate – but that is not the right way. The only right way is his unconditional acknowledgement of guilt… German penitence must come from within.”

Click here to read Jung’s thoughts on Hitler.

Truman’s Busiest Day
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

April 14, 1945 is remembered as President Truman’s first day as Chief Executive. FDR died on the twelfth and he was sworn-in shortly after that. Just what he did with the rest of that day, much less on the thirteenth, is a mystery to me – but, let it be known here and now that his first day exercising his Presidential Authority was on the fourteenth. He met with the brass caps from the Pentagon, planned speeches, spoke on the telephone with numerous New Deal big-wigs and shook many, many hands. All involved were in agreement that it was the busiest day in his life.

Truman’s Record in the Senate
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“Down the line, since [Truman] voted in the Senate in 1935 for U.S. participation in the World Court, his positions on foreign relations and international policy have been consistently on the side of FDR and for the fight against fascism.”

”Truman’s First Ten Days”
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

The left-of-center New York daily PM examined the liberal Bonafide’s of President Harry Truman and they liked what they saw.

U.S. POWs Singled Out for Abuse
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

PM war correspondent Victor Bernstein filed this story three weeks before VE-Day concerning a 180-mile forced march that was the lot of assorted Allied prisoner of war in Germany. Numerous interviews with the survivors of the march revealed that the Nazis lording over as many as 4,000 POWs choosing to brutalize the U.S. prisoners in much the same way they abused Poles and Soviets. British POWs seemed not to attract their ire.

A Futile Defense Tactic
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

“The Japanese are making frenzied and costly attempts at Okinawa to stem our advance toward the home islands, but their efforts appear no more successful than they were in the Philippines and Iwo Jima.”