Riegner Telegram

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The Riegner Telegram was a

Gerhart Riegner, then Secretary of World Jewish Congress (Geneva), to its New York and London offices.[1] The cable confirmed the alarming reports that had reached the West previously about the German intention to mass murder the European Jews.[2]

Riegner was office manager of the WJC in Geneva. He was indirectly informed about the German plans for the

British Foreign Office and the State Department in Washington:[4]

Original telegram.

Received alarming report stating that, in the Fuehrer's Headquarters, a plan has been discussed, and is under consideration, according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany numbering 3½ to 4 millions should, after deportation and concentration in the East, be at one blow exterminated, in order to resolve, once and for all the Jewish question in Europe. Action is reported to be planned for the autumn. Ways of execution are still being discussed including the use of

prussic acid. We transmit this information with all the necessary reservation, as exactitude cannot be confirmed by us. Our informant is reported to have close connexions with the highest German authorities, and his reports are generally reliable. Please inform and consult New York.[5]

However, in

Bergson Group began to publicise it.[6]

See also

| Encyclopedia article

Notes

  1. ^ Bauer, Yehuda (2001). Rethinking the Holocaust (Yale University Press, New Haven and London) p.219
  2. ISBN 978-0028645278. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  3. ISBN 9780300095579
    . Schulte informed Isidor Koppelmann (business associate), who informed Benjamin Sagalowitz (head of the press agency of the Union of Jewish Communities in Switzerland), who in turn informed Riegner.
  4. ^ "Riegner Telegram". United States Library of Congress.
  5. ^ The National Archives, UK copy of the Riegner Telegram (colour copy of document).
  6. ^ a b c Yehuda Bauer (2012). "The Holocaust, America, and American Jewry" (PDF). Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. VI (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012.

References


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