The Christian Century and the Holocaust

Since the 1980s, historians have been taking a more critical look at the American response to the Holocaust. While most of the scholarship focuses on the diplomatic and political side of the American response, a growing number of cultural historians are attempting to better understand the American response by analyzing what, how, and why the American press reported about the crimes against the Jewish people and the influence this could have had. Two important books were published in the 1990s and early 2000s by notable Holocaust historians Deborah Lipstadt and Laurel Leff. The field continues to grow with minor publications on specific newspapers, and regional, religious, and ethnic publications.

One aspect of the American response that is recognizably absent from the current scholarship is an in-depth examination of Protestant publications. There are only two books published on this topic: Robert Ross’s So It Was True: The American Protestant Press and the Persecution of the Jews and William Camp’s 2019 Religion and Horror: The American Religious Press Views Nazi Death Camps and Holocaust Survivors. Holocaust historian, Rafael Medoff, also describes the need for more research on the Protestant press’s role. This scholarship will, as one historian suggests, “probe the moral ambiguities” of American Christian involvement in Holocaust history.

After researching and writing a paper analyzing the influential Protestant publication, The Christian Century, and how it reported on the Holocaust between 1942 and 1943, it became clear that more research is needed to provide a more accurate analysis. The editor and owner, Charles Clayton Morrison, ran the paper from 1908-1947. He was considered one of the most important editors, and his paper was one of the most important liberal publications of its time. Its subscribers tended to be men of influence in pulpits, government, and across many denominations. Despite its importance within liberal Protestantism, The Christian Century has never been systematically reviewed to examine, analyze, and interpret its coverage and impact during the Holocaust.

Every issue of The Christian Century between 1915-1947 was freely available online through the nonprofit digital library, Internet Archive, until Sept. 5, 2024. Hopefully, The Christian Century maintains its own archives which can be made available. Alternative repositories are being researched. Additional sources can be found in the Jerry Falwell Library databases, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s web archives, and the Library of Congress’s online newspaper archives. Southern Illinois University Special Collections Research Center also has two boxes containing Charles Clayton Morrison’s unpublished autobiography and some other papers that might be useful to this research.

This dissertation will be structured both chronologically and thematically. To better understand its role in reporting on the Holocaust to its subscribers and those it influenced, it is necessary to place the paper in each year's historical context and within the context of the paper itself. To provide a complete explanation of how and why Morrison made certain editorial decisions, it is necessary to examine the editor himself as well as the structure and purpose of his publication. Afterward, reviewing the issues chronologically, beginning with World War I and moving through the major world and domestic events and policy changes in the United States in the interwar period and during WWII will provide an important way to analyze and possibly explain certain editorial decisions through comparison and in the context of events.

Investigating if, how, and in what ways the Century published about the First World War and the now debunked atrocity stories is important to address Morrison’s later claims. Morrison and historians argue that many publications were hesitant to report on the new “atrocity stories” of World War II because they had been hoodwinked by the British and the government in World War I.[1] How involved was the Christian Century in publishing these stories? In addition to the fear of repeating false atrocity stories, Morrison also advocated a strong pacifist position following WWI until the United States entered WWII. His convictions may have influenced what and how he made editorial decisions concerning the persecution of the Jews. Analysis of the interwar publications, letters, and sermons is necessary to understand these decisions.[2] 

Finally, reviewing the issues from the last three specific timeframes (1942-1943, 1944-1945, and 1945-1947) will answer similar questions. These specific timeframes were chosen based on the significance of events that occurred. 1942-1943 were the most deadly years for Europe's Jews with the German adoption of the Wansee Protocols making extermination official Nazi policy. Additionally, by November 1942, the United States State Department officially acknowledged the death camps. 1944-1945 marked the United States invasion of France, the Army's discovery of the death camps, and the end of the war. Finally, 1945-1947 forced the world to reckon with what happened to the Jewish people and also marked the creation of the State of Israel. Each issue of The Christian Century will be analyzed throughout these crucial years to examine and analyze what information was included, where it was placed, and how the stories were written. They will also be compared to how other war news was reported, including atrocities committed in other theaters of war.

With nearly 1500 newspapers – 52 issues a year – it will require a considerable amount of time and work to analyze each paper. However, the outcome may challenge previously held assertions that Charles Clayton Morrison made editorial decisions based on indifference and/or anti-Semitism. While studying media impact is a controversial field, it is worth exploring how this reporting may have influenced Protestant Americans and will provide a deeper understanding of America’s cultural response.

 

 

 

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[1] Laurel Leff, Buried By the Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005): 136, 330, 336-337, 339; Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933-1945 (New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993), 336-338; Laurel Leff, “When the Facts Didn’t Speak for Themselves: The Holocaust in the New York Times, 1939-1945,” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 5, no. 2 (2000), 61; Deborah Lipstadt, “Pious Sympathies and Sincere Regrets: The American News Media and the Holocaust from Krystalnacht to Bermuda, 1938-1943,” Modern Judaism 2, no. 1 (1982): 53-72.

[2] Charles Clayton Morrison, The Outlawry of War: A Constructive Policy for World Peace (Willet, Clark, and Colby, 1927); Gary Dorrien, “America’s Mainline,” First Things, no. 237 (2013), 30; Coffman, “The Measure of a Magazine,” 57.