Through our research into the early UN, we happen across a lot of interesting files that go against conventional historical narratives. The documents of the United Nations Information Organisation – an early public diplomacy body established by the Allies to disseminate their message about the war, and about early human rights ideas – would be one such old largely forgotten archive. In particular, we’ve found an article from the United Nations Review (‘A Monthly Summary of Documents on the Allied Fight for Freedom’), from January 15 1943, detailing a ‘Joint Protest on Jewish Wrongs’. It contains a cross-national, public condemnation of Nazi exterminations efforts, and anti-Jewish persecution more broadly.
This public diplomacy document is being presented by Dan Plesch at the UN Library in Geneva today. It – and documents like it – have been overlooked for 75 years, and details public awareness of the Holocaust as it happened, years before the end of the war, overturning established understanding.
See here for the file!