In a similar vein, I recommend the 2008 book Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker. He summarizes news reports and other real-time accounts from the years leading up to World War II and the Holocaust. An excerpt, from page 34:
“The New York Times reported, on page one, that the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, a group with sixty thousand members, had issued a statement saying that the reports of atrocities by Nazis against Jews were ‘pure invention.’ It was March 25, 1933.
“Anti-Semitism existed, and it was, the society said, a matter of grave concern, but it was a domestic affair. ‘Let us take an energetic stand against everybody attempting criminally to influence the shaping of Germany’s future through foreign newspapers.’ ”
“The New York Times reported, on page one, that the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, a group with sixty thousand members, had issued a statement saying that the reports of atrocities by Nazis against Jews were ‘pure invention.’ It was March 25, 1933.
“Anti-Semitism existed, and it was, the society said, a matter of grave concern, but it was a domestic affair. ‘Let us take an energetic stand against everybody attempting criminally to influence the shaping of Germany’s future through foreign newspapers.’ ”