“Probably the most horrifying act of cruelty which has ever darkened the passage of man on this earth”

Winston Churchill in the House of Commons February 1945

New York Times January 1st 1945 on the discovery of a small concentration camp at St Die in Alsace. The paper reported:

•15,000 killed

•Experiments with gas

•A torture chamber with hooks for hanging prisoners

•A dissecting table for human experiments

New York Times reporter who New York Times reporter who witnessed the liberation of St Die witnessed the liberation of St Die wrote:wrote:

““It remains hard to accept such It remains hard to accept such stories. They are outrageous too stories. They are outrageous too great to be believed even in the great to be believed even in the face of the physical evidence”face of the physical evidence”

““The idea of torture is so The idea of torture is so abhorrent that it is not easy to abhorrent that it is not easy to believe that practices associated believe that practices associated with the Spanish Inquisition with the Spanish Inquisition could be carried out by twentieth could be carried out by twentieth century Europeans”century Europeans”

Patrick KirwanPatrick Kirwan

Reporter Gene Currivan on the Reporter Gene Currivan on the evidence offered to him by liberated evidence offered to him by liberated slave workers:slave workers:““The veracity of these accounts can The veracity of these accounts can no longer be doubted. They come in no longer be doubted. They come in various forms, but follow the same various forms, but follow the same general pattern from Belgians, general pattern from Belgians, Bulgarian, French, Dutch, Greeks, Bulgarian, French, Dutch, Greeks, Poles, Russians, Yugoslavs, Czechs Poles, Russians, Yugoslavs, Czechs and Italians, and all other tortured and Italians, and all other tortured souls who pass through here”. souls who pass through here”.

Murrow at BuchenwaldMurrow at Buchenwald“Let me tell this in the first place for I was the least important person there, as you shall hear. There surged around me an evil smelling hoard…men and boys reached out to touch me. They were in rags and the remnants of uniforms. Death had already marked many of them, but they were smiling with their eyes. I looked over that mass of men to the green fields beyond where well-fed Germans were ploughing.

The News ChronicleThe News Chronicle“This is a charming town of Celle, except when the wind blows the wrong way….In the gardens of the prosperous houses about the green parks rise the towering candelabra of the magnolia trees and the breeze wafts a sweet scent for the blossom – except when it blows the wrong way. That is when it blows from the concentration camp. It is only a small concentration; perhaps that makes it easier for the citizens of Celle to ignore it as they stroll in the sunlit streets, well-dressed and well-fed. When we got there, there were 197 prisoners alive – if you can say that men live who cannot walk but shuffle inch by inch across the ground, leg-bones bent at the knee – you cannot say legs; only the bones are left. Their faces were ashy-black…starvation does that to the complexion….I did not count the dead.”

Colin Wills, a writer for the London News Chronicle

““There were two rows of There were two rows of bodies stacked up like bodies stacked up like cord-wood. They were thin cord-wood. They were thin and very white. Some of and very white. Some of the bodies were terribly the bodies were terribly bruised, though there bruised, though there seemed to be little flesh to seemed to be little flesh to bruise. Some had been bruise. Some had been shot through the head, but shot through the head, but they bled but little.” they bled but little.”

““I pray you to believe what I pray you to believe what I have said about I have said about Buchenwald. I have Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no For most of it I have no words.”words.”

Buchenwald 1945Buchenwald 1945

“Even a hint of the present hygienic conditions would be unprintable. An indescribable stench of filth and death hangs over the camp…I had not intended to write about Buchenwald. By nature I am cautious about atrocity stories, am I merely wanted first hand knowledge so that if anyone ever asked me about German concentration camps I could tell them the unexaggerated truth. What I saw was so horrible that I would not have believed it if I had not seen it myself. The World must not forget such things.

Harold Denny - New York Times

“It is my duty to describe something beyond the imagination of mankind…you must read and you must believe. We few who have had the opportunity to view this atrocity against mankind have the right to demand your attention…our words, our honour must suffice that this terrible deed against the human spirit may be known to all the world.”

R W Thompson

““If all the heavens were paper and If all the heavens were paper and all the water in the world were ink all the water in the world were ink and all the trees were turned into and all the trees were turned into pens, you could not even then pens, you could not even then record the sufferings and the record the sufferings and the horror”horror”

A letter from an English Rabbi A letter from an English Rabbi published in the Times 28 May published in the Times 28 May 19451945

Reporting the 1945 Reporting the 1945 ElectionElection

• Total War = Total Change?

• Converting wartime unity into peacetime reform

• Implementing the Beveridge Report

• Ejecting the beloved Winston Churchill

VE Day Street Party VE Day Street Party

From Punch: ‘Since there’s no help, come let us and kiss and part’

The end of the Coalition Government

Gallup Poll November Gallup Poll November 19441944

““What sort of government What sort of government would you like to see lead would you like to see lead Britain in the period Britain in the period following the war?”following the war?”

35% all-party Government35% all-party Government

26% Labour26% Labour

12% Conservative12% Conservative

Beveridge and His Five Beveridge and His Five Giant EvilsGiant Evils

•WANT

•DISEASE

•SQUALOR

•IGNORANCE

•IDLENESS

How the Press Lined UpHow the Press Lined UpSupporting LabourSupporting Labour

Daily Mirror, Daily Herald, New Daily Mirror, Daily Herald, New StatesmanStatesman

Supporting ConservativesSupporting Conservatives Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily TelegraphDaily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph

Supporting LiberalsSupporting LiberalsThe News Chronicle, The GuardianThe News Chronicle, The Guardian

NeutralNeutralThe Times (previously Conservative)The Times (previously Conservative)

Churchill Broadcasts on Churchill Broadcasts on VE DayVE Day

Churchill at the BBCChurchill at the BBC

Potsdam Conference Potsdam Conference 19451945