Dallas Morning News, “Threatened Flight of Jews Prevented by German Decree”

As early as 1933, Texans began reading local reports of the rise of the Nazi party and its violent acts against German citizens. The eye-witness accounts of reporters provided a glimpse into the early beginnings of a repressive society. 

The more reporters learned, the more the dangerous nature of Hitler’s leadership became evident. In this issue from 1933, just four months after Hitler became German Chancellor, the Dallas Morning News stated “reports that numerous Jews were fleeing from Germany were followed Monday by a Government announcement that after midnight no one may leave German soil unless special permission has been stamped on his passport by police.”

The Dallas Morning News had grown in prominence under the direction of George Bannerman Dealey, a respected community leader dubbed the “Dean of American Publishers” by the New York Times. Known for balanced reporting on controversial issues, the newspaper covered the passage of German anti-Semitic laws in the 1930s for approximately 90,000 readers. The German-sponsored nationwide riots known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) made front page news in 1938, as did Hitler’s speech before the Reichstag (German parliament) on January 30, 1939.