THEY KNEW

U.S. Was Aware of Holocaust in 1942, Documents Reveal

Two and a half years earlier than previously thought.

The United States and other Allied powers knew the scale of the Holocaust more than two years earlier than was previously acknowledged, new documents from United Nations files reveal. The documents show that American, British, and Soviet leaders knew that, by December 1942, at least 2 million Jews had been murdered in the Holocaust and that an additional 5 million faced extermination. A 1944 document shows that Allied nations were prepared to indict Adolf Hitler for war crimes relating to the Holocaust but that the indictment had remained secret. Though Allied nations issued a public statement condemning the murder of German Jews in December 1942, the declaration did not indicate the scale on which the killings were taking place.