March 13, 2006
A newspaper group has expressed regret for the failure of American publishers to help Jewish journalists fleeing Nazi Germany. The statement by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) came in response to a petition by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and former "New York Times" reporter Laurence Zuckerman, which cites research revealing that US journalism schools refused requests to accept Jewish journalists fleeing the Hitler regime, for fear of increased job competition. The research also revealed that the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA), the predecessor of the NAA, rejected a request by Harvard professor Carl Friedrich to discuss the issue for 10 minutes at its 1939 convention. In a letter to the Wyman institute, John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America, acknowledged and expressed “regret” for the ANPA’s action in 1939. The NAA has pledged to highlight the issue at its forthcoming national convention and board of directors meeting.
