Riegner telegram

[1] The cable confirmed the alarming reports that had reached the West previously about the German intention to mass murder the European Jews.

[3] Through his British and American diplomatic channels (Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise of the American Jewish Congress in New York and Sydney Silverman, a Jewish Member of Parliament and Chairman of the British Section, World Jewish Congress) Riegner sent the following message to his contacts via the British Foreign Office and the State Department in Washington:[4] Received alarming report stating that, in the Fuehrer's Headquarters, a plan has been discussed, and is under consideration, according to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany numbering 3½ to 4 millions should, after deportation and concentration in the East, be at one blow exterminated, in order to resolve, once and for all the Jewish question in Europe.

[5]However, in England and the United States, Riegner's telegram was met with disbelief.

Only on the 28 August 1942 did it find its way to the President of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Stephen Wise.

[6] When that happened in November, Wise held a press conference about it but it received little attention until the Bergson Group began to publicise it.