The Associated Press has conducted an in-depth review of its operations in Nazi Germany, concluding that the news agency acted as “forthrightly and independently as possible.” But the review also found AP handled some situations inadequately.
The review was undertaken after an article published last year contended that the AP allowed Nazi propagandists to exert some influence over its news photo report in the 1930s by maintaining a photo subsidiary in Germany, registered under a restrictive Nazi press law.
The author, historian Harriet Scharnberg, also identified AP German photographers who were drafted into or joined Nazi military propaganda units during World War II, some while still being paid by AP.
Adolf Hitler, left, shakes hands with 12-year-old Alfred Czech, a Hitler Youth soldier, after the young veteran of battles in Pomerania and Upper and Lower Silesia was awarded the Iron Cross at Hitler’s headquarters in Germany on March 19, 1945, according to the German caption that accompanied the photo, taken by a Nazi photographer. The image is the last photo AP has of Hitler before his suicide a few weeks later. The photo was distributed by Buro Laux, a German Foreign Ministry conduit for photos, and transmitted to The Associated Press via the photo agency Pressens Bild in neutral Sweden. (Buro Laux/Pressens Bild via AP)
AP’s review disputes Scharnberg’s conclusion that the news agency was in any way complicit with the Nazi regime during the years 1933-41, when the agency was present in the country. The AP was kicked out of Germany when the United States entered World War II in December 1941.
“We recognize that AP should have done some things differently during this period, for example protesting when AP photos were exploited by the Nazis for propaganda within Germany and refusing to employ German photographers with active political affiliations and loyalties,” the report says.
“However, suggestions that AP at any point sought to help the Nazis or their heinous cause are simply wrong,” it adds.
— AP
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