Since Gareth Jones’s historic press conference in Berlin in 1933 when he became the first journalist to reveal the existence and extent of the Holodomor, a Soviet-induced famine in Ukraine in which over four million people died, Jones and his professional reputation have been the focus of a determined campaign by those who deny the famine ever happened.
Attempts to destroy Jones’s character, which would undermine the
reliability of his reports of the Holodomor, have increased in recent years
following global recognition and acclaim for the importance of his work.
Citing his professional connections with the Nazis, including:
Flying on Hitler’s plane on the day he became German Chancellor
Having a front row seat at a Nazi rally in Frankfurt
His noting that he enjoyed a private dinner with Goebbels
Having several acquaintances who later took key roles in the Third Reich
His 1935 obituary in a Nazi paper which stated Jones was ‘one of us’
and his self-confessed love of Germany, speaking fluent German,
and making annual visits from 1923-34, there have been a number of accusations
that Jones was, in fact, a Nazi sympathiser and fascist collaborator.
In this ground breaking new study, Ray Gamache, an acknowledged
expert on Gareth Jones and the reporting of the Holodomor, thoroughly examines
Jones’s extensive notebooks, letters, articles and speeches to investigate
these claims.
In
Gareth Jones - On Assignment in Nazi Germany 1933-34, Gamache provides a
compelling narrative which refutes claims of Jones’s Nazi sympathies, stating: ‘Based
on available documentation, that Jones had a deep, abiding love of Germany is
obvious. However, to twist events of his life into a narrative in which his
reporting of mass starvation is represented as collusion with the Nazi
propaganda ministry is ultimately to deny the suffering of those Ukrainians who
needlessly perished.'