America did not know about The Holocaust until August 1942, when Dr. Gerhart Riegner, the representative of the World Jewish Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, learned what was going on from a German source. He asked American diplomats in Switzerland to inform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of America’s most prominent Jewish leaders, of the mass murder plan. But the State Department decided not to because they were influenced by anti-semitism. Wise still learned the terrible message from Jewish leaders in Great Britain. He approached Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, who had asked Wise to keep the information confidential until the government had time to verify it. It was not until November of 1942 that Welles authorized the release of it. A few weeks later, on December 17, the United States, Great Britain, and ten other Allied governments issued a declaration denouncing Nazi Germany's intention to murder the Jews of Europe. The declaration warned Nazi Germany that it would be held responsible for these crimes.
The American press wrote articles about it, but they were short articles found deep in the newspaper. If American newspapers published relatively little about the ongoing Holocaust, it was in part because there was little hard news about it to present — only secondhand and thirdhand reports of problematic authenticity. The articles were always either denied or unconfirmed by US government.