It’s not that we need more proof of the point, but James Carroll, columnist for the Boston Globe, today gives a particularly good example of the politics of categorization. He writes that the first New York Times story about Auschwitz, on May 8, 1945, is surprisingly detailed and blunt about what happened in the death camp where 2 million people were murdered. There’s only one major omission: “…in defining the identities of those victims, the story never used the word ‘Jew.'” He adds:

The New York Times index did not cite stories about concentration camps under the category “Jews” until 1950. It was not until 1975 that the index category “Nazi Policies Toward Jews” appeared.

By the way, the Times story was written by C. L. Sulzberger and appeared on page 12.

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