It doesn't strike me as very plausible that NYT would be reporting on the extermination of Jews in 1939. If they were, I am eager to learn about it. If anyone knows more about this, please link me to it.
To my knowledge, mass exterminations didn't begin until 1941, carried out by gas trucks and firing squads. The Final Solution was formulated in 1942, with the first death camps going into operation that year. In 1939 the Nazis had already started exterminating some "undesirables" (including at least the disabled and mentally ill) and they were already operating concentration camps, but the nominal goal of these camps was the eventual deportation of Jews rather than extermination. I would be surprised to learn that any Allied governments (or those who would become Allies) knew about the extermination of Jews in 1939, let alone the press.
(I haven't actually been able to read the referenced article in full, mind you, because I am cheap; thus, I am not personally vouching for the article saying what it is claimed to. I'm just providing to others the ability to do so if any of you have interest and/or disposability of income greater than mine at the moment.)
I am also too cheap to buy the article, but I think it is noteworthy that the full title is "NAZIS HINT 'PURGE' OF JEWS IN POLAND; 'Special Report' From Invaded Region Discusses Possible Solution of Problem GROUP EUROPE'S LARGEST 3,000,000 Population Involved --'Removal' From Europe Viewed as Benefit." We're primed to associate the word "solution" with extermination, but the Final Solution definitely did not exist as such in 1939. The word "removal" matches my recollection that official Nazi policy at this time was aimed at eventual deportation.
The underlying premise of your comment is, at very least, debatable. Death camps were in operation far earlier than you imply, if you leave the semantics aside.
Take a look at the report from Dachau in the New Republic (1934) [1], the report by Gerhard Seger from Oranienburg (1934) [2] and contrast those with Hitler's word in his speech from January 1939 [3] or in Mein Kampf from 1925 [4]. There were reports by other people I'm unable to find right now. If you combine the information with an open mind a picture emerges, one that could have possibly found its way into the NYT in 1939.
The T4 programme started in 1940. There were public protests of the T4 programme in 1941. The T4 programme was the mass killing of disabled - mostly learning disabled- people.
The T4 killings are seen as the precursor to the mass extermination of Jews, with refinements of killing methods.
Six different camps were used. People were killed in gas chambers, or by lethal injection, or by starvation.
That's all true, but we're talking specifically about the extermination of Jews. Is there evidence that the Nazis planned T4 as a trial run of Jewish extermination, and if so would NYT have known about those intentions in 1939?
It doesn't strike me as very plausible that NYT would be reporting on the extermination of Jews in 1939. If they were, I am eager to learn about it. If anyone knows more about this, please link me to it.
To my knowledge, mass exterminations didn't begin until 1941, carried out by gas trucks and firing squads. The Final Solution was formulated in 1942, with the first death camps going into operation that year. In 1939 the Nazis had already started exterminating some "undesirables" (including at least the disabled and mentally ill) and they were already operating concentration camps, but the nominal goal of these camps was the eventual deportation of Jews rather than extermination. I would be surprised to learn that any Allied governments (or those who would become Allies) knew about the extermination of Jews in 1939, let alone the press.