Why did Charlie Chaplin later say he could not have made The Great Dictator if he had known about the concentration camps?

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Take a look at George Bernard Shaw speaking on the marvels of Movietone — satire George Bernard Shaw speaking about the novelty of technology; excerpt from a Hearst Metrotone newsreel (c. 1930). (29 sec; 2.6 MB)

Charlie Chaplin stated that he would not have been able to make The Great Dictator had the true extent of the Nazis’ crimes been widely known at the time of the film's production.1

Released in 1940, the film served as a biting satire of Adolf Hitler and Nazism, using a japing, lampooning tone to condemn antisemitism and fascist aggression. Because the horrific reality of the concentration camps and the full scope of the Holocaust had not yet been revealed to the world, Chaplin was able to approach the subject through the lens of political comedy. Once the magnitude of those atrocities became clear, the subject matter was no longer compatible with the satirical approach he had employed.12