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Did He Protect or Neglect Them? by Mary Moss | |
| 1 | On April 15, 1945, Edward R. Murrow made a CBS Radio broadcast from the newly liberated concentration camp in Buchenwald Germany. Three days earlier, on April 12, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had passed away. As America mourned his death, the Jews of Buchenwald blessed his name. According to Murrow, "for many long years the name of Roosevelt had been a measure of hope to these men who had kept such a close company with death" (Abzug 201). Likewise, to Americans who lived through the Great Depression and World War II, FDR was enormously popular. He was a hero and a symbol of all that was good. He overcame his own painful disabilities and then bravely uplifted a frightened and crippled nation. He generously gave hope to the masses; he helped people survive. |
| 2 | Fifty-four years later, it is no longer fashionable to praise and honor political figures like Roosevelt. Finding fault with past American presidents has become so engrained in American culture that it has become an art form. Scholarly books, documentaries and essays have been produced to educate Americans who eagerly anticipate the latest dirt on Roosevelt or anyone else who was once famous or in the public eye. Many contend that FDR was unconcerned about the Holocaust. Some even claim that his administration was anti-Semitic and that "he did nothing" to rescue European Jews (Tobin). However, there are some who believe that Roosevelt gave Jews "dignity and self-respect, as did no one else in American history" (vanden Heuvel). It is naïve to look back at the Roosevelt years with rose-colored glasses. But it is also self-righteous to impose present-day moralities to events that took place decades ago. Somewhere, in between the mountains of reverence and ridicule, lies a more even ground. |
| 3 | When discussing the subject of FDR and the Holocaust, there are two facts that are not often disputed. The first fact is that Hitler attempted to rid the world of Jews. The second fact is that Roosevelt stopped him. Although millions of Jews perished, Roosevelt put a stop to their annihilation. Any other efforts that Roosevelt might have made to save European Jews pale in significance when compared to the monumental struggle of World War II. |
| 4 | One question asked by Roosevelt's critics is: "Why didn't he help more Jewish refugees to immigrate into America?" To answer that question it is necessary to consider America's political realities and value systems of that time. When Roosevelt was first elected president in 1932, America was a deeply troubled country. Unemployment haunted twenty-five percent of the workforce. Family life was dominated by the basic concerns of food, shelter and clothing. The economy was paralyzed and despair hung heavy over the land. Recovery was slow and painful. The Great Depression encouraged coalitions of liberal and conservative forces, labor unions and business leaders, to oppose any enlargement of the immigration quotas. Why bring in more foreigners when we can hardly take care of our own? Congress reflected this attitude. The majority of Americans also agreed with Congress and did not even want to give needy refugees special allowances. An Elmer Roper poll in 1938 showed that 70-80% opposed raising quotas to help Jewish refugees (Kalb). Domestic concerns totally overshadowed foreign and humanitarian affairs. |
| 5 | Another reason that Americans shut their doors and hearts to the outside world was because of disillusionment over the outcome of World War I. The U.S. had loaned millions of dollars to the European Allies who were unable to pay back their debts. This deteriorated America's already desperate economy. Furthermore, the horrific atrocities attributed to the Germans during World War I were proven false. Propaganda about babies on the ends of bayonets and violated nuns was spread to incite hatred against the Germans and to rally support for the British. This caused many Americans to wonder if the new reports coming out of Europe about Jewish genocide were also untrue. In 1943, after the U.S. government publicly confirmed the "Final Solution," more than 50% of the respondents to a Roper poll said they did not believe the Nazis were deliberately killing the Jews (Kalb). Americans considered Germans to be a sophisticated, cultured and highly educated people. It was hard to believe that Hitler would slaughter skilled and capable workers who could be used for manpower in his war effort. It just did not make sense. |
| 6 | Still, Americans had other deep-seated problems that hounded them. While the nation had fought for democracy and human justice on foreign fronts, its commitment to these ideals at home was far from complete. Before World War II, race and gender equality in America was practically nonexistent, except for the temporary influx of women and African Americans into the wartime workplace. Schools were segregated and so were the armed forces. Japanese Americans were interned for most of World War II, without any grounds or hearings. Jewish Americans were routinely barred from certain professions as well as from vacation resorts that advertised a "Christian clientele." |
| 7 | Writer and cartoonist, Lou Golden, sadly tells what it was like growing up Jewish in a Christian, Pennsylvania community before World War II: The aisle of the [school] bus had become a gauntlet of shame. Shame, because my schoolmates refused to share a seat with me and stipulated that 'Jews sit in the back with the girls.' Shame, because I obeyed their command day after day without protest, tripping over their extended legs and silently taking anti-Semitic pejoratives and kicks in the shins. Shame, because if a boy invited me to sit next to him, I would often fall for it out of desperation until he suddenly shoved me and my books into the aisle, refusing to sit next to a "filthy Jew." (Golden)These children were not really monsters. They were taught this ugly behavior. They were only imitating the common attitudes held towards Jews during those times. A 1938 poll by Roper asked: "What kinds of people do you object to?" Thirty eight percent answered, "Jews." In 1939, a Roper poll revealed that 53% of Americans thought Jews were different and deserved social and economic restrictions (Kalb). |
| 8 | Many Jews hoped that Roosevelt could change America's overwhelming attitudes of racism and isolationism. Each time he ran for president a majority of Jewish Americans voted for him. He and his wife were thought to be sympathetic friends. Eleanor Roosevelt was the founder of the International Rescue Committee in 1933, which brought many intellectuals, labor leaders and political figures fleeing Hitler to sanctuary in the United States. Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was one of the most powerful and respected leaders of the American Jewish community, was a personal friend and close advisor to President Roosevelt. He had constant access to the White House throughout the Roosevelt administration. In addition, Samuel Rosenman, Felix Frankfurter, Benjamin Cohen, David Niles, Anna Rosenburg, Sidney Hillman and David Dubinsky were among Roosevelt's closet advisors. No previous president had appointed so many Jews to public office or had surrounded himself with so many Jewish freinds. But instead of inspiring tolerance, Roosevelt too became a target for hard-core anti-Semites. He was accused of having Jewish blood. The "New Deal" became known as the "Jew Deal." It is interesting that some historians accuse Roosevelt of being unconcerned with the destruction of European Jews, while during his presidency, his critics accused him of letting Jews run the country. |
| 9 | Roosevelt not only had to cope with the backward attitudes of the American people, but also with backward immigration laws. Congress controlled and carefully implemented the country's strict immigration laws that had been set up by legislation in 1921 and 1924. Immigration quotas allowed only 153,774 immigrants into America each year. That number was divided according to the percentage of background nationalities of legal citizens residing in America in 1890. This gave Great Britain an allotment of 65,721 and Germany, 25,957 (van Heuvel). President Harding had tightened these regulations by mandating that no immigrant "likely to become a public charge" would be admitted into America. This came to be known as the LPC clause. It virtually eliminated all immigration after the Great Depression because it was so doubtful that a newcomer would be able to find employment. |
| 10 | FDR could not change immigration laws all by himself. It was impossible to translate humanitarian concerns into government policy without the support of Congress. In 1939, Robert Wagner and Edith Rogers introduced a bill for the admittance of 20,000 German refugee children into the United States. Many religious figures, labor organizations, prominent politicians and editors supported the bill. Other restrictionist and patriotic groups, such as the American Legion, Daughters of the American Revolution, and the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies banded together in opposition to the Wagner-Rogers Bill, insisting that charity begins at home. They also criticized the notion of separating children from their parents or guardians. Unfortunately, the bill died in the Senate. |
| 11 | Another great tragedy of America's harsh immigration policies was the incident that came to be known as "The Voyage of the Damned." On May 27, 1939, the S. S. St. Louis arrived from Germany with 930 Jewish refugees. They were turned away from America because they had not been able to secure the necessary documents before leaving Hamburg. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Eleanor Roosevelt and others tried to circumvent the immigration laws by attempting to land the passengers as tourists on the Virgin Islands. But regrettably, all were forced to return to Europe. This was three months before the outbreak of the war and three years before the establishment of death camps. No one realized, not even the Jewish refugees, that most of them would eventually be exterminated. |
| 12 | One of Roosevelt's fears was that if he used his political power to push for changes in immigration quotas, that isolationist Congress would counteract by reducing quotas instead. He evidently didn't believe in the old adage that "it doesn't hurt to ask." In The Abandonment of the Jews, David Wyman claimed that "If [Roosevelt] had wanted to, he could have aroused substantial public backing for a vital rescue effort by speaking out on the issue" (311). Public sentiment could have trickled down onto Congress and influenced them to allow Nazi victims into the U.S. in greater numbers. Nevertheless, before pronouncing Roosevelt's impotence in this area, it is important to understand that immigration problems are always very complicated, especially in times of War, and solutions are never simple and easy. |
| 13 | One of the purposes of immigration quotas is to deter corrupt political regimes from forcing their unwanted peoples on the rest of the world. No country can accept any and every refugee without limitations. This was one of the concerns expressed at the Evian Conference. On March 25, 1938, FDR called this international conference to facilitate the emigration of Germany and Austrian political refugees. FDR assured all 32 countries present that they would not be expected to change their immigration laws. He also affirmed that private organizations, rather than governments, would be encouraged to finance the movement of refugees. At the conference, Poland and Romania said they expected the same right as Germany, to expel their Jewish populations. This made it clear to those attending that loose immigration quotas would only encourage criminal acts of authoritarian governments to brutalize their unwanted populations in an effort to force democracies to give them haven. |
| 14 | Hitler's reaction to the Evian Conference was typical: I can only hope and expect that the other world, which has such deep sympathy for these criminals, will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships (qtd. in Morse 204).Benito Mussolini also wanted to dump European Jews in America. In a personal letter to the dictator, President Roosevelt suggested that Abyssinia be set aside for refugees. Mussolini promptly answered, "If the United States would accept a population density similar to that of Italy, it could by itself settle 1,400 million Jews; if America's interest in this problem were sincere, it should be possible to find adequate territory within the United States for only six hundred thousand" (qtd. in Perl). |
| 15 | Although the Evian conference was considered a failure, between 1938 and 1939, the United States stood up to its pledge to accept refugees up to the quota limits. As early as 1935, American consulates had received instructions to loosen their interpretation of the LPC clause. They were directed to give the people forced to leave Germany the most considerate attention and the most generous and favorable treatment possible under the laws. German immigration to the U.S. had already increased 20 percent by 1936. By 1937, German immigration had increased 78 percent over 1936 (Wyman, Paper Walls 5). FDR also modified Hoover's sponsorship rules when Hitler began confiscating the personal assets of Jewish immigrants. For these policies Roosevelt was strongly criticized by the Veteran's of Foreign Wars, The American Coalition of Patriotic Societies and other restrictions groups. His pro-Jewish attitude damaged him politically but he still continued his efforts. |
| 16 | On November 19, 1939, Roosevelt finally went against legal procedure and announced that twelve to fifteen thousand German refugees who had come to the United States on visitor's visas would not be forced to depart when they expired. The President had given instructions to extend their visas an additional six months and thenceforth to renew them for as long as might be necessary. He made it clear that the United States would not just stand by and let Jews return to concentration camps and other types of punishment. |
| 17 | For many German Jews it was inconceivable that such terrible things were happening in their own beloved country. They witnessed Hitler's coming to power with disbelief. They saw Nazi dominance as a temporary phenomenon. Jews who left the country did so reluctantly, many seeking refuge in neighboring countries, hoping to return to Germany after the Hitler madness subsided. Then, in November 1938, following the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Jew, all synagogues in Germany were set on fire, windows of Jewish shops were smashed, and thousands of Jews were arrested. This was Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass." It was a sudden and undeniable signal to Jews in Germany and Austria that they were in a desperate situation. Finally, when faced with terrorism and imprisonment, they had no other choice but to give up their homes and everything that they had worked for their whole lives. |
| 18 | No one could have predicted how far Hitler's madness would go and how many innocent lives would be shattered. After the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, Germany's Jews became prisoners as their emigration was prohibited. When France fell in June 1940, all of Europe became a dungeon of death. As Nazi oppression spread, the Jews of Central and Western Europe and the Soviet Union would also become trapped. Most of these people were not refugees before 1939 because they never imagined that they would be under Nazi rule. Three million Polish, 900,000 Ukrainian and 350,000 Russian Jews would die (Dawidowicz 403). Indeed, they would become the principal victims of the Holocaust. |
| 19 | In August of 1942, Gerhard Riegner, a Swiss representative of the World Jewish Congress sent a telegram to Rabbi Steven Wise, via the State Department. He informed Wise that a Nazi plan for the mass extermination of the European Jews was being implemented on East European soil: Four million Jews are on the verge of complete annihilation by a deliberate policy consisting of starvation, the ghetto system, slave labor, deportation under inhuman conditions and organized mass murder by shooting, poisoning and other methods. This policy of total destruction has been repeatedly proclaimed by Hitler and is now being carried out (qtd. in Morse 17).Rabbi Wise and the American Jewish Committee wanted to immediately publicize the atrocities but the State Department wanted the information withheld until it could be officially verified. In November 1942, Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles confirmed Rabbi Wise's worst fears. On December 17, 1942, President Roosevelt made an announcement in the name of the United Nations. He cautioned Hitler and the Germans that they would be held individually responsible for what they were doing to the Jews of Europe. |
| 20 | Evidently, Hitler did not take much stock in Roosevelt's warning. His desire to kill Jews seemed to be an overwhelming obsession. Two million Jews were put to death even before Auschwitz was opened and hundreds of thousands were shot, strangled or starved to death after it closed in November 1944. In The Politics of Rescue, Henry Feingold claimed that it was much easier for Hitler to murder Jews than it was for the Allies to rescue them. "The miracle needed to save European Jewry was never in the power of the Washington policy makers" (307). Although Roosevelt may have failed to save a significant number of Jews, evidence shows that he did try to save many. |
| 21 | In mid-1940 to mid-1941, the collapse of France and the ordeal of Great Britain primarily occupied Roosevelt's attention. During this time Roosevelt left refugee policy almost entirely to the State Department which, in effect, meant it fell to Assistant Secretary Breckinridge Long. This was one of Roosevelt's greatest mistakes. Under Breckinridge Long, the State Department did not represent what most would consider to be American generosity and decency. He reflected the attitudes of the Congress and not the administration. He looked at the turmoil in Germany as a European problem and not one that the U.S. should get involved in. Generally suspicious of foreigners, Long was determined to exclude immigrants who might conceivably turn out to be spies. His diary was full of charges that the refugee rescue advocates "were really acting as Berlin's agents and subverting the nation's war effort" (Feingold 307). |
| 22 | On January 16, 1944, Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. and John Pehle, also of the Treasury Department, met with Roosevelt and confronted him with the State Department's foot dragging and indifference towards the genocide. They handed FDR a report titled On the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews. They claimed that there was an intentional cover-up of the reports of genocide from Europe and intentional obstruction of action by the State Department. Two memoranda from Breckinridge Long were produced. One was sent to the visa officers at the consulate in Zurich Switzerland in 1942, directing them not to relay any report of the genocide from private individuals. The other was sent to all U.S. consulates in 1943, instructing them to delay and postpone all requests for visas (Leventhal). |
| 23 | FDR reacted to this information by establishing the War Refugee Board, with a mandate to rescue Jews and the authority to circumvent the State Department. John Pehle was appointed director. On February 11, 1944, Pehle wrote to Undersecretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, stressing that the leaders of the enemy nations must be convinced that the Allies were dedicated to the rescue of the Jews. On March 24, President Roosevelt issued a strong statement drafted by the War Refugee Board: In one of the blackest crimes of all history…the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe goes on unabated every hour…That these innocent people, who have already survived a decade of Hitler's fury, should perish on the very triumph over the barbarism which their persecution symbolizes, would be a major tragedy. It is therefore fitting that we should again proclaim our determination that none who participate in these acts of savagery shall go unpunished…That warning applies not only to the leaders but also to their functionaries and subordinates in Germany and in the satellite countries. All who knowingly take part in the deportation of Jews to their death in Poland…are equally guilty with the executioner. All who share the guilt shall share the punishment (qtd. in Morse 337). |
| 24 | The WRB achieved significant success, thanks to its dedicated staff, largely made up of the Treasury aides of Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. and some extraordinary agents in the field, including the legendary Raoul Wallenburg. As a result of President Roosevelt's strong warnings to Hungary to stop deportation and the WRB's untiring efforts, over 200,000 Hungarian Jews were rescued. Some think that if the WRB had been established earlier, additional lives could have been saved. But the WRB was established after Allies began to overpower the Germans, therefore their negotiations and requests were taken more seriously. If the Germans still had a chance to win the war their success would have been severely limited. Here again, there is much speculation. It is very easy to ask, "What if?" and then proclaim what ought to have been done. |
| 25 | On June 21, 1944, the WRB transmitted a request from an American Jewish organization to the War Department calling for bombing of Auschwitz. Many believed that air strikes against the death camp and the railways leading to it could disrupt the killing process. Later that month the Operations Division of the War Department ruled against the proposed bombing: The War Department is of the opinion that the suggested air operation is impracticable for the reason that it could be executed only by diversion of considerable air support essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations. The War Department fully appreciates the humanitarian importance of the suggested operation. However, after due consideration of the problem, it is considered that the most effective relief to victims of enemy persecution is the early defeat of the Axis, an undertaking to which we must devote every resource at our disposal (Wyman 292). |
| 26 | In The Abandonment of the Jews, historian David Wyman devotes an entire chapter to the bombing of Auschwitz (288-307). He believes that the "diversion explanation was no more than an excuse," and that "to the American military, Europe's Jews represented an extraneous problem and an unwanted burden" (307). He refers to the widely publicized reconnaissance photographs taken in August 1944, that show American bombers carrying out raids on industrial targets only a few miles away (299, 302). On one occasion bombs were unintentionally dropped near Auschwitz, striking an SS barracks. These photos also show the outline of the crematorium and the columns of prisoners lined up for the gas chambers. What many people do not realize about these photos is that they were not developed until 1978 and were readable only because of advanced technology developed by the CIA more than twenty years after the end of World War II (Rubinstein 165). |
| 27 | Although bombing Auschwitz was wanted by some, for many the idea was offensive. Preeminent holocaust historian, Lucy Dawidowicz, has argued that the Germans could have quickly rebuilt railways in 24 hours and that attacks on the complex would have killed thousands of Jewish inmates (Elson). Indeed, thousands of Jews were being murdered at Auschwitz, but for the Allies to assist in this process would have been absurd. To deliberately kill innocent people in an effort to put the death camp temporarily out of operation was never a serious option. Imagine how Hitler would have welcomed an Auschwitz bombing, claiming that even the Allies put no value on Jewish lives. |
| 28 | Evidence is lacking as to whether Roosevelt was ever consulted or even considered the question of bombing Auschwitz and the railways to it. During that time American forces were fully engaged with Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. The German armies were holding our forces at bay in Italy, causing heavy casualties. America and her allies were dangerously stretched across Western and Southern Europe. If the War Department had chosen to bomb Auschwitz, there is no real assurance that the number of Jewish lives saved would have been greater than the number of Jews saved by a speedy allied victory. Also, if hundreds, maybe thousands of Jewish civilians had been killed by Allied bombers, those who now defame Roosevelt for inaction would almost certainly denounce him for being an accomplice in the Nazi genocide. |
| 29 | There is indeed a great temptation to evaluate Roosevelt's presidential leadership, not from the standpoint of American's culture, priorities, and preoccupations, but from what we assume ought to have been appropriate beliefs and actions. Many of Roosevelt's critics have indulged in this temptation. David Wyman's The Abandonment of the Jews is the most popular example. This book is also the basis for a 1997 PBS documentary titled Deceit and Indifference. The purpose of this book and film is to place blame and responsibility on America for the deaths of thousands of European Jews. Totally focused on finding fault, Wyman fails to recognize any of America's strengths or accomplishments during the War. Most of all, he fails to comprehend that life in America during WWII will never be fully understood - except by those who lived through it. It is so easy to criticize and condemn Roosevelt from the easy chair of perfect hindsight. The more difficult task is to put down our pens and take action against the atrocities of our own time. We, too, may be judged for our passivity and silence. |
| 30 | Today, America still has not made great changes in immigration laws. We still do not offer haven to all of the world's oppressed peoples. Refugees from Albania are not pouring into America. Those who suffered from ethnic cleansing in Bosnia were not rescued either. Millions are starving in Africa and India. Why haven't we brought them to America, the land of milk and honey? There was genocide in Rwanda and the killing fields of Cambodia. Afghanistan, Vietnam and Palestine - all of these had refugees who were slaughtered. Why didn't we save them all by bringing them into America? Because the public and the Congress would not support it. |
| 31 | But America will support war. In December 1942, Richard Lichtheim, a representative of the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland said, "You cannot divert a tiger from devouring his prey by adopting resolutions or sending cables. You have to take your gun and shoot him" (qtd. in vanden Heuvel). President Roosevelt duplicated this sentiment when he stressed time and again that the best way to save the Jews from Hitler's massive murder machine was to win the war as quickly as possible. Jan Karski, a courier for the underground Polish Resistance was assured by Roosevelt that this victory was to be expected. |
| 32 | On July 28, 1943, Karski was summoned to the White House to report to President Roosevelt. He talked and answered questions for an hour and a half. He told the President, "The Germans persecute my people; they deny us education, send us to concentrations camps, they want to make us a nation of slaves. With the Jews, it is different. They want to exterminate them." Before Karski departed, he pleaded with Roosevelt: "I am going back to Poland. People will know that I was received by the President of the United States. Everybody will ask me: what did President Roosevelt tell you? What am I to tell them?" Roosevelt replied, "You will tell them that we shall win this war! You will tell them that the guilty ones will be punished. Justice and freedom shall prevail. You will tell your nation that they have a friend in this house" (Karski). |
| 33 | Despite Roosevelt's commitment, 6 million of his Jewish friends died. Their memory should forever inspire mankind to rid the world of hate and prejudice. But no matter how repulsed we are by the Holocaust, we must not forget that it was part of a horrendous World War that killed over 50 million people. World War II was not only a war to save the Jews, but a war against tyranny. In 1941, the United States entered the war with the fear that its democratic way of life might be destroyed by the Axis powers. FDR mobilized all of America's industrial, military, and human resources to defeat Germany's modern, highly trained and equipped military force. Because of his leadership, democracy and Western civilization was saved. Hitler imagined a world dominated by a perfect race. We can thank FDR for crushing his dreams. |
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Nominated and Edited by Dr. Jackie Flowers, History Instructor and Dr. Bradley Stiles, Writing Instructor
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