THE UNITED STATES AND THE HOLOCAUST Essay

, Research Paper

The United States and the Holocaust

I. Public

A. Opinion

B. Anti-Semitism

C. Pro-Jew

II. Government

A. Immigration

1. Laws

2. Quotas

3. Policy

B. Conferences

1. Evian

2. British Meeting

III. S.S. St. Louis

IV. War Refugee Board

A. Executive Order No. 9417

B. Effects

The United States has turned a blind eye to many things, tax evasion, corruption, graft, greed, .back pocket action,. and countless other things, but what it did during World War II was unlike any of the above. Throughout this paper you will see United States reaction and policy in the presence of what Nazi Germany called the Final Solution, what the rest of the world recognized as, The Holocaust.

Public opinion has always played a huge role in how American responds to anything. From a new law to whether or not to go to war, if a president wants to be re-elected he will go with the people. Unfortunately, the people are not always right. For instance, in a 1942 opinion poll, Jews were ranked third when asked which group of people were a menace to America (America Deceit and Indifference). Other polls through out the country showed the same, even before the U.S. entered the war, a poll in 1939 showed that over half of the country, 53%, said that Jews should be treated specially and restricted (America Deceit and Indifference). An anti-Semitic aura was in the air throughout the United States, Jews couldn.t get jobs in many places, speakers such as Fr. Coughlin spewed anti-Jewish material out, the American Nazi party held rallies, and even the media was against the Jews. When the story first broke about the genocide in Germany, it was carried by the New York Times on the tenth page. In fact, throughout the war, the news of the massacre never made the front page of any major newspaper.

With all that pressure against the Jews, saving them would seem like a lost cause in the United States, however numerous organizations rallied, held protests, and exerted influence on the Washington government to do something. Louis D. Brandeis was just one of the many prominent American Jews who refused to let his brothers across the sea die. He was instrumental in getting the Roosevelt administration to ease up on visa requirements and get all the Jews applying for entrance gain entry. While no large-scale official boycott was placed on German goods, Jewish and non-Jewish leaders all over the country organized a boycott of German goods, hoping that economic pressure would gain an alternate ending to Hitler.s Final Solution.

Unfortunately, all the boycotts and rallies could not help the Jews trapped in Germany and German occupied areas. What those unfortunate souls needed was a place to go, and for that, only the U.S. government could help. However, due to increased nationalism during the 1920.s, Congress had passed the Immigration Law of 1924 that enacted quotas allowing only a certain number of people from each country into the United States. In fact, at the time of the holocaust, only 52,000 Germans would be allowed to immigrate to the United States in one year (Comprehensive Immigration Law 2). There were not enough spots to get all the people out who needed it.

When it came to immigration, the United States was very strict about how many people it let in. Nevertheless, they did show they wanted to help the Jews so in July 1938 they called the Evian Conference. This conference was supposed to help decide where all the Jews coming from Germany would be able to settle, but since the U.S. and other main powers would not allow more immigrants, the smaller countries followed suit and nothing was accomplished. Since the Evian Conference did not accomplish anything, the United States agreed to a closed-door meeting with British officials over the matter of rescuing Jews from Nazi occupied territory. While this looked good on the outside, U.S. representatives were sent there with .secret directives from the State Department to accomplish little or anything.. (Primary Sources 3).

Not only did the United States try to keep Jews from her border in the conferences, but official policy in Washington was showing that too. In a memo from Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long to State Department Officials, Long outlined ways that the State Department could cut down the number of visas issued.

.We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls, to put every obstacle in the way.. (Memo 1)

By issuing that memo, Long was hoping to postpone and delay any immigrants chance of getting to the U.S. His order did its job, and by the end of 1940, issued visas had been cut in half (America Deceit and Indifference). Not only was visa issuance severely crippled, but also immigration to the United States. In 1939, the number of new immigrants to the United States was 82,998, by the 1943 the floodgates of immigration had been closed to a trickle and only 23,725 foreigners were immigrating to the United States (Immigration to the US). And the decrease was not because people stopped wanting to move to the U.S.

One of the main .official. reasons for not allowing quotas to be increas

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать