Reaction to the Holocaust in AmericaBy: Madeline Bross, Mohommad Ali Garada, Danielle Metivier, Brooklynn Curtis-White, Alison Veresh, and Mazen Zamzam

Mr. deZwaan-B13/7/2014

U.S. Reaction to Nazi Anti-Jewish Policies During the 1930s Before World War II Jews were being mistreated by Germany. The

Nuremberg Laws were used by the German government to oppress the Jews.

By the end of 1938 Jews were officially excluded from economic life

and banned from shops and businesses. Despite the known

mistreatment of Jews in German, Americans were against

increasing the immigration quota.

Kristallnacht: November 9, 1938. A young Jew, Herschel

Grynszpan, murdered Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat, in

Paris on the ninth of November. That night more than 1000

synagogues were destroyed, 91 Jews were killed, and 30,000

Jews were placed in concentration camps. Seven thousand

Jewish businesses were destroyed and thousands of

Jewish homes were attacked (Wright 162). The Jews

had to pay the Nazi government one billion marks for

the damage. After the Kristallnacht tragedy,

Roosevelt extended the visas of visiting Jews so they could stay in

the United States longer. The US ambassador was recalled from

Germany. Roosevelt combined the immigration quotas of Germany

and Austria so that Austrian Jews could still immigrate.

After Kristallnacht a poll was taken asking, “Should the USA

take a large number of Jewish exiles from Germany to come here to

live permanently?” Seventy five percent of the respondents said no

Above: Herschel Grynszpan

Below: Ernst vom Rath

QUICK FACTS:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) served as America’s

32nd president. Roosevelt served for 12 straight years,

through the entirety of the war!

(Wright 163). Rogers Bill 1939 proposed admitting 20,000 Jewish children into

the USA above the specified quota. There was a positive response yet an

opinion poll revealed that 61% of respondents were against the bill. The

concern was that parents would eventually follow the children during the time

of high unemployment. Once Roosevelt saw the scale of opposition he didn’t

support the bill, which was defeated in February 1939. The American public was

less concerned about the restrictions placed on Jews in Germany because of the

Jim Crow mindset that was still apparent in the

United States.

The S.S. St. Louis CaseOn May 13, 1939, The S.S. St. Louis, part of the Hamburg-America Line

(Hapag), was tied up at Shed 76 awaiting its next voyage which was to take

Jewish refugees from Germany to Cuba. On the voyage were 930 passengers

(Wright 164). Almost all were Jews fleeing from Germany. When the S.S St. Louis

arrived in Cuba, the refugees were not allowed to leave the ship. The ship

remained docked for a couple of days until it was told to leave by Cuban

authorities. After leaving Cuban waters the ship sailed along Florida’s coast, but

the US authorities also denied the ship to dock (Wright 165).

There were several attempts to persuade the United States government to

provide refuge for the Jewish passengers, including a personal telegram from

Jim Crow was a fictional character who was shown as a uneducated, foolish, poor

black. Jim Crow was very popular among the white crowd at the time.

the passenger committee on board the St. Louis to President Roosevelt, but it

received no reply.  An agreement was finally reached on June fifth that allowed

them to enter Cuba for a $453,000 bond ($500.00 per refugee), which was to

be paid the following day (Wright 165).

The American-Jewish joint distribution committee could not meet the

deadline.

After Cuba and then the United States denied these refugees entry, the St.

Louis was forced to return to Europe on June 6, 1939. Following difficult

negotiations started by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the

ship was able to dock in Antwerp, Belgium; and the governments of Belgium,

Holland, France, and the United Kingdom agreed to accept the refugees. By

1940, all of the passengers, except those who escaped to England, found

themselves once again under Nazi rule (Wright 165).

The S.S. St. Louis Jewish refugees on deck

“Our government in Washington made no effort to relieve the desperate situation of these people but on the contrary gave orders that they be kept out of the country...” (Wright 165)

The HolocaustAfter rising to power, Adolf Hitler began

take action to complete his Final Solution, a plan

to wipe out the people he considered inferior in

order to create the “Master Race”. People who

were Jewish, Polish, mentally and/or physically ill

were among Hitler’s main targets.

Over the years, groups working for Hitler such as

the Gestapo and SS would round up big crowds of

Hitler's enemies and either kill them or force them

to move. The places Hitler's enemies had to move

to were built specifically for isolation, forced labor,

and eventually, extermination. One place that

victims were sent to was the ghettos.

Ghettos were used to isolate Jewish (and other

targeted groups) from the approved German

citizens. Eventually, all people were moved out.  

The ghettos were unsanitary, cramped, and

strictly guarded by the Nazis (Wood 62-63). It was common for one’s whole

family to have to live in one room.

Adolf Hitler’s targets during the Holocaust were people who were:

• Jewish• Polish• Slovac• Mentally/physically ill• Gypsies/Romanies• Homosexuals• Communists• Social democrats• Socialists

“This is what happened. This is the moment. This is what must be remembered.” –Ben Cosgrove; LIFE magazine editor

Many Jewish people arrived via cattle car pulled by train. These cars were cramped and unsanitary; thousands died on the way.

After the ghettos, people were moved into concentration camps. In

concentration camps, people were sorted into bunkhouses, given cramped

wooden frames for beds, and were made to do hard labor (Wood 104).

Prisoners of these camps did not receive much

to eat, and guards were cruel, shooting or

beating up prisoners (Wood 105).

These camps also served a deadlier purpose: to kill as many of Hitler’s

enemies as possible. Daily, people who were weak or tired would be rounded

up and herded into gas chambers that were masked as shower rooms. Gases

such as Zyklon B (poison) would be dropped through the ceiling, killing those

inside. (Wood 109) Large crematoriums (ovens) were used to burn the bodies.

This awful event continued until 1945 when Germany started losing the war and

Allied forces found and put a stop to the camps.

These Polish children were each numbered and photographed after their arrival at Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the most infamous camps from the Holocaust.

U.S. Responses to Nazi Policies During the War

The United States became involved in World War II the same way it had

become involved in the First World War. As in World

War I, President Woodrow Wilson had a mindset for

the United States to embrace isolationism and

remain neutral.

This worked until Japan bombed a U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,

on December seventh, 1941, killing and injuring thousands (Wright). America

declared war on Japan, an ally with Germany, and officially entered World War II.

In turn, Germany declared war on the U.S., leading to major conflicts, one of the

largest issues being the Holocaust.

After the Holocaust many European Jews came to the U.S. to escape the

remaining Nazi supporters (Wright).  America did not have a limit on the

number of immigrants coming from Europe, but after the amount of people

entering increased, a quota system was established where only a certain

Isolationism- belief that a country should not become involved with o t h e r c o u n t r i e s : n o t m a k i n g agreements with other countries; usually to prevent further conflict

Buchenwald’s “Children’s Block 66” (a special barracks for children) camp survivors after

number of people were allowed to enter at a time (Wright). Franklin Delano

Roosevelt came out and said that what Hitler was doing was unethical and

should be put to an end, but the US was unable to make many drastic

measures.

After Hitler’s continued use of the concentration camps, America finally

stepped in to finally bring the Holocaust to an end. The U.S. military gradually

weakened the German army so they may free the people in the camps. By this

point the United States had strengthened its home front workforce by hiring

several women to build military weapons. With the increase of weapons

production the U.S. gained the upper hand in the war.

Hitler committed suicide on April 30th of 1945 by shooting himself in the

head (Wright). This officially ended the war with Germany, though conflicts with

Japan still lasted and recovery would take several more years.

Holocaust:

9 November 1938-early

May 1945

Recovery continues for

several years.

Works Cited

Ed. Ronald M. Smelser. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. pxvii-xx.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Macmillan Reference USA, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale

Wood, Angela G. Holocaust: The Events and Their Impact on Real People. New York: DK, 2007.

Print.

Wright, John. Access to History for the IB Diploma: The Second World War and the Americas

1933-45. London: Hodder Education, 2013. Print.

Pictures Citations

Section 1: U.S. Reaction to Nazi Anti-Jewish Policies During the 1930s

Section 2:

Section 3: The Holocaust

Bourke-White, Margaret. “Prisoners gazing out of Buchenwald…” Life Behind the Picture: The

Liberation of Buchenwald, 1945. LIFE Magazine. TIME. 2013. Web. <http://

life.time.com/history/buchenwald-photos-from-the-liberation-of-the-camp-april-1945/

#7>.

Bourke-White, Margaret. “Prisoners at Buchenwald…” Life Behind the Picture: The Liberation

of Buchenwald, 1945. LIFE Magazine. TIME. 2013. Web. <http://life.time.com/history/

buchenwald-photos-from-the-liberation-of-the-camp-april-1945/#5>.

“Auschwitz.” Auschwitz and Justice. World Without Genocide. 2012. Web. <http://

worldwithoutgenocide.org/auschwitz-and-justice>.

Section Four: U.S. Reaction to Nazi Policies During the War

“Woman’s Job Advertisement.” Women in WWII At a Glance. The National World War II

Museum of New Orleans. Web. <http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/

for-students/ww2-history/at-a-glance/women-in-ww2.html>.

“Liberation of ‘Children’s Block 66’.” Liberation of Nazi Camps-Photographs. United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum.