HOLOCAUST, AMERICAN RESPONSE TO
The American response to the Holocaust is characterized by a series of fluctuating policies. One must first examine the attitude of Americans towards the persecution of Germany's Jewish population under the Nazi regime and then examine how these attitudes changed once the war began in 1939.
persecution and immigration, 1931–1939
As Jews in Germany faced increasing acts of violence and discrimination sponsored by Hitler's government, some American Jewish leaders and American Christian liberals urged the U.S. State Department to alter their standards with regards to German Jewish immigration. By 1936 U.S. immigration officials did change their considerations to include the level of a German Jew's education, job skills, and affidavits of support from American relatives. In just one year this new policy led to a near doubling in the amount of visas granted to German Jews.
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The immigration situation became further complicated in 1938 with the Nazi annexation of Austria and the subsequent increase in persecuted Jews living in the former Austrian lands. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suggested that the immigration laws be further liberalized and added that the application wording of "Jewish refugees" should be changed to "political refugees." It has been argued that he was motivated to change this wording because he was well aware that public opinion polls demonstrated an American perception that Jews already held too much power. It should also be mentioned that due to the effects of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt understood that many Americans were unwilling or unable to extend humanitarian aid to foreigners. Even among some Jewish groups in America, there were divided opinions regarding the crisis in Germany and Austria.
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The year 1938 turned out to be a pivotal year for it saw an increase in immigration quotas, the unsuccessful introduction of a congressional bill to aid 20,000 German Jewish children, and an international conference to discuss the Jewish refugee question. In July 1938, Evian, France, became the host site for a conference of thirty-two nations. Most of the nations in attendance were there to explain why their countries could not alter immigration restrictions to accept additional Jewish refugees. In this respect the American delegation was no different from the other countries present. Perhaps the only positive result of the Evian meeting was the creation of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR), commissioned by the attendees to negotiate with the Nazis about Jewish immigration. Unfortunately, with war looming on the horizon, nothing substantial came of this new committee.
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war and jewish refugees, 1939–1941
As Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the American public was consumed with worries of possible internal subversion. This overwhelming fear of potential enemy spies on American soil led to a major shift
In American policy towards refugees. In an ironic twist, as Jews in Europe faced increased danger, immigration legislation was now altered to make it increasingly more difficult for them to gain entry to America. By 1941 Congress had made immigration so restricted that only a very small percentage of European immigration quotas were met.
From 1933 to 1941 most of the officials who had been working on the Jewish refugee question had aimed at the resettlement of Jews outside of Nazi-occupied Europe; now their focus shifted to rescue and aid efforts. By 1941 the Nazis had initiated a policy of planned extermination of Europe's Jewish population. By late 1941 the western press began to carry reports of Nazi atrocities. But to many Americans, the idea of mass annihilation of an entire group of people was unimaginable. Linked to this sense of disbelief was the memory that Americans had been tricked by British propaganda into believing that Germans had committed atrocities in Belgium in World War I. There was a tendency to discount much of the reported suffering as just Allied propaganda. In addition, officials in the U.S. government had decided by 1941 that military objectives were to be given top priority; any civilians suffering persecution by the Nazis would best be served by an Allied victory. In short, the argument was to win the war, thereby saving lives in general.
protest against extermination, 1942–1945
