Reaction to the Holocaust in America By: Madeline Bross, Mohommad Ali Garada, Danielle Metivier, Brooklynn Curtis-White, Alison Veresh, and Mazen Zamzam
Mr. deZwaan-B1 3/7/2014
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
concentration
30,000
camps.
Jews
Seven
were
placed
thousand
in
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. QUICK FACTS:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) served as America’s 32nd president. Roosevelt served for 12 straight years, through the entirety of the war!
Above: Herschel Grynszpan
Below: Ernst vom Rath
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 (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. 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 S.S. St. Louis Case On 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 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).
Jewish refugees on deck The S.S. St. Louis 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 Holocaust After rising to power, Adolf Hitler began take action to complete his Final Solution, a plan Adolf Hitler’s targets during the 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.
Holocaust were people who were: • Jewish • Polish • Slovac • Mentally/physically ill • Gypsies/Romanies • Homosexuals • Communists • Social democrats • Socialists
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. “This is what happened. This is the moment. This is what must be remembered.” –Ben Cosgrove; LIFE magazine editor
Ghettos were used to isolate Jewish (and other Many Jewish people arrived via cattle car pulled by train. These cars were cramped and unsanitar y; thousands died on the way.
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.
(TIMELINE HERE)
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 Polish children were each numbered and photographed after their ar rival at Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the most infamous camps from the Holocaust.
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.
(TIMELINE HERE)
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 Isolationism- belief that a country
should not become involved with
mindset for the United States to embrace o t h e r c o u n t r i e s : n o t m a k i n g isolationism and remain neutral.
agreements with other countries; usually to prevent further conflict
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.
Buchenwald’s “Children’s Block 66” (a special barracks for children) camp survivors after liberation
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 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
concentration
continued camps,
use
America
of
the
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.
Reaction to the Holocaust in America By: Madeline Bross, Mohommad Ali Garada, Danielle Metivier, Brooklynn Curtis-White, Alison Veresh, and Mazen Zamzam
Mr. deZwaan-B1 3/7/2014
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
concentration
30,000
camps.
Jews
Seven
were
placed
thousand
in
Jewish
businesses were destroyed and thousands of Jewish
Above: Herschel Grynszpan
Below: Ernst vom Rath
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, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Should the USA take a large number of Jewish exiles from Germany to come here to live permanently?â&#x20AC;? Seventy five percent of the respondents said no (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 didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.
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 S.S. St. Louis Case On 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 Floridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 the passenger committee on board the St. Louis to President Roosevelt, but it received no reply. Â 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 Holocaust After rising to power, Adolf Hitler began Adolf Hitler’s targets during the 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.
Holocaust were people who were: • Jewish • Polish • Slovac • Mentally/physically ill • Gypsies/Romanies • Homosexuals • Communists • Social democrats • Socialists
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. “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 unsanitar y; thousands died on the way.
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.
(TIMELINE HERE)
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 Polish children were each numbered and photographed after their ar rival at Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the most infamous camps from the Holocaust.
These camps also served a deadlier purpose: to kill as many of Hitlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.
(TIMELINE HERE)
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 Isolationism- belief that a country
should not become involved with
mindset for the United States to embrace o t h e r c o u n t r i e s : n o t m a k i n g isolationism and remain neutral.
agreements with other countries; usually to prevent further conflict
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.
Buchenwald’s “Children’s Block 66” (a special barracks for children) camp survivors after liberation
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 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
Hitlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
concentration
continued camps,
use
America
of
the
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.