Posted on 05/18/2014 10:06:43 PM PDT by Nachum
Last month, 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon told the remarkable story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a stockbroker in London who saved 669 Czech children-- most of them Jewish--from the Nazis during WWII. England took in almost all of the 669 children. Winton, now 104 years old, told 60 Minutes he had made a desperate plea for help to the United States back in 1939. He said he had written a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, describing the plight of the Czech children and asking that America grant refuge to a number of them. "But the Americans wouldn´t take any,
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I wish it were really possible to make our people at home understand how definitely this martial spirit is being developed in Germany. If this government remains in power for another year, and it carries on in the measure in this direction, it will go far toward making Germany a danger to world peace for years to come. With few exceptions, the men who are running the government are of a mentality that you and I cannot understand. Some of them are psychopathic cases and would ordinarily be receiving treatment somewhere."
To get him out of the way, sent him to Uraguay, then to Austria of all places
Ambassador Dodd, father of the wild one Martha, who had relations with prominent Nazis and Communists, raised alarms about the treatment of Jews, and the threat to America. He lasted till 38 or so
Wasn't popular, cost you invites to parties, but some reporters covered what was happening to Jews in the 30s. One Tribune reporter, don't recall the name, left under direct orders from Robert McCormick who had knowledge of his impending detainment or worse for his stories, left the country. Late 30s, posted to Tokyo of all places. Sigrid Schultz, also a Tribune reporter close to Goebbels was one of the first, if not the first, to write about the detention, to become death, camps being built in 1940. The Tribune, courageous, refused to print her articles. Before wars end, she wrote a book, Germany Will Try It Again, arguing against allowing Germany to rearm again, ever.
Obviously no one knew about the death camps in 1939, but FDR knew about the persecution. Just as he knew about the unused visas for residents from eastern Europe. Concluded they were better left unused.
As to your question about identifying the children as Jewish, maybe he thought identification as Jewish would be a negative, maybe he just thought the leader of a nation like the USA would care about the children, without regard to religion
Jewish wasn't popular at the time, even in America. Did you know Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, kept the religious heritage Whitney a secret throughout his career. Berlin brought it out in the late 30s, embarrassing.
BTW, Republicans were no better, they simply weren't in power.
Jews voted for (what Hitler called), “Rosenveldt”, FDR in 1933 and to 1944 because he was a “Progressive”.
Nobody, except in postions of very high power knew what was actually going on with the Jews in Europe and those that were informed could not believe it until the camps were liberated. The “War effort” of destroying Germany's ability to wage war was far more crucial to the Allies than Jews being murdered.
In the 30’s the Nazis told the Jews to get out of Europe and go to Palestine (no, not Arafart’s PLO), now in 2014 they're telling those same Jews to leave Palestine (Israel). Some things never change...
I maybe misreading you, but let's not give Roosevelt and his administration a free pass for flubbing multiple opportunities to save endangered European Jews.
I'd respectfully suggest that you try to obtain a copy of "While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy," by Arthur D. Morse, originally published in 1967. There was also a paperback edition. It's a well-researched history of American government failures to save European Jewish refugees, by not following up on and not supporting rescue plans which could have saved lives without compromising the war effort.
The existence of death camps in Poland was well known to Roosevelt and others in the Administration by August of 1942, based on information supplied by representatives of the Polish government in exile. There was even a German businessman/spy with inside info from top ranking Nazis who courageously leaked the Nazi genocide strategy to the World Jewish Congress in neutral Switzerland, from which it was transmitted to the US.
I've heard of Hull. IIRC, he's part of the story of the foot-dragging by the Roosevelt administration in rescuing European Jews during the Nazi era. But please explain who "Whitney" was and his religious heritage.
Sorry, Whitney was his wife, Jewish. Four years as an elected judge, 22 years in the House, DNC Chairman, pal of Al Gore Sr, 3 in the Senate before embarking on over a decade as Secretary of State. Whitney’s cultural background was a secret known to a few, but not voters.
I don't think those officials doubted it, they did have a war on their hands, and killing the Jews of Europe wasn't a priority. But they knew. Probably knew more than most of the citizens of Europe outside the smell of the chimneys, though most must have wondered where the Jews went. Hutton Gibson was wrong, it wasn't NY, Miami, London and Sydney.
And if they didn't believe it, the escape of Witold Pilecki, another Polish officer who volunteered to enter Auschwitz, and two associates should have settled the issue. Though a few million dead later. He brought not just first person testimony, but documents from Auschwitz. In 1943. Those in positions of power knew everything.
I've no interest, but one can argue what could or could not have been done, but that the knowledge wasn't there is nonsense.
For what it's worth, Karski stayed in the US, received multiple honors over the years, was a professor of Bill Clinton who clearly learned nothing about Genocide from him, has streets named after him in the US, honorary Israeli citizen, lived a long life.
Pilecki returned to Poland, fought in the Warsaw uprising (1944), served in the anti-communist underground post war, and was executed by the communists.
They knew, yes, they knew but they were not about to divert “War Effort” resources to save millions of Jews, besides FDR are and many centers of power in Washington, London and Paris didn't really care for the Jews anyway.
You stated:
...by not following up on and not supporting rescue plans which could have saved lives without compromising the war effort.
The FDR administration felt the exact opposite. Diverting resources to bomb concentration camps meant US/British bombers being shot down NOT on a mission to knock out the Schwienfurt Ball bearing factories but for “Humanitarian” purposes? Sorry to be so cynical but even today after the Holocaust nations follow their interests even if that means millions die.
No, even the British who could have opened Palestine for the flood of Jews appeased the Arabs (yes, Arabs, long before they decided to call themselves "Palestinians", read PLO).
Nobody wanted the Jews and the case is still the same only now, nobody wants the State of Israel to exist and flourish, which she does.
The Israelis take a good long look at what is happening all around them and they know, for not the Israel Defense Forces and American aid (which Obama gives reluctantly) they would be slaughtered in a way that is happening in Syria today.
You don't seem to grasp the fact that many of the proposed schemes to save some European Jews during the Holocaust period might not have involved Allied military resources at all, or not to any great extent. Some of them could have been implemented even before the start of WWII, like the admitting the St. Louis refugees or admitting some of the Czech children referred to in this thread. They were largely "private sector" operations, which could have benefited by just a bit of American government cooperation.
Again, I'd strongly recommend the book "While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy," written by Arthur D. Morse and published c. 1967 which delves into a sad history that few are aware of.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/07/opinion/la-oe-medoff-roosevelt-holocaust-20130407
When the transcripts of the February 1945 Yalta conference between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin were made public ten years later, an interesting passage was initially redacted, but then released as a result of protests:
Three days later, the text of FDR’s censored statement was published, by U.S. News and World Report. It reported that when Roosevelt mentioned he would soon be seeing Saudi Arabian leader Ibn Saud, Stalin asked if he intended to make any concessions to the king; “The President replied that there was only one concession he thought he might offer and that was to give him the six million Jews in the United States.”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/fdr-to-stalin-i-would-give-saudi-king-6-million-jews/
George S. Messersmith. Granted a visa to Einstein in 1932.
As a Jew, as an American(and as an Israeli) I am well aware of the world’s slumber 1933-1945. All nations could have saved millions but chose to turn away and let the Jews die. Post war they let Muslims flood in and now will be battling them. I’ve read many books, thank you.
Thanks, missed your post when you made it, but a recent one drew me back to the thread. Not having a great memory, Berlin Embassy, pre war, Messerschmidt is how I remember his name, show’s you what that technique is worth if you’re not careful. Dodd is easy thanks to the thankfully former Senator or no relation.
My daughter was doing a report on the Holocaust (on her own, not taught in school yet). She asked my mom (94 last year, RIP) about the Holocaust, and she said that she didn’t know much about it. I am guessing that after the war most people were just glad to have their husbands home, etc. and put the awful things of the war behind them. (With the government’s and media’s help of course).
In the Freeper WW II posts with the old newspapers there are sometimes articles on the plight of the Jews in Germany, but they are few and don’t get the big headlines.
One thing FDR could have done pre war at no cost to us was to pressure the Brits to live up to their obligations under the Mandate and facilitate the settlement of the Jewish people in Palestine. That’s what they signed up for. I doubt they’d have said a thing, though they’d have dragged their feet, but many Brits knew what was coming. Hundreds of thousands, maybe more, might have been saved had Palestine been open to Jewish settlement per international agreements. A bit later, he could have told the Brits what to use their White Paper for. If they didn’t like it, FDR could have reminded them in late 1939 when the Neutrality Acts were loosened. In 41 when lend-lease cranked up, there was an opportunity to raise the issue. The cost of immigration to Israel or the Brits to allow Jews into Palestine, zero. The “leverage” lost with the Brits for raising the issue, even less, they knew they needed us. The lives of Jews simply didn’t matter in the scheme of things.
That's it and, oh yeah, by the way there was the Holocaust where 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their henchmen.
Had my late father NOT served in the USAAF, bombing Germany and had we kids NOT received a thorough grounding about that period and had we NOT been Jews, I think our knowledge and understanding would have been minimal.
The level of understanding about that period was negligible for my generation (1958), now, it is even less so. I think that is why Hollywood has taken it upon itself to produce so many WWII era films or miniseries since 1998 in order to educate kids that did not grow up in the shadow of WWII. For all my criticisms about Hollywood, that it one noble venture to their credit.
“No American in 1939 (or in 1944, for that matter) could have grasped just exactly what the Holocaust was about.”
The Wansee Conference is when and where the Nazi leadership decided upon the Final Solution, it’s after this that they built extermination camps. The Wansee Conference happened on January 20, 1942. The Nazis didn’t advertise what they were doing and built most of the death camps in Poland in part to keep them secret.
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