Interestingly enough, the letter from Mr. Winton to Franklin D. Roosevelt doesn't specifically mention Jewish children. Wonder why? Was Winton thinking that if he mentioned the "J" word, Roosevelt would be less inclined to respond positively? Or was it merely understood, given the geographical and historical context, that the children referred to were predominantly Jewish?
Regardless, Roosevelt's lack of response was very much consistent with his historical record, and that of his administration (especially the State Dept.) of callousness toward the plight of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, which is well documented in, e.g., Arthur D. Morse's book, "While 6 Million Died," published c. 1967.
Yet American Jewish Voters gave Roosevelt higher percentages of their vote than any other presidential candidate in modern history. Many American Jews during that period foolishly considered Roosevelt as an icon, a status that has been regrettably passed down through the generations by sheer ignorance. (By contrast, Roosevelt's chief opponent in the 1932 presidential race, Herbert Hoover, had much better record on European Jewish concerns during the periods after WWI and after WWII. Although not a particularly good president, Hoover can truly be considered an outstanding humanitarian before and after his years in the White House.)
Could have been written today.
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...