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Washington - President FDR'S Failure To Take Action After Kristallnacht Gave The Green Light To Germany |
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Nov 11 1938 NY Times Headline, and President FDR did nothing to protest
A Jewish shop in Berlin...
Some Germans claimed after the war that they did not know what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. On Kristallnacht, for the first and only time during the Third Reich, historian Ian Kershaw observed, "the German public was confronted directly on a nationwide scale with the full savagery of the attack on the Jews."
After Kristallnacht, a member of the Hitler Youth admitted, "no German old enough to walk could ever plead ignorance of the persecution of the Jews, and no Jews could harbor any delusion that Hitler wanted Germany anything but judenrein, clean of Jews."
While many Americans would also claim they were unaware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, the events of November 9-10 were well documented. The New York Times ran a front-page story on November 11: "A wave of destruction, looting and incendiarism unparalleled in Germany since the Thirty Years War and in Europe generally since the Bolshevist Revolution swept over Great Germany today as National Socialist cohorts took vengeance on Jewish shops, offices and synagogues for the murder by a young Polish Jew of Ernst vom Rath, third secretary of the German Embassy in Paris." Another Times story was headlined, "All Vienna's synagogues attacked."
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT made no immediate comment after Kristallnacht, referring questions about it to the State Department. Only after five days of widespread public outrage did he take any action: recalling the US ambassador from Germany and stating in a press conference, "The news of the past few days from Germany has deeply shocked public opinion in the US. Such news from any part of the world would inevitably produce a similar profound reaction among American people in every part of the nation. I myself could scarcely believe that such things could happen in a 20th century civilization..."
Roosevelt agreed to allow 15,000 German Jews already in the United States to remain, but resisted all calls to increase the overall quota of immigrants from Nazi-occupied countries. Equally significant, his failure to take any action against Germany, or to mobilize an international coalition to challenge Hitler, sent the message that the world would not intervene to save the Jews. How much he could have done given the isolationist and xenophobic mood of the American public at that time is debatable, but the consequences of his inaction were catastrophic.
On January 21, 1939, Hitler told the Czech foreign minister, "We are going to destroy the Jews." Nine days later he spoke of "the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe." By the time the war started in September 1939, most Jews, about 370,000, had escaped Germany and Austria. The 175,000 who remained were viewed by the Nazis as hostages in case the Jews outside Germany were considering any vengeful acts.
The deportation of German Jews to their deaths began in October 1941. At the end of April 1943, 150 Jewish children who had been living on a farm training to be Zionist pioneers were deported in one of the final transports of German Jews. Most died in concentration camps. Fewer than 10,000 of the 131,800 German Jews targeted for extermination by the Nazis survived.
Of the 43,700 Austrian Jews who had failed to escape the Nazis, fewer than 2,000 returned to their homes after the war. These were just a fraction of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
On this 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht we should be reminded of Edmund Burke's warning: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
The writer is author of the newly-released 48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust - An Oral History and director of the Jewish Virtual Library.
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Read Comments (22) — Post Yours »
1
Nov 09, 2008 at 04:59 PM anonymous Says:
So true in 1938 the Associated Press, Reuters and other foreign news agencies freely operated in Vienna but the gates remained closed even though my mother A'H frantically tried to exit avenue for me. The Nazis sarcastically remarked "Niemand will die juedische Fratzen"Nobody wants the Jewish brats. It was this apathy including the failed Evans conference which gave the Nazis the green light for total extermination or Vernichtung.
2
Nov 09, 2008 at 05:47 PM Yitzchak Says:
I own a rare book which quotes a remark made by FDR that shows his total disdain for Jewish life and his near sympathy with Germany's attempt to destroy the Jews of Europe. Anyone who needs further information [a writer or historian] for his research may E-mail me for further information at ravizzy@verizon.net.
3
Nov 09, 2008 at 05:45 PM AMG Says:
thousands arrested for protection sounds like the giving stategic land for a peace of murder in our time
4
Nov 09, 2008 at 05:50 PM Yudi Mandel Says:
"How much he could have done given the isolationist and xenophobic mood of the American public at that time is debatable," It's not debatable, it's fact. Nobody thought that Hitler was gonna get out of hand as he did, & no one took any action whatsoever. And if you'r gonna blame a world leader for inaction, wouldn't that obviously be Chamberlain, who had direct contact with Hitler, & all he did was give in to his demands? There are dozens, if not hundreds of books & articles on WWII theories, mistakes, blunders, coulda, shoulda, woulda. History's not gonna change. But how about the genocide that's taking place right now, all over Africa for example? 2 million dead in the Sudan alone! Which world leader is doing anything about that? Nothing. Bottom line is, it's easy to look back & appoint blame on others, but we do need to remember Hashem runs this world, even U.S. presidents. Thanks for reading.
5
Nov 09, 2008 at 06:12 PM MARK Says:
SAD CHAPTER IN HISTORY AS LONG AS WE DONT BASH THE AMERICAN JEWS IM CONTENT
6
Nov 09, 2008 at 07:08 PM bigwheeel Says:
If SMS, (that hypocrite who rehashes the same subject over and over... like a broken CD/record, and who is the first to blame Jews whenever, Ch"v calamity strikes the Jewish people) would have been around at the time of Kristaalnacht, he would have just quoted Goebbels Ymsh"v, blaming it on the Jews. Whenever hamas or the other arab terrorists strike at Jewish targets, he always quotes them directly, "justifying" the murder [of Jews] as revenge for "Zionist" misdeeds!!!
8
Nov 09, 2008 at 08:03 PM Anonymous Says:
“ "How much he could have done given the isolationist and xenophobic mood of the American public at that time is debatable," It's not debatable, it's fact. Nobody thought that Hitler was gonna get out of hand as he did, & no one took any action whatsoever. And if you'r gonna blame a world leader for inaction, wouldn't that obviously be Chamberlain, who had direct contact with Hitler, & all he did was give in to his demands? There are dozens, if not hundreds of books & articles on WWII theories, mistakes, blunders, coulda, shoulda, woulda. History's not gonna change. But how about the genocide that's taking place right now, all over Africa for example? 2 million dead in the Sudan alone! Which world leader is doing anything about that? Nothing. Bottom line is, it's easy to look back & appoint blame on others, but we do need to remember Hashem runs this world, even U.S. presidents. Thanks for reading. ”
Those of us who had family members amongst the 400 rabbonim who traveled to DC only to be turned away from FDR's White House know what a **** you are peddling.
9
Nov 09, 2008 at 08:40 PM Anonymous Says:
I hope that the anniversary of Kristallnacht causes reminds everyone what a true Nazi is and stop this ridiculous practice of loosely calling people who disagree with you a Nazi - or comparing our President- Elect to Hitler. Those terms should be saved for those who believe that one race is inherently superior to another and wants to exterminate those who are of what they believe to be a different and inferior race. (BTW - most arabs who want to kill jews do so because they have been taught that jews took their land -- not because they believe jews are an inferior race to be exterminated.)
In any event, we must learn the true lesson of Kristallnacht and the shoa:. Any attempts to dehumanize other human beings, to think and teach that one group of people is inherently superior to another, and to judge people based on their religion, skin color, so-called "race", etc. rather than on their individual conduct is wrong, and of course, we must be vigilent against genocide, be it Armenians, Rwandans, people in Darfur or Jews.
10
Nov 09, 2008 at 09:21 PM Anonymous Says:
“ I hope that the anniversary of Kristallnacht causes reminds everyone what a true Nazi is and stop this ridiculous practice of loosely calling people who disagree with you a Nazi - or comparing our President- Elect to Hitler. Those terms should be saved for those who believe that one race is inherently superior to another and wants to exterminate those who are of what they believe to be a different and inferior race. (BTW - most arabs who want to kill jews do so because they have been taught that jews took their land -- not because they believe jews are an inferior race to be exterminated.)
In any event, we must learn the true lesson of Kristallnacht and the shoa:. Any attempts to dehumanize other human beings, to think and teach that one group of people is inherently superior to another, and to judge people based on their religion, skin color, so-called "race", etc. rather than on their individual conduct is wrong, and of course, we must be vigilent against genocide, be it Armenians, Rwandans, people in Darfur or Jews. ”
Well, there goes another old rule. Not only those who forget history doomed to repeat it, so do those who never learned it.
The history of the Jews living amongst the Arabs ymach shemom has been on par with the history of the ashkenazim living amongst the ever so friendly poilisher, yemach shemom.
it is you, not they, who have been taught wrong. your version of history is the neturai karta (shaim resho'im yirkav) version, created to make you believe that we would all be the well-treated subjects of kind Arab rulers had it not been for the secular zionists.
11
Nov 09, 2008 at 09:30 PM Anonymous Says:
The description of Kristalnacht here is not exactly true. Furthermore, the USA and other countries were not yet at war with Germany, and there was a major depression. Furthermore, JEWS IN GERMANY itself knew that there were outside agitators at work in Germany at the time, AND that the German government sent police to protect Jewish property. Finally, Jews must remember what the TORAH teaches us about our suffering, and begin to look at ourselves and where we are holding. Indeed, most of the Jews in Germany were SECULAR and SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST. Does Hashem like that???????
12
Nov 09, 2008 at 10:19 PM Yonason Says:
“ "How much he could have done given the isolationist and xenophobic mood of the American public at that time is debatable," It's not debatable, it's fact. Nobody thought that Hitler was gonna get out of hand as he did, & no one took any action whatsoever. And if you'r gonna blame a world leader for inaction, wouldn't that obviously be Chamberlain, who had direct contact with Hitler, & all he did was give in to his demands? There are dozens, if not hundreds of books & articles on WWII theories, mistakes, blunders, coulda, shoulda, woulda. History's not gonna change. But how about the genocide that's taking place right now, all over Africa for example? 2 million dead in the Sudan alone! Which world leader is doing anything about that? Nothing. Bottom line is, it's easy to look back & appoint blame on others, but we do need to remember Hashem runs this world, even U.S. presidents. Thanks for reading. ”
Well said - it also needs to be pointed out that in 1938 the U.S. was a third rate military power - not second rate; third rate . . we could not have challenged Hitler even if we wanted to.
13
Nov 09, 2008 at 10:31 PM robroy560 Says:
The liberal Jews love FDR. He was not as good as textbooks in school praise him. Churchill was much better, especially to Jews.
Yes, the US military only became really big during this time. But we could have worked with the anti-Nazi countries much earlier.
14
Nov 09, 2008 at 11:08 PM Anonymous Says:
“ The description of Kristalnacht here is not exactly true. Furthermore, the USA and other countries were not yet at war with Germany, and there was a major depression. Furthermore, JEWS IN GERMANY itself knew that there were outside agitators at work in Germany at the time, AND that the German government sent police to protect Jewish property. Finally, Jews must remember what the TORAH teaches us about our suffering, and begin to look at ourselves and where we are holding. Indeed, most of the Jews in Germany were SECULAR and SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST. Does Hashem like that??????? ”
Did I read correctly? Did you just claim that the German gov't yemach shemom sent police to protect the Jews during the Kristalnacht pogroms?
15
Nov 09, 2008 at 11:07 PM Anonymous Says:
“ Well said - it also needs to be pointed out that in 1938 the U.S. was a third rate military power - not second rate; third rate . . we could not have challenged Hitler even if we wanted to. ”
Utter nonesense. America had already saved the french and her allies twenty years earlier.
16
Nov 10, 2008 at 01:39 AM ny conservative Says:
Aand for this animal jews vote democrat! we should be ashamed of ourselves!
17
Nov 10, 2008 at 10:28 AM Anonymous Says:
“ Aand for this animal jews vote democrat! we should be ashamed of ourselves! ”
Anyone who thinks either of the American parties is 'our' party shouldn't just be ashamed of themselves. they should be ashamed of their foolishness.
18
Nov 10, 2008 at 09:52 AM anonymous Says:
German Police with the SA arrested Jews on the 10th of November but did not protect a single Jew or Jewish property what a brazen lie. I was in Vienna and a witness to that progrom
19
Nov 10, 2008 at 09:49 AM anonymous Says:
“ The description of Kristalnacht here is not exactly true. Furthermore, the USA and other countries were not yet at war with Germany, and there was a major depression. Furthermore, JEWS IN GERMANY itself knew that there were outside agitators at work in Germany at the time, AND that the German government sent police to protect Jewish property. Finally, Jews must remember what the TORAH teaches us about our suffering, and begin to look at ourselves and where we are holding. Indeed, most of the Jews in Germany were SECULAR and SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST. Does Hashem like that??????? ”
Never have a I read more verbal garbage that this comment. I lived in Vienna during the 10th of November. Chassidishe Yiden were taken to Dachau. Among the German Jews they were erliche talmidim chachomim. You are a baal chutzpa and an ignoramus. My son's Bar Mitzvah teacher was a man who finished the Lehrer Seminar in Wuerzburg. A Yid a tzaddik and with highest middos. Breuer was first to remove the hechsher from Rubashkin, shame on you
20
Nov 10, 2008 at 12:53 PM Yudi Mandel Says:
“ Those of us who had family members amongst the 400 rabbonim who traveled to DC only to be turned away from FDR's White House know what a **** you are peddling. ”
"Those of us who had family members amongst the 400 rabbonim who traveled to DC only to be turned away from FDR's White House know what a **** you are peddling." I also know about Mike Tress & Rabbi Kotler's effort's to save the Eroupean Jews, you still didn't dispute a single thing I wrote.
21
Nov 10, 2008 at 12:40 PM anonymous Says:
To those heilige Yidden blaming German Jews , Zionists and other for Hitler I to point . American Jewry was not touched was that in the tzichus of Stephen Wise and the reform movement, or Jewish gangsters operated on the Island of Cuba or maybe a gentleman named Lilienthal head of the American Council of Jews. I like to hear an answer from these baalei daas. Happens that my father A'H was from Galacia and we daven in a Klaus and came to the Kopyczinitzer Rebe. Marbe devorim marbe stiz
22
Nov 10, 2008 at 04:26 PM anonymous Says:
“ Did I read correctly? Did you just claim that the German gov't yemach shemom sent police to protect the Jews during the Kristalnacht pogroms? ”
Yes this beheime did state such stupidity
23
Nov 10, 2008 at 05:18 PM Anonymous Says:
“ "Those of us who had family members amongst the 400 rabbonim who traveled to DC only to be turned away from FDR's White House know what a **** you are peddling." I also know about Mike Tress & Rabbi Kotler's effort's to save the Eroupean Jews, you still didn't dispute a single thing I wrote. ”
Please take a look at Deborah Leipstadt's Denying the Holocaust.
In her introduction she explains why she does not engage in debates with Holocaust deniers.
Debating the existance of the Holocaust ipso facto confirms that there are two sides to the debate.
History is a study of facts. Historians and scholars may debate the causes of events, the meaning of events, the importance of events of future events. They do not debate historical facts. Neither will I.
FDR loved Jewish votes, not Jews. His administration was shamed into creating the War Refugee Board in the waning days of the war.
Please peddle your nonesense elsewhere. You are begining to remind me of the USDA Certified Grade 'A' jerk who posted several times last year a general and total denial of Christian Polish involvement in the Holocaust.