New York – American Jews Did Little To Help Their Brethren During The Holocaust But Why?

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    Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Hess. Yemach ShemomNew York – No one doubts that during the Holocaust, American Jews wanted to help their European brethren. But then why was so little done? Theodore Hamerow, a retired professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, answers this painful question by presenting an extensive study of the days when rescue was still possible.

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    He notes how religious bias against Jews was replaced by racial bigotry. During the 1930s it was easy for the Nazis to exploit existing ethnic prejudices, racial theories, economic crisis, unemployment, social unrest, impoverishment and the fear of Bolshevism. Soon Nazism became plausible to other nations, and a deep fear affected Jews everywhere.

    In the autumn of 1938, in the still-free and liberal France during the High Holy Days, the grand rabbi of Paris advised Jews to “avoid standing or gathering in front of places of worship, so as not to attract too much gentile attention.”

    Barnard Lecache, president of the International League against Anti-Semitism, repeatedly urged Jews to be careful. This Jewish hush-hush strategy, a counsel of wisdom and prudence, was widely accepted.

    In the US, just after Kristallnacht, polls found that 77 percent of Americans were against allowing a large number of Jewish refugees in. At the Evian Conference on Refugees, most countries closed their borders; German propaganda was highly successful.

    In May 1939, Stephen Wise, one of the most vocal American Zionists, complained about the rising tide of anti-Semitism. He confessed that he didn’t know what to do. The British White Paper had closed the doors of Palestine, and the “Christian Front” – made up of Coughlinities – marched up and down New York’s 57th Street, shouting, “Hang Rabbi Wise from a flagpole! Lynch Rabbi Wise!” while the police stood by. Wise sadly recalled how the SS, on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power, had marched through the streets of Berlin vowing death to Rabbi Leo Baeck in a similar manner.

    The Wagner-Rogers Bill suggesting that 20,000 German Jewish children be admitted to the US was rejected by Congress in February 1939 because public opinion polls indicated a negative attitude. Few Jews challenged this decision. Freda Kirchney, editor of The Nation, accused the bureaucrats in Washington of being the chief villains in the mishandling of refugees.

    After America declared war on Germany, the Jews’ caution became even stronger. They had to convince their neighbors that this was not “a Jewish war.” Jews felt vulnerable, exposed to the Big Lie that they wanted the war as part of a secret plot for world domination.

    ENDANGERING THE lives of Allied soldiers would spread anti-Semitism still further. The war was to be won quickly, and the war effort was everyone’s concern. It was only within this framework that America’s Jews could offer their European brothers any assistance. This was done, but with very limited success. Many efforts failed. One attempt to send food to the Warsaw Ghetto succeeded only after the ghetto had been destroyed.

    As the truth about the genocide became known, a resolution was introduced in Congress in November 1943 urging the creation of a commission “to formulate and execute a plan of immediate action designed to save the surviving people of Europe from execution at the hands of Nazi Germany.” This failed after Karl Mundt of South Dakota expressed doubts as to whether a precedent could be established for “a single people.”

    However, a month later, a resolution was passed unanimously by the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee urging president Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish a commission of diplomatic, economic and military experts “for saving the surviving Jews of Europe.” Plans were made to send food. But while deliberations dragged on, the gas chambers worked overtime.

    In the Soviet Union, foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov had also progressively devalued Jewish suffering. In his first article on Nazi crimes, Jews were shown as the chief victims. In his second, they were mentioned evenly with other persecuted nationalities. In the third, they weren’t mentioned at all.

    COULD US Jews have done more? During the war, the refugee problem was the last on the Allied agenda. US consuls in Vichy could easily have saved many Jews, but saved only a few carefully chosen individuals. Here, too, fear of anti-Semitism took a heavy toll. The Nation charged US consuls with putting insurmountable obstacles in front of Jewish refugees.

    The man in charge, assistant secretary of state Beckinridge Long, kept America’s doors tightly closed. In his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he claimed that the US had already accepted 580,000 European refugees and would accept more. He allowed the Joint to send food to Jews in Transnistria and was trying to save 20,000 Jewish children. He said the Allies had sent strong warnings to Balkan countries through the Swiss regarding the treatment of Jews. The White House had allocated $300,000 to transport 3,000 Jewish children from the Balkans to Palestine, but Germany ordered Bulgaria and Romania to drop this plan. Turkey had agreed to transport Jews to Palestine by rail, but Germany also prevented this move. Long said ultimate relief would come with an Allied victory.

    As news about the ongoing genocide became known, the Jewish hush-hush policy was partly abandoned. Voices were heard arguing that Jews must be less cautious and more aggressive. But as the bearded rabbis protested in Washington, voices were heard claiming that this was counterproductive. The Bergson group demanded that Jews free themselves from the philosophy that sought to protect them from the public gaze; they must publish and demonstrate their grievances. The huge “Stop Hitler Now” Jewish rally in Madison Square Garden on March 1, 1943, attracted 75,000 people.

    The Jewish effort to persuade the Allies to save Slovakian and Hungarian Jewry by bombing the lines to Auschwitz had failed for lack of goodwill. Indeed, the British had asked: “And what shall we do with all these survivors?” They were well aware of who would claim Palestine after the war.

    In March 1943, Kirchney wrote: “The purge of Jews is not only a Nazi crime. In this country, you and I and the president of the US and the Congress and the State Department are accessories to this crime, and share Hitler’s guilt. If we behaved like humane and generous people instead of complacent, cowardly ones, two million Jews lying in the earth of Poland and Hitler’s other crowded graveyards would be alive and safe. And other millions yet to die would have found sanctuary. We had it in our power to rescue these doomed people and did not lift a hand to do it.”

    Few Jews would have risked saying something like this in public.

    The Allied threats to punish the Axis for its criminal actions helped Romanian Jews, but only after Stalingrad. One could not scare Hitler, whose Thousand Year Reich depended on the notion of racial supremacy.

    The Holocaust put an end to European Jewry’s hopes and aspirations, but the tragedy also led to American Jewry’s reassessment of its potential and responsibility.

    Hamerow’s biting humor through the tears, the treasure of quotes and little-remembered episodes all come together in one huge, revealing and provocative narrative, with an extensive index and bibliography. It certainly deserves an important place in our national library.


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    39 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    How can a person read this article and not think of the great Tzaddik Reb Michoel Ber Weissmandl ZTVK’L .

    Reb Michoel Ber Weissmandl once said that he has two pains that do not go away: The pain of the 6 million murdered by the Nazis and the pain that some people that could have helped did not.

    Zecher Tzaddik V kadosh L’vracah. May His Memory Be Blessed

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I don’t know what the Chiddish is. Rabbi Weissmandel Zt’l Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra wrote this in his book over 40 years ago. “Min Hamaytzar”

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    it wasnt a question of why didnt they.
    the two things to keep in mind is that people in america didnt know…many peopel especially jews had no idea the sheer magnitude of what was happening in europe until it was too late.
    that aside, there are so many individual stories and many different things in respective capacities that american jews and rabbis attempted to do at the time.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Reb Weissmandel’s wife passed away this yom tov.

    Aviva
    Aviva
    14 years ago

    Dr. David Kranzler (zl) wrote a book called Thy Brother’s Blood decades ago that delineates all of this in nauseating detail.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Who was Kirchney?

    we are all guilty
    we are all guilty
    14 years ago

    I am just talking to myself out loud- It’s not too late to prove that we would have acted in the same manner?!?! How many times do we have the opportunity to help Jews with much needed charity, and perhaps prayer? And how do we do? You be the judge in a scale from 1- 10 (1 poor 10 great) a) how did we do helping the yidden from Yemen b) helping the yidden in Israel c) helping the yidden in our own back yard, there are numerous charity organizations that are willing and able to do the work for us, they just lack the necessary funds. They are Chashidish, Litvish, Sephardic, Zionists, etc. you pick a good cause and you can find 20 organizations that are actively, aggressively, and lovingly involved. There are multiple organizations involved in every aspect of Kiruv, Chinuch, Shalom Bayis, Bikur Cholim, Tomchai Shabbos, children at risk, Children with special needs, etc. etc. etc.
    It’s very easy to judge the American Jews of the previous generation, perhaps they all should have taken out a mortgage on there homes to help the Jews in Europe?! But perhaps we should all take out a mortgage on our homes and help the Jews of our generation?! Do we all give the minimum 10% perhaps there are some us that can afford to give more than 10%?! Perhaps there are some of us that can find some time to say an extra capitel Tehillim. Perhaps there are some of us that can donate some time. So let’s stop looking back and pointing fingers, let’s move forward and give a hand.

    happy
    happy
    14 years ago

    look at gaza what did the jewish world do for them and the big rabbis do .that what happens when were selfish in america we have to think about are next vacation.all you here is this big rabbi that big rabbi we ned the moshiac.

    PMO
    PMO
    14 years ago

    Stop this!!! NOBODY knows what they knew back then and when they knew it. NOBODY knows how much was believed to be true or not.

    This is a complete desecration of the name and memory of every yid alive then!

    You cannot judge any of the yidden at that time. Many believed the killings to be rumor. Many believed that people were just going to refugee camps. Many perhaps knew the truth but could not face it. None of us today could possibly understand. We should accept the accounts of those who were there and not defame or slander them!

    Joseph
    Joseph
    14 years ago

    As Rabbi Miller ZT’L said the rich and influential Jews of that period listened only to what Stephen Wise said, and he wouldn’t allow anyone to do anything. He had the ear of FDR and he advised him many times to do nothing. The frum Jews didn’t have much money to do much back then. Ayin shom (or “oizen shom”) to tape # 213 where he speaks about it at the end.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    wat about reb irving bunim????

    frater
    frater
    14 years ago

    #12 , I don’t know about Jewish officials, but American government was briefed:
    “n 1942 Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, as well as members of political parties such as the PPS, SN, SP, SL, Jewish Bund and Poalej-Syjon. He also spoke to Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. In 1943 in London he met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler. He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His report was a major factor in informing the West.

    In July 1943, Karski again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Joseph Donovan, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, and Stephen Wise. Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations, members of the Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile. It is possible, however, that Karski’s descriptions influenced FDR to create the War Refugee Board several months later in January 1944.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    My father, who was an American rabbi with a pulpit during WWII, told me that there was a movement to “discourage” American Jewish involvement in saving the European Jews, since then they may come to other countries or maybe even the US instead of go to Palestine. The Zionist dream wanted the European Jews to go to Palestine ONLY, and therefore discouraged any move which would have resulted in their getting away to other places.

    He was lead to believe that to save the “European Jew” any other way than to have them go to Palestine was being a traitor to Zionism.

    Years later, he finally understood that this attitude resulted in COUNTLESS Jewish deaths in the Holocaust. It seems that the “Cause of Zionism” was put above the very lives of the European Jews. In tears my father cried, “Israel was built on the dead bodies of the Kekoshim of the Holocaust.”

    He also told me that he later realized that the murder of the European Jews resulted in the “Guilt” and the “Funding” which finalized the Zionist Dream, and was not accidental. He believed the Zionists of those days were instrumental in the deaths of many, many Jewish lives. He cried too over this, as he too did not speak out. He had bought into it at the time.
    He never realized the extent or the magnitude of the Holocaust, but he realized his original Zionist idols did realize and predict it. They used it.

    Every time my father retold this story he would cry.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    We have to ensure we do not make the mistake of not supporting israel in its battle over its enemies because of anti semitism.

    Be careful of broad statements that are motzi laaz on great numbers of Yidden
    Be careful of broad statements that are motzi laaz on great numbers of Yidden
    14 years ago

    I would like to know what Hungarian Jews did from 1939 until the churban hit them to save the Poylishe, Galitzianer, Yekkishe, Litvishe, etc., Yidden who were being neherag al kiddush Hashem, while they were basically spared until app. 1944?

    It is easy to lash out at others if you don’t know all the facts, but we are taught by Hillel in Pirkei Avos (2:5), Al todin es chaveircho ad shetagia limkomo. To say that American Jews bichlal did nothing is a sheker. Some made great efforts. We have to make that clear and not make overly broad statements that are not true and that are motzi laaz on tayere Yidden. I know personally about what happened in my family where the American side made great efforts to help those in Europe at that time.

    PMO
    PMO
    14 years ago

    I don’t doubt that some people in the government and military knew. But I do not believe that most yidden knew and did nothing. I refuse to judge them all in one big lump. Who could believe such stories? A country that could kill millions? With all the propaganda then nobody knew what to believe. I could never possibly understand the psychology behind the thoughts people had then and again I will not judge them.

    duvið
    duvið
    14 years ago

    There isn’t a single major disaster/war etc. In which historians would come up with a discovery that everybody did everything right…

    Its completely arrogant and no big deal writing as such
    While sitting in a warm house on a comfortable chair surrounded with all comfort ability and whining about things in the past that people who are dead now could’ve done differently at the time.

    God forbid chas v’sholom an equivalent event should happen today would we be any better? No we won’t!

    we are today way more selfish, more comfortable, and self centered then our forgoers.

    Allan
    Allan
    14 years ago

    WWII took place before I was born but I remember hearing of the great crying that went on when FDR died. Someone correct me if I am wrong but was not FDR the one that could have helped by allowing bombing of the rail lines to the camps and refused to do so. My thought is that our people who cried for him didn’t then know the truth that he really wasn’t our true friend.

    daniael
    daniael
    14 years ago

    Because the clergy of Europe discouraged immigration to America during the turn of the century, the most religiously pius stayed in Europe. Similarly the least religious (in a statistical sense) came to America. One can surmise that since Ameica’s Jews were more predisposed to assimilation and subsequent apostacy and intermarriage, they were less committed to go out of their way to help Eastern European Jews.
    It is not surprising that the survivors play a disproportionate role in religiosity in todays america.

    avibenyacov
    avibenyacov
    11 years ago

    For all those claim no one knew,or that American Jews hands were tied,and that Zionists did nothing to save our people please educate yourselves to Hillel Cook ”Peter Bergson”was ,what he did and what Zionist Movement he belonged to.