By the beginning of the year more than five million Jews ― and almost as many non-Jews ― had been murdered by the Nazis. As Allied forces prepared to invade France tha June, word leaked out that the Germans were about to begin shipping to Auschwitz some 750,000 Hungarian Jews, the last largely intact Jewish […]
‘Mr. Speaker, nations have declared war on Germany, and their high-ranking officials have issued pious protestations against the Nazi massacre of Jewish victims, but not one of these countries thus far has said they would be willing to accept these refugees either permanently or as visitors, or any of the minority peoples trying to escape […]
This whole question of financing the evacuation of the Jews from Rumania and France was first called to the attention of the Treasury Department on June 25, 1943. Source: Jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/treasrep.html; pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/somereport.html
U.S.A. State Department cabled for a clarification of these proposed financial arrangements (e.g. to the Reigner license). This matter was not called to the attention of the Treasury Department at this time. Source: Jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/treasrep.html; pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/somereport.html
Nazi forces detonated the Great Synagogue of Warsaw, thus ending the 27-day Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In attempt to prevent the mass deportation to death camps of those remaining in the ghetto, a group of Jews decided to fight back, forming militia groups and arming themselves with smuggled pistols, rifles and Molotov cocktails. On the eve […]
Robert C. Alexander of the State Department’s Visa Division described rescue proposals as moves that would ‘take the burden off Hitler.’ Similarly R. Borden Reams of the Division of Europen Affairs, referring to efforts in the spring of 1943 to persuade the Allies to negotiate with Germany for the release of the Jews, spoke of […]
On April 20, 1943, a cable was received from Bern relating to the proposed financial arrangements in connection with the evacuation of the Jews from Rumania and France. Source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/report-on-the-acquiescence-of-fdr-government-in-the-murder-of-the-jews-january-1944
On April 10, 1943, Sumner Welles cabled our Legation in Bern and requested them to get in touch with the World Jewish Congress representative in Switzerland, whom Welles had been informed was in possession of important information regarding the situation of the Jews Source: Jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/treasrep.html; pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/somereport.html
In the midst of months of mass terror against Jews in Rumania, Cavendish W. Cannon of the State Department’s Division of European Affairs spelled out the reasons why the United States should not support a proposal to move 300,000 Jews out of Rumania to safety in Syria or Palestine. He specified, among other problems, that […]
SINCE THE TIME WHEN THIS GOVERNMENT KNEW THAT THE JEWS WERE BEING MURDERED, OUR STATE DEPARTMENT HAS FAILED TO TAKE ANY POSITIVE STEPS REASONABLY CALCULATED TO SAVE ANY OF THESE PEOPLE. ALTHOUGH STATE HAS USED THE DEVICE OF SETTING UP INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS TO SURVEY THE WHOLE REFUGEE PROBLEM, AND CALLING CONFERENCES SUCH AS THE BERMUDA […]