May 1943 The USA Restricts Entry of Jewish Refugees

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 the potential ‘danger’ of such action:

“While in theory any approach to the German Government would have met with a blank refusal, there was always the danger that the German Government might agree to turn over to the United States and to Great Britain a large number of Jewish refugees at some designated place for immediate transportation to areas under the control of the United Nations. Neither the part of the United Nations. In event of our admission of inability to take care of these people the onus for their continued persecution would have been largely transferred from the German Government to the United Nations.”

SINCE POLICYMAKERS IN BOTH THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT VIEWED THE ESCAPE OF JEWS FROM SURE ANNIHILATION AS A ‘BURDEN,’ OR A ‘DANGER, it is hardly surprising that they looked upon the rescue of Jews as something to avoid rather than to strive for. Seen from this perspective, such state department decisions as the failure to follow up the Rumanian proposal to release 70,000 Jews and the attempt to shut off the flow of extermination information take on a certain grim logic.”

Source: Wyman, David. The Abandonment of the Jews. P 98-100; New York Times April 8, 1943; MD 88II/48-9, Cabinet Com on Refs, 5/31/44; FR 1941, v 2, 875-6, Alexander to Long, 5/7/43; Reams to Stettinius, 10/8/43, BLP, B202 Refs.