Americans and the Holocaust: What Did Our Community Know?

Americans and the Holocaust: What Did Our Community Know?

PROGRAM GUIDE While media around the country provided frequent and vivid accounts of rising Nazi brutality in Europe, Americans tended to focus inward in the 1930?40s. Step back in time to explore headlines from communities across the country and artifacts from that time period. Note: Newspaper coverage from your state or region of these and other related events during 1930s and 1940s may be available on History Unfolded ().

VISUAL SLIDE #

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND NOTES

I.

SETTING THE SCENE: THE MOOD IN AMERICA IN THE MID-1930s, EARLY COVERAGE

OF HITLER AND REACTIONS TO RISING NAZI BRUTALITY

IMAGE 1: Title Slide

IMAGE 2: Cemetery

IMAGE 3: A `soup kitchen' in Chicago

IMAGE 4: Unemployed men at Capitol

IMAGE 5: Lynching flag outside NAACP in NYC

IMAGE 6: Antisemitic posters

1) What were Americans thinking about in the 1930s? What was the mood of the nation?

?Only 15 years after The Great War, the experience of WWI left Americans wary of international entanglements and military intervention.

?The economy loomed large. During the Great Depression, there was 25 percent unemployment.

?America was also a divided society. Racial concerns were intertwined with the economic concerns. Racist attitudes against foreigners, immigrants, and Black Americans were fueled by fear of competition for scarce jobs.

?Antisemitism was also present. Jews were viewed as intertwined with Communism and represented a threat to the American way of life and values. Calls for boycotts extended to the entertainment industry.

IMAGE 7: Newspaper coverage of Nazi's boycotts

IMAGE 8: Vanity Fair (Hitler on cover in Nov. 1932) IMAGE 9: Cosmo magazine with article about Thompson

2) How did news spread across the nation during the Nazi rise to power? What did Americans know in the early years about Hitler and the Third Reich?

?Radio, newspapers, newsreels and monthly-weekly magazines were the dominant sources for news and information.

?National magazines are also featuring coverage about Adolf Hitler. ?In 1932, in the magazine Vanity Fair, Hitler is mocked and treated as a

buffoon. From this portrayal, Americans didn't take him seriously.

including famous pictures of Hitler

IMAGE 10: Dorothy Thompson

IMAGE 11: Dark Ages Cartoon, LA Times

?A more serious and groundbreaking story in Cosmopolitan by Dorothy Thompson told a different story. Thompson described his manner and wild gesticulations with concern; she was the first American journalist to be expelled from Germany after interviewing Hitler in a disparaging light.

?In 1933, Americans learn about German boycotts of Jewish business and isolated reports of violence through wire reports by the Associated Press.

?Throughout 1930s, the Nazi persecution of Jews and consolidation of control over German society was heavily covered. Americans who consumed news would have known about the economic and legal strangleholds that were put on Jews, increasing violence, book burnings, and the openings of first concentration camps.

IMAGE 12: Petition from Baltimore Mayor Howard Jackson

IMAGE 13: Petition from Miami citizens

IMAGE 14: NYC Protest draws 100,000+ people

3) Americans across the country were also beginning to protest Nazi actions. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has collected more than hundreds of petitions from community members and groups across the country. What does this say about local communities and how they responded to the news out of Europe?

?Across the country, civic leaders, community groups and elected officials sent letters to voice their concern about Hitler's treatment of Jews in the early 1930s.

?Petitions and letters were directed to leaders in Washington, DC including the US Secretary of State, Cordell Hull.

?In reference to the "utter beggary and despair," Jews were experiencing, one Baltimore business owner wrote: "It is with great confidence in your sympathy that we urge you to come to their assistance."

?An estimated 100,000 people gathered in front of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan to participate in a mass march to the Battery to protest the Nazi persecution of German Jews, May 10, 1933.

II. 1935 - 1941 KRISTALLNACHT AND OTHER EVENTS HEIGHTEN ATTENTION

IMAGE 15: 1938 Title

IMAGE 16: Coverage of Nazi laws in Baltimore Sun, 1938

1) How much was reported in communities across the US about the Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 and other restrictions on Jews?

?Coverage of the new Nazi laws and other persecution of Jews received significant media attention.

?Here is a compilation of coverage just in the Baltimore Sun throughout 1938.

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IMAGE 17: Synagogue, Ober Ramstadt, Germany IMAGE 18: Dallas Morning News IMAGE 19: NY Times IMAGE 20: Evening Independent & Arizona Republic

2) Can you give us a sense of the importance of Kristallnacht as a turning point? How was it reported generally in the states and what were general sentiments?

?In the overnight of November 8-9, 1938, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses were vandalized and torched. It came to be known as Kristallnacht ? or night of broken glass.

?This event represents the longest sustained news coverage of persecution of Jews. Articles and other coverage ran consistently for about 2 weeks.

?Coverage was widespread; from New York to Dallas, Florida to California.

IMAGE 21: Race Riots in Harlem, 1935

IMAGE 22: Poll: treatment of Jews in Germany vs. increase quotas

3) Kristallnacht was a violent event, based on racist ideology and discrimination. Can you describe how Americans were experiencing racism and other discrimination in cities such as New York in the 1930s?

?1935 Race riots of Harlem; occurred the same year as the Nuremberg Race laws.

?Antisemitism was present in the national mindset ? as was a fear of foreigners coming to the US.

?1938 Gallup opinion poll ? While Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany (94%), 72% believe that the US should not allow for a larger number of Jewish refugees to immigrate to the US.

?It's important to note that in the midst of preparations for the 1939 World's Fair in NYC, the Jews of Germany experienced Kristallnacht. Though both nations saw discrimination, the settings were worlds apart.

IMAGE 23: Example of necessary documents needed for immigration

4) After Kristallnacht there was an even more urgent need for refugees to escape the Nazi regime. Can you summarize what the refugee policy was in the US at this time?

?In 1938, nearly 140,000 Germans and Austrians, mostly Jews, applied for American visas. Within a year, that number increased to more than 300,000, creating an 11-year-long waiting list.

?It was very difficult to immigrate to the U.S. The Johnson-Reed Act, passed by Congress in 1924, set immigration quotas based on one's country of birth.

?The paperwork to acquire a visa was extremely complicated and onerous. Many types of documents were needed, such as: proof of identity, police certificates, medical clearances, tax documents, a ship ticket, and exit permits prior to obtaining a visa.

?Most also had to find an American to financially sponsor them. Sponsors would ensure that immigrants would not pose a burden to the economy.

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III. 1939-1942 WWII BEGINS; ISOLATIONISM; THE DRAFT

IMAGE 24: 1939 Title

IMAGE 25: St. Louis Article and cartoon

1) It's the beginning of 1939 and it appears that even after the violent

accounts from abroad, Americans still weren't interested in opening doors

to immigrants.

?St. Louis story ? The St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany for Havana, Cuba in May, 1939 with 937 passengers.

?When the ship docked in Havana, the passengers learned the certificates they had purchased were invalid. The ship was forced to leave the harbor.

?The ship sailed toward Miami and passengers contacted loved ones and public leaders pleading for help. But because they lacked entry visas, the US government did not allow the passengers to land.

?Passengers of the St. Louis were finally permitted to land in western European countries rather than return to Nazi Germany. However, 254 passengers were eventually killed in the Holocaust.

IMAGE 26: 1940s Title

IMAGE 27: Pearl Harbor attack, LA Times Article

IMAGE 28: US Army recruitment (1944)

IMAGE 29: Charles Lindbergh and FDR

IMAGE 30: Protests in support of Lindbergh

2) In 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor is a turning point. What happens after the US enters the war?

?Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. US declares war on Japan, Germany declares war on the U.S.

?The US Military mission is clear: We are not fighting on humanitarian grounds, rather to protect our way of life.

?Two of the main voices in the national discourse debating intervention vs. isolationism were President Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh, who championed isolationism.

?Charles Lindbergh had a lot of support among Americans. You can see protests in his support, outside the LA Daily News building. (image 29)

IV. 1942: NEWS OF CAMPS & LIBERATION

IMAGE 31: 1942 Title

1) How did Americans learn about the Final Solution?

?American public begins to learn about the Nazi plan known as the FINAL SOLUTION in November 1942.

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IMAGE 32: Telegram To Rabbi Stephen Wise

IMAGE 33: PM Daily Picture Magazine

?August: Gerhart Riegner telegram to Rabbi Stephen Wise in US

?State Dept. intercepted to investigate

?From August - November, State Dept. confirmed

?To come full circle in talking about reporting and newspaper coverage, the American people began reading about the Final Solution in November of 1942.

?For context: at the time of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941), around 1.2 million Jews had already been murdered.

?By D-Day (June 6, 1944), in Nazi occupied Europe, 5 million Jews are already dead at the hands of the Nazi killing machine.

IMAGE 34: Morning Herald, Eisenhower visits camp

IMAGE 35: Baltimore Sun, Tucson Daily Citizen

2) Tell us about Americans' response to the news of the camps and then to

liberation.

?Towards the end of World War II in Europe, American magazines covered the Allies' victories along with the first widely circulated photos of concentration camps.

?American soldiers who liberated concentration camps, or toured camps that were newly freed, remembered what they saw, and wrote letters to their families.

IMAGE 36: POLL: Dec. 1945 allowing European immigrants

3) A poll from December 1945 shows that after the war, Americans were still facing inward. Tell us more.

?In a Gallup opinion poll from December 1945, the majority of Americans ? 37% -claimed they believed the US should admit fewer refugees from Europe than before the war.

?The majority of Americans after the war were more concerned with affairs at home.

IMAGE 37: Americans and the Holocaust Initiative

?You can learn more about how other community's newspapers covered events around the Holocaust through History Unfolded. Learn more at .

?To learn more about this period in American history, visit the Americans and the Holocaust Online Exhibition.

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