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Stop Making Excuses For FDR’s
Abandonment Of Th e Jews

P

to be weighed down with ballast (rocks
resident Franklin D. Roosevelt
and chunks of concrete). Jewish refugees
could have saved many Jews from
could have served the same purpose.
the Holocaust without interrupt-
President Roosevelt could have
ing America’s war effort. The
permitted the existing immigra-
notion that there was a contra-
tion quotas to be filled. In FDR’s 12
diction between rescuing Jews
years in office, the German quota
and fighting the Nazis was
was filled just once and, in most of
an excuse that the Roosevelt
those years, it was less 25 percent
administration made at the
filled. More than 190,000 quota
time — and which, surprising-
places from Germany and Axis-
ly, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
occupied countries went unused.
Museum seems to be echoing
Allowing them to be filled would
today, according to the June
Rafael Medoff
not have involved changing laws
7 feature in the Detroit Jewish
or igniting public controversy.
News.
Perhaps the most famous exam-
The DJN article, describing
the museum’s new exhibit on “Americans ple of what the U.S. could have done was
to bomb Auschwitz or the railways and
and the Holocaust,” quoted curator
bridges over which Jews were deported.
Daniel Greene asking, “Why didn’t the
The DJN article noted that in response
rescue of Jews become a priority?” The
to requests to carry out such bombings
exhibit argues that “a major reason was
in 1944, a Roosevelt administration offi-
that President Roosevelt’s clear aim in
cial said that “the government’s priority
the war was defeating Hitler, a goal dis-
associated from the tragedy befalling the was the earliest possible victory over
Germany; incapacitating the extermina-
Jews.”
tion camps wouldn’t advance that goal.”
But there was no conflict between
In fact, bombing the railways and
rescue and victory. There were numer-
bridges would have assisted the war
ous steps the administration could have
effort because some of those routes were
taken that would not have interfered
used by the Germans for military pur-
with the war effort. For example, thou-
poses as well. Moreover, U.S. planes were
sands of U.S. cargo vessels, known as
already bombing German oil factories
Liberty ships, brought supplies to Allied
(which were considered important mili-
forces in Europe and North Africa, but
tary targets) that were located within the
when they were ready to return to the
Auschwitz complex, fewer than 5 miles
U.S., they were too light to sail and had

from the gas chambers. For those planes
to have dropped a few bombs on the gas
chambers and crematoria would not
have delayed victory over the Nazis.
Even if such bombings would have
only slowed down the pace of the mass-
murder process, that would have been
significant. At its peak, 12,000 Jews were
being gassed in Auschwitz every day. Any
interruption would have saved lives.
The DJN article continued: “Greene
says he understands Roosevelt’s posi-
tion” — a rather disturbing choice of
words — because “throughout the war
years, polls consistently showed that a
huge majority of Americans disapproved
of the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews — but
nearly three-quarters of them were not
willing to accept more refugees.”
But polls do not decide U.S. govern-
ment policy; the president does. The
American consular officials in Germany
who took steps to suppress Jewish refu-
gee immigration far below the amount
allowed by law were not rogue agents
who were conducting their own policies,
nor were they acting in accordance with
public opinion polls; they were imple-
menting the policy of the president.
The “public sentiment” excuse also
fails to address the fact that the gover-
nor and legislative assembly of the U.S.
Virgin Islands offered, in 1938, to open
their doors to Jewish refugees, a plan
seconded by Treasury Secretary Henry

Morgenthau Jr. It was not the public that
blocked that proposal; it was FDR.
In any event, public attitudes toward
admitting Jewish refugees were not
static. By the spring of 1944 — once the
tide of the war had turned and once
Americans learned more about the mass
killings — there was a significant shift in
public opinion. An April 1944 Gallup poll
— commissioned by the White House
itself — found 70 percent of Americans
supported giving “temporary protection
and refuge” in the U.S. to “those people
in Europe who have been persecuted by
the Nazis.”
That poll was taken more than a year
before the end of the war. It was late, but
it was not too late, to rescue a signifi-
cant number of Jewish refugees — with
ample public support — if only President
Roosevelt had shown an interest in doing
so. Sadly, he agreed to grant temporary
haven to just one token group of 982
refugees.
Making excuses for FDR’s abandon-
ment of the Jews should not be part
of the mission of the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum. •

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of the David
S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and
author or editor of 19 books about Jewish history
and the Holocaust, the latest of which is Too Little,
and Almost Too Late: The War Refugee Board and
America’s Response to the Holocaust.

letters

continued from page 6

because of sexual dalliances such
as those of Clinton and JFK?
Falbaum states, as fact, his opin-
ion that recognition of Jerusalem
as Israel’s capital doesn’t help the
peace. On the other hand, Israel’s
Ambassador to the U.S. Ron
Dermer told the crowd at Adat
Shalom on Monday, June 4, how
important the U.S. recognition of
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was to
Israel and the peace process. I trust
Dermer’s experience, not Falbaum’s
opinion.
Here’s news for Falbaum: What
doesn’t help the peace process is
the refusal of the PLO and its ter-
rorist partner Hamas to meet with
Israel, and their stated aims of
destroying Israel and removing all
Jews from the area and teaching
their Palestinian children to kill
Jews.

8

June 21 • 2018

jn

If Falbaum cared about Israel
more than he despises Trump and
Netanyahu, he would have appreci-
ated the U.S. standing with Israel
and recognizing Jerusalem as its
capital as caring Jews have for more
than 3,000 years.
The Jewish community is for-
tunate to have a large number of
Christians stand with Israel today,
unlike the lack of support for Jews
exhibited by the Roosevelt admin-
istration during WWII. We could
ask for no better friend than Rev.
John Hagee who, over the years,
has demonstrated his true support.
Robert Jefferies should be respected
for his belief in his faith and sup-
port for Israel even if we don’t agree
with his religious tenets.

Sylvia Fleshman
Farmington Hills

An Easy Choice

I am an involved pro-Israel sup-
porter and both a sponsor and
an attendee of the Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival. I actively
engage in pro-Israel activities
including fighting the BDS cam-
paign. As a music lover, I appreci-
ate being able to attend chamber
music concerts in many venues.
In contrast to Barry Tigay (whose
letter, “Presbyterian Church Is Anti-
Israel,” ran in the June 14, 2018,
issue), I feel that attending concerts
at Kirk in the Hills in NO way indi-
cates that I support, endorse or am
complacent regarding Presbyterian
policies. In the same vein, I select
my physicians based on their skill
and not on their politics.

Barbara Goodman, Ph.D.
Huntington Woods

Correction
In “Israel Fellowship” (May 24, page 98), Wayne State
University student Jeremy Rosenberg attended a
Hillel of Metro Detroit Israel Fellowship Program in
Washington, D.C.; it was not an AIPAC program.

