United States Foreign Policy Toward Jewish Refugees During 1933-1939
In reviewing the events which gave rise to the U.S.'s foreign policy
toward Jewish refugees, we must identify the relevant factors upon which such
decisions were made. Factors including the U.S. government's policy mechanisms,
it's bureaucracy and public opinion, coupled with the narrow domestic political
mindedness of President Roosevelt, lead us to ask; Why was the American
government apathetic to the point of culpability, and isolationist to the point
of irresponsibility, with respect to the systematic persecution and annihilation
of the Jewish people of Europe during the period between 1938-1945?
Throughout the years of 1933-1939, led by Neville Chamberlain and the
British, the United States was pursuing a policy of appeasement toward Hitler.
They had tolerated his military build-up and occupation of the Rhineland, both
violations of the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the annexing of Austria and
the take-over of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Hitler realized early on in
his expansionist campaign that Western leaders were too busy dealing with their
own domestic problems to pose any real opposition. In the United States,
Americans were wrestling with the ravages of the Great Depression. With the
lingering memory of the more than 300,000 U.S. troops either killed or injured
in World War I, isolationism was the dominant sentiment in most political
circles. Americans were not going to be "dragged" into another war by the
British. The Depression had bred increased xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and
with upward of 30% unemployment in some industrial areas1, many Americans wanted
to see immigration halted completely. It was in this context that the
democratic world, led by the United States, was faced with a refugee problem
that it was morally bound to deal with. The question then became; what would
they do?
Persecution of the Jews in Germany began officially on April
1st 1933. Hitler had come to power a few weeks earlier and he immediately began
the plan, as outlined in his book Mein Kampf, to eliminate "the eternal mushroom
of humanity - Jews".2 German Jews were stripped of their citizenship by the
Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 and had their businesses and stockholdings seized in
1938. Civil servants, newspaper editors, soldiers and members of the judiciary
were dismissed from their positions, while lawyers and physicians were forbidden
to practice. Anti-Jewish violence peaked on 9 November 1938, known as the
"Night of the Broken Glass" or Kristallnacht, when over 1000 synagogues were
burned. Jewish schools, hospitals, books, cemeteries and homes were also
destroyed3.
The mistreatment of non-Aryans in Germany was common knowledge in the
U.S. in 1938. After the anschluss, the flow of
US Isolationism During 1919-1941 From 1919-1941, the US advocated its isolationism. However, as such a large and economically influential nation it could not be truly isolationist and did take part in some international affairs during the period. The extent to which the nation was isolationist varied throughout the period. One can clearly state that in 1919 support for isolationism was extremely strong but was nearly completely extinguished by 1942. After the First World War and partly as a reaction to it, there existed a strong isolationist sentiment among the American people.
of the famous stories was of St. Louis. St. Louis was a ship full of
Adolf Hitler, head of the NSDAP, became Chancellor of Germany on the 30th January 1933. Following the 'legal revolution' of the following months and President Hindenburg's death on the 2nd August 1934, Hitler made himself Führer and Reichskanzler. The Nazi revolution was complete and Germany was subject to a dictatorship of the extreme political right.
Adolf Hitler came into power of Germany in 1934. Wanting power, land and revenge, Hitler gets troops ready to attack. Hitler was a troop in WWI for Germany. Once the Germans lost the war, Hitler took that personally, and wanted revenge. After coming into power with his army of Nazis, Hitler is quick to blame Jewish people for all the harsh debt and corruption in Germany. The Germans believe him, causing them to hate Jewish people. The holocaust happened throughout 1933-1945, it ended when Hitler killed himself.
"The United States and the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
During the time of World War II, there was a dramatic change in the society of America and its way of life. Men were needed at war and the women were left at home. People were mistrusted and were falsely accused of something they didn’t do. Some people were even pushed away because they were different. These people were the minorities of America. Some of the minorities it affected the most were the African Americans, women, Japanese Americans, and even young adults. What is a minority? A minority, in this case, is a person or group of people who are discriminated against because there is something about them that makes them different. Some of these reasons why they are different are things like race, gender, and even age. However, the real question is how were the roles of American minorities change after World War II?
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 allowing the military to exclude “any and all persons” from designated areas of the country as needed for national defense. These “any and all persons” were Japanese Americans, 2/3 citizens and 1/3 aliens, and the designated area was the West Coast of the United States. The Executive Order to place the Japanese living in the United States into internment camps was deemed necessary due to the recent attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, by Japan.
American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon, and wasn’t given much respect because they had a different culture or their skin color was different. However, the lives of American minorities changed forever as World War 2 impacted them significantly with segregation problems, socially, and in their working lives, both at that time and for generations after.
The Change of Nazis' Treatment of the Jews From 1939-45 Hitler and the Nazi party managed to kill six million Jews throughout Europe by the end of 1945. This systematic process of killing between the years 1939 and 1945 is known as the holocaust. There were five key issues that led to the Wansee conference that took place in 1942 before the Nazi's decided upon the "final solution to the Jewish problem. These events included the outbreak of World War II, Hitler's personal agenda against the Jewish population, the rise and power of the SS and the failures of other solutions put forward to "get rid" of the Jewish problem.
that all Jews over 6 years had to wear a Star of David. Also Jews were
Before 1933 nobody imagined what would happen when the Nazis came to power in Germany in January 1933. The Nazi regime had a leader named Hitler, and he
Anti-Semitism has affected the world since Biblical times. There are many disastrous events in history, such as the Black Death, where the Jews have been put to blame by society. In March 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany by manipulating the Enabling Act, he started to put into action the discriminatory laws as promised. The Nazi Party wanted Germany to become a supreme race of strong, healthy people, called Aryans, without contamination from ‘dirty’ minorities such as the Jews. Through the period from 1933 to 1939 Hitler passed laws which started off by discriminating the Jews, such as burning Jewish books and forbidding them to join the Army, and then gradually put into effect active persecution, so that in 1939 Jews were beginning to be sent into the now famous concentration camps.
As we approach the next Presidential election the topic of American foreign policy is once again in the spotlight. In this paper, I will examine four major objectives of U.S. foreign policy that have persisted throughout the twentieth century and will discuss the effect of each on our nation’s recent history, with particular focus on key leaders who espoused each objective at various times. In addition, I will relate the effects of American foreign policy objectives, with special attention to their impact on the American middle class. Most importantly, this paper will discuss America’s involvement in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to the anticipated fulfillment of these objectives—democracy, manifest destiny, humanitarianism, and economic expansion.
First came the persecution of the Jews. Jews have been persecuted for many centuries, but Hitler started a new era of persecution. It started with organized attacks against the Jews. People would throw stuff at them and yell nasty comments towards them. Soon their stores and business were boycotted by any Aryan. The Germans would stand outside the Jew stores to prevent people from coming in. Shortly after the persecution...
Life for the Jews in Germany changed dramatically when Hitler came into power, this happened between 1933 and 1939. It’s due to the rise of the power of the Nazi Party. In Germany, the Jewish people lived peacefully until the fateful day, all life for them has changed. The major effect that Jews faced was Hitler ruling, the Nuremberg laws and Kristallnacht. Also, mentioning what life was like before the Holocaust began.