Transcript - Kennedy HS

REACTIONS TO THE
HOLOCAUST IN THE
AMERICAS
Presented by:
Radhika Aggarwal
Wendy Thomas
Kaitlyn Trujillo
Per: 5
Canada’s Reaction to Holocaust
Not very sympathetic.
• 4,000 Jews were let in before the war
• U.S. accepted 240,000 Jewish refugees
• Unmoved and hostile towards Jews which
caused the Anti-Semitism movement to rise
• Very few Jewish professionals- if they were
hired they would have to hide their true
identities
• Canada’s immigration restricted Anglo Saxon
descent; however, British and American was
preferred
• Example :
• St. Louis incident 1939 Jewish immigrants denied
entry
• 907 Jews denied were forced to return to
Europe and many died in concentration camps.
Canada’s Reaction
• In the late 1930’s Canada only took in
8,000, or one percent of the 811,000
Jewish refugees admitted into countries
across the world.
• Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of
Canada) stated that the crisis was not a
“Canadian problem”.
• Between 1941 and 1951 16,275 Jewish
immigrants were admitted into Canada
• During the period of 1946 and 1960,
46,000 Jewish immigrants were
admitted into Canada.
Canada continued…
• Canadian officials admitted that they knew that 2 million Jews were
murdered, but argued the solution was to defeat German militarily
and not admit the refugees
• Little support for the refugees, strong Anti-Semitism
• The Canadian National Committee of Refugees faced opposition
from Nativists and Anti-Judaic groups
• In 1947, 8,000 refugees were let into Canada under few programs
for orphans, first-degree relatives, and needle trades/fur workers
Canada’s Policies
• Also followed appeasement policy:
• Canada went to war not because of Hitler or
concentration camps but because Britain had gone
to war.
• Not disturbed by the Holocaust.
• Minister of immigration (Frederick Blair) in Canada felt that “none is
too many" so he shut the door towards Jews
• The murdering of 6 million Jews and 5 million other undesirables
were not a primary concern of the Canadians during the war.
• In 1942 when the information detailing the slaughter of Jews came
available to the allies the Canadian Jewish Congress organized
protests and publicly raised awareness of the issue and to allow
refugees into Canada.
United States
• Before the war
• Roosevelt's administration of immigration was less restricted
• the state department officials issued all the visas available under the
combined German-Austrian quota of 27,000
• Hesitation on rescuing Jews
• The Emergency Committee To Save the Jewish People of Europe
turned to pageants, rallies and newspaper advertisements to force
Roosevelt to create a government agency to devise ways to rescue
European Jewry.
United States continued…
• Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. who was Jewish
helped form the Executive Order 9417 creating the War Refugee
Board: estimation of number if Jews saved as many as 200,000.
• They refused to bomb Nazi concentration camps or the railroads
leading to them U.S. also denied St. Louis
Holocaust survivors
photographed. How reliable is this
source?
Excerpt from St. Louis
• “Of course, the fear was that we would go back to
Germany. That was the big thing you know…We were
just sitting and waiting what's going to happen, you
know, and uh here again the committee tried everything
and sent telegrams all over the world trying to get us in
but it was.... Everyday they had like newsletters printed
and put out on board to tell us what's happening and
everyday there was another country we were supposedly
going to go, but we never...and nothing came about until
finally at the...we were already...well, first we came to, to
the coast of Miami and we thought we could, you
know...I heard later that the captain had agreed that we
make some kind of a forced landing or something but we
didn't know anything about it. We just saw the uh Coast
Guard boats surround us near Miami to make sure that
we wouldn't even come close to the border, to the...to
shore, so that was out. So we saw the lights of Miami. We
saw the lights of America and that was it. So we slowly
sailed back to Europe” (Gerda Blachmann).
U.S. actions towards the Holocaust
•January 22, 1944, President
Roosevelt issued Executive
Order 9417, creating the War
Refugee Board.
•The WRB refused to bomb Nazi
concentration camps or the
railroads leading up to them.
•Throughout their rescue efforts
the WRB may have saved as
many 200,000 Jews.
Publication of the Holocaust
• In August 1942, the Department received a cabled report, sent by
Gerhart Riegner, the representative in Geneva of the World Jewish
Congress (WJC). The report revealed that the Nazis planned to
murder Europe's Jews.
• On August 28th,1942 Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of Americas most
prominent Jewish leaders, was informed of the Nazis plan through
a cable from Britain.
• On December 17, 1942, the United States, Great Britain, and ten
other Allied governments issued a declaration revealing and
denouncing Hitler’s intention to murder the Jews of Europe.
Publication cont.
• Throughout the rest of the war, the
Times and most other newspapers
failed to give prominent and
extensive coverage to the
Holocaust. During World War I, the
American press had published
reports of German atrocities that
subsequently turned out to be false.
As a result, journalists during World
War II tended to approach atrocity
reports with caution.
OPVL on Political Cartoon
OPVL on Political
Cartoon
“Give me you’re tired, your
poor… send those the
homeless…”
Latin America
• After the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, resistance to
acceptance of Jews and other foreigners increased
• Latin American governments officially permitted only about 84,000
Jewish refugees to immigrate between 1933 and 1945, less than half
the number admitted during the previous fifteen years.
• As a result an official investigation in Argentina was opened into the
collaboration between the government and Nazi officials during
and after the World War II
Refugees aboard the "St. Louis" wait to
hear whether Cuba will grant them
entry. Off the coast of Havana, Cuba,
June 3, 1939.
Latin America Continued…
• Growing Anti-Semitism was undoubtedly one reason, as was fear of
economic competition.
• There was resentment of the fact that some Jewish refugees who were
admitted on the condition that they work in agricultural regions later
drifted to the cities.
• Anti-Semitic attitudes were reflected in increasingly tight immigration
laws introduced throughout Latin America in the late 1930s
• (Mexico in 1937; Argentina in 1938; Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia,
Paraguay, and Uruguay in 1939)
• Denied St. Louis immigrants as well as passengers on the ships Orduña,
Flandre, and Orinoco
• Brazil proposed to take in several thousand non-Jewish refugees from
Finland and German controlled territory, including Catholics defined as
“non-Aryans” under the Nazi racial classification system
Latin America Continued…
• Latin America was an important destination for many survivors of
the Holocaust.
• More than 20,000 Jewish displaced persons immigrated to the
region between 1947-1953
• Their primary destination was Argentina, which became home to at least 4,800
Holocaust survivors. Others settled in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Panama, Costa
Rica, among other countries.
Jewish Immigrants in
Latin America.
Distribution of Jewish Immigrants 1933-1939
• Total of 226,000 Jewish immigrants
were accepted into the Americas
(about 71%)
• Canada- 4,000 (1.8%)
• U.S.- 140,000 (62%)
• Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia each
admitted 20,000 (8.8%)
• Argentina-22,000 (9.7%)
• Approx. 29% were sent back to
Europe
Works Citied
• "American Response to Holocaust." History.com. History Channel, n.d. Web. 7
Nov. 2012. <http://www.history.com/topics-american-response-toholocaust>.
• Abella, Irving, and Harold Troper. "'The Line Must Be Drawn Somewhere':
Canada and Jewish Refugees 1933-9." Genocideeducation.ca. 2001.
Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
• "Canada." Virtual Jewish History Tour. The American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise, 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2012.
• Forner, Eric, and John Garraty. "American Response to the Holocaust."
History.com. A&E Television Networks, 1991. Web. 08 Nov. 2012.
• "Holocaust History." Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949). United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, 11 May 2012. Web. 08 Nov. 2012
• "Personal Histories." Personal Histories. United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
• "Refuge in Latin America." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 11
May 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2012.
• "World Response to the Holocaust." Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. The AmericanIsraeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.