Complex social and political factors shaped America's response to the Holocaust, from Kristallnacht in 1938 through the liberation of the death camps in 1945. For a short time, the U.S. had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a "paper wall," a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. When do you think the government should have become involved in helping the Jews and what should it have done? What were the factors that prevented the government from helping Jewish refugees enter the country?
43 comments:
I think the government should have become involved in helping the Jews as soon Kristallnacht occured. The fact that an evening of complete destruction could occur aimed at one group and then only have minimal recognition worldwide is astonnishing. With an event like Kristallnacht I feel that the U.S. should have felt a greater impulse to help an entire ethnic group that was being tortured and abused. However during the same time, the United States was still beginnning to recover from the Great Depression, and as a policy and mindset, the nation wanted to focus on itself before it became worried about international dilemas.
I think the government should have immediately gotten involved by aiding the Jewish immigrants. It should have opened the borders to them and eased the immigration process for them to become a haven away from the Nazis. The reason the government couldn't get involved was because of the Great Depression. With America still recovering the population was afraid of losing jobs to foreigners.
The government should have helped out once the war was declared because thy knew there would be a lot of trouble for the Jews. The main reason we did not help them i believe is because our economy was struggling at the time and inviting in the Jews was not popular in the country.
I agree with Kylie that we should have stepped in during Kristallnact because at that time Jew were openly hunted and nobody around them was willing to stop them.
I agree with Kylie. The fovernment should have become more involved as soon as the terror started in Germany, the government should have gotten involved to aid the Jewish people.
I think the government should have sent in immediate help after Kristallnacht. There are things other than just opening it's doors the the U.S. could have done. America has been a very powerful force in the world for a long time and I think that if we had opened our doors, it would have influenced other countries to follow. The Jewish people literally were stuck. For those that had a chance to escape, many were denied. But there were also those who couldn't even try to get out because they didn't have the money. I think the U.S. had enough power to save these people before the Nazis went too far. I think America didn't help because they were afraid of getting involved. They didn't want to become a target for Germany and they wanted to avoid another world war at all costs. The U.S. was trying to go into isolation and the Jews would have just made things worse. The country was being selfish.
I also agree with Kylie that the U.S. should have felt that impulse to help but they didn't. I think it was negligence and arrogance that led to them ignoring morals to help out such an enormous group of people. The country was too focused on it's recovery from the Great Depression.
james yi
i agree with max
i think that the government was so harsh to the Jewish people back then. i didnt know that people the Jewish people so bad and they had separate benches to sit and seperate hospitas for only Jewish people.
I think that government should have gotten involved after Kristallnacht happened. The government should have opened its doors to Jewish Germans to give them somewhere to go. I think the U.S. didn't help because they were concerned about recovering from the Great Depression. I also think that they were afraid to get involved with the events occurring in Germany. The U.S. might have been scared that the Nazis would target them if they let Jews come here for refuge. I think the U.S. hoped to avoid conflict by not allowing many Jews into the country.
I agree with Julia that if the U.S. had opened its doors then other countries would have followed. The country was so focused on its recovery from the Great Depression, that they didn't realize just how much they could have helped the Jews.
I believe that the U.S. government should have steped in as soon as their was violence towards the Jewish people. It disgusts me that we refused and restricted Jews from immigrating inot the country because all they were trying to do was get somewhere safe. We restricted their immigration because Americans feared that their jobs would be taken by immigrants and alos because of American anti-semitism. The U.S. was being selfish, and was more concerned with its own peoples well being rather than the innocent Jews being killed.
I agree with Max that the government should have made it easier for the Jews to immigrate to the U.S. rather than restricting it.
I agree with max that the government should have stepped in as soon as possible, maybe even before kristallnacht. If they had started helping earlier it might not have turned into a holocaust. The government should have first met with the nazis and told them what they were doing was wrong and if that didn't work then they could take military action. The US also should have ket more Jews into America. The great depression set up an unstable situation in America. Many people feared the Jews would take there jobs so the anti-Semitic feelings were strong.
I think the United States failed to step up when it should have. The events occurring in Germany were in the paper, the public was aware--and they let it happen. I understand the need to look out for your country's well being before involving yourself in a large diplomatic disaster across the ocean but bottom line is the United States claimed to stand for basic human rights. At this point in time, we failed to provide meaning behind our words.
I agree with Julia in that the country was being "selfish." In a desire to protect our own and keep "America for the Americans," we let a terrible tragedy occur.
I think it was horrifying to watch everyone reject the Jewish people when they were trying to flee from Germany. The U.S. should have helped the Jews when they first saw signs of danger. I think they should have allowed most of them to temporarily live in America or at least help them find safe places to live. It seems like the government didn't want to have an overload of immigrants and have to deal with legal documents and such.
i think that the government did not become involved when they should have. when Kristallnacht occurred that should have begun their involvement. instead of welcoming and trying to help the jews they rejected them. America was worried about a job shortage occurring and trying to put their own people first.
i agree with max that America still was trying to recover from the depression looking out for it's own people was the main goal
I think the U.S. should have started letting the Jews in from the beginning, and especially should not have turned away an entire boat full of Jews when they came. The strong anti-semitism prevented the desire to let the Jews in, and they also did not experience firsthand or witness what was happening in the Holocaust, so it was not "close to home" and they did not seem to care because they didn't think it affected them.
I agree with Abby, I think the U.S. was too concerned with their own people to worry about refugees from other countries, no matter what terrible things were happening to them.
I'm shocked that there was no more action taken after krystalnacht. as soon as coverage of the horrific event reached america there should have been swift actions by the government to try and help the jews.
I agree with Julia, the US definately could have stopped this if they wanted to but they were scared of back lash in the eyes of the public
I think the government should have stepped in after they heard about how the Nazis were murdering jews. The president should have played a more active role in foureign affais rather than just condeming Hitler. Some of the issues that affected the US government from not letting Jewish immigrants come into the country were how all along they had been restricting how many immigrants could come from each country. Also the American people were very anti-sematic and they also did not want a huge influx of immigrants because they did not want their jobs to be taken.
I agree with Kylie that the Great Deppression was a huge contributing factor as to why the government did not step in in Germany.
The government should have been able to help the Jewish into getting into the United States. The United States felt that the Jewish people would take over the jobs at that time. I think that they also didn't want to be involved with Germany at that time. I also think that the president should have done something to help with the Jewish people.
I agree with Jordan's comment. The way that the Jewish weren't let into the country by the US government, affected the other countries by restricting on how many Jewish people were able to be in that country.
I was absent that day.
I was absent that day.
To follow up on Julia's reply to my comment, I completely agree that the United States was ignorant and negligent to the international spectrum, specfically the situation in Germany. It is understandable for the nation to want to recover within itself, but the U.S. had been a world power before it isolated itself during the Great Depression. I feel as though gradual build up of foreign relations would have helped the U.S. more economically and obviously would allow for a strong nation like the U.S. to help prevent such disasters as the Holocaust.
In my opinion, the government should have stepped in and aided the Jewish immigrants. Just because the country was in a depression, it didnt give the US a reason to not help innocent Jews. The United States needed to be setting an example for other countries as well as help out a group of people who was given no other form of support and was in danger.
I agree with Kylies comment. US involvement in foreign affairs would have only helped the nation and its economy. It would have created greater ties with other countries and would have also helped the Jewish people.
I think that the US government should have opened up their borders to European Jews immediately after Kristallnacht. The reason that the government didnt open the borders is because of the large predjudices against jews and the fact that there werent many jobs in america, so the americans did not want more immigrants coming in and taking more jobs.
I agree with Abbey in that America put its on citizens jobs and predjudices over the safety and well being of the Jews
i wasnt not here
I agree with pay that america really shouls have stepped in to help tje jews and allow them a safe place to go. And it was messed up how we helped the british people right after that
I was absent from class yesterday.
I was absent from class yesterday.
The government should have gotten involved sooner then they actually did but I dont think they should have opened their doors right away. In that time the US didn't know what was going to happen to the jews in the near future and therefore cannot be blamed for not letting them in when they first asked to come because they were only thinking about what was best for their country and their people. They should have done what they did in WWI and remained neutral but sheltered refugees and aided the other allies that were in the war before them. The factors that prevented the US from doing this immidietly was that they were trying to remain neutral and avoid a war and that an influx of immigrants that eclipses a certain limit is never good for any country and the US knew that.
I disagree with Kylie. The US should not have gotten involved after Kristallnacht was initiated because there have been many times in history were countries have exiled a certain group and at this time the jews were not being exterminated. There was no other reason for the US to bring them in right away as there was so iminent threat and just because the US didn't bring them in doesn't mean they couldn't find a home somewhere else.
I think the government should help the Jews as soon as the event occured in Germany. I do understand why the US acted this way because they wanted to focus on their own state as a nation before helping anyone else.
I agree with Kylie because the government should have been more involved rather than leaving people behind in their situation.
I think that the governments of all non-German countries should have been accepting Jewish people with urgency due to the fact that the Nazis were treating them terribly.
I think that the government should have been involved with helping the Jews. I think that the United States should have gone to Germany and stopped the Germans from torturing the Jewish people.
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